fuel filter change and mpg's

TennesseeCRD · **Joined:** Mon Jan 11, 2010 11:01 am **Posts:** 181

Bought my CRD in Jan and just did my first fuel filter change along with an oil change. I've been getting poor fuel milage 17.6mpg or so since I bought it. Granted it was winter and some of that driving was in 4x4 and I live in the mountains. After the filter change we took about a 400 mile road trip and got 22.6 mpg's. Thats 5 mpg's improvement. Could a clogged fuel filter have made that much difference? I'm sure that the oil change didn't hurt and the fact that we got out of the mountains helped too.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Sun Mar 21, 2010 9:57 pm

road trip vs mountains can easily be 5 mpg.

CRD Joe · **Posted:** Sun Mar 21, 2010 9:58 pm

Its certainly possible that you needed a clean unit. Seems unlikely it would cause that kind of change but maybe so. I bought my CRD in Nashville and drove her home to Seattle. Congrats on the CRD.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Mon Mar 22, 2010 8:33 am

TennesseeCRD wrote:

Bought my CRD in Jan and just did my first fuel filter change along with an oil change. I've been getting poor fuel milage 17.6mpg or so since I bought it. Granted it was winter and some of that driving was in 4x4 and I live in the mountains. After the filter change we took about a 400 mile road trip and got 22.6 mpg's. Thats 5 mpg's improvement. Could a clogged fuel filter have made that much difference? I'm sure that the oil change didn't hurt and the fact that we got out of the mountains helped too.

You should be getting at least 24-26 highway. The filter made no diff in MPG.

RJM · **Posted:** Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:24 am

If the filter was clogged, you would notice a drastic change in the engine performance, as far as the economy thing, I have never let any diesel filter get to that point so I don't know??. I always install a series of 2 gauges on the filter heads, one on the dirty side and one on the clean and monitor the pressure, and to avoid pointless filter changes.

BVCRD · **Posted:** Mon Mar 22, 2010 9:27 am

I am assuming that the engine was running correctly. Who would buy a poorly running car? Yes, if the filter was plugged so badly that CEL's, hesitation, and driveability concerns were present, then YES, it would help mpg's.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Mon Mar 22, 2010 10:44 pm

17.6 is not that bad for winter driving and some in 4 wheel. I was getting as low as 14.8 at one time when iy was cold and i used 4x4 often. now I'm up over 20 on around town driving.

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 7:40 am

Don't forget they are changing to a summer fuel this time of year. I filled up yesterday and averaged 24.5 mpg on a 400 mile fillup with 100 highway and 300 intown short trip and some with 4x4. the weather is also getting warmer and that aways helps too :BANANA:

I seriously doubt the filter had anything to do with it but the oil change may have :SOMBRERO:

Topan · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:26 am

My European 2005 CRD has 2 inline gas filters , the orginal one (i think 3 micron) and i added a RACOR (30 microns).
Standard mileage for me is 9.5 l/100km (=24.7 mpg) and i drive in 4x4 most of the time and at between 75 and 100 mph.

Ok, at high altitudes (Alps) on a mountain road: One advice: just look at the compass and t° , skip the mph ! :pepper:

By the way, i never noticed that my second inline filter (with no extra fuel pump) deteriorated my accelerations :JEEPIN:

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 12:00 pm

you should see an improvement as the fuel supply changes for the better and it gets warmer. I made a trip to west virgina last summer, driving 70 -80 mph most of the way, up and down mountains, using A/C, with camping gear loaded, and bone stock my EVIC was reporting 27 -28 miles per gallon and for a short while over 29. I was very pleased the Outback the CRD replaced would have only got 25 mpg in like conditions and would not have pulled up the mountains as well.

hankdz · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 4:22 pm

I am flabbergasted. :shock:

I haven't changed fuel filter yet at 37,800 miles on 2006 CRD. We also live in mountains and have just gone through one of the toughest winters with snow and ice conditions galore. Average in those conditions and in low 4wd range and in town has been 23+ mpg all winter. Have not been on highway with it since last fall, but last check showed 32+ mpg on highway. I checked the up and down hill stuff with low range and got about 14 mpg for that leg. On the trip from Wisconsin where I bought the CRD in June 2008 to Amherst Virginia it got 34+ mpg.
Are y'all telling me that you are driving the same little bug I am and getting only 18 or so in town and 24 or so on highway? What gives?
I cruise on highway at 2 or so mph below the speed limit whatever it is. I don't like spending time in court if it can be avoided. In town I observe the speed limit for same reason. In low 4 range I creep up and down the mountain which is a 2 mile trip in each direction. All winter the state did a horrible job of clearing the tertiary roads (read rutted, gravel, ice covered, bumpy, holes and just all around mean, reminded me of sixty years ago on the farm and needing a horse to pull the car onto paved roads) where we live so the trip to town was always in high 4 wd, never got into 2 wd most of December, January and February.
So what am I doing differently from the other folks I read about?
This isn't bragging or complaining. It's just the facts and I would like to know why the differences.
Anyone have any clue? :?:

AZScout · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 5:49 pm

Hankdz, there are two types of CRD owners, those who get more than 28 hwy and those that get less than 24. Unfortunately, I'm in the latter group. I'd like to know as well but for this long, no matter what, these two groups are still around with no explanation.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 6:41 pm

I think most folks running '265/75 16 TrXus M/T's' would be happy with 24mpg

AZScout · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:49 pm

Actually, I'm running 20.5 mpg hwy but you're right.

WolverineFW · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 8:52 pm

ATXKJ wrote:

I think most folks running '265/75 16 TrXus M/T's' would be happy with 24mpg

Nail...head...hit.....

I didn't change the size of my tires, but the extra weight had made a noticeable difference in my fuel economy. I used to get over 30mpg on long trips through some steep grades with the stock tires, but that may not happen now.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:05 pm

I had 235's on when I went to west virgina, now I have 245's on now and an doing the ORM mod. still MIne is telling me I'm Averaging 20.7 today. I drive a little fast but not crazy around town.

Topan · **Posted:** Wed Mar 24, 2010 8:04 am

correct, i reach the 24.7 mpgh since i switched for my winter Scorpion Ice&Snow from Pirelli.
Now that the tropical weather is back (almost :ALONE:

) am gonna come back back to my set of Dueler (in 235)
...will check the mpg and come back. :shock:

LibertyCRD · **Posted:** Wed Mar 24, 2010 11:34 am

If you look through the CRDs at Fuelly.com....you'll see that EVERYONE is averaging low 20s.

I seriously doubt that everyone has big AT or MT tires and mods like us. It's pretty obvious that 95% of the CRDs out there are getting the same mileage, and the other 5% are driven by folks who don't know how to calculate MPGs.

After looking through all the CRDs on Fuelly, I started feeling a whole lot better about my 21-22 MPG that the CRD is giving me right now. The best MPG I have ever been able to truly document in either of my CRDs is 26 MPG on the Interstate/highways with the cruise set, windows up, and A/C off. That's why when people start claiming 35 MPG I get really suspicious.

spud68 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 24, 2010 1:27 pm

Bone stock I was consistently getting 20-22 MPG's 80/20 hwy/cty, driving 65-70. The last 3 tanks after getting the GDE Eco-tune were 24.7, 27.4 and 24.6. All the basic same route and driving percentage, with the exception of the first(24.7) had 50 miles towing a 16 ft bass boat (on the highway).

I have changed my fuel filter a couple of times and never noticed a difference in mileage. But changing the oil and cleaning the MAP sensor sure does seem to help. (1-2mpg)

liberty2.8 · **Posted:** Thu Mar 25, 2010 8:40 pm

I use Fuelly and recently started posting my corrected MPG. My odometer is off by about 10% so now I'm adding that back in to my posted mileage. Also, keep in mind that MPH affects MPG. I get about 24 MPG on long distance cruises at around 75 MPH. Recently had to take a backroad detour where speed averaged 60 MPH and I believe my mileage increased to near 28-30. Speed has everything to do with it.

fuel filter change and mpg's

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