I've been getting 29ish MPG this winter, but I just took a 10 day vacation and am now getting 26ish MPG. Is there anything that could cause this?

I've had my FEH since June 06 and during summer I was getting 32ish and expected getting 29ish for winter time. I am very surprised by the 26ish I'm getting now though.

 

cold weather will do that.

~John

 

When we had the super cold of 20s I still was getting better MPG. It's about 45 out right now.

 

If you were on the highway cruising, just using the ICE, that will use more gas. Plus, highway cruising typically adds a lot of miles into the MPG average calculation (all those highway miles were at that lower ICE only fuel consumption).

I know that when I went on a trip, my MPG average went down, and upon my return, it took about 2 weeks of regular driving to offset that.

 

Did you have the defroster on all 10 days?

 

Cold temps will do it, as will fuel with ethanol added. It could be that you used a blend that contained more ethanol than you are used to. The pumps can contain UP TO 10% ethanol....which means you might have been getting 5% in your area and 10% while on your trip.

 

You might want to check your front end alignment (and possibly rear) or try rotating your tires. I recently had my front struts replaced, got a front end alignment, and rotated the tires. I picked up about 2 mpg which kind of suprised me. (I should have done them one at a time so I would know what had the most effect.)

I've got a 2" lift kit with 31x10.5" tires (which is why the stock struts wore out at 25,000 miles). I replaced them with Monroe® Sensa-Trac® struts, and the ride is far better then when the the stock struts were new.

 

After I've gone about 8,000 miles without an oil change, I seem to get a sudden drop in MPG. Getting an oil change bumps it up almost instantly.

Ford recommends every 10k, but I try to do it every 5k-ish for this reason.