Improved Gas Mileage

A couple of weeks ago the car OEM battery died. Being
4 years old, it was not unexpected. So I proceeded
to replace the battery with an auto parts store one. The

  • post showed a good deal of corrosion. This is on a Toyota 2018 Highlander. Toyota has a kinda unique
    battery connector add on that I hadn’t really seen before. So anyways, the auto store load test showed the battery to be bad and I purchased a new one.

Now the really interesting thing is the car gets about
12-15% better gas mileage since going with the new
battery. I’m a bit perplexed if a weak battery, with good deal of corrosion on the posts, could have accounted
for the poor gas mileage. Or if the extended power down allowed some electronic components to reset (think active fuel management system) that could account . Anybody else ever experience this ?
for the 3.5-4 mpg improvement.

Yeah, it has to do with the fuel injectors operating properly.

If you haven’t had the injectors cleaned in a while, or ever, might be worth doing so.

I have a v8 rt challenger and I love the v8 sound and power. If we go all electric, it will kill the car culture but I think it’s 20 yrs down the line if it even happens.

Okay thanks, this is a v6. The injectors have not been cleaned; I may do them later, but right now I’m getting brand new mileage again. So you are saying the extended power cycle causes injector
electronics to reset ?

I found a posting on the internet, that a battery with a short can cause poorer mileage, as it induces the alternator to more load, but I don’t think I had a shorted battery. Dirty posts yes.

Maybe we can get one of these V-rroom add ons for Christmas to keep us
all in our happy space ?

1 Like

Lol