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New 2021 F-150 3.0L Diesel MPG (I kid you not!)

4492 Views 18 Replies 12 Participants Last post by  Dunrollin
I just thought I would ad this and see what others are getting I almost found my number hard to believe .

I bought my 4wd XLT with 3.55 rears w 9 miles on it . in Kansas. drove to Waco TX, Naples Florida, Reston Va and home to Colebrook NH. 4750 miles later . Always pump fuel assuming 40 CETANE , why the **** do the make the nozzle so small so cant use Truck stops , higher cetane roadmix ...

I never trust the Lie-O-meter for MPG always off in every vehicle I owned . I am anal about mpg I check every vehicle on every tank ful

Always in ECO mode Auto off in off position, and always had the A/C on


Temps 70s - low 80s except last leg some snow

First tank 60-80mph 29.5mpg
Second Tank 65-75 mph c 31.5 mpg
Third 60-70 mph 30.5 mpg
4th 65-75 mph 31.5 mpg
5th first time real stop lights 29.5 mpg
6thmountains of Va 28.5 mpg
7th 29 mpg Mountains of Vt - no A/C heat

I fill neck to neck and do the math , would fill when I found lower price but at least 1/2 a tank 3-400 miles This truck is incredible hope it continues close to 800 mile cruising range ....

Truck is amazing

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I will add my eco rating meter was mostly at 95 - 99 % rating for good driving habits
Those are pretty awesome numbers. That was a lot of time in the saddle for you.

I think we all wish Ford had given us the same fuel setup as the F250 and up enjoy so we can use the "big boys" fuel pumps but for some reason it is what we have. We did a discussion on this earlier and in fact I modified my truck to accept any size nozzle but it was not easy nor can I revert back to factory. No problem for me as I use the larger nozzles from time to time, but that might be an issue for most owners. Should you want to read up on this topic just click Convert Fuel Fill
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Owning a diesel spoils you! My Ecodiesel Ram has 125,000 miles and has averaged 30+ mpgs or better since new. My other vehicle is a Subaru Outback and needs a tailwind to get 25 mpg. BTW, I believe 40 is the minimum cetane at the pumps. European diesels like the 3L PS, Ecodiesel and 3L Duramax were originally designed to run on EU 50 cetane fuel as I have read. Glad you are liking the new truck!
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Don't level it or put bigger tires on it. I can't get much if any above 22mpg if I'm driving 75mph or faster. 😭
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Don't level it or put bigger tires on it. I can't get much if any above 22mpg if I'm driving 75mph or faster. 😭
Don't level it or put bigger tires on it. I can't get much if any above 22mpg if I'm driving 75mph or faster. 😭
Yeah keeping her stock.... I am anal about MPG
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The main mileage factor is speed. If I keep it at 70 or below, I can get 30+MPG on flat ground. At 75 it drops substantially. It’s primarily about aerodynamic drag, and a pickup truck is about as streamlined as a brick.
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Sweet spot for this engine for max efficiency is ~1600 RPM, so in 10th gear on highway, this gets you in the 65-70 MPH range. Only way to go faster is to raise engine RPMs as transmission is in highest (10th) gear ratio. Clear that engine/drivetrain is tuned for hitting that magical 30 MPG at legal highway speed limit (65 MPH) to meet their CAFE goals.
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I’m just about to turn 1000 miles. First tank for my 200 mile ride home came in at 26.2 mpg. 2nd tank came in at 22.1 both hand calculations. The dash is really close to reality. My trips of late have been all back roads with stops and snow. I’m not upset my old Ram was delivering 15-16 in these conditions. I’m still learning the truck and can’t get over this fast the heat comes on. Even at 10 degrees outside I had heat in under 3 miles. Quiet the awesome ride so far.
Im pissed that I can't get one of these trucks my 2018 is doing good wanted to upgrade
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Just did a long trip, 5016 miles. Hand calculations show 29.1 mpg. My speed was between 72-74 mph. I did notice that my fuel mpg was better until the last 40 miles I’m guessing that it went into a regen cycle. My old Ram would do a regen cycle every 24 hours of running time. I’m not sure what ford’s run time cycle is. I’m still blown away by this truck. It sucks that ford has dropped this engine package.
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I’m not sure what ford’s run time cycle is. I’m still blown away by this truck. It sucks that ford has dropped this engine package.
Every 300 miles regardless of "% DPF Full"
Roughly how long is the regen cycle, is it min or miles?
My regen is right at 20 miles when driving highway speed. Around 20 minutes. As mentioned above if driving highway speed it regens exactly at 300 miles, but if city driving it will occur at a lot less miles.
@EDank - my rule-of-thumb is 20 miles or 20 minutes to make it thru a complete active regen cycle. As @Milehghcty has noted, the 300 miles is a max mileage limit (for primarily highway driving) but you will regen much more frequently with stop-and-go city style driving, as starts & stops (changes in speed) cause incomplete burnt fuel (otherwise known as soot), which is what ends up filling up you DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter). I am averaging 125-150 miles between regens for my local city/rural driving where you encounter stop lights and turns.

While it is good to know how long it takes to complete a full active regen cycle, the bigger issue for us owners without FORScan or a stand-alone OBD monitor (e.g. Edge Insight CTS3) is WHEN your DPF is 100% Full and whether you are in a position to drive that 20 miles/20 minutes when you hit 100% Full. Active regens will not initiate until you are 100% Full (will not start sooner) AND your engine is at operating temps (EGT11 > 587 F) for active regen to commence. Once you have met these conditions, then you need to drive the 20 miles or 20 minutes w/o shutting engine off (stopping at stop lights will not stop an active regen cycle but putting the transmission into neutral will)

Ford in their infinite wisdom decided to not surface DPF Full % within the IPC, so the average owner has no idea how full their DPF is or if they are in the middle of the active regen. This has been discussed in previous threads, with the Stuck in Regen??? thread being the best thread where we chronologically figured out everything I have stated above. Within the thread, I coined the term "Active regen death spiral" because I found that I was never competing a full active regen cycle with my daily 15-minute commute, leading to my very short oil change intervals (~3500 miles) What I found was that I may have started an active regen cycle during my 15 minute commute (5-10 mins into the commute) but because I didn't drive that 20 minutes to complete the active regen, I ended up with a "partial" regen (think down to 70-75% Full) and then started filling the DPF back up again. In this "death spiral" condition, I estimate I was probably getting 50-60 miles between partial regens.

I only determined all of the above because I started actively monitoring my truck via FORScan to "see" when my DPF was full and when I was in an active regen. In addition you can "program" your truck with FORScan to enable DPF Full % screen in your IPC. FORScan programming allows you to enable/disable things that Ford has programmed into the truck, so they could have exposed DPF Full % to us owners but chose not to. The computer knows when the DPF is full (via differential pressure before and after the DPF) in order to know when to initiate an active regen, so the information is all there and FORScan allows you to see all the signals that the computer has access to.

My personal opinion is that Ford's decision to not expose DPF Full % is going to lead to clogged DPFs for those owners that have city driving style/short commutes and are unaware of anything discussed above. Only time will tell if my suspicions are correct, as I think I have seen only one (1) owner here has reported that they needed to have their DPF replaced. I find it ironic that our trucks have an 8yr/80k Emissions System warranty, but that the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) is not covered by that Emissions System warranty but rather by a weak federally-mandated 2yr/24k on "all other Emission System parts" which is superseded by Ford's 3yr/36K Bumper-to-Bumper warranty.
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One hidden benefit of the smaller fill neck is that the pump jockey at the mandatory full service stations in New Jersey can't get the gasoline nozzle into the neck as he easily do with the gaping fill neck...

Ask me how I know.

Happened on my 2008 F250 PS last Fall. Luckily I caught him after only 3 gallons. Pulled the fuel pump fuses and had it flatbed towed to a garage where they drained and flushed the tank. That would have been an expensive repair if I hadn't noticed!

I'll keep the stock filler for a while.

Tim
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I have pounded this into the head of my wife and daughters. Check the fuel type, check the nozzle, trace the filler hose all the way back to where it feeds from in case someone swapped nozzle locations, and then check the nozzle one more time. I remind them that a misfuel runs $15,000. Np errors yet, but I work in an industry where bulk chemicals can be unloaded in the wrong place. The last error by an operator and truck driver (pencil-whipping a checklist) resulted in $400,000 in damage.
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@EDank - my rule-of-thumb is 20 miles or 20 minutes to make it thru a complete active regen cycle. As @Milehghcty has noted, the 300 miles is a max mileage limit (for primarily highway driving) but you will regen much more frequently with stop-and-go city style driving, as starts & stops (changes in speed) cause incomplete burnt fuel (otherwise known as soot), which is what ends up filling up you DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter). I am averaging 125-150 miles between regens for my local city/rural driving where you encounter stop lights and turns.

While it is good to know how long it takes to complete a full active regen cycle, the bigger issue for us owners without FORScan or a stand-alone OBD monitor (e.g. Edge Insight CTS3) is WHEN your DPF is 100% Full and whether you are in a position to drive that 20 miles/20 minutes when you hit 100% Full. Active regens will not initiate until you are 100% Full (will not start sooner) AND your engine is at operating temps (EGT11 > 587 F) for active regen to commence. Once you have met these conditions, then you need to drive the 20 miles or 20 minutes w/o shutting engine off (stopping at stop lights will not stop an active regen cycle but putting the transmission into neutral will)

Ford in their infinite wisdom decided to not surface DPF Full % within the IPC, so the average owner has no idea how full their DPF is or if they are in the middle of the active regen. This has been discussed in previous threads, with the Stuck in Regen??? thread being the best thread where we chronologically figured out everything I have stated above. Within the thread, I coined the term "Active regen death spiral" because I found that I was never competing a full active regen cycle with my daily 15-minute commute, leading to my very short oil change intervals (~3500 miles) What I found was that I may have started an active regen cycle during my 15 minute commute (5-10 mins into the commute) but because I didn't drive that 20 minutes to complete the active regen, I ended up with a "partial" regen (think down to 70-75% Full) and then started filling the DPF back up again. In this "death spiral" condition, I estimate I was probably getting 50-60 miles between partial regens.

I only determined all of the above because I started actively monitoring my truck via FORScan to "see" when my DPF was full and when I was in an active regen. In addition you can "program" your truck with FORScan to enable DPF Full % screen in your IPC. FORScan programming allows you to enable/disable things that Ford has programmed into the truck, so they could have exposed DPF Full % to us owners but chose not to. The computer knows when the DPF is full (via differential pressure before and after the DPF) in order to know when to initiate an active regen, so the information is all there and FORScan allows you to see all the signals that the computer has access to.

My personal opinion is that Ford's decision to not expose DPF Full % is going to lead to clogged DPFs for those owners that have city driving style/short commutes and are unaware of anything discussed above. Only time will tell if my suspicions are correct, as I think I have seen only one (1) owner here has reported that they needed to have their DPF replaced. I find it ironic that our trucks have an 8yr/80k Emissions System warranty, but that the Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) is not covered by that Emissions System warranty but rather by a weak federally-mandated 2yr/24k on "all other Emission System parts" which is superseded by Ford's 3yr/36K Bumper-to-Bumper warranty.
I have a 2021….. 9 out of 10 regens happen at 497.1 miles exactly. And ALLWAYS last exactly 20 minutes regardless of my drive style. Only time it’s. It 497 is if I interrupt it. At 23k now.
The 2018s are 300 before a mandatory regen but maybe they have 500 for the 2021s? Plus mine would rarely get to 300 before regen.

I don't obsess on MPG but it seems to always be in the mid to high 20s with mostly around town driving. I also had my 2013 F150 with the 5.0 V8 which usually ran in the 13 to 23 MPG range and was what I pulled behind the motorhome. I now have a 2020 Escape hybrid for travel and some around town. Since I bought it I have gotten 44.7 MPG (just 2,000 miles) but it always does much better in town than on a trip, just the way hybrids work.
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