Poor gas mileage.

[CesarSal]

Hello everyone, my name is Cesar I'm from Mexico, I have a 1997 Expedition XLT 5.4 Triton, the gas mileage is killing me, about 6mpg.

The truck has had 3 issues this year, one was coming from a trip the disk brake from the left back side was glowing hot, I took the truck to get it fixed, the guy who fixed it said that the brakes were overtighten, I haven't had a chance to test them on the road since I live in a small town where there's no freeways and only short distances.

Second issue is that the engine has blown twice the same spark plug, I took it to my mechanic, who used to be a ford dealership mechanic and he did change all the spark plugs, 1 coil that got damaged and a "ghetto" counterthread so the spark plug wont explote again.
And the third was that the cats clogged and as the replacement are out of my budget i chose to remove them and put siencers for now.

About 4 months ago after the spark plug thing I asked the mechanic to check everything oil, filters, etc, he said everything was is good shape because he did a full maintenance before the trip early this year 2017.

I want to know what could be causing my issue, I know it's a 20 year old engine but can it be that bad? should I just get rid of the truck?, the truck was great last year.

By the way the mechanic uses al the recommended spark plugs(motorcraft) and oil 5w20, what else should I look for?

 

[docraymund]

Compression check.

 

[Big Brian]

anytime I see "glowing hot brake, mechanic said they were over tightened" that raises a red flag with me.

 

[CesarSal]

anytime I see "glowing hot brake, mechanic said they were over tightened" that raises a red flag with me.

It wasn’t my mechanic, it was from a shop on the side of the road.
The day before leaving the city I was in I took the truck to a recommended tire shop because a tire blew, replaced the blown tire and had them all check, he might of messed with something else, two hours before arriving to my destination, the brakes felt unresponsive so I stopped after a tollbooth and there was a tire shop, he said it was overtighten.
I took the truck to my mechanic the day after I arrived and said nothing was wrong with the brakes so I thought that the tire shop fixed.

 

[Big Brian]

I see maybe the parking brake was over tightened there is really no other adjustment for the brake system

 

[CesarSal]

I see maybe the parking brake was over tightened there is really no other adjustment for the brake system

My first thought was that the road is a complete downhill from start to finish and I was towing about 200lbs, not a lot of weight but still some weights , not the first time I made that travel, but first time towing, don’t know if 200 made the difference.

 

[1955moose]

The front brake glowing red is an indication of a stuck caliper. Their is an adjustment in the rear on expeditions. They use a small set of brake shoes housed inside of the rear brake rotors. I keep mine adjusted loose due to heat expansion. You'd know it though if their too snug, a dragging feeling would be noted. If your vehicle is running close to normal, mileage should be anywhere from 10 to 12 mpg in town if its a 4 wheel drive. 6 mpg is an indication of something amiss in your fuel injection system. Running without the cats, eliminated that part. Have your mechanic run a computer dtc test for possible codes. Also run a fuel pressure test. If something's up it will probably be high. Let us know what you find.

Sent from my N9131 using Tapatalk

 

[knewblewkorvett]

6 mpg? Something is wrong. My 1997 Expedition (5.4) gets about 14 mpg and my 2000 (also 5.4) gets about 13 mpg. Not sure why the difference but I check mileage often. Most of my driving is highway though.
I could see how a sticking brake would affect gas mileage.