adrianb
Member
Hi gang -
I have been lurking for a while and thought I would finally contribute a little (very little) bit.
I have a 2003 Tahoe LT 4x4. I purchased it a little over 3 years ago with about 50k on the clock and it is at 78k now. The Tahoe has been a GREAT rig for me and my family. Comfy, dependable and roomy. Having come from a Land Rover Discovery, I remember about 6 months after buying the Tahoe looking at my wife and saying: "Can you believe it? It's been months and my truck hasn't broke down once!"
Anyway, I have been paying a little more attention to my gas mileage lately as it has been in the low 11 MPG range. I do all city driving and live on a hill so maybe that's all I am going to get but I wanted to rule out simple things.
I started last week by cleaning my K&N air filter which was installed a couple years ago but I don’t think had ever been cleaned. I am kind of an analysis freak and wanted to definitely see what was coming out of the filter. So naturally I plugged our white kitchen sink and rinsed the filter there. Man I wish I had a pic of to post - the water was pitch-black. I had to drain it and clean up the evidence before my wife saw what I was doing. OK, the K&N seems to be doing its job. However, my gas mileage decreased a bit. This was unexpected.
After searching the forum a bit more I learned about cleaning the MAF and throttle body. I have no skills when it comes to mechanics work but I love preparation and process and I want to become better educated so I can do more DIY work. That said, even something this simple was a bit intimidating.
Everything went well but I could not, for the life of me, get the electrical connection unplugged from the MAF. I was terrified of breaking it so finally I gave up and just left it plugged in and gave the MAF a few good sprays on both sides of the sensor.
The throttle body was easy to access but there wasn't much low hanging fruit there:
"Dirty"
notice just a small buildup of carbon around the valve
and clean
I also added a few ounces of Lucas Upper Engine Lubricant to the fuel and plan to run several tanks with it to hopefully clean out any junk that may be building up.
It is hard to say for sure if it was just the placebo effect but I swear it feels like the truck is "pulling" a little more today than it had been. With the truck in Drive and my foot off the brake, it just wants to GO. It feels like I am on the brakes a lot more than before too. Maybe it is just me but I am anxious to see how the MPG tracks at my next fillup.
Lastly: if anyone has any suggestions for reference material, tutorials or any kind of “how-to” instructional information on DIY maintenance and repairs, I would love to hear about it (almost bought a Chilton manual today).
Thanks for reading and don't make too much fun of me for being so puffy-chested over such a small job. Baby steps!
I have been lurking for a while and thought I would finally contribute a little (very little) bit.
I have a 2003 Tahoe LT 4x4. I purchased it a little over 3 years ago with about 50k on the clock and it is at 78k now. The Tahoe has been a GREAT rig for me and my family. Comfy, dependable and roomy. Having come from a Land Rover Discovery, I remember about 6 months after buying the Tahoe looking at my wife and saying: "Can you believe it? It's been months and my truck hasn't broke down once!"
Anyway, I have been paying a little more attention to my gas mileage lately as it has been in the low 11 MPG range. I do all city driving and live on a hill so maybe that's all I am going to get but I wanted to rule out simple things.
I started last week by cleaning my K&N air filter which was installed a couple years ago but I don’t think had ever been cleaned. I am kind of an analysis freak and wanted to definitely see what was coming out of the filter. So naturally I plugged our white kitchen sink and rinsed the filter there. Man I wish I had a pic of to post - the water was pitch-black. I had to drain it and clean up the evidence before my wife saw what I was doing. OK, the K&N seems to be doing its job. However, my gas mileage decreased a bit. This was unexpected.
After searching the forum a bit more I learned about cleaning the MAF and throttle body. I have no skills when it comes to mechanics work but I love preparation and process and I want to become better educated so I can do more DIY work. That said, even something this simple was a bit intimidating.
Everything went well but I could not, for the life of me, get the electrical connection unplugged from the MAF. I was terrified of breaking it so finally I gave up and just left it plugged in and gave the MAF a few good sprays on both sides of the sensor.
The throttle body was easy to access but there wasn't much low hanging fruit there:
"Dirty"
notice just a small buildup of carbon around the valve
and clean
I also added a few ounces of Lucas Upper Engine Lubricant to the fuel and plan to run several tanks with it to hopefully clean out any junk that may be building up.
It is hard to say for sure if it was just the placebo effect but I swear it feels like the truck is "pulling" a little more today than it had been. With the truck in Drive and my foot off the brake, it just wants to GO. It feels like I am on the brakes a lot more than before too. Maybe it is just me but I am anxious to see how the MPG tracks at my next fillup.
Lastly: if anyone has any suggestions for reference material, tutorials or any kind of “how-to” instructional information on DIY maintenance and repairs, I would love to hear about it (almost bought a Chilton manual today).
Thanks for reading and don't make too much fun of me for being so puffy-chested over such a small job. Baby steps!
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