Hello all! I'm new to this forum and i'm searching for answer here...

I have a 2011Dodge Ram 1500 SLT Hemi. Yesterday, my Average Miles Per Gallon display info started to drop while my truck is stopped or in park with the engine running. This has never happened before. I reset the counter, hoping this would be quick "cross my fingers fix", but as soon as I came to a red light, the MPG would slowly start to drop from 14.4 to 14.3 to 14.2, etc, etc.

I'm curious to see if any of you have experienced or heard of this before. Any info from you is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!

Bdouble

 

How much is it dropping by? I have a 4.7, but when I reset my meter and idle, it drops at idle. It also drops when I'm sitting in traffic too long.

 

If the average was recently reset it makes sense that it would be dropping while stopped because you are getting 0 mpg at that point and the number of datapoints the average is calculated on are small. If you have hundreds of miles since the last reset the effect will be the same but happen a lot more slowly so you won't see the numbers change in a minute or two sitting at the light. Let your truck sit parked in your driveway running for an hour and the average will certainly drop (not that I really recommend that, but you get the point).

Rob

 

Think about it: *miles* per *gallon*. When parked with the engine running, there are no miles being consumed, but there are gallons being consumed. The average has got to go down. As BigBlue points out, with small sample (recent reset), it's much easier to influence the average.

 

Thanks for the input. While I understand the MPG math, I'm concerned that it just started dropping at an accelerated rate yesterday. The MPG will drop a full 2-3 miles just at one red light which seems a bit too drastic. I reset at every refuel and its never dropped like this before. It's only ever dropped while the Instant MPG slider in rolling left to right rapidly during city driving. I could reset on my way to work and average between 13.5 and 14.8 steadily. Now I'm driving the same route and it'll rise to only 8 or 9 MPG with all the newly "accelerated" dropping off at red lights. It just doesn't seem possible that this change has suddenly happened at 6,700miles on the engine. I'm taking it to the dealer tomorrow hoping that there is a sensor or computer malfunction somewhere. I'm not the brightest bulb in the batch, but it just seems very odd to have such a drastic change in MPG range out of nowhere.

Again, thanks for the input. I'll report what the deal is tomorrow...

 

looks like it's time to sell it and get a challanger oh thats right

 

BDub: that does sound odd. My apologies for trying to teach, but there are a ton of people that don't understand miles per gallon math.

All I know is I spend a lot of time with my bar to the right of average, and it seems to take forever to affect the average, though it seems similarly slow to react when I accelerate and it stays stuck between 0 and 10 for while. Of course, I'm on my first tank, so I don't have much time watching it. I just know I'm having fun watching it, and driving the truck, and following the manual's recommended "occasional full throttle acceleration" process

I'll tell you one thing - I need more room in front of me when I stick my foot in it than I did with my old Wrangler!

Dave