I have a 2003 Dodge Ram 4x4 with the first year Hemi engine and automatic transmission. I am the second owner for the last 10 years and at this point it has only 85,000 miles on the vehicle.

I have noticed i am getting lower and lower fuel mileage out a gallon of 91 octane (as required for this year engine) gas now it's right around 7 MPG and that's about it. I was at about 8.5 a year ago. I don't know if that's because i only use the truck for short in town trips and not much freeway driving or if there is some other issue? The truck is not loaded with anything other but a camper shell for extra weight. It does have the 3:91 rear end gears with stock 20 inch wheels.

Just wanted to see what others get with their similar trucks to compare.

Thanks
Stu

Stu, that sure isn't right . . . I would suspect you have an issue going on, even though you don't have the "Check Engine Light" illuminated . . . I have 2013 Ram 1500 4x4, 5.7hemi, crew cab, and have gotten 15-18mpg around town, and up to 23mpg on the highway (those would be USA Gallon figures, not Imperial) . . .

Yea, that's why i wanted to see what others are getting for fuel usage. I have no check engine light on and have had the codes checked and nothing is showing any problems? Even from day one 10 years ago it never got better then say 9 MPG around town.

Stu

All city driving, my 2005 would get 10-11 mpg. If you idle a bunch it's going to be worse as well.

So not that far off from me. One other thing is there a lot of hills around here so that play into the low fuel millage too maybe?

My 2010 hemi quad cab does about exactly the same, I’m happy with it. I think it’s reasonable for a 390 horsepower truck. I have a sprint booster on mine to get rid of the throttle delay, and real dual exhaust with two mufflers is all I’ve done to it.

those 10 and 13 trucks get much better than the earlier ones, 13-15 in town is normal and 17-19 on highway with the earlier ones, the later ones with VVT MDS get another 2-3 MPG.

The hills will certainly also degrade your fuel economy, not surprised it's a little worse than my truck was.

New they were only rated at 12 mpg city, and that's assuming ethanol free fuel and no hills either.

https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=sbs&id=21160

I had an 04 QC Hemi 4 wd since new and it would give me 12/14 mpg in town and up to 19 mpg on the freeway. Had it for 10 years and the mpg stayed almost the same over that time. Now have a 2500 Diesel.

Damn, 7mpg is horrid. That's what I got with my V10 Ford Tioga 31ft motorhome towing a 4000 lb Jeep Liberty up and down the mountains here in Nevada.

I would think your 3:91's would help mileage in town and on hills since you need less pedal pressure to move the truck. I hated the 3:55s in my '09 1500 Hemi as it was a relative dog from a dead stop.

My 04 hemi quad cab short bed gets 13mpg... in comparison, driving to the same places, same way etc, my cummins gets 18. Where I live it's lots of hills and I rarely drive on the highway.

You should be getting double that mileage and you mention you've noticed it getting worse. I would do some investigating like making sure a brake isn't hanging up or do a plug reading to see if it's overly rich for some reason. Either could be a reason for no CLE.

What kind of tires are you running? I take a big hit mpg wise with my 05 QCSB 4wd Hemi when I put on my Duratracs for the winter (vs Wrangler RSA's for the summer). But yeah, 7 mpg is bad, I do better than that here in the dead of winter (-10 F here today) with my Duratracs on. Whens the last time you changed the plugs?

Check to see if the NTK made Oxygen sensors have been replaced with Bosch made ones. Bosch O2 sensors are 1 MPG or so worse.

Check the odometer and speedometer by driving 60 mph on an interstate with mile posts. Exactly 60 seconds per mile.

What brand, size and psi in the tires?
High rolling resistence tires can reduce MPG by as much as 3.

On the highway 3.91 diff gears on an unloaded Ram pickup decrease MPG by 2 at a steady 60 mph compared to 3.21.

Camper tops generally increase air drag but it varies a lot by topper shape.

You can zero in on whether the tires and/or camper top is hurting MPG by coasting down a steep but steady grade hill in neutral.

They are 275 x 60 x 20 Goodyear Wranglers. I will double check the tire pressure later but they dont seem to be low.


I did see going back though the original owner's stack of paperwork the truck was having problems right before i brought it with check engine light issues. The shop the owner took it too did change the plugs at about 80,000 miles. That seemed to fix the problem. You can see in 10 years i have not put on many miles at all.

I'm getting just over 10 mpg with mt V6 Dakota. We have the winter blend of gas right now, it always causes a drop in mileage.

Or, maybe, since the price of gas is dropping, they are leaving something out (or lowering the quality) of the gas so they are still making money on the cheap gas...... "Oh, we have to make this stuff cheaper, how can we lower the quality so it will burn faster and they will have to buy more of this crap?"

No conspiracy thinking here... Gene

Just checked all the air pressure and raised it from 35 PSI to 45 PSI so may that will help. The bummer thing i just noticed is the tires only have about 1000 miles on them since i put them on about 4 years ago but already they are cracked all around the rim area!

Stu

Man Stu, it looks like you really do drive quite locally. I hope the thing gets up to temperature for closed loop and all that, or it will remain a pig. Them San fran hills do not help. I live in Chi suburbs, and my 4.7 durango is at 16 for long term average mpg.

Once i can get on the freeway and stay at a steady flat pace i can get near 18 MPG at 65MPH.

Are you manually checking the mileage, miles divided by gallons or going off the display? Sometimes the display can be off +/-, manually checking it can confirm its accuracy. I can't remember if my '03 would display both instant or average MPG but my 99 CTD is average only so if I see a depressing number, the reset button makes it go away. lol

O2 sensor could be getting tired but not be out of range enough to trip a CEL.

Also no MDS on an '03 so it's all 8 all the time. No MDS on trucks until '06.

1000 miles in 4 years could just be stale gas. lol.

Kevin

Both ways and the computer is almost spot on the usage of fuel via miles traveled.

I check it all the time as i am always at the gas station it seems...

I just use the truck a few times a week to go to my treatments which are only 2 miles away so maybe that is why it's getting such poor fuel millage as well as the reformulated fuels for winter in Ca.

I just wanted to compare notes as to what others were getting.

Stu

I have a 12 ram 2500 crewcab 4x4 hemi and I get between 7 and 8 in the city and 18 on the highway. My truck has 3.73's. It's a 7100 lb truck. I have a superchips programmer and keep it on the 93 tune. And it goes. I don't drive like I'm 51 years old though.

V10 Ram 2500 4X4 here. Never cared to know. It's actually better than most V8 Rams from what I am reading because of the torque it takes so much less pedal to get it moving.

2005 1500 4 door 5.7 auto 3.55 gears, 100 mile round trip to work each day, 1/2 county roads, 1,2 interstate, 15.5 mpg average

2012 Ram 1500 R/T with a hyper tech tuner and 410 gears cold air kit and shorty headers. Around town about 12mpg and 15 on the highway. I'm not light on the go pedal either.

My memory is fuzzy but didn’t the first year of the 5.7 Hemi V8 have either broken valve springs, undersize valve stems or oversize valve guides?

Holy cow is that a lot of issues or what???

In my case the major stuff so far was I had to replace the gears in the factory corporate rear end right (C-clips fall off) as well as the font end axles right afterwards. The great sounding audio system died a couple of years ago and after trying to get some stock parts with no luck i just gave up and put in an aftermarket radio.



Stu

08 H.Q.C. 5.7, 3.91 gear ,12-14 mpg, towing was getting 9 now get 10 1/2 since adding cold air intake and cutback system

1992 D250 Cummins, 5-speed.

24.5 MPG

But it only gets 19 when pulling a loaded trailer.

2015 2500 5.7 Hemi 4x4 regular cab 3.73 gears I average 13-14 in town and 16-17 on the highway, at 138K the mileage never changes. I do get 8-9 MPG towing my 24' enclosed. Just about to take a trip out to Phoenix from Chicago, will update the enclosed hauling mileage and let everyone know if I have any money left in the bank...

I had one, smelled horrid, fuel cost 60 cents a gallon more, noisy and a head gasket job costs as much as replacing a 360 magnum of the same vintage. On the plus side I ran it on used engine oil mixed 50/50 from the honda dealer. If it did not cost 4x as much as a gas burner to buy one I would probably do that again but they just cost too dog gone much for what little benefit you do get.

Similar here: 2007 2500 5.7 Hemi 4x4 Regular Cab, 3.73 gears, LT285x70AS tires, 89 Mid-Grade fuel since new. Mileage 90k. Average 12-14 city, 16-17 highway. Drops a bit pulling a trailer. Not as much with max payload in bed.

What is your differential (61 ?)
And what ratio?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_60#Dana_61

2015 Power Wagon 392, 4.10 diff, 33" DuraTrack tires, 4 door crew cab

70mph on nice level interstate no head wind I can get 17-19 mpg. Going uphill and head winds this will decrease.

Around town stop and go 10-12 mpg

55 mph highway, ideal conditions can see 20 mpg.
Indicated mpg is pretty close to calculated. All above not towing or loaded down.

Took an 800 mile round trip mostly interstate during July with AC on, 70mph and got 17 mpg average.

If you take it easy with this truck under good conditions you can actually get decent mpg considering the size/shape/weight.

Not sure. It's at 2000 RPM @ 70 MPH in overdrive.

That works out to 3.54 ratio
With 0.77 Getrag overdrive
and 32 inch tall tires

The later model trucks used a variable valve timing setup that boosted both low rpm and high rpm power by advancing the cam at low speeds and retarding it at higher speeds. This does help with economy as well. MDS was first implemented in 2006 if I recall. Both of those together probably add up to at least 3-4 mpg at freeway speeds. Since your truck has neither, you drive short trips, up hills, etc....your conditions are not optimal but 7 mpg is not good.
The 4wd does not help the numbers.
My 314,000 mile 2007 Ram still gets 16-17 at freeway commuting speeds. I have never checked mileage for any other condition.

You belong to an elite group for gas trucks! Of course the weather there is to kill for.

my 2011 5.7 hemi had 300,000 when I sold it, the durability on the gas motors has come way up and the diesels have gone way down because of all the emmissions controls, NVH improvements, sulfer taken from the fuel...

The 2019 is averaging about 15 right now but that is no highway miles just around town. My 92 CTD gets 22-23 if you are carful with it and don't drive 80-90 down the interstate. The 74? Forget about it, probably 8 on a good day without touching the secondaties.