Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Ford Lie-O-Meter Correction

This may be old news to most but just in case...

I recently bought a new 2019 F150 with the 3.5 ecoboost. The on board computer shows it getting 19.2 mpg over the life of the truck so far, a little over 6000 miles. I hand calculated the milage today and found the on board computer, affectionately known as the lie-o-meter, overstated my gas milage by 6.7%. Granted, considering the performance, the hand calculated milage is still darn good, especially compared to my previous truck, a ‘10 Tundra with the 5.7L V8.

Anyway, I got to do a little reading on this and found the MPG calculation is notoriously optimistic in these trucks, but I also found that it can be corrected with an easily accessible setting in the engineering mode of the computer.

To access the engineering mode, press and hold the OK button on the steering wheel while turning the key to the second notch without starting the truck. You’ll have a bunch of funny looking settings in your display. Scroll down until up you get to AFE BIAS. Press OK to access it then scroll down or up as necessary to edit the bias to the correct number. To get the correct AFE BIAS, divide your hand calculated milage by the vehicle displayed milage and multiply that by 1000. Once you’ve entered the bias, turn off the ignition key. When you turn it back on, you will see that the vehicle displayed mpg matches what you calculated.

It’s irritating that Ford has the ability to make these readings accurate but chooses not to but at least they provided us the means to correct it.

John

Tag for reference

I’m guessing all the manufacturers do that.

Tag

Have you checked your speedo and odometer for accuracy? That is usually the cause of it

It’s so you can change it to read great mpg when you sell it to dupe the next fool.

a better idea

Even hand calculations have a variance in accuracy, the pump doesn't always stop at the exact same amount every time, even on the same pump. Hard to say which method is actually more accurate without some seriously accurate testing equipment.

My 2016 F150 eco boost got 32 mpg on the highway. I know that is true.

You have to calibrate the onboard computer to match your driving style. I've put over 70,000 miles on mine and it has never been off by more than 1/2 mpg. And it reads over almost as often as under. I guess the way I drive pretty well matches the factory settings. We also have a Honda with that feature. It is always optimistic, and often by 4-5 mpg compared to hand calculations.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id557871911

This is pretty handy

2017 f250 with 6.7 psd, trip computer is typically only 1 mpg less than hand calculated, guess I lucky

It is a real mistake to automatically assume the vehicle computer is the source of error. Depending on the state, pump measurements are only checked every few years.

Growing up working in a gas station and watching pumps checked for accuracy, the standard to pass allowed for a 3% error on the pump. The guage used to check accuracy looked like an old 5 gallon milk bucket with a sight glass on the side and plenty of dents decreasing volume a bit more. Some stations can go years between accuracy checks.

In contrast, trucks now have computer controlled fuel/air mixtures, which are in a position to make some accurate measurements of fuel going to injectors. Of course, a computer programmer can massage the numbers as VW showed. Also some fuel can be lost to venting or leaks, which is not measured as going to the injectors.

Over time filling up at brand new stations just opening, the pump and vehicles numbers match almost perfectly. The biggest gaps are at stations with old pumps and unusually low prices.

Now I consider the vehicle computer to an indicator of how bad the pump is ripping me off.

Oh no........It's Volkswagen all over again!

I’m wouldn’t have an ecoboost if they gave it to me. My F-150 does just fine with the 5.0L. Better than half of my friends that have had eco boost trucks have traded em back in.

They do. . . .

Then again, most new vehicle buyers these days base
their purchase on the trim level of the interior, and the electronic gadgetry in the dash. That's one of the reasons you don't see any " old man " trucks like used to be so common in the " old days " with a standard transmission and vinyl bench seat and floor mat. Without all the diamonds to dazzle the owner, they'd see how cheaply vehicles are built these days. Half the front end on all these trucks nowadays is fragile plastic stuff that's nearly guaranteed to crumble with hard use and exposure to the elements. How many will still be serviceable in 40-50 years?

Most of the good old trucks never made 100000 miles and some of the new ones make 300000 plus. Old is old. Ed k

My speedometer is pretty much perfect, matching GPS digit for digit.

John

My 2011 F150 mileage calculator is spot on. I never trusted those things until this truck but everytime I check my mileage its within a 1/2 gallon of the computer. If my odometer settings says 12.3 gallon that is what it will take to fill it back up. But im sure they have changed things since 2011. My speedometer is off about 4 mph though.

Ed, up here most folks consider 100,000 miles just nicely broken in.

Ted