Update on the Suburban

I got sick of the Suburban getting 10.8 miles per gallon (except on the Whistler trip when it averaged 12.2 MPG which is still terrible), so I took it in for an oil change at Jiffy Lube (I usually take my vehicles to a mechanic that I trust up in Lynnwood but I dropped off the SUV in Bellevue during lunch). The Jiffy Lube guy said the fuel filter looked all rusty, so I had that changed as well. I thought that might have fixed the gas mileage problem.

Also, I put in some more of that zMAX stuff in the Suburban after I got the oil change done. That stuff improved my Ranger's mileage from 19 to 23 MPG and Michelle's Accord gas mileage from 17 to 24 MPG, so I was hoping for a jump to 15 miles per gallon in the Suburban.

Unfortunately, I haven't driven it enough yet to find out the new (and hopefully improved) gas mileage.

I did, however, learn from Jiffy Lube that the Suburban isn't a common Suburban. I was trying to figure out why it weighed almost 7,000 pounds with no people in it (regular Suburbans are around 5,300 pounds). Well, it turns out it's got an 8.1 liter V8 and it's a 2500 version instead of a 1500 (meaning it's heavier duty than normal). That might explain why the gas mileage is so bad. Regular Suburbans are bad enough (13 MPG city and 17 MPG highway). Adding the weight of almost 5 Suzuki motorcycles onto that, along with a much larger engine makes 10.8 MPG sound almost decent. This is, until I go to the gas station again to fill up the 35 gallon tank.