I’ll be sure to keep a close eye on the power steering pump then, just in case. I wonder if that’s part of my fuel economy problem as well, I don’t think mine has ever been changed, and I’m at 235000 miles on it.
Out of curiosity, what’s normal mileage for you? I’m getting 14-15.5mpg on average, and I know part of it is I need 4.10 gears, but I wonder if there’s more going on as well, as I would expect higher economy than that with all my freeway driving.
I set the cruise control whenever applicable, cruise set, 55mph rural two-lanes I get 23+ easily. On the expressway, which I drive a specific 200 mile round trip once, sometimes twice per week for work, I had been getting 19.5-20 once the weather got a bit nicer, with properly inflated tires. Cruise control set where safe to do so for as long as I can, 69-72mph.
This week, re-doing the calculations, I gained 1mpg, and have averaged 21.4, seeing as high as 21.9. I'll take that. I'm still looking for a 30mpg economy car on the used market for those drives... it's not the $25-$30 in gas per trip, or the comfort (or lack thereof) in the Jeep, it's that I have 148,000 and climbing and I don't want to accelerate wear and tear on the vehicle.