Brace yourself, Winter commute is comming

[HyperMileQC]

I ordered a ScanGauge-II so I'll be able to monitor heat and check what % of grille block I need when commuting. This second tank will probably be worse than the fisrt one, but with the help of the SG, I hope i'll still get less than 7 LHK.

[HyperMileQC]

Got my SG-II today!

Update : Gas gauge light is on... will go refuel tomorrow or the day after. This will DEFINITELY be worse than first tank, went slower on the highway, but I did lot more city driving than last tank... maybe 7.5 LHK (winter sucks). Anyway, for tanks to come, there will be SG-II data in my Fuel Log.

Next, I have a big problem with cooling. I am 100% upper & lower grille blocked, and I have no problems, even if I don't shut up the engine, and even if I do not use the heater. I tried to hear if the radiator fan would start, but I didn't heard it sor far. The OEM heat gauge shows the same thing all the time when it reach operating temp. I noticed that reaching operating temp was a little bit faster, but maybe ~1 minutes less thats it.

There is currently three solutions that I've thinked of sor far : First, there is enough cooling from the no-belly-panned underside of the car, especially on highway. Second, problem with the cooling system. Three, something I don't know about automatic transmissions.

If it is problem #1, I'll do a frontal belly pan.
If it is problem #2, I'll go to the garage.
If it is problem #3, I don't know what to do...

Would like to hear some suggestions/advices on this.

[HyperMileQC]

First trip with the SG, c°WT went up to 100°C ! I think that my grille block works... Will remove ~20% of the upper grille block (blocked Mazda tag).

Anyway, got an AVG of 5.5 LHK (42.7 MPG). I was surprised by the FE in town... ~13.4 LHK. But on the highway, my FE was between 3.4 and 4.1 LHK at ~65 KPH.

[HyperMileQC]

I really love the ScanGauge, it is a fantastic tool that every fuel efficiency minded should buy (or UltraGauge, MPGuino, SuperMID, etc...).

This morning was the fist time I drived the Mazda with one, and I really liked the experience, I got an AVG of 5.5 LHK (42.7 MPG).

On the return trip, I got an AVG of 5.2 LHK (45.2 MPG)! On the highway I was getting between 3.2 and 4.3 LHK at ~60-70 KPH. I did a lot of DWL on the highway. In town, I had to P&G like I never did to maintain the 5.2 score. I had even been able to lower it to 5.1, but because of the bad road conditions (A.K.A snow), it returned to 5.2. Anyway, very pleased with those new numbers! Planning to do less than 5 LHK!

About the coolant temp, I checked today with the SG to get the good grille block hole size. When I was 100% grilled, and I had only the OEM heat gauge, I could not see what temp it was. With the SG, c°WT showed a max of 101°C but the fan never kicked on! that's not good, so I removed ~20% of the upper grill block (blocked mazda tag). We will see tomorrow if it is properly grilled.

[star_deceiver]

Tomorrow's forecast.... snow... and wind... good thing my commute is in the opposite direction of rush, and at 5am...

Currently it's white out!!!

[HyperMileQC]

Just filled up this morning, I used 50.742 L (13.4 gal (US)) to do 682.3 km (423.96 mi)
This gives me 7.44 LHK (31.64 MPG (US)). Failed to do less than 7.1 LHK, but used less than 25 liters per week, thanks to christmas brake.

This morning on my regular trip, I stoped to fill up , but I forgot to set-up the fillup on the SG, and I think it has offset my AVG, because on the way I got an AVG of 4.5 LHK, wich is weird for a 2 L automatic that does ~7.1 LHK tank AVG. I don't think this reading was accurate, so I didn't log it in the trip log. EDIT : I removed the offset, it was at -20% !

So for this tank I won't provide SG data because they will not be accurate...

[HyperMileQC]

Originally Posted by star_deceiver

Tomorrow's forecast.... snow... and wind... good thing my commute is in the opposite direction of rush, and at 5am...

Currently it's white out!!!

What kind of mileage do you get with your chevy (winter/summer)?

[HyperMileQC]

Good news, I managed to "repair" the EBH. I cleaned the plug and tested it with a voltmeter, it works!

So this morning when I sat in my car, I started it and c°WT showed 31°C! I bought a timer this week-end and I can record up to 20 memory, set it to be ON for two hours.

EBH helped a lot, also the weather was warmer this morning, it helped too. I got an AVG of 11.3 LHK when I reached the highway (wich is good, previous score was 13.7 LHK!). At the end of commute I had 5.6 LHK a.k.a worst trip with the scangauge sor far. There was a LOT of wind on the highway. Had difficulty keeping my speed & economy... anyway, not that bad.

On the returning trip I got 5.0 LHK, wich is my 2nd best trip AVG yet. Now hit 200 km on the odo, I'm a little bit before the 3/4 of tank.

Only little problem, on the way home, the check engine light went ON and I checked the code in the scangauge. The code is P0138, I checked this code for mazda 3, and its : O2 Oxygen Sensor Circuit High Voltage (Bank1, Sensor2). What do you think I should do with this?

I started to log my commute AVG, one for the go trip and another for the return trip. I can say for now that FE is better when returning from St-Jérôme. I hope my tank will be less than 6.0 LHK!

[HyperMileQC]

Weird day! This morning I did the best go trip since I have the SG (5.2 LHK), and this afternoon, I did the worst return trip since I have the SG (5.3 LHK).

Plugged the EBH for ~2 hours this morning, c°WT was at 28°C. Did 10.3 LHK AVG in town before the highway, which is the best since I have the SG.

Hit 260 km on the odo, fuel gauge is a little bit under the 3/4 mark.

[HyperMileQC]

Did 5.3 LHK on this morning go trip, EBH was plugged for ~3 hours. c°WT showed 36°C.

But this afternoon, I have kicked ass! My FE went as low as 4.2 LHK! but city increased it to 4.6 LHK... which is my best trip ever with the Mazda, updating that signature! I don't know why I managed to get so crazy mileage, but every think seemed to work perfectly this time.

Only little bug, was too much grille block, so I had to use the heater fan to lower the c°WT.

EDIT : removed a little bit of the lower grille block.