Thread: Engine Braking
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Old 10-07-2012, 01:48 PM   #29 (permalink)
wobombat
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Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Oakland, CA
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Lincoln - '00 Lincoln Ls
90 day: 24.29 mpg (US)
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Nice story. And you bring up a point that I would like to emphasize, although it isn't about engine efficiency.Daytime running lights. I tend to keep my lights on all the time as I feel it makes people slightly more aware of my car.

My understanding of Alternators is that they constantly draw power from the engine and constantly produce a certain amount of amps. If you go over that amp amount, then you'll slowly lose power and your battery will die, but otherwise, electricity is free because whether you use 1 amp or 50 amps you aren't changing the load the alternator draws from the engine. Yet some threads here seem to think that your electricity use effects your fuel economy. I am pretty sure that's wrong and I've seen tests done running the engine without any electrical things going, then running it with everything full blast, and there wasnt any noticable difference between the two in fuel use. So to me there's no reason to not have my lights on all the time because electricity in cars is essentially free.
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