[Saskwatchian]

So my poor little Peugeot had developed some cooling issues and I had to resort to engine off gliding to try to manage the heat since my coolant system was no-longer cooling.

I was surprised by two things, how stiff the steering is without the power steering pump, and how far the little car would roll on a slight downhill and flat.

Having spent much more time 4x4ing than ecodriving in the past I almost exclusively coast in-gear and generally use my engine rather than my brakes to keep my speed in check. I am also quite conscious of the idea of speeding up just to slow down right away is a huge waste of energy. You are quite unlikely to see my brake lights at all on the open road. Coasting distances were a bit of an eye-opener and I ended up using my brakes a fair amount more than I was used to.

Bump starting the little 1.8 four-banger was a non-issue starting in fourth at 60km/h and going strait into acceleration without hesitation. Using the ignition to kill it was a bit of a pain though.

My goal was to get to work and back without dangerously overheating the engine and in a reasonable time frame. I would say I was successful since I was able to keep it under 100˚C and my regular 20-25 min commute took about 35 minutes.


When I investigated the problem I found that the heater core was preventing the coolant from circulating. I did a little bit of bypass surgery and $4.65 latter I had a working cooling system but no more heat in the car (Heat hadn't been working since the coolant system stopped working anyway)


So my engine is now staying in the normal operating temperatures between 70 and 80˚ once it is warmed up and my reason for P&Ging is behind me but I am now curious what it's effect on FE was. It had to have been considerably more efficient considering the amount of heat I was NOT producing during that commute.

I might just try to do as much P&G driving with EOC as I can this weekend and see what that does to a tank of fuel. I don't have any in-car FE instrumentation. If it doesn't drive me nuts I am going to start thinking of ways to make that style of driving much more comfortable with whatever vehicle I end up buying when I get back to Canada in a few weeks. The incredibly stiff steering might be a deal-killer.