Quote:
Originally Posted by Daox
I'm not sure about the rest of you, but around here it has sure cooled off quickly. Just last week I was going to work and it was 60F out at 7 in the morning. Today it was 34F. So, I was using my heat today. And of course with P&G you kind of loose nice warm heat after a few seconds of EOC. A few more seconds later and its not real warm at all. A bit longer and you may find yourself turning down the fan speed so it doesn't blow cold air on you. Of course, as soon as you bump start, you're jacking the fan speed back up to get the heat back! This is obnoxious to me, so I would like to fix it. Its also a detriment to defrosting when you first start driving. This causes me to run my engine more just so I can stay safe and see.
My first thought thus far is to put in a small 12V coolant pump that runs when the engine is not running. It can be put directly on the 5/8" heater core hose. There seem to be more and more small coolant pumps available as more and more hybrid and start/stop systems are put in place. You can pick one of these up for about $36 on amazon.
12V coolant pump
I'm very open to other ideas for retaining heat use with the engine off, but this seems to be the simplest I can think of.
The next step would be how to turn it on only when the engine is not running. I don't really have any thoughts on that so far, so I would love to hear you guy's thoughts on how we could do this. |
As it takes more than 45-miles to bring a vehicle fully to operating temperature (anything less reduces life), the length of your commute (not stated) is where to start. Rather, of what road types does it consist?
I’d choose the longer non-stop route, and leave earlier. It’s pretty easy to chart average mph. Leave early enough, and there’ll be a point where stunt driving is shown for what it is: accelerated vehicle degradation. There’ll be a trade-off somewhere between distance and fuel burn. I know what is with my Peterbilt in a metro area. (Number of stops is the hardest thing to overcome).
If you’re forcing the vehicle to adapt to you, it’s a bad business. Involves too much reduction of book maintenance intervals. Also requires regular fluid analysis.
If the car just doesn’t matter (reliability & longevity), then it just doesn’t matter whatever else one does (after the fact changes).
I wouldn’t ever choose to sacrifice utility. Means I own the wrong vehicle. Second, an increase in comfort is nothing to sneeze at. Avoid the first and highlight the second.
Let us know your change in morning departure time, and average mph change. (Same goes for evening).
If you never ran the car on a non-work day, (say, all weekend; ALL personal errands joined to the commute on one or two days), what would be the change to the budget? Reduction by gallons & dollars of non-compensated miles? (as work or school implies payment; present or future).
If you don’t know, you should. MPG isn’t a stand-alone.
Context is the only thing gives it meaning. Making claims about how far you can go on $7 of gasoline means I’d flunk you from class the first day as it’s too easy to devise tests & guidelines that defeat a numerical miles challenge.
Get beyond idiosyncratic. Forest, not trees (as the problem).
0700 departure is the start. Or understand that weather is a fact, not a variable. Ignoring YEAR ROUND traffic volume per clock hour, is the thing to address. Done right it kills this spend-to-save thing. So you can’t EOC under some conditions doesn’t matter, as your vehicle use is prescribed. Find the offsets elsewhere. Know the cost. That’s THE ANNUAL.
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