Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenTDI
Concerning the clutch: I'm a little afraid to use those advanced hypermiling techniques because they are often very stressful for certain parts. If you could manage 70 MPG with 'normal' driving or 80+ MPG with all the hypermiling actions and more wear to the car, I would prefer a lower MPG.
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I'm using Pulse & Glide with Engine-off-Coasting.
This is my way I do it for more than 3 years now and it is done totaly automaticaly without thinking, like burned in my brain.
You know that things you do very often you don't remember later if you have done or if you have forgotten like locking the door by key, switch off TV when leaving home ... So do I. When I realize that the battery is nearly empty I want to drive some miles without hypermiling. Minutes later I realized that the motor was off again.
How I do it (f.ex. long country road)
My car has manual gear (5 gears).
1) I'm accelerating up to 42 mph using the 4th gear
2) I kick the clutch and switch off the maching by key
3) I put the key in pos. III (electric is working)
4) my car is rolling w/o running engine for approx. 800 yards until the speed is at 35 mph
5) now I release the clutch for a second to start the motor
6) when the machine is running (even one or two seconds later) I release the clutch again and let it synchronize with the gear and at least with the wheels
7) ... and push the gas pedal at the same time to accelerate again for approx. 200 yards. Now point 1) again
w/o point 5) I need to use the key and the starter. As my car has no start-stop technique the starter wouldn't survive for a long time.
Point 6) is the worst for the clutch. Even without switching off the machine it must be done for pulse and glide and I suppose that this killed my clutch.
I already use energy saving wheels with a highter pressure, don't drive fast and avoid using the breakes.
Modding the car is nealy impossible in Europe. Most changes outside the car reducing the wind resistance are forbidden or must be certified (cetificates are expensive). Technical changes (other parts) must be certified by the producer of the car or I have to do it (same expensive too).
Mostly I will not get any certificate because I can't attest that it has no negative influence of the behavior for enviroment protection and security and maybe for other reasons too.
Every two years the car needs to get a "good vehicle test certificate". Then they check the technical condition and changes too. Without it is forbidden to move the car furhter on. At any police control the officers have a look at the car and the existence of this certificate. If any "untypical" changes are visable they check by heart if this is allowed. If you car has visable changes they stop you as soon as they see it esp. if they need some success that day.
One forbidden thing is that I mounted a LED fog light (still allowed) but I'm using it instead of conventional light in the night and that is forbidden. So I reduce the consumptiion of electrical power. This saves disel to charge the battery again and by using engine off coasting these 200 yeard with running engine is not enaugh. So I would kill the battery even faster.
Next point is that using engine off coasting is a problem with point 2) because at that moment turning the key the light goes off while driving. To my mind it is a little bit dangerous driving up to two seconds w/o light. That irritates other drivers too. And if the Police sees that they will stop me immediately.
So I avoind driving by night and if urgend I try to use pulse and glide only and not switch off the machine while gliding. I try to ... but as it is burned in my head it often happens that I switch off automatically.