Quote:
Originally Posted by Gasoline Fumes
That might be a bit fast for bump starting. If I'm doing pulse and glide, 40-50 MPH is usually where I'd be shutting the engine off, not starting it. That could be why you didn't see an improvement in MPG too. I think it works better at lower speeds. I usually only coast to stops and downhill if it's not so steep that I need to brake. I tried a constant P&G in my old Civic and didn't see an improvement either. It might work better on overpowered cars, or at very low speeds.
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I think you are right. My car coasts way better at lower speeds. Only problem is most of my driving is on rural 2 lane highways with 55 MPH speed limits. When there's no traffic low speeds is no problem, but when there's traffic behind me I try to stay within around 5 MPH of the speed limit when possible and keep speed variations gradual and to a minimum which often means having to step on it going down hill to keep from losing too much speed.
Pulse and glide definitely works for this car though. My best tank (49.6 MPG calculated manually) was accomplished by maintaining a steady 45-50 MPH up hill and on flat ground, driving without brakes, and coasting down every little hill even though most aren't steep enough to not lose speed on the way down.
When I manually calculate on fillups, I normally get around 45-47 MPG depending on traffic conditions, so something must be working well since that's on par with or better than the majority of 7th gen Civic hybrids from the data I've seen on Fuelly but with way better simplicity and performance. I'm hoping replacing my failing o2 sensor, getting a proper alignment, and finishing a couple small aero mods can get me close to or over 50 MPG. We will see