2006-10-19 152.3 3.291 46.28 "I'm going back a couple months here. The numbers are definitely accurate for fuel usage and miles, but I think it was during this tank that I removed the ps wiper arm assembly and put a longer blade on the ds. I believe I also removed the ps front seat during this tank.
Was missing a hub cap at this time."
2006-10-30 174 3.885 44.79 "drove fairly hard during this tank without economy in mind."
2006-11-09 435 8.661 50.23 "I replaced a noisy front wheel bearing halfway thru this tank. I also began driving slower on the highway (like 60-65mph). Tried EOC, but my commute only has a couple short areas where I can use it."
2006-11-20 316 6.598 47.89 "drove like last tank"
2006-12-05 323.75 6.886 47.02 "Replaced a bent ds halfshaft w/ a better one from a junkyard, put dexronIII in transmission, and put a junkyard hubcap on the bare wheel during this tank. (I will put synchromesh in the trans the next oil change)"
2006-12-15 429 8.729 49.15 "replaced rear brake shoes and hardware because original shoe linings were loose and would drag at times. Also replaced t-stat due to overcooling at highway speeds during this tank."
2006-12-24 401.2 7.819 51.31 "installed oem block heater and use it for morning starts. Removed ps mirror and covered opening. Half of the miles on this tank were while I had my wife and baby on board."
2007-01-08 370.8 7.17 51.72 "installed and used LED markers I made instead of stock running lamps wherever appropriate. Drove around 60 mph max on highway. 85-90% of tank on highway as usual. Finally getting cold here (several days below freezing)."
2007-01-11 138.25 2.555 54.11 "tried to stay around 55mph on hwy. Most of my commute is posted at 70 mph/60mph trucks/55mph minimum, so I can't go slower than 55 and drafting isn't possible since everyone is going so much faster. Limits recenly changed for trucks (was 55) and the minimum (was 45). Not good news for FE."
2007-01-23 308.6 5.815 53.07 "57mph max on highway, 40+ miles hauling heavy stuff, all below freezing windy weather, cruddy roads. Removed stock CAI snorkle for slightly warmer intake air. Upped tires to 44 psi front (Max on side) and 36 psi rear (32 is max on sidewall). A bit more city driving than usual. Changed engine oil and transaxle fluid (trans got synchromesh)."
2007-02-06 377.6 7.298 51.74 "Ave max speed 55-60mph. Very cold (-single digits F at times, warmest maybe teens F) with high winds cruddy roads. Noticed my block heater wasn't working part way thru tank (cord is flakey). Several short trips without warm-up. Need to do grill block, but the car is encrusted with salt and ice."
2007-02-20 444.5 7.896 56.29 "Weather still same as last tank, driving same as last tank. Only real difference is my grill block that I installed in the first 1/4 of this tank."
2007-03-06 447.8 7.849 57.05 "first half of tank was probably close to 60mpg, but last half went downhill a little. During last half of tank; night driving, rain, high winds and wet roads. Hauled some stuff. Used a rural route for commute part of the time otherwise same as usual. Oh, and I added a partial rear undertray halfway thru tank."
2007-03-21 514.2 8.526 60.31 "This tank surprised me. I drove in all types of weather. I was making lots more stops running around hauling heavy things. I did one aero mod at the start of this tank too. I accidentally broke off my driver's side mirror, so I covered the opening and installed a mirror on the inside (like basjoos'). I also did exhaust repair right before this tank (replaced rotted resonator with straight pipe)."
2007-04-05 450.6 7.378 61.07 "This tank was 89 octane instead of 87 (got for same price). Warm weather for most of tank. Drove in torrential thunderstorm with rain ponding on roadways and high headwinds for 10 miles. Some extra city driving hauling heavy stuff. Winter came back at the end of this tank, below freezing and high winds notched my FE on last day of tank. Taped front end seams with packing tape 300 miles into tank, also made removable cowl piece for my wiper. Filled with 89 octane again."
2007-04-16 498.6 8.285 60.18 "Easter traveling for 200 miles on this tank. Wintery driving for most of this tank. More headwinds than tail winds. Some days I would drive to work into the wind then the wind shifts while I'm at work, so I drive into it going home. Had issues with a rear tire puncture. I found it below 20 psi on 2 different occasions. Put 87 in when I filled after this tank."
2007-04-27 445.7 6.885 64.73 "Used a better rural route for my drive home from work everyday. Better EOC conditions and less traffic. Other than that, all was pretty normal. I am more consious of the way I park, at home I back out of the garage by pushing it by hand to the turn around (very easy with light car). Usually coast the last 1/3 mile right up drive and into garage."
2007-05-09 445.5 6.673 66.76 "Normal for first 1/2 of tank. Some city driving and 60-70 miles of hauling heavy stuff. The last 100 miles I had my injector kill switch installed and used it for P&G trials. Mostly good weather."
2007-05-29 478 6.676 71.6 "good driving conditions. Roughly 50% P&G, max speed 56mph, average about 35 mph. Added "Caution!! Fuel efficiency testing underway" sign in back window. Still trying to perfect P&G. Used my other usual hypermile techniques."
2007-06-14 514.9 7.332 70.23 "Less P&G than last tank due to traffic. Ave speed slightly higher too. Wheel bearing or output shaft bearing is getting louder, not sure which yet. Some city driving. Had several glides cut short by deer and farm machinery in road."
2007-07-03 621.6 8.507 73.07 "average speed around 40 mph, max speed 58 mph. Almost zero P&G, driving style similar to 04/27/2007 tank but warmer weather with my normal amounts of EOC. Added kammback and half skirts to back of car 200 miles into this tank, also taped up slots and holes in rear hubcaps. My goal was to increase speed and reduce P&G (make my drive more traffic friendly) while maintaining my current average."
2007-07-24 606.3 8.713 69.59 "drove a few highway trips at speeds at or above 55 mph for a total of about 200 miles with no EOC opportunities (highway = less FE for my car). Zero P&G and EOC not as stretched out."
2007-08-07 528.45 7.41 71.32 "40 + miles used for coast down testing, hauled extra 160 lbs (almost 10% of car mass) for 25 miles, drove in rain for 50 miles with ponding in roads. Had 7" airdam on front for 100 miles, 4" airdam for 200 miles, no kammback for 50 miles. Changed a messed up front tire for my spare 175 miles into tank."
2007-08-24 620.4 8.863 70 "Drove faster on the highway during this tank (some above 60 mph). trip to minic6 then hauling heavy stuff back for 50+ miles. Lots of rain and soaked roads (really killed my rolling resistance). CO monitoring with power inverter and readout for 200 miles. Put PS wiper back on during this tank. Got pulled over during this tank. "
2007-09-20 594.65 8.513 69.85 "This was a very eventful tank. First 200 miles the car was used for all family car duties while I fixed the taurus. 1/2 way thru tank I noticed my coast were getting horrible. My front ds brake pads delaminated and were dragging for who knows how long. Broke caliper mount bolt so I replaced the whole steering knuckle w/ one from minic6. This was good because that wheel bearing was getting noisy. I found a bad ball joint on the ps while putting the new brake pads on. That was probably messing up my tires and alignment. I adjusted the toe myself after the repairs. I also had a scheduled oil change where I decided to try 5w-20 for 3 out of the 3.7 qts of oil. I'll admit the car sure coast nice now after the repairs and adjustments.
My commute has also been disrupted by 4 different construction projects. I was caught in stop and go from it So I've been avoiding it by driving thru the city for 20% of my commute.
Other than that, no special techniques besides EOC were possible and moderate speeds. i forgot to mention the addition of a motorcycle mirror on the exterior of the ds door.
"
2007-10-10 633 8.659 73.1 "The only thing out of the ordinary this tank was the higher % hwy driving. I normally have about 20% hwy driving on my commute but I worked lots of hours for a bit over a week so I needed to cut my commute time those days by taking all hwy to and from work. This would come to around 45% hwy for the tank the way I figure it. Every morning was with full lights on to work too, which I haven't needed all summer."
2007-10-25 538.7 8.109 66.43 "speed kills FE as seen with this tank. probably the highest average speed for a tank since before I joined gassavers. Limited use of hypermiling techniques. Just lots of running around using hwy. First tank of winter blend fuel used during this tank."
2007-11-13 563.65 8.541 65.99 "cold weather and winter fuel..... this even with my normal techniques most of tank, blahh."
2007-11-30 532.5 8.294 64.2 "some extra highway, sloppy winter weather at times, lows into the teens F, normal otherwise."
2007-12-18 533.5 8.586 62.14 "All below freezing temps. All types of winter driving conditions. Back roads were too bad to take at times so I had some all highway commutes."
2008-01-10 553.9 8.499 65.17 "normal crappy winter driving except the last few days of driving were like spring. when i filled-up the pump was flowing so fast it foamed over and spilled a cup or so of fuel right at the start of the fill. i had to hold it by hand on a really low setting to keep it from happening again, so this tank could have actually been a bit better than it looks."
2008-01-25 509.8 8.334 61.17 "very very cold, lots of bad roads, very little opportunity for EOC."
2008-02-13 513.1 8.033 63.87 "this tank included many of the worst driving conditions that I've ever driven this car in. Extreme cold (0 F or lower at times) winds (some sustained 40 mph), lots of snow. Back roads impassable at times and the highway was barely passable one day. When the roads are clear the pot holes try to swallow my car! Had a check engine light having to do with EGR. DS lower ball joint is almost shot and is messing with wheel alignment."
2008-03-24 576.8 8.624 66.88 "Put new lower control arms on up front, did front end alignment. Noticed better coasting after this. Had to find a different route to work since the highway is under construction and my normal rural route is ragged with pot holes and bumped up sections. Drove in one blizzard right at the end of the tank (it's supposed to be spring). Can't remember driving conditions at start of tank."
2008-04-11 606.3 8.735 69.41 "generally good driving conditions except near the end of the tank when it was rainy and very windy for a few days. All commuting on my new rural route. It has fewer stops and smoother pavement but more traffic so higher speeds."
2008-04-25 460.1 6.401 71.88 "Good weather, retaped kammback and changed the angle by tapering it down more."
2008-05-16 644.6 8.958 71.96 "I started physical therapy with this tank. This adds more city driving, short trips, and cold starts. I've lowered my rural route cruise speed from 45mph to 40mph where and when I can to help offset that."
2008-06-05 700.4 9 77.82 "Nice weather, no more physical therapy, finally warmed up then went straight to oppressive heat and humidity at the end of the tank. Some windows down driving, keeping speed on rural roads between 40 and 45 mph. Slightly more aggressive EOC. Wanted badly to get over 700 miles on one tank, so I ended up doing a loop around the little town near me before filling up. The pump automatically shut off at exactly 9.000 gallons using my normal fill technique. My goal this summer was to see a 75 mpg tank, I guess I'll have raise my goal to 80 mpg."
2008-07-01 790.8 9.735 81.23 "this tank started off cool enough that I wished I hadn't tucked the block heater cord up for the season. Some wet weather then seasonable temps returned near the last 3rd. More driving like last tank."
2008-07-23 613.2 7.989 $3.919 76.76 "driving similar to last two tanks but with some extra city driving. Had some torrential rain commutes. Started playing with ECT mod near the bottom of this tank to lessen enrichment on cold starts."
2008-08-13 681.1 8.674 $3.789 78.52 "I was surprised at how good this tank turned out, it wasn't my typical commuting. I upgraded my crappy tape deck w/ a $2 garage sale sony cd deck w/ 40wx4 output, so I put some small speaker cabinets in the hatch to take advantage of the extra power (extra 12 lbs). I had a 25mile hwy trip at speeds of at least 65mph throwing FE to the wind. A rural commute at speed limits. Some short trips including stop and go thru the city a couple times. Hauled alote of heavy stuff at different times (softner salt, power washer, air compressor etc). Morning commutes in the low 50f range. ECT mod helping cold starts,no more fuel stink and blubbering on the verge of flooding, can't fairly say if it is helping overall FE since conditions change, but it doesn't seem to be hurting it."
2008-09-19 678.4 9.022 $3.989 75.19 "Had a couple stop'n'go city runs. At least 50 miles of full speed (65-75 mph) gas sucking highway travel. Several commutes felt like I was driving a motorboat in the heavy rain. Had some issues midtank with my ecu, had bad ground to engine, reset ecu and ran wierd for a day or two. Muffler is shot now too. Seems Cold enough to need block heater in the morning at times."
2008-10-10 608.2 8.18 $3.109 74.35 "Cold mornings near freezing at times, have to use all lights for morning commute. Some extra highway and a couple city trips with cold starts."
2008-12-03 558.5 8.224 $1.429 67.91 "winter gas, New turbo muffler, doughnut gasket and oil pressure switch (broke other one doing exhaust). winter weather earlier than normal. extra idling due to muffler work and checking for exhaust leaks. swapped my bald front tires for some grippier ones near the end of the tank. forgot to use the block heater on some cold mornings (sometimes in the teens F). Forgot most of the rest of what happened during this long tank. Was driving my truck alote. lost my paper gaslog then found a few days after filling up. (odo reading at end of tank was 140110.2 miles)"
2009-01-21 579.9 9.221 $1.959 62.89 "cold messy roads, less normal FE route commutes due to bad roads. I end up just using the highway for the whole commute when the side rds aren't clear (FE tradeoff). Also made several runs into the city."
2009-02-09 515.2 8.223 $1.799 62.65 "141205.2 miles at fill. Had problems with pump foaming tank over 2x early in fill, so unknown ounces of fuel never made it into the tank. Cold wintery driving, some very cold (-20f) commutes. As with the last few tanks, Eoc the only big technique used. 55mph on hwy, 45mph on rural rds. Haven't used block heater before drive home like last year, just for morning commute."
2009-03-09 578.5 8.653 $1.989 66.86 "Had all kinds of weather on this tank, from well below freezing, to 60f. Some extra stop-and-go city. Bearings started getting quite loud on my alternator so I had to swap it out for a spare that came with the car. Had battery unhooked while swapping, so computer reset and had to relearn. Also changed distributor o-ring for oil leak. End odometer reading 141783.7 miles."
2009-04-01 638.7 9.271 $1.979 68.89 "Trying out a modified commute route that involves zero miles of highway but adds some extra urban. My usual 20 some mile commute had 5.2 miles of 55 mph minimum highway one-way that I traded for 3.9 miles of easy urban. The urban is usually a pretty good shot thru a few stop lights (of which most can be timed)at 25-35 mph speeds. I think this will be an FE advantage for my car. I still had 10 - 15 miles of highway on the tank due to a trip, but the rest is rural and some non-commuting stop and go city. I started smelling raw fuel 1/2 way thru tank and found a seeping fuel connection under the hood. Unknown how much fuel was lost. I also had to stray from my usual fill method, the pump stopped 1-2 gallons early so I had to restart. I usually lock the pump on the slowest fill speed and go till it auto stops the first time and that's it."
2009-04-27 611.1 8.747 $1.999 69.86 "Had an early april snow storm with around 8"" of heavy snow to deal with. A bit of extra stop and go driving. Mostly nicer weather. Aero mods need retaped."
2009-05-19 661.3 9.059 $2.299 73 "Decent weather mostly. Ran most of tank with ECT mod disconnected. changed oil and filter. (143694.75 miles on odo)"
2009-06-12 640.8 8.619 $2.799 74.35 "Cooler than normal, some heavy rain to deal with. Two 10 mile hwy trips, the rest was rural driving. Gas prices shot up to around $3 during this tank! It dropped back a little yesterday."
2009-07-16 617.4 8.164 $2.329 75.62 "have to admit I'm not trying as hard as last summer when prices were $4+. I added a switch so I can turn the ECT mod on or off as needed."
2009-08-13 590.9 8.497 $2.499 69.54 "Been having rich mixture problems mostly on cold starts, but sometimes warm restarts. Sometimes it will hardly start or idle unless I click the injector kill switch on and off just right to lean it back out. The ECT mod helps a little under certain conditions. Will be looking into this soon. Drove the highway for the leg of my commute nearest work for the whole tank. Seems worse for mpg than the city leg I was using since early spring."
2009-09-22 617 8.342 $2.569 73.96 "Had to commute a few times without a kammback. The old one started coming off and was cracking so I made another one."
2009-10-13 622.7 8.498 $2.53 73.28 "IT'S BEEN RAINY AND COLD. Some extra city and hwy in place of normal rural commutes."
2009-11-04 594.7 8.425 $2.62 70.59 "Cold, windy, rainy. I had a run in with a curb on the way to work that thru my alignment way out. Had to limp it 7 miles to work and adjust it there before I could drive home. I think the lower cont arm mount was bent causing it to toe out (7/8"" difference between front and back of front tires). Toe is neutral again for now."
2009-11-24 606.2 8.592 $2.6 70.55 "Some fuel foamover a couple gallons into fill. Nothing else to note."
2009-12-15 596.6 8.822 $2.43 67.63 "Cold, snowy, windy and sloppy roads. Forgot to use block heater a couple mornings. Had one tire that was down 10 psi for part of the tank (need to check more often)."
2010-01-07 561.9 8.735 $2.8 64.33 "COLD typical winter driving with cruddy mpg."
2010-02-15 566.7 9.392 $2.47 60.34 "Lots of snow and all below freezing. Changed oil, but forgot to buy the 5w-20 I like to use and had to use the 5w-30 I had on hand. Had to reset ECU to get it to quit running so rich after installing a new air filter. Had a tire down 10psi for a while too. Block heater cord has a bad connection so it doesn't heat every time."
2010-03-08 615.4 9.367 $2.73 65.7 "Fixed block heater cord, still forget to use it sometimes. Had several snow storms to commute thru on this tank, even got stuck in my driveway once. Had a blowout after picking up some road junk, so I had to drive home 12 miles on the temporary spare that was underinflated (doh!)."
2010-03-30 636.5 9.302 $2.66 68.43 "some higher than normal speed driving. This may be the last spring the metro sees on the road. Getting very rusted out underneath. The only thing keeping me from putting my foot on the ground while driving is the carpet :-(."
2010-04-22 642.7 9.108 $2.85 70.56 "warmer, clutch is getting pretty slippy though."
2010-05-13 592.5 8.792 $2.76 67.39 "Some commutes motorboating thru heavy rain. I have been driving faster lately, seems I'm in a hurry to get places. Several highway trips cruising 60+ mph while hauling a bunch of stuff. The usual rural routes have been at least 5mph higher cruise speed than usual. I think it's time for new spark plugs too.
Odometer read 152806.7 miles at end of this tank."