What did you do to/with your vehicle today?

[Piotrsko]

I believe it would be heavy pressure on the brake pedal which IMHO, the engine will have much difficulty overcoming.

You may also have traction control/anti skid adding to the braking fight depending on how the vehicle does that.

[smallie]

Hi everyone. I would like to share what I did with my car today... I picked it up from the dealership! It is a 2019 Mirage G4 ES 5 speed. I have been interested in these cars for quite some time and found this one with 1,368 miles. I was able to achieve, according to the car's display, 51.8 average MPG on the 42 mile trip home without too much effort. I think once I get to know the car I can do even better. Thinking of starting a thread to document all my mods and maintenance on this car. I'm new to forum participation so forgive me if I make any rookie mistakes please! Anyway, here is a picture of it on the lot.

[Michaelflat1]

It's a little cold here, been around 1c and battery isn't liking that much.. It's certainly aging, and i'm now reluctant to engine off coast and all those techniques.

I cleaned my EGR not too long ago, and now the car consumes 0.12-0.15gal/hr at idle, which is nice.. So I keep the car idling unless i'm at a long stop, where i can turn off my headlights, turn down interior fan and all that stuff.

It'll cost a few mpg sure around town, but a new battery costs quite a bit. (I monitor battery voltage and my safe value is around 11.8-11.7v i start the engine at, it takes roughly 1min to drop to this value from charged if headlights are on!! (which are LED retrofits, 30w each) )

When it dies it dies, fortunately i live on a hill, could bump start it.

I did a 300 mile trip on Monday, the jazz is not designed for high speed driving and so I got 57mpg going between 55-70mph.. and 54mpg on the way back, 60-65(most of the time) and occasional 70 downhills.

At 70mph, it's doing 3500rpm! roughly 45-48mpg at 70mph (all imperial gallons, not US).. Fit/jazz has aerodynamics of a brick.

I don't pulse and glide on the flat, but downhill I try to coast at idle, sometimes i let speed drop from 65 to 55mph..

[Galane]

What SpaceX did with their vehicle. The fuel efficiency is terrible and the braking needs a lot of work.

https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1336849897987796992

[MetroMPG]

I put the winter wheels+snows on the Even Fancier Metro.


Now I need to find a set of 14" wheel covers. I've got a bunch of 13's, but that's no use. I wonder if the junkyard has piles of hubcaps. I haven't been to a junkyard in a long time. I used to have a set of 14" wheel covers for the winter wheels for the Insight (way back when), but I think someone stole them. (!)


Also did an oil change.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Michaelflat1

It's a little cold here, been around 1c and battery isn't liking that much..

I'm in the same boat.

(I monitor battery voltage and my safe value is around 11.8-11.7v i start the engine at, it takes roughly 1min to drop to this value from charged if headlights are on!!

If I'm behind another vehicle at a long-ish stop with the engine off, I'll switch off the headlights, but leave the running lights on. Fan switched to zero or 1/5.



(If I'm first car in line, I don't switch the headlights off, to preserve visibility/not draw unneccessary attention to myself re. facing vehicles.)

[MetroMPG]

We had a ton of rain on Christmas Eve/morning, so a few of us took the kayaks for a paddle down a local creek that was running fast to the river:




The next day, Boxing Day: summer is officially over!





First significant snowfall of the year ~10cm / 4 in.

[me and my metro]

Installed the engine/transmission combo into the 2000 Saturn LS1 Saturday and took it for a nice drive tonight. From long block/trans hanging on the cherry picker Saturday to test drive in about 7 hours. Including building one axle out of three. Grand daughter got to drive her future car today, big smiles.

[Ecky]

Yesterday (does that count?) I found my A/C lines were rubbing - one seemed to occasionally touch the idler pulley when the hood was closed, another, the back of the condenser fan housing. I clearanced these.

Also brushed some chalk dust all over the engine bay and closed the hood, so I could see where various components were touching the hood insulation, and clearanced that as well (no more hood rattles!).

Found my coolant level had dropped slightly, and traced it back to my 20 year old stock Insight radiator leaking very slowly, so I ordered a 2 row Civic/CRX radiator, fan and shroud to replace it - the Insight radiator was only barely able to maintain temperature of the 2.4L engine during the hottest parts of summer anyway.

Made some small tweaks to the response of my aftermarket cruise control. Better, but still not quite there.

Adjusted ignition timing tables and fuel curves very slightly, to get easier starts in very cold weather.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by me and my metro

Including building one axle out of three.

Nice. I have yet to take apart an axle, but I recently obtained a set of new Swift axles to use to rebuild the clicky Metro axle, should I ever decide to do it.


Ecky: excising rattles is so worth the time.