3.8L V6 Automatic, any tips?

[ktaylor]

Oh yeah. Makes sense. I can't wait till the summer, although most of my trips are going to be really short, (local work) as compared to my hour and a half highway commute.

[99LeCouch]

Your mileage will drop way down doing the around-town thing. Expect 20-22 mpg around town, more if your city is cool with their lights.

If you get the room and traffic, coast as much as you can. If your Regal has the 15" steel wheels, the narrower tires on them should allow for some wicked coasts.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by ktaylor

Oh yeah. Makes sense. I can't wait till the summer, although most of my trips are going to be really short, (local work) as compared to my hour and a half highway commute.

The Buick is a highway car, in town it isn't happy. It is possible if the speed limits are right and your stops are far enough apart to get around 25-28mpg in town but if every block is a stop, be ready for being down in the dumpster.

I will be bombarded with negativity after posting this, but...

Something I did do to keep the FE in town higher than it should have been was EOC up to stops, on the Buick that will raise your FE fairly well. (but may be difficult to measure) I didn't do it a lot or for short off periods, but I did it whenever I expected a fairly long coast or a fairly long stop. The 98 Buick like all newish Front Wheel Drive GM products can be dingy pulled motor off for up to 100miles (some models 250miles) up to 50mph. This means you can likely get away with EOC, just check your manual and the internet for your year and model. On autos it is best before EOC to let off the gas, shift to neutral, let the GPH measure on the scanguage fall a bit then shut off. Remember though that you can't accurately measure your gains without an injector kill because mileage won't be counted for much of this process.

Also I don't recommend you just go ahead and do the above, it takes a lot of practice, skill and the right conditions to do the above safely. It will become hard to steer (if you don't understand and expect it) and you only get about 3 power braking actions. (I can still stop without power brakes by leaning into it a bit)

That said I can steer my full size dodge ram truck without power steering with motor off (takes a bit of elbow grease).

So after a bit of research, a bit of practice on a straight unpopulated set of road to see how your car behaves, this technique can be sparingly used in certain situations. In my case I have my trips mapped out in my head and certain areas get the EOC treatment because I have determined there is minimal if any risk, there is a decent gain (I can coast upwards of a mile in 1 specific location (doing 20mph the whole way) and no traffic) and usually because the spot happens to be consistant in that I should EOC due to the way that paticular intersection and lights behave.

If you find yourself driving a paticular set of roads with a specific set of traffic and behaviors learn to actively think about the best way of getting through the areas with the least gas, perhaps there is a long downhill section with minimal lights and traffic and spots where you need to set at lights an extended period. Or perhaps the lights behave a specific way and driving a bit slower or coasting engine off so you don't hit them red might work for you.

With practice I think you can do 2-4 mpg better than your current average, but it takes some concentration and planning.

Good Luck
Ryan

[ktaylor]

Originally Posted by 99LeCouch

Expect 20-22 mpg around town, more if your city is cool with their lights.

If you get the room and traffic, coast as much as you can. If your Regal has the 15" steel wheels, the narrower tires on them should allow for some wicked coasts.

Hahaha funny that you brought up the lights. I'm in Langley, BC, Can and I'm pretty sure the guy that sycronized the lights was half cut when he did (or didn't). It's absolutely terrible here.

I have the 16" wheels and the 225 tires. They coast really good if I'm dropping from 50km/h. The car hangs around 40 for quite a while.

Originally Posted by rmay635703

This means you can likely get away with EOC, just check your manual and the internet for your year and model. On autos it is best before EOC to let off the gas, shift to neutral, let the GPH measure on the scanguage fall a bit then shut off. Remember though that you can't accurately measure your gains without an injector kill because mileage won't be counted for much of this process.

Firstly I just want to say thanks for the detailed post. It's nice to see people helpin each other out.


I've thought about EOC but am kind of nervous to do it. I've done a little bit of it when I'm coming up to a traffic light on my commute which stays red for over a minute and a half. I wasn't doing more than 20 km/h before killing the engine though.

If I kill it before letting it wind down what happens? I've noticed sometimes when I shut of the car at a light it stumbles a bit when I start it but other times it shoots back alive. Do you know what might be causing this? I've pretty much stopped shutting my car off at lights because of it.

Originally Posted by rmay635703

It will become hard to steer (if you don't understand and expect it) and you only get about 3 power braking actions. (I can still stop without power brakes by leaning into it a bit)

That said I can steer my full size dodge ram truck without power steering with motor off (takes a bit of elbow grease).

I noticed that when I was pulling up to that light. I only needed to veer very slightly so I was lucky because at the time I didn't know about the power steering shutting off, or this site even.

Originally Posted by rmay635703

With practice I think you can do 2-4 mpg better than your current average, but it takes some concentration and planning.

Seems optimistic but hopefully reachable. I absolutely hate doing little trips here and there because it takes my car about 10 miles before the auto-choke shuts off. If I'm only driving 12-20 miles I never make it up. I try and take my motorcycle for those short trips.

Hopefully the weather is decent this summer so I can put storage insurance on the car and ride my bike all summer. $320/month to insure them both is killing me.

[ktaylor]

Originally Posted by rexyrexy

scrap it, china need more tin and steel, plus you are using the gas i am saving for other sub compacts not gas guzzlers

What???

[comptiger5000]

He's obviously a troll. He posted in 2 other threads with similar posts of random eco-bashing gibberish.

[ktaylor]

Ok.

Does anyone else have an intermittent egr valve problem? It was a really shaky idle yesterday and now the egr is off. Its been on and off for the last month or two. Any fixes out there? I tried spraying carb cleaner up inside but it did nadda.

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by ktaylor

If I kill it before letting it wind down what happens? I've noticed sometimes when I shut of the car at a light it stumbles a bit when I start it but other times it shoots back alive. Do you know what might be causing this? I've pretty much stopped shutting my car off at lights because of it.

If you shut if off before the motor has a chance to wind down you probably wear out the engine more and the transmission doesn't get its last gulp of fluid (aka for dingy pulling it recommended idling in neutral a while before pulling)

Mine sometimes did that as well (stumble or start hard), the car does not like being shut off then turned back on in short periods, especially if the motor is cold. Generally I only shut off when it would be off a fairly good while, the one coast down takes several minutes. I also tended to use engine off more when temperatures were warm because the issue seemed to be mostly temperature related.

Also I have a feeling you would find the car would do the same thing if you drove a while (engine not warm) came to a stop, put in park shut it off then 20 seconds later turned it back on.

I am uncertain that it actually damages anything, it just isn't tuned quite right for a while (too much choke), also its good practice to turn on a little earlier than you need to go so everything is filled up and ready so to say.

[ktaylor]

Originally Posted by rmay635703

I am uncertain that it actually damages anything, it just isn't tuned quite right for a while (too much choke), also its good practice to turn on a little earlier than you need to go so everything is filled up and ready so to say.

Interesting post. My car seems very temperature/weather sensitive. When snow hits the ground, ABS,TRAC OFF, and SERVICE ENGINE lights come on. As soon as the snow is gone it goes away.


By turning the car on do you mean starting it or just turning it to ON? How much time should it be left on before leaving?

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by ktaylor

By turning the car on do you mean starting it or just turning it to ON? How much time should it be left on before leaving?

My ignition is back to ON the instant the motor is dead.

Anyway, At least long enough for the motor to stop its revving. Around here the yellow light is only about 1/100 of a second so it is very tempting to start and slam into gear. So not super long but long enough for the motor to come down a bit maybe 5 seconds?