Daily gas mileage blab thread

[endurance]

Just killed my tank with a stretch of highway driving. I was averaging 40.0 mpg and the wife wanted to go to the motorcycle races out east. About 150 miles later I got home and the tank had dropped to 37.6mpg average. Of course near 100F temperatures, the wife aboard so no P&G and a time schedule that meant steady state driving at 70-75mph did me in. The trip average was 35.x.

It's pretty funny that I'm upset about this. It used to be my best tank of gas ever was 34mpg on the highway. Now my commute averages 39-41mpg. Only mountain highway driving gets any better for me (10+ minute EOC segments). Next time, we're taking her car and trashing her mpg (she doesn't keep track anyway).

[metroschultz]

I couldn't afford to drive my wife's car for any extended period of time.
She drives a 2001 Avalon, it rides nice but gets terrible mileage. We use it for nites out and she uses it for work when I have to drive the Geo.

[graydonengineering]

I decided yesterday I really wanted to understand P & G once and for all. Every time I try it, It seems I bring down my average accelerating just as much as I raise it gliding for a zero net gain. Looked up some youtubes and did some reading and I think I have leared to use it in moderation during down hill sections and sometimes while following a another car. All by myself on flat, it doesn't seem to work. Guess my truck is too heavy and non-aero.

At any rate, I managed to sqeek in 32 mpg on 15 miles to work this morning using what I learned. Just 1 off my PR. Not bad!

[ecomodded]

With mixed hwy and city driving I have burned just 1/4 of a tank after driving 400 km. This will be my best mixed tank ever.
I have just started lately to fill my car up to the middle of the fill hose, After learning of the air bleed off technique by pressing the switch in the fill hose where the gas cap normally would hit the pressure release switch.
Doing it this way allows me to fill 1-2 gallons more in the tank and gives me precise fill ups.

[graydonengineering]

I tried a little P & G today, mostly as I came up on lights but also out on the open road. And the results?? I hit 32 on the way home from work (mixed city and highway), a new record for the rout by 2 mpg and 31% over EPA! I generally average 28 so that was a 13% improvement over average. My glide is very sad in this truck. I Found that I really needed a slight down slope to really make it worth while and any incline at all it seemed I was better off at constant speed.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by graydonengineering

any incline at all it seemed I was better off at constant speed.

Try to let the speed decay a bit, without P&G.
Accelerating uphill is very energy-consuming, especially in a heavy vehicle, and the glide is greatly reduced by gravity. It's all going to work against P&G.

[graydonengineering]

New PR on the way to work this morning at 35.1 mpg for 15 miles mixed city/highway, 62% over epa! Used a bit of P & G rather than hitting the breaks. The drive started poorly with a long wait at a stop sign wait durring warmup. Without that, it could have been even higher. It was kind of a fluke since it was raining and as such everyone was driving slow and traffic was very heavy. 45-55 on the freeway compaired to 65 helped a ton.

[Arragonis]

I think I'm getting the hang of Petrol now, averages for both legs of my trip home yesterday were 71 and 72 AVG. And my trip to work this morning was 56. Normally they are roughly 65 home and 50 to work. So its coming up a little.

Tried a couple of trips with some aggressive acceleration but I don't think I have understood how / when enough - I haven't got over 70% LOD yet. So I've sticking to gentle limo driving, ~2-2.5K RPM (unless joining the bypass etc.) and 55-60 max.

New mini target will be an AVG of 60 for the trip to work.

[euromodder]

Am I reading this right - petrol George is doing better than TDi Helga, right out of the box, with you not yet really used to it ?

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Am I reading this right - petrol George is doing better than TDi Helga, right out of the box, with you not yet really used to it ?

Well, maybe - these are SG2 figures so far but I'm using it to see if I'm getting better or not day on day. On the positive side the SG2 was only 2% out on the first tank so hopefully this should be reasonably accurate.

On the negative side the first bar on the tank went out at 120 miles, and those reporting the best MPGs in these cars last until 150+

I have been half tempted to fill up early to see if I can get a better 1st bar figure.

EDIT - and I have worked out how to get the fuel shut off to work, you have to be coasting over 1800 rpm to get the four 9s.