do it for science :)
 

I was just thinking today it would be neat if somebody with a scanguage would volunteer to donate a tank of gas to science. It would be interesting to see how bad of fuel economy you could get driving aggressivly, within reason :) knowing how good you can get it would be good to know the opposite... to show people who drive like @$$holes how much it is costing them.

Ill try it 2 tanks from now. Next tank is to recalibrate my ultragauge it was so screwy last time i filled i decided to reset it and start from scratch with all the proper settings i wanted. I bet i can go from me getting min 27 mpg to 23 or less easy

...is you idle long enough you can get 0.0000 mpg real easily!

True about idling...most people get terrible gas mileage becasue they idle, drive through every row at the mall to find the closest parking spot and sit at the drive through...

About driving like "a typical person", i've tried it but it's so hard to race to stop signs and red lights that i still ended up driving better than a typical driver.

I can't bring myself to drive like I used to. Even if I'm in a hurry, I still find myself coasting to lights without thinking about it.

Only reason i can still do it is because my escort bein the 2 door 5 speed model it is my "sports car" red lines speeding all that

when i do it, i plan on driving how i used to b4 i found ecomodder, and before ecomodder i didn't have a working heater so there was no warm up idling in the mornings

:thumbup: right on... look forward to seeing the results. The only time I drive like I used to is when I am in a really bad mood :o

Better than ScanGauge (which in my experience is really lousy at measuring fuel consumption). Bought my 2000 Insight in '03 or '04, with just about 50K miles on it, showing a lifetime mpg of around 50. Reset it soon after, and over the 110K miles since have averaged 71.4 mpg. (And that's driving mostly in mountain country, not the best for economy.) So reasonable driving can increase mpg by at least 50%.

Did that a couple years ago, it was a 4 mpg difference for me. No need to do a whole tank with the Scangauge, if you got a regular commute, you can get a good idea in just one day.

One of the things I like about trying for FE is avoiding being aggressive - its more relaxing and satisfying beating (or trying to) physics and chemistry than other drivers.

Would it not be easier just to compare what you get now (with EM techniques and mods) to what you got before ?

Average before I found ecomodder.com (vehicle less than 2 years old with <15K miles) - 28.021 MPG. Had ONE fill-up at .02 MPG under EPA highway estimate. (and I had to work at that one)

Average since I found ecomodder.com - 30.266 MPG.

About 8% gain.

Engine, drive-train, and tire break-in likely accounted for some of the gain.

With my beetle I gained 9-10 mpg from a combination of technique , my fuel pump tuning box and 50 psi in the tires.

My mpg was constantly at 51-52 mpg until i made those changes now i constantly get 60-61 mpg

I could let my bother and soon to be sister drive my car for a tank.... He is a cop and drives like the speed limit is a good minimum speed for icy days :( he also thinks the gas should be on the floor or the break on the floor but not much middle ground :(

he would get about 30-35 MPG from my car.

I think you underestimate what the nut behind the wheel can do to your fuel efficiency. :D

I think you may find that when driven hard enough, a car will eventually get to the 0 gallons per mile mark.

Of course, the steaming, overheating pile of slagged metal will be doing 0 miles at that point...

A mote pressing question would be how much gas people waste sitting at stoplights or in gridlock without turning the engine off...

What a lot of people don't also take in account when driving like an a$$hole or racing to stop lights is the extra wear and tear on the drive components. People are not only using more fuel but they are cycling the engine through rigorous rpms speeds, hard on the suspension, and hard on the brakes. This costs more than just a few pennies saved from driving efficiently.

Idling is responsible for 13% of the total fuel consumption in the US.

regards
Mech

One time long before I became obsessed with mileage, my 1976 280Z lost the alternator belt about 10 miles from the shop on a parts run. The belt was OE but broke right at the seam (only one that ever did that to me). I used pulse and glide and bump starting, engine off coasting. The clutch fan kept the water pump spinning and when I got to the shop the engine was actually cooler than it would have been if I had driven normally. I saw the same scenario in the Florida Keys at the Benz dealership where I worked. A man came in an a Jaguar with a broken Alt-H20 pump belt. He did not like our price quote and drove away with the broken belt.

regards
Mech

Instead of a boring commute, driving has become fun again--trying to look ahead for traffic lights, maximizing coasting, all the techniques, etc. Gives me something fun to do and the improvements in FE are great motivation to see just how good you can be. Starting to be such a habit that the old way of driving is difficult.

Average before finding Ecomodder: 21-22 mpg. Best tank 25 mpg.
Average since finding Ecomodder: 30.91 mpg. Best tank 34.77 mpg.
Same car.

No way I'm going to A-B-A that. Plus, as kennybobby points out, the commute is a lot more fun.

With careful driving, abusing ev mode and P&Ging I can get 103 mpg with my insight. Keeping up with traffic 54mpg. Without the phev kit or with econ off, 44 mpg. Driving in sport mode with phev off and econ off, about 24 mpg. :D

As mentioned, idling is the best way to kill mpg and in sport mode with econ off it wont auto stop. Yes, we ahve a switch for econ and a position on the shifter for sport, so you can be in sport and have econ mode at the same time. :eek: