Finally turning it around

[endurance]

It hasn't been the best year for hypermiling for me. While I've managed to keep things between 36-38mpg for the most part in my 2002 Acura RSX-S (EPA 22/28), getting to 40 or above has been more elusive than in the past.

I definitely have to get the car in for service as there's definitely a low RPM miss that two back to back tanks with BG44k have failed to fix. However, I kept poking around looking for other answers and finally came up with an obvious one; my oil change shop was dropping my tire pressure from the sidewall max of 51 to 32psi hot! That meant closer to 28-29 cold. Once I figured this out I had a 39+mpg tank and this last tank, had a record setting 43.48mpg.

Of course the mpg wasn't all about tire pressure on that tank. I was hiking a section of the Colorado Trail with a friend and we had to drive into Turquoise Lake near Leadville, Colorado. I had some 5 minute-plus engine off coasts going in both directions that really helped me get the most out of the tank.

I'm just grateful the sub-38 days are over and the +40 days are back. Nothing brings a bigger smile to my face than 40+mpg out of a car rated at 24 mpg combined.

[brucepick]

Oil change places. When I'm forced to use them, I forbid them to check or mess with anything else on the car aside from the oil change itself.

The only time I ever had to add coolant to the Civic was after one of those places insisted on checking it. Of course the engine was hot from me driving over there, so some spilled out. No way would I let them mess with my high pressure tires!