First 500 mile tank in the White Gnat

[wmjinman]

The rest of the story is kind of a "good news - mediocre news" deal. The good news was I finally hit the 500 mile mark - 505.3 to be exact. And that tank seemed to last FOREVER (was driving the fiancee's car a lot though - at 25-ish mpg)

The mediocre news is that it took 9.5 gallons, giving me only 53.2 mpg. My official excuses are: All "new" tires this whole tank ("new" meaning all four tires are legal now). Also, I was plagued by flats/leaks. First one rear tire - seemed not to be rolling so good for awhile, then I came out of a meeting & the tire was flat. - ended up being a loose valve core on a tire I'd just recently bought. Then a few days later, I noticed the other rear tire looked a little low. Checked the air, and it was only between 10 and 20 psi, so filled it up again. Today it looked low again, and turned out to have only 10 psi in it. No wonder it seemed sluggish in rolling!!! Turns out there was a long, rusty nail in it, so I put one of those do-it-yourself plugs in it & pumped it back up to 60.

I also learned that, due to the light weight, I guess, the tires have to be down quite a bit before I can "see" they are low - down to 20 or below!! So I guess that means I need to be checking them with a gauge more regularly, or I might be driving around on 25 psi tires & not knowing it - just wondering why my mpg isn't so good!!

[wmjinman]

But it's more good news and mediocre news; 540.8 miles on the tank was an all time distance record for this car (maybe any car I've owned), but at 10.064 gallons to fill it, that's only 53.736 mpg.

So, I dunno. I don't think I totally lost all hypermiling ability. Maybe the "new" tires? - - and I wonder if they're switching to "winter gas"? Oh, I got gas at a different station - different company. Hmmmmmmm....

[nemo]

Don't become disenchanted. On a recent trip with with my wife's car was hoping to set a record high. But had travel companions who wanted to long breaks, etc it was not to be. On the way back a cold front had moved in with head winds and rain.So many thing can work against you.

Here the temperature has started to drop (soon maybe able to stop AC usage), what about your area? Also as you mentioned new tires and a different station may be contributing factors. Time for that warm air intake?

[wmjinman]

Yes, temperatures are definitely much lower here now - using the heater a bit - engine temp gauge is reading lower, too. So I guess 3 possible factors: 1) cooler temps, 2) new tires, 3) different gas.

Also, there have been a couple time I was running late & had to go faster than I normally would have. I'm sure that didn't help, either...

Guess I'll go back to the original gas station, except I might be chasing a moving target now, with temps continuing to drop, etc. May be changing to the 0-20 oil soon, too...