Greetings!
 

Hi there!
I'm just another ecomodder form Portugal, very interested in this great forum.
Despite driving very few times with my Chevy Aveo 1.2l 3 door (T250 model 2008), the gas bill is still to much!:(

So I'm willing to learn some more from all of you.

Best regards,
J. Sousa

Welcome to the site Pepperoni. What kind of mileage are you getting with the Aveo?

Let's see:
when I have to travel by car, normally it's to travel more than 20 or 40 miles, most of them on highway. However, it's rare to exceed 90km/h (55mph), and also the 3000rpm.
The car is all stock. The only "mods" I do is removing the radio's antena and over-inflate the tires from the recommended 2,3 to 2,5 bar.
I don use AC, or drive with open windows. I always use low RPM, coast down when its safe to, and slow down by keeping a lower gear. I guess I'm doing all the best practices for a good mileage...

With this, the best mileage I might get is about 4.5L/100km (53mpg?).

The announced milage is:
Urban 7,2 l/100km
Extra-urban 4,6 l/100km
Combined 5,5 l/100km

So, I think the next step should be improving the aerodynamics. Where to start?... :)

This is just a sketch of some mods. I've covered the windscreen wipers, a placed some kind of transparent kamback to give a longer profile to the car (dont know if this design would improve any mileage).
http://ap1.pinkbike.org/p4pb8168567/p4pb8168567.jpg

Is it a good idea to place some VGs in front of the windscreen wipers or is it better to make some kind of cover, as in the pic above? And some on the sides, next to the tail lights?

Sounds like you're getting pretty good mileage. I'd start with a grill block.

It's fairly useless.
With the amount of pollen in the air these days, you get to see the aerodynamics at work.

@ 95kph / nearly 60mph, they don't come near the wipers / windscreen but are carried over the bubble of air there.
They start to lift when they're about 30-40cm away from the windscreen (about a foot to 1'4" ).

Last week there was a nice gas sale's promotion that allow me to save more than 15% on the final gas bill. So I've filled up the gas tank the most I could. As I leaved the gas station, the car indicated that it had enough gas to do over 540km.
This weekend I've done a small trip (about 63km). I've even done some Km in heavy traffic. As I arrived my destination, the car indicated that I was able to do over 630km.
On my way back home, I've done more 57 km, without any traffic, and maintaining a nice cruising speed (50 to 70km/h, never above 2000rpm) I've arrived at home with an expectancy of 735km!
I drove 120km (63+57). The thing is that the fuel gauge indicates that is still more than Full :)

BTW, the weather temperature was between 15 and 5ºC, and the tires are running at 3.5.
I've also noticed before that when the car is climbing, the fuel range keeps increasing, and as soon as I roll down hill, It drops right away. This only shows that the fuel sensor is in the back of the tank...

I think the best RPM range in this engine is below 2000rpm (70km/h in 5th), as before I used to drive at 2500rpm (80km/h in 5th) and didnt show a great improvment in therms of millage.
This is an 1.2 L (1206 cc), bore 69.7 mm, stroke 79 mm, compression ratio 10.5:1, power 62 kW /84.4 PS @ 6000 rpm, torque 114 Nm @ 3800-4400 rpm (MY2008), running 95oct gas.

I'm still searching for the fuel injection map to post in here.

This week I drove another 120km, but this time the fuel gauge dropped more than 1/8th...
Today was worst: I drove 41km on steep irregular paved roads and urban streets, with 2 bikes on the back rack. Couldnt be any worst for the mileage. Nevertheless, the fuel gauge is still above 1/4...

Oh, I'm thinking on doing some wheel covers and grill block on transparent self adhesive foil. Do you think this solution can handle speeds of 110km/h (70mph)?