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)?

Finally! I've the grill block and a front belly pan (between the bumper and the radiator). Everything with a simple transparent self adhesive foil. This also includes the front fog lights, that are now smoothed by this foil.
I've done 2 trips of 10 miles, with speeds up to 55mph, and the engine didn't overheat, neither the foil fell of.
Meanwile, I've also removed the rear spoiler, and I'm now running with 4bar on the tires.
I'll try to post her some photos.

I've noticed that when its raining, the water accumulated at the bottom of the windshield (above the wipers) draws some kind of small vortexes. So the wind is affecting this area.
My idea was to partially cover the wipers so the air could flow more easily in this area, and the wipers could also work freely.

Have you never considered to replace the glasses with some plexiglass for weight reduction? Or to replace the rearview mirrors with the ones out of some random sports motorcycle due to their reduced drag?

Plexiglass, no. That's to expensive for the results that I would have...

As for the rearview mirrors, yes, I'm looking for some cheap motorcycle ones (2nd hand...) since the stock ones are huge.

For now I'm still testing this very cheap (yet effective) solution with auto adhesive foil, quick to remove, and with no side effects ;)

As for weight reduction, that not one of my goals. Since I'm not the only one driving the car, it will remain close to "stock", able to stand as is was in the beginning.

Weight reduction doesn't mean you would have to strip it entirely like in a race car. There are many easy spots to take a few ounces without any real compromise to the overall comfort. It may even include the rearview mirrors getting replaced by smaller (and lighter) ones out of a motorcycle :D

Grill block with transparent self adhesive film, also with front bellypan.
http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-pe...rill-block.jpg
So far I haven't noticed any decrease on the fuel consumption, neither overheating problems

not much of improvement so far...
 

It seems that this grill block is not very effective. The fuel consumption seem to have increased! With the last fuel tank, I drove 850km, and with this its aiming to less than 800km.

Meanwhile, I'll try this Ultimate Cell (UCCE). I'm still searching for some more reviews on this:
Ultimate Power | Energy Saving Technologies - Products
The Ultimate fuel and emission saving device | euronews, hi-tech

At 350€ is 4 times less than a GPL conversion.

I'd highly recommend not wasting your money on that gizmo.

Also, have you actually been keeping track of your gas mileage? Or, are you just judging things based on how many miles you get per tank? Tracking actual gas mileage is WAY more accurate.

Hi,
I've removed the grill block and the front belly pan, filled up the gas tank, and inflated the tires to 4.1

with a quarter of tank, I've done 400km, and when the pointer reached half, I've driven 580km.
As the photo shows, the total range can reach 950km per tank (total driven + expected range).
Meanwhile, I've putted another smoother grill block and front bellypan. I must say that it improved aerodynamics, as on previously, at a point of the highway the car maintained 90km/h with no gear, now it maintains 110km/h.

So lets see if I can reach at least 900km per tank :)

Yesterday I had this idea:

since I don't want to do "heavy mods" on the car (as replacing the side mirrors), I'm thinking in folding the side mirrors, and put smaller ones in the corners of the stock ones.

The stock ones:
http://www.monsterautoparts.com/CHEV...1333-4168R.jpg

and the smaller ones to be applied on the side of the stock ones:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...YGe6OA038L9TYp

950km with 1 tank!
 

Mission accomplished!

Bem vindo!
950km with a tank, how many liters?

950km with 42liters of RON95. The engine rarely went above 2.000rpm during all this time.

Perhaps I could run 20km more, but there was already no estimated range 30km before I stopped to fill the tank.
Usually, once the reserve light appears, I'm able to do more 100km before there is no estimated range. But this time, it appeared when I was already with 80km of estimated range, so I just didn't want to take the risk of being without fuel in the middle of the highway.

Meanwhile, since my job location has changed, and there are no public transports over there, neither is a bike friendly ride over there, I should drive more often, so it also will be harder to do this achievement again, with more traffic during commute, shorter distances, and more urban routes...

Here are some great ideas to follow:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...7-a-30111.html

Those vertical spoilers look really interesting. I'll work on those to ;)
And there's also the mirror idea that I was talking, except I don't want to drill my mirrors.
The rear spoiler the air dam idea is still strange to me. Doesn't that increases the frontal area and rear drag?! I need to read some more threads on that.

Houston, I have a problem...

I went to far, and run out of gas. Since then, the car's mileage has been getting worst.
Even with smooth wheel covers, grill block, front belly pan, and super inflated tires, speeds up to 70km/h (44mph) mostly on highway, I was only able to do 920km with 50 liters.

Getting worst
 

In May the aveo Reached the 65000km mark, so it was time to go to maintenance. The oil was changed (from 10w to 5w), new fuel filter, new tires in the rear, aligned direction, all recommended by the user's manual.

The truth is that since then I cant make more than 820km per fuel tank!

The routes have been the same, or with longer highway trips, so it would be better for the millage, right?

Yes, the thinner oil may give you a slight improvement, especially on cold starts. OTOH, brand new tires may reduce your MPG's compared to your previous tires until they wear in a bit.

The last time I filled the gas tank, it was with 98 RON. I've done 820km (once the estimated range goes bellow 50km, it's time to refuel). So at most I could do 870km with a tank.
Now I've refilled with simple 95 RON, and it's the worst millage I've ever done! Less than 790km! What's going on?!

Could it be that the previous fuel filter had already something obstructing the fuel passage, so it would burn less fuel?

Or could the spark plugs be the cause of it?
The user's manual says that the spark plugs should be exchanged at every 90.000km, so 30.000km are still missing until they are replaced.

950km with 42 liters RON95
 

So I seems that high temperatures helps the mileage. Too bad the carr cools to fast once it stops working...
This time I drove with no grill block, only with 3,5 on the tires, and I was able to repeat the trick :thumbup:
I traveled mostly in highway, trips with more than 60km in distance (about 500km with +3 passengers, and about 250 with +1 passanger), and very few short trips (less than 20km).

some new ideas
 

Instead of tunning the gearbox and "stretch" 5th gear so I could rum @90km/h @2000rpm (for now it does 70km/h with that rpm), I could put some bigger wheels/tires (instead of 65R15", change to 55R16" or 45R17").
Also if this is done only in the front wheels, wouldn't the car be slightly more aerodynamic with a decreased rear angle?

does speeding kills mileage?
 

Oh, and other odd thing: I had the chance to drive 450 km on a BMW 316i (E46), and I've done it with 30l RON95. That gives me an average of 6.67l/100km. The thing is we were 4 on the car, plus luggage, and for most of the time I drove at 140km/h! It took us around 3h30m to complete the trip, because I couldn't drive that fast all the time.
I've noticed that above 150km/h the "mileage pointer" (under the tachometer) was always above the 10l/100km, but at 140km/h it floated between 4l to 8l (depending on the road slope).
If you imagine a car driving @70km/h on top of other one also driving @70km/h on the same direction,this means that I should do a 3.3l/100km average on my Aveo, driving @70km/h, as I usually do.
I was convinced that speeding kills the mileage, that fuel consumption was exponential above 70-90km/h. Apparently not...

http://s3.amazonaws.com/pmaster-prod...DR-00042-2.jpg

http://speedhunters-wp-production.s3...0-1200x800.jpg
"Then there are these little 90-degree, saw-edged details along the outer profile of the fenders. These are in place to shed vortices, helping clean up the airflow around the car."

Shouldn't these be in the end of any profile?

Hi nice to see you

https://ep1.pinkbike.org/p5pb17360673/p5pb17360673.jpg
Ready for 1500km. Let's see if it does what it's expected...
I've been doing 800/850km with the 42l of RON95, rolling at 70 or even 100km/h.
Still can't figure out how could I reach 950km only once, with the car without any mod...