Hello and meet my Minivan
 

Hi all,

I frequented the forum years ago before I went down to South America (at 50 cents a liter I didn't worry too much about mods). Now I'm back with a family and a 2002 Chevy Venture.

I'm looking for any tips and places to start to get the most out of my fuel economy. Obviously that means working on my hypermiling, but I do want to start with the most effective (bang for buck) mods to the vehicle.

Cheers!

Paul

Welcome to the site Paul.

I'd first check out these links:
100+ Hypermiling / ecodriving tips & tactics for better mpg - EcoModder.com
65+ Vehicle modifications for better fuel economy - EcoModder.com

That being said, pumping the tires up and a grill block would be my first mods.

Above all else: I'd say fuel economy instrumentation. Your Venture may even have such a thing from the factory, but you want something that you can reset to track individual trips as well (eg. if commuting).

Welcome (back) to the forum.

This is true, and you'll also want to think about what kind of driving you do mostly. Aero mods matter more the faster you'll be traveling (as in freeways), though they help to some degree at almost any speed. Weight reduction will matter more in stop and go traffic because your car has to haul its weight to speed over and over again.

If you drive on freeways, stick to speed limits or reasonably under them as safety allows. Speed reduction helps reduce the effect of drag and rolling resistance.

And welcome!

Since you live in Canada I guess you don't need the A/C so frequently as we need back here in South America. Apart from the higher load in the engine from the compressor and in the electric system from many of its other components, there is the weight which can be saved.

Thanks for all the advice! I've moved my focus to my new beater work car. I picked up a 2004 Civic 5 speed for cheap.

I got a job about 75 km from my house with some hills. I've been driving for two weeks and averaging about 5.2 L/100km (about 45.1 USmpg) with just careful driving tricks.

This weekend I plan to cover over/fill most of the grill and fog light holes (base model so I don't have them). I'll also be putting on an air ram per examples (lawn trim) on the site.

I forgot to mention. For real time monitoring I have an ecodrive/garmin setup.

I do notice that my speedometer is off by about 8-10%. My GPS reads 100KM/h when my speedometer reads 110KM/h.

Wow - nice job picking up that Civic. Way better choice.

You may want to check your odometer accuracy as well -- if it's overstated as much as the speedometer, your calculated fuel economy will be "optimistic".

I agree MetroMPG (although not sure how to check that).
That said, I believe the Garmin ecodrive/ecoroute uses the GPS to calculate distance and speed. Don't know if anyone can confirm.

Thanks for the reply.

Oh, and the minivan is the family vehicle. Gotta move the 4 kids somehow!

Is that the one with the OBD2 connector ?
How do you like it ?