Hello From Tampa, FL
 

I'm driving a 2004 Pontiac Sunfire and want to get 40mpgs out of it. I found this website about 5 months ago, and started doing mods every chance I had. I am saving about $8.57 per tank compared to EPA! I've gone from about 30mpg to 35. That's Insane! I plan on keeping this car for a long time, so seeing the benefits so fast has been nice.

I ran in to my first problem recently and was wondering if you guys could help me out? It has to do with lighting.

I've recently been putting L.E.D.s everywhere I can (with maybe .02-.03 GPH improvement while night time driving). Finally got to the rear turn signals/brake lights. I have not changed the front signals yet. They work but when I use them as blinkers they blink very fast.

I have read that the power consumption is so low that the car thinks they might be broken so they blink fast. The solution being to add a resistor to add more load. buuuuuut I want to Reduce load lol. Any thoughts?

Go Bucs,
SmoothLoafers

Well what you discovered is the down side, the upside is that turn signals are used so infrequently that there is very little energy to be saved.

hello SmoothLoafers and welcome on board!
If your turn light flash like they have just sniffed a row of cocaine you need to buy or build a specifi turn light blinker.
Google led turn light blinker relay or flasher relay.

The thing with the Sunfire is that the same bulb is used for the turn signal as is used for the brake light, so he can't just change out the brake lights and leave the turn signals alone.

woah thanks everyone

Yeah my brake lights and signals are the same light, which I didn't know until I switched to led. Seems kinda dangerous lol when I brake and am turning it probably looks weird.


I'm going to research that relay, thanks!

Most trucks and many cars have your same light setup. You probably see it every day without noticing. ;)

It’s a decent platform to begin modding... I also have the 2.2 Ecotec and before I parked my car had three tanks up near 50mpg... 40 is plenty doable... do you have the automatic (4T40) or manual trans (F23)?

Awesome! Its nice to see comparable cars doing the damn thing.

I have a manual, and recently learned about driving with high load and low RPM. So recently I've been cruising at lower speeds, and shifting in to 5th gear at about 35mph :turtle:

My three biggest tips for saving fuel in our cars...

1. Avoid the freeway. Our transmissions have a 3.84 final drive, which means that even at only 65mph the engine is spinning much faster than it has to...

2. Tire pressure- it should be right at the max listed on the sidewall... car still handles fine, though stopping distances get a little worse

3. Shift RPM needs to be as low as possible, I try and keep the engine close to 1000 RPM as much as possible, as long as low load levels can be maintained, I try not to go over 55-60% until I’m at least running 1300 or so... going through town on flat ground I’m in 5th as soon as 25mph but if I’m accelerating out to 55 I’ll hold the lower gear to 35-ish

Belated welcome to the forum! Glad you found us & you're having fun & success modding your Sunfire.

Cool thanks for the tips! 5th at 25mph!! What mpg do you get while cruising at that?

Also, I'm just going to let my signals blink fast. It's annoying, but only for a few seconds at a time.

:thumbup:

I *think* that my UltraGauge reports something in the neighborhood of 40mpg instant at 25 in 5th... this shows as like 1000 RPM with a 195/60-15 tire... since my tires are 5% oversize (205/65) I’m actually going maybe 27mph... additionally, I’ll use 4th in a school zone at like 850, but literally just barely enough throttle to maintain speed, no extra load at such a low engine speed...

And I also deal with the hyper flash since I replaced my DRL/signal bulbs with LED... no flasher delay to change out and I’m not adding a resistor to the circuit...

I've been cruising at lower speeds every since you told me about it. My next mod will be fog light/grill hole fill. Maybe with Lexan, but im not sure yet

Not than lexan wouldn't look nice, but I usually use tape of some sort for filling holes/blocking the grille... Of course the tape doesn't cost me anything, but still...

Hi all just wanted to give the final update on this. I ended up trying it all. LED Flasher, LED blinkers just front, LED blinkers just back, both, and some other things.

TLDR: I think my car and LEDS are just not compatible

The Flasher (Relay) would work perfect, or BUZZZZ at every blink. Other times it would give me an error signal <-- --> The same brand lights were used in my interior light and trunk light. The trunk light is fine, but the interior light is going bad so maybe they're not the best quality. Anyhow, I think I'm just going to keep it kosher on the lights and work on other mods. Knowing all my lights are working properly is relieving! Comfort is key.

Have you tried some of the LEDs that have built in resistors?

i didn’t try any resistors. I thought it would be wierd to raise the load back to the original bulbs when I’m trying to lower load. Might be more complicated then that, but that was my thinking