Help. I must be doing something wrong.

[tim3058]

Welcome to the site david.

I too am from upstate NY - winter kills mpg's, so don't feel bad if you can't improve this time of year. Keep practicing technique, check the odo vs mile markers, pump the tires up to max sidewall, and wait for spring.
I once calculated the air is something like 10% heavier at 20* vs at 80*, if I'm remembering the numbers right. I believe the formula for drag is proportional to the fluid/air density... so a car has 10% more drag at 20* than a nice summer day, all else being equal (ignoring longer warmup times, stiff cold tires, and oil/grease/lubes stiff after sitting overnight).

As the weather warms up you will see improvement. Also remember the 10% ethanol now in gas is likely hurting your mpg's. Good luck!

[66sprint6]

Yes, very good point...winter SUCKS for MPG. Bad gas and cold air can kill your numbers, I bet you will feel like a hero when spring comes back around LOL.
Matt

[davidlewallen]

So I have a question. I use Torque for Android. I have been testing a new feature out. Absolute Load. I dont understand it exactly. I have both Load and Absolute Load on my screen. I hear that accelerating at about 85% LOD is best . So I do. Well Ive started accelerating at 85% Absolute Load. My Trip went sky high. 50mpg on a road i usually get 35-40 but my Average MPG dropped down to 29.5mpg usually at 35-40. Am i doing something wrong here?

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by davidlewallen

Every time I get my MPG from car mileage and pump, it always shows about 35 mpg which isnt what i want seeing as im trying so hard and only getting a 12% increase T.T

That's what I meant with the actual fill-ups.

[HAHA]

Try accelerating more briskly. I normally use gear 1 to get rolling, then gear 2 up to target speed, and then directly to gear 5. This is on a -98 Civic Aerodeck. You can also use other patterns but skipping gears is a good way to reduce losses.

Tuck in the right mirror. If possible, do the same to the left mirror temporarily while on highway. That is good for a few % at highway speed.

[moffiler]

By coasting, I assume you mean what we call free wheeling over here. It is bad practice and if your vehicle is fuel injected (from its age, I guess that it is), it does not save any fuel. Take your foot off the throttle and you use no fuel with FI; carbs are another matter of course. Coast in neutral or with dissengaged clutch and your engine will be using fuel to tick over. That could be at a rate of a litre per hour for you car. It is worth measuring engine tick over consumption so that you know where some of youe fuyel is going.

[Tango Charlie]

Moffiler, David is driving a 2007 Honda Civic, and is new enough to have DFCO. Coasting in gear, or using "engine braking" will take advantage of that and most definitely save fuel. See tip #44 in the "100+ Hypermiling Tips" (link at the top of the page).

David (Welcome to EM!); I echo what others have said about winter sabotaging your efforts. Although 12% is nothing to sniff at! Keep at it, and come spring you'll surely be rewarded with better results.

Make an entry in the garage (see link at the top of the page) for your car and start logging fill ups. It really helps to see it graphed out. Good luck!

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by moffiler

By coasting, I assume you mean what we call free wheeling over here.

Yes.
Gliding along with the transmission in neutral, with the engine either stopped or running.

It is bad practice and if your vehicle is fuel injected (from its age, I guess that it is), it does not save any fuel.

It sure does save fuel

Take your foot off the throttle and you use no fuel with FI;

That's right.
They call it DFCO - Deceleration Fuel Cut Off - on here, but in my neck of the woods we call it engine braking as it means you also slow down considerably.

That's also why it is less efficient.
Unless you want or need to brake as quickly as engine braking allows for, it's more efficient to coast along, even with the engine on.

The trick is to not accelerate to too high a speed, so you don't have to brake when you arrive at the next transition point (traffic lights, a turn, sharp corner, speed limit, downhill grade, ... anything requiring a speed reduction)
You only accelerate to a speed that will allow you to glide to the next transition point.

That means you also gain by reducing the fuel gulping acceleration phase.


Engine braking is obviously a lot more efficient than staying on the gas too long and then slammin' on the brakes at the last moment.


Equally obvious, having the engine tick over @ idle means it's still using fuel.
That's why some users shut their engines down during coasting.
But not everyone is happy to do so - I for one won't shut the engine down.

Coast in neutral or with dissengaged clutch and your engine will be using fuel to tick over.

Sure.

That could be at a rate of a litre per hour for you car.

Sure.
But it is still less than what you'd consume per hour if you drove the distance you coasted.


I was an avid user of DFCO / engine braking before joining ecomodder.
Coasting - and driving slower - is what has bumped up my mileage.