"I want to tinker with my Mercedes Sprinter to improve MPG."--friend

[Xist]

My friend, who totally exists, but you wouldn't know him, he attends another high school, works in Germany on U.S. military bases, so he gets American fuel prices in Germany.

America!

[M]y 1999 VW Golf does ~9L/100km, and my 2003 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter (14 seats) does ~11.6L/100km

I'm pretty happy about that

...though I think I could probably squeeze more fuel economy out of the VW with a little more tinkering.

So, of course I asked "Have you considered covering the grill with Gorilla Tape?! " I then linked the 65+ Efficiency Mods and 100+ Hypermiling Tips.

The kind of tinkering I'm considering is using a fuel injector cleaning solution or something - I have to research it first, but it's been on my mind.

When we bought the car, it got ~8L/100km.

I started using the US fuel with ethanol, and the fuel economy dropped. I've switched back, but the fuel economy hasn't rebounded yet

I'm worried I've gummed up the engine with the nasty ethanol residue...

Have you read anything about how to recover after corn-fed fuel?

It seems like everyone who tries ethanol-free fuel notices an instant improvement.

The difference was pretty mild - an increase in economy of about 2% or so, if that. Pretty small change after switching back. Very little improvement, within the margin of error.

Went from ~9.3 to ~9.1. Was hoping to get back to 7.9 or 8.1 range

Do you guys have any idea what went wrong with his A-B-A testing? Do you have any easy ecomods for the Sprinter (besides driving the Golf when possible)?

[2000mc]

What went wrong with his testing? Theoretically there would be a 3% change between E10 and E0. Being that I can’t see a easy way to test fuels back to back to back A-B-A, you would be doing good to have less variation with no changes. Sounds like great testing procedures.

[teoman]

An italian tuneup?

[JRMichler]

Is your friend seeing the effects of seasonal temperature changes? The average gas mileage of my truck changes 1.0 MPG per 10 deg F temperature change. That's about 0.2 L/100 km.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by JRMichler

Is your friend seeing the effects of seasonal temperature changes? The average gas mileage of my truck changes 1.0 MPG per 10 deg F temperature change. That's about 0.2 L/100 km.

This is the first thing that came to mind for me too.

[Tahoe_Hybrid]

Originally Posted by Ecky

This is the first thing that came to mind for me too.

my gas milage is better this winter i don't use the heater

but I have heated seats
heated seats is Higher efficiency then using the cars heat to warm the inside

as the heat is directly applied to the person in the seat

[matt36415]

I think that even though its easy to quantify the difference in energy between E10 and pure dinosaur based fuel, different engines will get differing results depending on what they do as a result of the higher octane rating that ethanol fuel normally has.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Tahoe_Hybrid

my gas milage is better this winter i don't use the heater

but I have heated seats
heated seats is Higher efficiency then using the cars heat to warm the inside

as the heat is directly applied to the person in the seat

Does California even have winter? It's currently 2° F here and windy.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by Ecky

Does California even have winter? It's currently 2° F here and windy.

California has multiple micro climates so fuel providers blend for an average and may blend for one area when they load a truck. Where I lived in the mountains they added anti gel D1, which they sold in Mojave and Kernville both much lower elevation. Where he lives, Smell-A, it gets worse smog in the winter, so they may blend an even less BTU fuel.

The trees do experience frosts even in San Diego and tomatoes are an annual.

[JSH]

My question: Is you friend actually using E0 fuel in Germany? A quick google says Germany switch from E5 to E10 as the standard blend in 2011.

Next question: How many tanks of base gas did the friend use. Fuel mileage varies from tank to tank so 1 or 2 tanks is not enough to tell anything unless he is running a dedicated fuel economy testing loop that he does everything the same.

No, he didn't hurt is car by running E10. VW made their cars E10 compatible in 1986.

I also really doubt the US army is shipping gasoline from the USA to Germany for private cars to use. The fuel sold on base is very likely local gas sold without Germany taxes.