lugging kills my mileage

[3-Wheeler]

Originally Posted by ever_green

For my Subaru, I noticed that I get better fuel economy in a pulse if I make the same amount of power at higher rpm vs. lower RPM at wide open throttle plate....

I read your input above and decided to try my own testing with the Insight about two nights ago, on the way home from work.

Bottom Line:

Short shifting gives me the best mileage.

Details:

I accelerated from 15mph in second gear with just about wide open throttle to 30 mph and hit the FCD button to update the dash. MPG:19

Accelerated from 15 to 18 in second, shifted to third and went to 26 mph, shifted to forth and went to 30 mph. MPG:34

Same gear pattern 2, 3, 4 except this time at about 30 on TPS. MPG:45

These tests were repeated several times with similar results.

In the Insight, it's clear that short shifting AND accelerating slower than wide open throttle gives better mileage than some of the "conventional wisdom" writing that we read on the forums.

In other words, we have read over and over that keeping the throttle plate wide open *should* give the best economy since it reduces pumping losses in the engine. The testing above conflicts with this wisdom.

It turns out that it may be *wiser* to go out perform some of your own tests to understand what the car is telling us!

Jim.

[serialk11r]

Originally Posted by SentraSE-R

Without instrumentation, you guys are just tossing WAGs for engine load. I've saved ~$2270 v. EPA on my xB, and ~$!500 v. EPA on my Sentra. That ~$3800 could buy 20 SGIIs and 20 UGs.

But you can't assume you're getting EPA mileage without the instrumentation.