new aero mods on my altima
 

Well I guess Im fast becoming an official hypermiler. This morning I took off the factory mud flaps on my car. Right away i noticed my car was a bit smoother. Quieter at highway speeds for sure. And I'm not sure if it was coincidence but I hit new personal best on my commute to work. 48.8mpg vs 46 mpg as my previous best. 13 mile mountain/hill/country road driving. With 6 of those miles engine on coasting. This not an official test but it does look promising. And on the way back home i achieved 33.6mpg. About 1mpg higher then usual. Can these mud flaps make that much of a difference?

And i also took off the side mirror and the front license plate while I was at it. I will go for a drive now and see what i can squeak out. I will take a picture of this car when i get back home. A trained eye can now see that this is a hypermiling car. This is alot of fun for me now. My compulsivness is finally being used for good. lol



Another big difference in my driving style is I have gotten better on hills. No more cruise control at all unless im driving perfectly flat and following another vehicle. tty all soon! :thumbup:

so on my way to work:

47.2mpg up about +2mpg from my avg. 45.2 (30 trips or so)

On the way back home:

34mpg up about +2mpg from my trip average. (up the mountain)

Now im not sure if my test results are from my better driving ability or from my mud flap deletion, and side mirror deletion and front license plate deletion. These numbers are defenitely a bit higher then my average. Well these two numbers are my new personal bests round trip. so overall it seems like i gained 2mpg. so a 4.5% in overall FE. Aeromods do really work!!!! I have a few pics of my ride. Lets see if I can post these on here...

my overall cost for my mods so far are:

10$ gorilla tape. this tape is awesome for grill block
2$ 3m clear tape. Closing a few gaps on front of car.
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12$

All of the above. :)
The weather might also have some effect.

In everyday driving it is hard to attribute gains or losses to particular causes.

The aim is not what % improvement to attribute to whatever measure, it's to consume less fuel. ;)

I think that aero mods are very helpful -- what are your wheels like? Have you pumped up your tires?

I'm not sure how useful taking off the front license plate is? What about an upper grill block?

my tires are at 51psi. The max sidewall is rated at 51psi. so yes max. I have an upper and lower grill block. I have a hole maybe the size of a softball on the lower grille. I drove 220km today and the engine was getting a bit hot. 225 was the max it hit on the scangauge2.

And the license plate would make a bit of drag on the car. Now that its off the nose of the car is cleaner. I guess you could compare the license plate to a mini snow plow. After a while, if you want MPG increases i believe that you have to start splitting a few hairs. So That is what I'm doing.

Again my car has,... Scangauge2, max psi, mud flap and side mirror delete, 95% grill block, No A/C or windows when possible, And im a big engine off coaster whenever i can.. I just rolled passed 900km (559 miles) on this tank and i still have 1/4 fuel left. Factory miles per tank rating on the altima is 413 miles per tank. So im doing something right apparently. i will try and hit 700 miles on this tank

I will seal the gaps on my car with silicone.. headlights, hood gaps. eg f I gain another 10 miles per tank by doing this .. great. It costs me almost nothing to do. And my rims are the steel rims with hubcaps on them. I was thinking of removing the hubcaps cause the steel rim is smoother and more aerodynamic. and i would also shed a few pounds with the hubcaps off. Maybe 3 -5 lbs.

I would recommend just hammering your license plate to contour to your bumper. I did that once and it was pretty easy, and I didn't run the risk of getting a ticket.
Nice work.

I would love to see pics of this front end. I wanna do something similiar. Have you had any over heating issues by blocking off the front of the car?

I used gorilla tape cause it is black and my original grill is black. It looks alright. And it only heats up on long trips. Right now I have a gap the size of a softball in the bottom grill. When i have short commutes i cover the gap up. On short trips you want the engine to heat up quickly. On long trips it can be your worst enemy.

A grill block defenitely improves fuel effeciency and warm up time.

I wouldn't be comfortable with 225F.
The engine still needs some cooling when the weather is getting hotter.

Yeah, you get a bit here and a bit there, but it all adds up.

If the hubcaps are not as smooth as the steelies, that's say 4lbs of rotating and unsprung mass removed, which is a good thing.

hubcaps
 

doom,you might want to check out the sticky on mods data here on the front page.
There's some info on wheel drag you should know about.