new hyper miler potential?
 

Hi everyone I am new to the Hypermiling , I have a 95 eclipse 5 speed manual w/ a 2.0L 4cylinder. What kind of mileage do you guys think is possible without some of the more hardcore things like aero mods and such. I had been getting around 30mpg first few tanks of gas before trying harder for good mileage which then led me to my best tank of almost 39mpg so far. I just got a kiwi MPG guage, today is the first time I was using it and although it is definatly not calibrated yet, I realized when I am driving a steady speed on the highway it will say around 40mpg then I will let off the gas and coast it will go up to 80mpg or so but then if I push the clutch in or put it in neutral it will drop to 25-30mpg, why would it show 25-30mpg when coasting at 55mph when engine is idleing but show 80mpg at same speed with engine at a higher rpm? Is this a problem with the kiwi? Do you scanguage guys have this problem at all? My car does not have a maf it uses a map sensor so I know this will sometimes mess with things of this nature but I do not know.

my scangauge shows high mpg when coasting clutch in and clutch out ,never heard of a kiwi. but if you keep at the driving for mpg and do all the easy aeromods you can add quite a few mpg's i did about 5 aero mods and figure i got around 4-5 mpg, but i have done no radical mods yet see my sig for the mods i have done,,, and welcome to the site.

pdub42 -

Welcome to EM! If you have a 1995 Eclipse, there is no guarantee that the OBD-II protocol is working correctly. The Kiwi and the Scangauge need the OBD-II protocol to work correctly. That didn't become law until 1996, so your Eclipse may be on the cusp. Until 1996, it was up to the manufacturer to implement the protocol at their discretion.

In terms of coasting in neutral at 55 MPH, the Kiwi should give you MPG in the 80s or above. I don't see the behavior you are describing with my scangauge.

Here is a bushel of threads on the Kiwi :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...mpg-10235.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-mpg-8447.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...-mpg-7389.html

I think the Kiwi is at fault, but the year of your car is a stickler.

I looked up your Eclipse. A 2.0 liter 5-speed weighing in at about 2700 lbs. That's close to my car, except I am at 2456 lbs, so I am a little lighter. I think you have a great platform to work with. I am guessing that you will be able to average in the high 30's without any modding.

What is your driving context/commute like? If it's a lotta short trips and/or city, that's a killer.

CarloSW2

The MPG readings you're seeing may also be a result of Deceleration Fuel Cut-Off (DFCO). In gear, when you release the accelerator above a certain RPM threshold (varies by car), injection will cease but the engine's direct connection to the wheels keeps it going.

When you press the clutch and coast, the engine is using fuel to stay at idle.

My commute consists of about 100 miles round trip every day. About 75ish miles of that is flat freeway driving, 10ish miles of 55mph somewhat hilly road and the last bit is the drive to and from the highway. I do know that my car is OBDII, they changed the eclipses in 95 to be OBDII but not sure if it is within the same specs since it is not a 96, I also think I am having a vacuum leak which I am wondering if that is causing any problems getting readings because of my map sensor that is controlled by vacuum. I did some more experimenting today and coasting downhill in gear would read anywhere from 80-120 mpg depending on speed and grade of the hill, but every time it would read that high I would hit the clutch and the number would drop down to 30's maybe 40 at most, then if I continued to hold clutch in but rev the engine up to around 2k the mpg would just up to 70mpg or so and upon letting off the gas it would drop right back down in the 30's again.

pdub42 -

I'm glad you have OBDII. I would go to Eclipse forums for "OBDetails" on your car. Some manufacturers would have finished the implementation ahead of time and be done with it. It sounds like you have an ideal commute for optimizing the Eclipse. I don't have a good answer for your MPG readings. One of the problems may be a matter of "scale". 80 MPG on the Kiwi may read as 60 or 120 MPG on the scangauge. It depends on the algorithm each system is using. For my 1999, I know my scangauge can't detect DFCO. I keep thinking that when I coast in neutral at 55 MPH, I see over 100 MPG.

I think I will to this test later on today. In the scangauge, I will set the engine size to 2.0 liters, just like your Eclipse. Then I will check the coast-in-neutral MPG at 55 MPH, as well as the RPM. My idle RPM is around 900-ish, but I know it idles at a higher RPM when the MPH is higher. My ECU/PCM does this by design by controlling the Input-Air-Control (IAC) valve.

CarloSW2

pdub42 -

Here are my scangauge results when I set the engine parameter to be 2.0 liter :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-cf...ter-engine.jpg

Based on the above, I think your Kiwi should report well above 100 MPG @ 55 MPH. What you will notice is that the Scangauge is reporting an MPG that is about 3.3 times the current MPH. I believe the ratio will change in inverse proportion to the size of the engine.

CarloSW2

most mine will show is 120mpg at 60 ish mph with the car in gear, out of gear it will show around 50's mpg and at slower speeds like 35mph it will show 50's mpg in gear and out of gear 30's which I would think it would be able to get 30mpg just driving at that speed let alone idleing while coasting. My city driving is averaging 10 or 11 mpg which I know its not calibrated but if I calibrate it to show higher in the city I would think that highway would go up too high but I dont know I guess I will find out when I fill up again and try and calibrate the average mpg's to match