A Quest for 35mpg (Subaru Outback Limited Sedan 2.5L auto)

[d0sitmatr]

I forgot all about this before reading post # 228 Zerohour
I modified my intake, by removing all the baffles and the big airbox, and just putting a straight inlet to filter on there (not aftermarket, but from a different year outback) and it increased my FE by about 1mpg hwy/2mpg city

[majestic]

youre gonna need to go waay beyond minor aero mods if you ever wanna see anything close to 35mpg.

i got a 01 legacy gt sedan which is lower, has 205's, smaller more aero mirrors, and more aero bumpers front and rear

my car is also lighter (being 5 spd, and non-limited).

in addition i have complete front undertray with tire flaps, rear tire flaps, and a small tray at the rear. I only have a small section of the lower grille blocked. I had half of the upper grille blocked but didnt like the high temps i was seeing during the summer. otherwise externally the car looks stock.

ive also gone to 40psi in the tires, synthetic rear diff, some kind of cocktail in the tranny (cant remember exactly), disabled drls, and about 20 lbs weight reduction (partical board under trunk mat, chassis braces behind rear seats, middle seat belt and all components, rear floor mats and child latches w/ bolts off the rear deck.

now my 5spd does have shorter gearing than the 4eat, but still im maxed out at ~32 mpg at 70 on a nice summer day. (scanguage)

overall i average 31.5 in the summer, and 27.0 in the winter. (50/50 city/hwy, no hypermiling). when i used to hypermile i could push 34 (avg) in the summer. that was with every trick in the book and going no more than 64 on the hwy.

not meant to discourage, just giving you an idea of what to expect.

to be honost when i first got the car i thought itd be a miracle if i could ever avg 30. so you never know. dont give up.

[Zerohour]

Not to discourage, but I can manage upper thirty mpg in the low 60 mph range. I'm not quite done with my mods yet. :-)

Winter at this point isn't helping. Cold temps are a killer to the mileage. So is my commute at drivers have gotten worse in the dark hours of the morning and evening. Also School buses need to make less stops...honestly I think if four children live along a road less than 500 feet apart it warrants ONE bus stop, not FOUR.

[Zerohour]

Got one of the better fuel trips on the last tank. It helped that I had a job interview combined in this tank. Squeaked in 27.6mpg. That's just ~1mpg under my best commuter tank. Not bad considering there was only one day where we broke 50 degrees And most the mornings were sub forty. Also had to use a the defroster a few times because of wet weather.

I was folding in the side mirror; and I added some extra winter grill blocks.

Unfortunately....

....yesterday I was instructed to take my brother snow driving in his Subaru. Which we then proceeded to dump into a ditch.....and a dirt mound....and ultimately a giant rock along a back road. So much for trying to help him get better at snow driving. :-/. We are both okay, no airbags, no busted radiators, but we were high centered on the driver side on the dirt mound. The face of the car took a bad beating off the large rock as well. We were saved by a mystery man named Stu who helped us unwedge the Subaru. One of the tires on the front/rear were air born and his Outback lacks the LSD differentials (air born spinning tires). I felt so bad for my brother. But even with destroying the front bumper, crushing the support, bending the upper and lower radiator cores, busted fog and headlight, ripped out the wheel liner, and burnt the floor mats trying to escape, the car is 100%. Drove right out once Stu got the other front wheels back on the ground. My old man arrived on the scene and we looked it over. The damage really isn't much more than cosmetic. Didn't touch the motor,oil pan, trans pan, etc. And the core support folded only slightly, but because of the evenness in the bend, the radiator was fine.

Body shop and insurance are going to love us...but at least we're both okay. And still got home in time to leave for thanksgiving dinner at a family member's house.

[Zerohour]

Ugh haven't gotten to do any more mods lately! I'm still wanting to tape the wheels up. And I'm still considering plating off the side mirror, and still considering LED bulbs. But between Holiday shopping, work, vacation, fall clean up, winter setup, I'm just always going around doing something. Current tank is going to be bad as well, been doing alot of short tripping. Still should be higher than last year, but its going to take a hit on my overall eco-standard.

[Zerohour]

So...I need to make my intake warmer. was 26 degrees on the ride home, and my intake temps didn't/couldn't break 70. Peak was 68 at full saturation. was floating around 63-65. Effecting MPG by easily an entire point if not two mpg. I was pulling 35-37 at highway speeds when the temps were in the mid 40's and the intake was still going above 80. Now I'm peaking 32-34.

[Zerohour]

Hail to the King Baby! One more aero mod on the done list, and another is sitting in a box for the 26th.

Kudos goes out to Brucey for this one, but Now I finally got my wheels taped up. I also washed the car since it broke freezing for the first time in a week!



Oil for the 26th (ran out of time to change my oil till after christmas)


Oh and hail to the Ninja Kitty Christmas Princess:

[Zerohour]

So updates...

with 0w oil and the wheels taped shut I seem to be able to break 25mpg in the cold and work commute. So there is an improvement. Not sure what x% but it is there.

I've been considering a lightweight pulley for the Subaru, but I ended up pulling the trigger a bigger purchase. :-)

And we're still car shopping to replace the vehicle my brother rolled less than 2 weeks ago.

[brucey]

Let me know how they hold up without the plasti-dip coatings. I am still curious as to how much it helps and how much of it is just mad max'ing.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Zerohour

I've been considering a lightweight pulley for the Subaru, but I ended up pulling the trigger a bigger purchase. :-)

I put an lightweight underdrive pulley set on my car but it's impossible for me to tell if it helps the MPGs. The savings, if there is any, is probably around 1% which is too small to tell, especially since I did the mod soon after I bought the car before I could get a lot of MPG data.