Road trip coming up.
 

I have been taking public transportation to school, so I usually only drive once a week to my sister's house and every morning to the gym. Driving to the gym sounds counter-productive, but I pick up a girl. Anyway, that is an entirely different issue! :D

I live in Mesa, AZ, and my parents live in a town called Show Low, in the White Mountains, 163.7 miles away, according to Google. I drove up every week for part of the summer and I never felt like I figured out when to shift to neutral and when to coast in gear.

I do not know how many times I have been told to purchase a ScanGauge. I understand that one would pay for itself, it was just difficult to get over the short-term loss, especially when I worry that needless spending could keep me from purchasing a house, but one of these times that I actually study enough to need a break I will go ahead and order one.

I put in a fence for my father over the summer. That was a nightmare. He wants me to fence the other side, which is somehow longer, over Christmas break--the first fence took six weeks!

I remember driving up for Thanksgiving in my Prelude, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, with just my vent running, no heater, and passing a bank that said that it was 30°F. Then I would hug my mom and she would scream.

I would do the same thing for Christmas when it would be 25°F.

I got tired of hurting, though. Also, I recently read a post pointing out that if you take heat away from your engine, you take gas out of your tank. I guess that I will be dressing warmly.

A grill block did not make sense in the Phoenix area in summer, but I would be happy to try one in the winter. I try to minimize braking anyway, so with the cold I do not have an argument against wheelcovers although, to be honest, I think that most of the solutions that I have seen on this site are ugly, and I am trying to find a wife... :D

How do I show my vehicle on the left? I have a 1999 Subaru Forester (automatic). I know that I have read about successful Subaru modifications. I plan on doing a search later, but would ScanGauge, grill block, wheel covers, and a Kamm back be too much to try all at once? I know that with everything except the ScanGauge you guys would want me to do individual A-B-A testing, well, how poorly would those things need to be done in order to hurt mileage? :)

Even though it sounds amazingly boring, I would be willing to try pulse-and-glide, but I already deal with more road rage than I like. I would be more willing to try it late at night, but I would have some explaining to do if I hit black ice on a mountain curve or another elk.

So, is there lower-hanging fruit than the items that I mentioned? Would the simplest grill block be with Justin Beiber duct tape?

Everybody likes pizza pans, but I remember someone using plastic serving trays. It would be easier to punch holes in those for zip ties.

Boy, my car is going to be ugly...

You got it wrong! :D Definitely ecomodded car brings attention to the owner, and if you are driving an ugly car, everybody will think that you have some advantages as a man and you don't have to use your car as a substitute of .... :) (you know what I mean)
So maybe that's better way to find a wife than driving Ferrari? I mean a real girl that won't look at your wallet only :)

Anyway good luck with Justin Beiber duct tape :)

Get the scan/ultragauge or my favorite combo , the torque app w/ a Bluetooth adapter off amazon ($25 total) if you have an android enabled device. You'll be amazed at the savings you can get adjusting your driving habits alone!

How do I show my vehicle on the left? I have a 1999 Subaru Forester (automatic). I know that I have read about successful Subaru modifications.

Click on the "Garage" link on the top of the page. Then you can add a car and begin your all-important fuel log. The easiest way for you to get better mileage is to buy a more efficient, 2WD car.

I plan on doing a search later, but would ScanGauge, grill block, wheel covers, and a Kamm back be too much to try all at once? I know that with everything except the ScanGauge you guys would want me to do individual A-B-A testing, well, how poorly would those things need to be done in order to hurt mileage?

You can do a grille block and wheel covers in an hour if you have some coroplast handy. Paint the wheel covers satin black and (probably) no one will notice.

ABA testing is for the hard-core. If you just want to see benefits, read up on others' test and read up on aerodynamics. Use the Template. You'd have to screw up pretty badly to make a grille block and wheel covers hurt your mileage, but a kammback will need a bit more thought. Worst case is that it flies off on the freeway.

Even though it sounds amazingly boring, I would be willing to try pulse-and-glide, but I already deal with more road rage than I like. I would be more willing to try it late at night, but I would have some explaining to do if I hit black ice on a mountain curve or another elk.

If your brakes are in good, working order you should have no problem P&G'ing. You didn't mention EOC, especially being an auto, so braking shouldn't be an issue. Don't P&G if you're going around a twisty mountain road in the winter. Or, if you're going to, at least be confident in how your car handles outside the traction circle. I get the tail out on my Probe every morning without batting an eye.

So, is there lower-hanging fruit than the items that I mentioned? Would the simplest grill block be with Justin Beiber duct tape?

Slow down. Add a grille block and wheel covers. Add an air dam (I made a semi-professional looking one for $20). Block your grille with coroplast and zip tie it on. If you're going for classy, duct tape is your enemy.

Everybody likes pizza pans, but I remember someone using plastic serving trays. It would be easier to punch holes in those for zip ties.

Again, cut some circles of coroplast. You can try trays if you like, but they'll be more expensive and more time consuming. Man up and buy a drill.

Boy, my car is going to be ugly...

In the eye of the beholder. I'm in the same boat of trying to find a woman and have been told multiple times that it doesn't depend on your car. Well, boat tails tend to alienate you. But be yourself but have fun with it. :)

Modding my car helps weed out the women who just want my cash. Ones I am interested in, see the value and the goal/ they mod as well :D

If a woman is impressed by your car and makes a mate choice because of it, she will be impressed by the next guys car. The a word for a woman like that is trollop.

Most cars with mods on here are done by folks who do not care what the car looks like. If that matters to you select tasteful mods, hidden grill blocks. Use plexi for smooth wheel covers. Under body pans are not seen.

Road Ragiers gonna rage, be it at you, or at something else. Slow down and let the high blood pressure knuckle daggers pass. Pulsing and gliding is not recommended in traffic though as folks have a reasonable expectation to travel near the speed limit, and at a steady pace, so speeding up and slowing down if someone can't get around you is a bit rude.

My wife is impressed at the mileage my Saturn gets with the mods, but were already married, so maybe it doesn't count.

Well, yes, if a woman does not understand intelligent improvements to my car, she definitely would not understand me. My current gym partner seems disappointed that I do not watch television and that I do not have a smartphone--and not because cannot use the torque app! :)

I guess that I would only pulse and glide on the straight stretches.

Yes, replacing my car with one that is only two wheel drive, as well as manual, and certainly something not pretending to be an SUV, would increase my mileage. After I bought my car my mom kept telling me to see how much a certain used dealer would offer me, which sounded absolutely insane!

NADA and Kelley both say that my car is worth around $3,700. I think that I lost a little because someone keyed my car when I was visiting my parents, so if anything, it was for something that my parents did, not me!

Okay, searching Autotrader for four-door, front-wheel-drive cars with manual transmissions within twenty-five miles from private sellers made me feel too picky, but I found a 1999 Mazda Protege LX for $3,300.

Honestly, I feel like calling on Monday. Thanks to Gasoline Fumes, I checked the VIN. It says that it was registered salvage, but the listing says "Clear title."

It looks good, as long as it is not a clear, salvage title. I winced at the picture of the front seats, wondering how far back they went.

Here is the listing: Cars for Sale: 1999 Mazda Protege LX in Phoenix, AZ 85023: Sedan Details - 323693713 - AutoTrader.com

The EPA rates the Forester 18/24 and the Protegé 25/31.

I just called on the Mazda. I may look at it this afternoon, but I should study and look at it tomorrow after my two tests. I know that you guys purchase cars in other states, but this one is thirty-three miles. I think that would involve two hours of me trying to study on a bus, hoping that the car is worth purchasing, so that I can drive it back.

The guy did lower the price to $3,150.

I am not eager to tie up money right now, considering that I am trying to purchase a house, but I would start saving as soon as I sold my Subaru. I guess that I have two options, I can try to sell it for the price of the Mazda, or I could fix some things and try to get $3,700 for it. The main problem is that a power steering hose is leaking and the shop said that it would cost $495. I planned on ordering a replacement and doing it myself, but now I am thinking that I will go to a junkyard.

The other problem is that my tires have dry-rotted--I had two blow during consecutive trips over the summer and the shop was closed, so I needed to go to Walmart, which did not sell the same brand. Either I will see which of the two brands is cheaper and replace two, leaving the best old tire for a spare, or I will replace three, leaving the mismatched one in the trunk. Maybe replacing them would not be necessary, but I would feel better about it, and it might make a difference to a potential buyer.

They might never notice, but the left front wheelwell came lose and was rubbing on the tire, so I cut it off. The shop did not say anything about it, but I cannot imagine that a used one would cost that much, I just do not know how easy to replace it would be.

There are probably one or two other minor things that I would try to find.

Do any of you have suggestions on any of these things or something about selling a car? I have never sold a car! The first one wore out and the next three were wrecked!

Thinking about dry rotted tires, I work for Michelin and just read a study on nitrogen gas fills and its advantage to tire life. The gist of it was if you live in a hot area (southern Europe or US) and your tires will be used more than 2-4 years, nitrogen may preserve the rubber and cord life by preventing aging (oxidizing) of the rubber. For those of us up north or wearing out tires in a couple years, nitrogen fill has no advantage to rubber life.

Interestingly, they also studied purging the tires with nitrogen vs just filling with residual air and didn't find a significant advantage. Refilling with air added more oxygen, but running tires low is also a significant wear and heat factor.

I guess that I had better purchase all of my tires at Costco, I do not know where else uses nitrogen.

Thank you for sharing that. Can you please explain the purging part? Thanks!

Purging is "washing" the tire of oxygen with a fill and re-empty of nitrogen before putting the main charge in, to try to wash that 21% oxygen out of the initial air in the tire. I forget the exact numbers but nitrogen filling without purging puts the oxygen percentage down to about 5% and still significantly reduced the oxidation of the rubber in tires. In their testing they felt purging was good practice, but not essential.

Topping up the tires with air introduced significantly more oxygen (than not purging), although the study warned that voicing this fact could have customers inclined to drive on partially deflated tires rather than get them filled immediately with air. The actual material cost of nitrogen fill is so low that tires could be purged and re-filled for pennies at the next opportunity. The study had a brief mention of the costs of a dedicated air compressor vs a nitrogen tank and regulator, with the costs being very close.

The study did a comparison of tires used in the Phoenix AZ area with tires baked and pressurized in an oven to compare test methods. The main effects of oxidation is hardening and cracking of the rubber, increased leakage, reduced load capacity, reduced traction and increased incidence of catastrophic failure.

Sorry for getting off topic here, just an mind spill...

Do you have the name of that study? Once in awhile we have people asking about N but most respond with "waste of money" or similar. I've never heard that angle on increasing tire life, and am a bit skeptical.

sbestca, thank you for clarifying. That makes sense. I had not had tires dry rot before, so maybe the previous owner did something wrong with these.

Wouldn't they dry rot faster on the outside? I do not know about oxidation, but the sun will get them!

The Mazda is still on Autotrader, but when I got out of class and asked the owner if I could see it tomorrow, he did not respond.

Reading about nitrogen in other threads leads me to think that a more scientific way to compare nitrogen and air would be to inflate the right side with one and the left with the other.

Sounds irritating, eh? :)

Well, I have my anatomy final tomorrow. The professor gave us a study guide, basically a three-page terms list. Hey, had I had those on my last two tests I would not have averaged a 64!

I studied for weeks for each of those...

So far I have one page of Things that I Already Know and then the guy asked if I could be up there within the hour. I had wanted to take the full study guide on the bus, with a two-hour commute, I really hoped to drive back. I did not see any reason to print what I had, so I just left, and since I always get lost in Phoenix, I drove seventy, instead of my usual fifty-five.

I got lost--a few times.

He was not there, his mother who only spoke Romanian let me look at the car, and then I needed to wait an hour for him to get off work so that I could test drive and take it to a mechanic, and that was at least another hour that I wished that I had something to study.

The $3,150 car required $4,300 in repairs, so I ended that experience as quickly as I could, and then spent at least an hour driving back.

I did pick up a 4x8 campaign sign that had come loose and was laying on the sidewalk. I almost hit another car because I could not see anything on the right, but fortunately, that driver did not want me to hit them, so we avoided that situation.

The next nearest car on Autotrader is a 1,998 Saturn SL2 for $3,150, with 101,000 miles.
There is a 2,003 PT Cruiser for $3,500 with 66,000 miles and a 1,990 Civic with 265,000 miles for $2,500.

So, grill block, ScanGauge, and wheel covers for my Forester?

My sister is in the process of trading in her 2,004 Kia Spectra. I thought that almost anything would be better than my Forester, but I am learning that just is not true.

The first time that I bought a Focus off of my father I drove my brother-in-law's Focus and it scared me. I had an extremely difficult time believing that it had anything in common with my car. It wore out, she bought a big SUV for her two sons, and he started driving her Kia.

Well, now it is falling apart. Five years newer, smaller frontal area, smaller engine, FWD, a manual transmission, and it is only rated 22/29.

I have enough drama in my life!

I finally ordered an UltraGauge. Yay.

A car just came up on Autotrader, a 2,002 Elantra.

I was feeling very lazy. I just had my last final today and want to go to bed and then make plans and stuff, but it seemed like a good car, priced right, and it got better mileage than other cars I had researched, including a 1991 Corolla at a dealer for $1,750.

Then I checked my bank account. I was only paid $160 this month. My dad wants me to drive up to work for him (hence this thread), otherwise I will not be paid much next month, either.

I figure that if I do find a nice car, before I would be able to sell my Forester I would also find a nice house, and would not have the money soon enough.

Yesterday I tried finding a repair manual and then went to the junkyard where I found both my power steering hose and the fender liner, but I could not remove the hose and they wanted $19.35 for the fender, which I can order new for twice that much. It was fairly worn out. I just need to figure out how to disconnect this: http://static1.apwcontent.com/images...1821809OES.JPG from hoses that run under the car, to the other side, back up, and to who knows where after that.

I had been having problems with my driver's door. I thought that it was just the remote battery, but it is actually in the door. I was just waiting for daylight to take it apart. It would really help to find a manual!

Somehow my mom thought that I was babysitting down here instead of working up there. It finally started snowing. I was supposed to build a fence!

Hence the fallacy of nitrogen fills ...
After say 7 years, the INSIDES of a tyre will still look and feel brand new.

You can't keep sun and oxygen away from the outside though, so tyres start to dry-rot and crack.

Yet everybody way overcharges for N2 fills ...

Those are UV effects, i.e. sunlight.

Next time your tyres are off, have a look inside.
Unless you've been running on a flat tyre too long, they'll be pristine.

The "good" rear tyre on my Peugeot 306 had 100.000 miles on it, back in the day. The outsides were badly cracked due to sun exposure. The inside was totally pristine and smooth.
It was replaced as the other rear tyre was bust - I didn't bother to swap it when it went flat , I just drove it to the tyre dealer.

Well, yes and no...

The sun and ozone exposure do cause cracking, but the rubber degades in other ways too.
Essentially it continues curing, getting harder and less supple. The prime factors in order are:
1) heat, especially over 200c
2) UV sun exposure
3) ozone, a more active form of oxygen
4) O2 oxygen, especially in combination with the other factors.

To protect from UV and ozone a thin layer of protectant rubber is applied the the sidewall before cure.
To seal air into the tire (natural rubber is surprisingly porous to gases) there is an inner layer of synthetic butyl rubber.
When you look at the inside of the tire this is what you see, the synthetic butyl rubber.

As the tire ages the rubber hardens, flexes less, has less traction and more readily separates from the cords.
UV and ozone start this process from the outside, where the damage is superficial.
Heat and O2 create their changes through to the center of the rubber, where cord debonding and failure are the risk.