Window trim hurting aerodynamics? And a solution for my rear doors.
 

I am wondering if the uneven windows and rubber seals on my car reduce my aerodynamics?

Around each window is the rubber edging that sticks out approx. half a centimeter. does this effect my aero, or should I attempt to cover them similar to basjoosing?

I am thinking of taking the front passenger seat out (for access to the rear seats), then duct-taping plexiglass over the entire rear doors so that the surface will be completely smooth...

Would this be worth all the trouble? I'm thinking it might be better to just put clear tape over the door handles, and open the doors from the inside all the time. I could also remove the ventvisors on the rear doors, and then use black duct tape to hold a piece of plexi over the window to make it flush?

I guess I'm just really bored and pretty disappointed that I am only getting 20 mpg out of Ford's most aerodynamic sedan.

Sean T. -

I think it effects it, but it's hard to quantify. For windows, at least you should be able to do some tuft testing. One one

I was thinking of trying to cover my door handles so that only a "finger-hole" exists to pull open the door :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...5&d=1222309472

There would still be a bulge and a much smaller hole, but a smooth cover should make it a little better (right?!?!?!?)

I just found a picture of your Taurus :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...4&d=1222309350

At first I liked your door handles better than mine, but now I see that the whole thing kind of bulges out a little but. But at least the design is flat. Is the handle plastic or metal? If it's metal, you may have a rear-earth magnet neodymium option for installing removable-door-handle covers.

CarloSW2

As opposed to fore-earth magnets? :D
Sorry to nit-pick, but that just struck me as funny.

I like the finger-hole idea, cfg83.

finger hole is a good idea... thought of that myself, but when you stick your finger in and pull the handle, it would be stuck under the covering...

and what is a "rear-earth" magnet?

The handles are plastic, but the door is metal (haha!)

Tango Charlie and Sean T. -

Ha ha, I meant rare-earth magnet.

The rear-earth magnet is something you attach to semis so that you can latch on for free MPG, ;) .

I will try to remember to practice opening my door with one finger to see how hard it is.

CarloSW2

maybe I should have worded my post differently... when you pull the handle, it pulls out away from the car, so how will you be able to pull it without pulling the covering material out away from the car?

and why a rare earth magnet? do they come in flexible pieces?

Hi,

I'm pretty sure that non-flush window glass hurts your Cd -- I'm just not sure how to try an fix it in a way that still lets you roll down the windows?

They're extra strong. They ain't your grandma's refrigerator magnets. Think magnet on steroids.

so i see we have more than 1 basjoo

I don't really NEED to roll down the back windows...

Sean T -

Nope, but they could be major "anchor points". If the door handles were metal, then the magnets could be anchored to the handle.

When I look at your door handles, I keep thinking of the "sign magnet" sheets (not rare-earth).

I see your point about the whole handle coming up (duh, I shoulda been thinking of that when I replied).

Because my car is plastic-clad, I have been forced to think in different ways :

1 - I know I can remove the elliptical-shaped cover on my door handle. I think it's a metal hinge underneath (now I have to test that too!). That would remove the "bump" of the handle and leave a flush rectangular door handle in it's place.

2 - I could build a replacement cover that only has the hole. It would be a new ellipse that is bigger than the hole so that it covers it like so :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...6&d=1222312751

2A - I could build a cover that is the size of the door handle hole so that it is flush :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...7&d=1222312751

I'm not to keen on this because of my "reversibility rule". My handle is just heat-melted on (like a toy!!!!), so it would be a PITA to put back on (though I guess a good epoxy would do the trick).

Back to your window molding issue. Maybe you can do some tuft tests to see what's happening. That's cheap, and you can see through the window, so you don't need a second car to see if there are problems.

CarloSW2

Tango Charlie -

Oh yeah, the magnets of the gods :

MAGCRAFT Neodymium Magnets
Amazing Magnets
Rare Earth Magnets - Master Magnetics, Inc.

CarloSW2

hmmm... that would be a good idea to use them as anchors... but how would I do that?

And yeah, I would just pick up a couple of the heater vent magnet covers.

and that would be a cool idea for your door handles, but maybe not considering not being able to reverse it.

Sean T. -

Ok. Here's an idea. Lets say for the point of argument that you found a clear (or opaque) lexan vacuform shape that matched the "shape of the lump" of your door handle :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...8&d=1222317159(ebay door handle)

And let's also say that the lexan shape then just extended out flat around the edge of the door handle. In this situation, the "flat part" of the lexan shape could have mostly "flat magnet tape" as a sealing trim. But, it could also have strategic neodymium magnets (1 front, 1 back, 1 top, 1 bottom) as insurance.

Hrmmmm. I just realized that you might have a source of "pseudo-lexan" lying around. You may be able to find a plastic soda bottle or similar that may do the trick. Ha ha, the quest for the perfect soda bottle.

Idea #2 : Getting away from magnets, the "cavity" in the door handle could be a place for a plastic soda bottle too. Just cut it so that it fits under the handle, add the finger hole, and glue it to the back of the handle. I would call that a "reversble" mod as long as you pick the right glue (maybe a sticky-caulk-that-doesn't-melt-plastic kind of thing would work). If you don't want it to be clear and stealthy, just paint the underside before gluing it on. You might not even need glue if the "under part" of the door handle is a magnetic metal (gonna test mine tonight).

PS - Here's an example of using magnets, but it was *much* easier because I had flat surfaces to work with :

http://ecomodder.com/forum/45200-post8.html

CarloSW2

Just out of curiousity, do you have fuel economy instrumentation? Your garage entry doesn't list any.

No, I don't :(

Ah! Well, there's your easiest route to beating 20 mpg!

I don't want to be a wet blanket here, as I think that all mods and ideas for improvements are worth trying, if for nothing else but the sake of learning what doesn't work, but if the best you can get out of a Taurus is 20mpg, there's either something seriously wrong with it (mechanically) or you need to work on modifying your driving style first.

The types of modifications you're considering may give you an aerodynamic gain, but at your current "efficiency" level, you'd never know. Those sorts of mods will give you low single-digit percentage point improvements (at best), which would most likely be lost within the clutter of your margin of error. You don't want a 1% or 2% improvement in your mileage. You want a 50% improvement. You're not going to get there with tiny aero mods, you're going to get there with big driving style mods.

:thumbup: Absolutely! :thumbup:

Welll..... to be fair to the car...

it needs both front ball joints replaced
a front end alignment
an oil change
a 60,000 mile tune-up
and a good wash.

buuuuuuut even after that I don't image it to jump up to 30mpg like some other Taurus owners are getting without even trying....

And I try to drive as efficient as I can, but around here it's just not plausible to do pulse and glide or EOC... there is way too much traffic and street lights. Today I got onto the freeway and it was at a dead stop. even the on ramps were backed up. So I know traffic is a huge contributor but I do try to take the least congested route as often as I can.

Have you ever noticed that you never hear excuses from those who are succeeding? Excuses are nothing more than a way to try to absolve yourself of responsibility and to blame the failure on someone or something else. Until you take full responsibility for it, you'll never be able to get great mileage.

MetroMPG already gave you the best possible advice: get a ScanGauge. That way, you can see exactly what sort of driving works and what sort doesn't. You'll be able to see the tiny adjustments you can make that make a huge difference in mpg's. If you don't have instant feedback, then you're just guessing at what works, and you don't know. Ask any of the successful drivers on this board if the driver is the most important component and you'll get a unanimous "Yes!". Put a foolish driver behind the wheel of the most fuel efficient vehicle and you'll only get half the mileage that a great driver could get.

I apologize if that sounded a little stronger than what you're used to hearing. I teach kids how to race, and we don't accept excuses. We also turn otherwise ordinary kids into winners. ;)

Sean T,is that mixed-driving where your getting 20.7 mpg? Or all urban? I thought the Taurus was good for 30-mpg territory on the open road.

Sean T. -

If I were on the West-Side here in LA, I think I would have the same MPG problem (today I am driving into that "MPG Blackhole"). Red has the same issue in his Honda Insight. I can't remember your driving context. Do you have lots of short trips?

If you can't afford a scangauge, then maybe a vacuum gauge would be a good start.

For good MPG, I think the running assumption is that the car is in good working order. That's a universal FE tip. If you ain't got the skillzz to do it yourself, maybe a community college car maintenance course would help.

CarloSW2

I drove my grandmother's 93 Tarus 3.0L a couple days last week. Its rated almost exactly the same as your car. I ended up with 26 mpg doing nothing but driving sensibly. All I did was obey the speed limit, shift to neutral if I was comming up on a red light, and try not to use the brakes much. These are incredibly simple things to do. Try them out and I gaurentee you'll see gains.

I know all that stuff needs to be fixed before I will get good FE, but I know I could get better than what I'm getting, even with all that stuff wrong. Unfortunately, the time that those things get fixed is up to my dad, because he is the one that works at a dealership and can get it all done for real cheap. The problem is the dealership is 30 minutes away and I have school everyday, so it's difficult to find a time when the dealer has an opening and I have time to drive down there.

As for my driving situation. It is pretty much a mix, but there are a lot of short trips I have to make. My street is "rural" and the surrounding areas are small towns, but at the end of my street is a huge shopping district so traffic isn't the greatest, and most things I need from the store are too far to walk to, but close enough that the car doesn't get fully heated up before I get there. I also go to a University that has a huge traffic problem... the roads on campus were not planned very well, and there is basically no way to avoid sitting in traffic, and it is impossible to find a parking spot immediately, so there is quite a bit of idling up and down aisles waiting for a spot to open up.

And believe me, I want to get a scangauge but it is just too much money. I have a lead on a job that pays 9.00/hr though, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I also have a plan with Oval_Overload about getting a MPGuino possibly.

And, I have been really hounding myself on shifting to neutral and even staying under 2k rpms at all times. (Car does 60mph at 2k, and it also allows for efficient, but reasonable acceleration)

I need to fill up again today, so we will see if taking the mirrors off made a noticeable difference.

Wow. taking the mirrors off jumped my MPG by 3!

Hopefully it will stay that high, and it wasn't just a fluke.

Sean T. -

Great! If I were you, I would make notes trying to describe what happened on this tank. Then do the same for the next two tanks. The weather is also important. This will give you a context for deciding if other factors are playing into the tank.

CarloSW2

Well, I feel much better... This week all of the following happened:

63,000 Mile oil-change
both lower ball joints replaced
passenger hub replaced
drivers tie rod replaced
wheel alignment
both mirrors stayed removed
aftermarket drivers mirror installed for legality

Can't wait to fill up and get some numbers :)

Here are some pictures of the new mirror, I still need to cut the coroplast I have and paint the coroplast and mirror black.

Lastly, a comparison pic between the stock and new mirror.

Sean T. -

Most goodly. Nice classic side view mirror.

CarloSW2

For some reason that thing reminds me of the Human Bullet from the Tick cartoon series. I like it :thumbup:

The mirror delete is complete!!!

Took an old sign that was laying around the garage and cut out two triangle-shaped pieces. One of them with a slot so it would fit over the mirror base.

Since I took the pics, I painted them flat black, and used black duct tape to basjoos them. :)

Have you checked tire pressure? Lower rolling resistance can be a big MPG improvement.
A dead or malfunctioning oxygen sensor can mess with your mpg. Your car could be running in open loop mode meaning no computer control.
Next, extra weight removal,
Battery holding a charge? A dying battery can cost big time. If you run short trips with a lot of alternator load, your battery may be constantly charging sucking amps. Trickle charge overnight. Turn off electrical loads.
A block heater can help a lot on short trips even in California getting you up to operating temp much faster.
Rear wheel skirts are relatively easy and effective mpg help.
Lower your idle speed. Some times a lazy mechanic will set it by ear to save looking for the stock rpm. If you sit in traffic a lot and put your car in neutral or turn it off when stopped.
Check ignition timing. If it's retarded can cost mpg

Just some stuff I didn't see posted yet that worked for my van.

Keep trying, you will get there!

I love this conic mirror. Does your view is as good as with the previous one ?

Filling this aerodynamic gap at the base of external mirrors seams a great idea to me because it generates less perturbation at the front of the car so less drag at the rear (but my aerodynamic skills are limited to what I read here).

Denis.

Actually I checked the tire pressure in my wheels this afternoon. The max is 35 and they are all at 37/38. I would go higher and I want to, but I need tires really bad so I don't want to risk losing any traction because the tread is almost gone.

There is definitely something wrong like the O2 sensor or something. I got all that stuff done to my car to get it into better condition... since then it has been really rough when first started. It starts but jumps between 250-1000 rpms and sounds like a clogged lawn mower trying to run on choke.

That stopped after about 2 days, and yesterday the Check Engine light came on... :'( I'm stopping at AZ to have the codes read tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully it isn't something expensive.

Rear wheel skirts are the next mod on the list if I can't find a beater bumper put an air dam on. Also, how do I change the idle speed?

This one doesn't give as good of a view as my stock mirror, but I could navigate traffic easily with just the blind spot mirrors i have on the A-pillars. This mirror was just to make my car legal because you need an exterior drivers mirror in MI. It also works for if I have stuff loaded in the trunk and can't see out the back window, I can lean over and see behind me with this bullet-shaped mirror.

As for aero, it definitely helps a ton!!! The first day after I put the mirror on, (before the coroplast panel) The ride was really loud, and I could feel the car trying to drag through the resistance created by the hole in my door.