Quote:
Originally Posted by bryan11
After driving my Civic DX for about a year with a scangauge, I'm able to achieve 40mpg fairly easily now on my commute. In the winter when temperatures are from 0 to 35F, I have a hard time getting better than 36 mpg.
What's the best first steps to help this?
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Don't drive during the winter.
Seriously tho, there isn't much you can do about cold weather. If you use a block heater it is costing you in the energy to run it. I have both a grill block and a (removable) full radiator block, but it still takes time for that initial warm-up to occur and the gain from that strategy is minimal at best.
The best strategy is to avoid short trips where the vehicle never comes up to full operating temperature. It's easier said than done, however. Some of us have no choice, depending on where we need to travel. At sub-freezing temps a car cools off really fast; then it's "back to square one", unfortunately.