borninussr

I finally figured out what I was doing wrong while driving and was only getting 21 mpg. BTW I currently have 800 miles in the month I've had my xb2. Here's the trick. Accelerate very gradually. Make sure to make as few stops as possible. And when you do stop, stop very smoothly. When your on the freeway put your cruise control anywhere from 70-75 mph. Make sure you use your AC at level 1 or 2 no more. I noticed my avg mpg jump from 24 mpg to 27 mpg just today... and it keeps on going up. I really hope this helps to all the people frustrated about getting ____ty mpg . O and BTW use your cruise control as often as possible. Even if its only 30 seconds.

draxcaliber

you realize this is also because your engine is nearly broken in yet? and most all of us get bad gas mileage for the first 1000 miles.

borninussr

Well when I went to the dealer they said you had to drive your car for at least 10,000 miles before you break it in. So I dont think my car is even broken in yet.

rsw1124

have over 8k and get 30 to the gallon..

L4rry_B1rd

and you believed the tards at the dealership?

XBFred

I have 7k and get about 23mpg

your tips are right, very common, except a/c shouldn't matter at all since the fan is electric and you a/c pump will draw the same either way

ominousinc

^^^ I guess it took someone to say this for the logic to kick in for me. It really doesn't matter how high you blast the AC does it? The pulley is either engaged or not..., duh. Feel free to make fun of me for not knowing this, but like I said, it took someone to inspire my brain cells I guess.

Now, this time travel thing I have been trying to work on...

Any ideas concerning the 1.21 gigawatts we will need to activate the flux capacitor?

toolz

http://www.johntitor.com/
visit here for time travel

eyeeatingfish

I really do like the standard MPG calculator. Its really teaching me how to conserve gas simply by driving. Even slight pressure can lower the MPG, and im finding out how to give very minimal pressure while driving so as to maximize my mpg. I only have 140 miles so far though.

xbbox

iTrader: (1)

8,ooo miles on mine and I hit 30-32 mpg on every tank.

Shift at 3k rpm
Use cruise as much as possible
Don't go over 70

That's my daily schedual. The roads I drive on the top speed is 65, so I don't ever go over 70.

insaneintenti0n

This week is my 'get high gas mileage week' Just trying to see what the max is. Right now the Computer is reading 33.5mpg with 265miles on the tank. Not bad, though the computer's never right. so it's looking like it'll be about 31. Which is pretty damn good. I'll be hitting 2000 miles on mine and I've had it for one month. I drive 100 miles a day, 95 of which is Highway. So lucky me gets to fill every 3 days. My primary concern with the car was the range on the tank. Now that I've pushed it into the 300s the 'range' on the computer at least reads that much. Took it a while, always said like 200 for a while. Right now my range for this tank (base on the computer) is going to be about 325 where with the 14 gallon tank and 30mpg should be more like 420.

My numbers so far have been:
27.5
30.66
25.02
29.6
26
27.8

My wife hasn't been able to break past 26 on her tC in a while, but she does mostly city driving. I had it around 33 a few times, but 29 on average.

I'm happy. Not ecstatic... but happy.

Watching the real time mpg does make me more conscious of what I'm doing.

uberspeed

All common stuff, it's called hypermiling. INFO
Also keep your tire pressure in check, it helps a lot. Added benefit of anticipating traffic, starts/stops, is less wear on brakes since you're usually slowing down from lower speeds. Carrying momentum helps as well.
The current MPG display makes you very aware.

optikinescant

How funny, Consumerist.com just posted a 'Top 10' on the Top 10 Ways to Increase your MPG. Has a couple hints that haven't been mentioned in here. Here's a link.

http://consumerist.com/consumer/cars...mpg-298991.php

insaneintenti0n

it's missing the 'remove the 200lbs of subwoofers from the back of your car', lol.

or 'lose weight you fatass' ;)

RockBlocker

so driving 90 prolly wont help out.... Lets be realistic here since there are so many driving styles here. The more consistent and smoother you are on the gas pedal the better mpg you will get.

When talking in an open discussion like this some things have to be taken into account as well.

1. Stop and go traffic
2. Warm up times or how long u let it idle doing nothing. Engine remote start as well
3. Type of gas and time of year. Is your crap watered down, yeah your gas
4. temp and humidty, elevation etc.


Comparing say Phx in the summer to the winter alone will change as much as 5 mpg in some cars. Ive done it and seen it.

Lets face it some will get better than others. Good luck in the mileage war.

uberspeed

Agreed. Some are unrealistic to do, say no A/C and windows up in Miami, PHX, etc.
Driving too slow is also dangerous, especially in So Fla! lol
But coasting, constant engine load, tire pressure, anticipating traffic so as to not accelerate unnecesarily or have to break suddenly, those are all very realistic things you can apply every day.

Bigfieroman

A/C DOES affect mileage, in 2 different ways.

First, it increases the electrical load through the alternator to keep the AC clutch energized and to run the fan (this is a minimal load)

The big load is from the compressor itself. Yes, the belt is always going around the AC pulley, but the compressor has a clutch inside the pulley. With the AC off, the compressor pulley is just like an idler; it is mounted on bearings and does not draw any power. When the clutch energizes, the internals of the compressor start moving which substantially increases the load on the engine. More load=more gas. It came out to ~2.5 mpg difference in my car at a constant 70 mph.

XBFred

if you really want to save gas ride a bike or take the bus

ominousinc

I don't think the argument was whether or not AC affects mileage, that is pretty much a given. What I had failed to realize due to a simple lack of thinking on my part was whether or not having it on full blast or just on '1' makes a difference. But thanks for the rundown on how an AC compressor works! I may need that to troubleshoot my Focus and it's lack of cold air...

Bigfieroman

Believe it or not, fan speed has an effect as well.

The increased electrical load from the faster fan does not make much difference. The effect occurs because of how A/C works. The compressor...compresses the coolant. The coolant then expands through a valve. Then it expands, it gets very cold. This cold coolant flows through the evaporator. The evaporator is basically a small radiator. The fan air flows over the evaporator, and gets cold from the recently expanded coolant.

Here is the kicker. The compressor does not run 100% of the time when the air conditioning is kicked on. The system has a sensor that tells it when it needs to cool down the evaporator by expanding more coolant, and that kicks on the compressor for a while. When the fan speed is high, the evaporator heats up quicker, and the compressor has to run more often. When the fan speed is low, the compressor does not turn on as often.

Now, the difference between max and min fan speed as far as gas mileage is concerned is not as dramatic as you might expect. A ROUGH estimate would be that minimum fan speed is about 1/2 the mpg difference of what is seen at full fan speed.