Getting better gas mileage

[silverhelme]

As a mechanic and a person who drives 700 miles a week the biggest things you can do are a good tune, keep your tires properly inflated and your driving style.

I drive an 88 t-wagon and get 29+ hiway and around 26 city with the above. I do agree with the plug wires but only every 2 or 3 tune-ups unless you notice an mpg drop. I have tested some of the so called mpg adders and have found little or no differnce.

By the way that 29+ is going over 3 passes going home and back to work.

[cd45]

Hell yeah, it is better and cheaper to drive what I have than buy a new

 

one. No car payments, easy to maintain, and on demand 4WD, it just doesn't get any better.

[starkiller]

lets not forget the roof rack..i took the bars off mine, and just store them in the cargo area and gained btwn 2-3 mpg! have to like that

[Virrdog]

lets not forget the roof rack..i took the bars off mine, and just store them in the cargo area and gained btwn 2-3 mpg! have to like that

Whoah, completely didn't realize my wagon had those one there all along. Guess I'll go snatch them off tonight!

 

I've gotten 29 mpg with my 89 GL 4x4 Wagon full of camping gear, tools, and the A/C running intermittantly. Mostly state highways going no faster than 60mph.

 

And keeping a used car is ALWAYS cheaper than buying new, especially when you factor in things like insurance. You could even figure in getting a rental car a couple weeks a year for maintenance downtime and still come out way ahead. (<-- I keep extra Subarus laying around for that... )

[Gloyale]

And keeping a used car is ALWAYS cheaper than buying new, especially when you factor in things like insurance. You could even figure in getting a rental car a couple weeks a year for maintenance downtime and still come out way ahead. (<-- I keep extra Subarus laying around for that... )

 

Not to mention deprecitaion. Buy a $25,000 dollar new car. Drive it off the lot and now it's worth perhaps $15-18,000. And in 2 years it'll be worth half that.

 

Buy a Subaru for $500-1000, drive it for a few years and guess what, as long as you've maintained it, it's still worth the same $500-1000

 

I keep extra Subarus too. Just make sure you call the insuracne agent when you switch which one you're driving, or keep them all insured. I got screwed because the insured car broke down, so I started driving the other(without telling my agent) and had an accident. The insurance company would have covered me in a rental or in a borrowed car. But since I owned the car(for more than 30 days, they checked the title) They would not cover me. I'm being sued for about $12,000 dollars now.

[Tom63050]

Coasting with the engine off is just down right dangerous. There are three ways to avoid an accident, the big pedal, the little pedal, and the steering wheel. Even if you dont have power steering, you have power brakes. YOu also lost the option of applying power to maintain control of the car. Power is not only for acceleration, but for handling.

 

The engine driven fan has a clutch on it usually. The clutch cuts out at highway speed by either a centrifigal or thermostat. Is a blown head gasket worth the risk?

 

You forgot to to mention two other things, bith have a huge impact.

 

Take all the junk out of the car.

 

Install a vacum gauge. the higher you can keep the needle, the better your gas mileage. Out of everything on your list, the three with the largest impact are:

AC Use

Tire Pressure

Your right foot.

 

 

nipper

 

Agreed on your last 3 items being most important. The other stuff can't hurt and might help.

 

Some more points:

1. Roof rack cross bars are off my car too.

2. Almost all my coasting with motor off is on exit ramps or other situations with little traffic, so there is minimal possibility of collisions. Braking seems relatively unaffected.

3. My water-pump fan was non-centrifugal if I remember right.

4. Someone commented that there is no fuel going into the system if your foot is off the gas. If that were true the motor would die. If it's idling, obviously it's using gas.

[mikeshoup]

4. Someone commented that there is no fuel going into the system if your foot is off the gas. If that were true the motor would die. If it's idling, obviously it's using gas.

Its true, if the transmission is in neutral. If the transmission is in gear, the engine is kept up to speed by the momentum of your car. In the 83-84 Turbo manual, it says when the throttle is closed, and engine above a certain speed, no fuel is injected. This makes sense. If they were doing it in 83-84, I can assume they continued to do this in later years.

 

I can scan the relevant pages in the FSM if you don't believe me.

[robm]

The Loyale won't hold its speed in neutral on less than a 5% grade. So on steeper grades, in gear, it will still need gas to go down hill because of engine braking. I don't know how steep a grade is required to keep speed up in gear, but it is pretty steep.

 

I coast down hill in neutral, although I don't know if it helps fuel consumption. It is about the only time the car gets over 60 MPH. Idling at 1200 RPM (which is what the ECU sets idle to when coasting like this) is probably cheaper than driving the car at this speed, even down hill. But it is hard to tell.

 

I concur with most of Tom63050's other ideas. I use 23 deg BTDC timing, and have no problems running 87 octane gas. I run 165/80R13 tires pumped up to 35 PSI. Roof racks only go on when I need them. I keep the speed at 55 MPH with an aftermarket cruise control. I typically get over 30 MPG in the summer, and can get as much as 35 MPG.

[86BRATMAN]

I have an 87 STD Hatchback. 4spd 4wd ea81. And I drive the hell out of it on a daily basis. It had no tach, so I', going by memory from driving my brat, I'm shifting somewhere near 5k in 1 and 2 thats near 25mph in 1st and 45 in 2nd. For the two months I've had it my average mpg is 29.4

 

I haven't checked my air pressure, I assume them to be ok even though they are second hand and bald. The car hasn't been tuned up in the time I've had it. And I enjoy barking the tires in 2nd gear at every shift.

[GeneralDisorder]

4. Someone commented that there is no fuel going into the system if your foot is off the gas. If that were true the motor would die. If it's idling, obviously it's using gas.

 

I said under "closed throttle COASTING". The wheels are driving the engine, and under closed throttle when the engine speed is above idle (Crank angle sensor in the distributor tells the ECU this) then the fuel is cut. It's been tested and verified by several members.

 

GD

[Tom63050]

I said under "closed throttle COASTING". The wheels are driving the engine, and under closed throttle when the engine speed is above idle (Crank angle sensor in the distributor tells the ECU this) then the fuel is cut. It's been tested and verified by several members.

GD

 

Oh, got it. A good alternative to shutting the motor off, unless the objective is to coast as far as possible. But for coming up to a stoplight, engine braking coasting would be better. But still, I'd shut off the motor at the stoplight to save gas, using the 10-second rule: if you think you're going to be at the light more than 10 seconds, shut off the motor. Some of the lights I encounter are in the 2-minute range.

[nipper]

Oh, got it. A good alternative to shutting the motor off, unless the objective is to coast as far as possible. But for coming up to a stoplight, engine braking coasting would be better. But still, I'd shut off the motor at the stoplight to save gas, using the 10-second rule: if you think you're going to be at the light more than 10 seconds, shut off the motor. Some of the lights I encounter are in the 2-minute range.

 

That is a reasonable thing to do. And it does add to the gas mileage signifcantly.

 

 

nipper

[baccaruda]

Keeping your car washed and waxed (like I always do ) cuts wind resistance..

 

 

a note about the Prius:

Another factor to consider besides the financial cost to you is the environmental impact of manufacture.

Think of it this way: When you buy something new, you are responsible for that item's manufacture and the inherent impact of such on the planet's ecology.

Buy a Prius and you just pulled 2890lbs of metal and petroleum products out of the ground. The batteries constitute several hundred pounds of comparatively rarer metals which are harder to obtain, so a Prius is cleaner to operate than a traditional 4-stroke equipped car, but dirtier to manufacture than such. A Prius would have to last longer than a traditional car in order for its environmental impact to be negated by virtue of its longevity.

By owning and responsibly maintaining an older car, you're in essence recycling an old car.

The cost and impact of spark plugs and maintenance parts are much less than anything associated with a new car.

There's no perfect solution with cars -that discussion leads to mass transit and voluntary population moderation - but there's a LOT of marketing hype and such that is behind the Prius and Insights and such. Ultimately the goal is to make sure the auto industry remains important.

[NV Zeno]

The price quoted a few posts earler for a Prius was base MSRP, meaning "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price". I can't recall ever seeing a new Prius offered without significant dealer markup, most in the $2000-$7000 range.

 

Lots-o-moolah to make a politcal or environmental statement.

 

BTW, they're terrible in the snow.

[nipper]

There is another thing to look at....

 

With a hybrid you will be giving less money to people that hate us, and (hopefully) get our sons/daughters/Fathers/mothers/bothers/sisters out of harms way sooner.

 

nipper

[86BRATMAN]

Waxing a car will make so much difference in your car's mileage that you won't even notice it. You'll actually be left with less money than if you had just left it dirty. Unless you have ginormous clumps of mud all over it, then yeah wash it before you go on that road trip...

[nipper]

Waxing a car will make so much difference in your car's mileage that you won't even notice it. You'll actually be left with less money than if you had just left it dirty. Unless you have ginormous clumps of mud all over it, then yeah wash it before you go on that road trip...

 

Besides ....

 

We all know a muddy subaru is a happy subaru

 

 

nipper

[GeneralDisorder]

I've owned my sedan for a year and a half now - only washed it twice..... twice to get the tree sap, needles and moss off it from sitting in the guys yard for three years - it took two times through the wash to get it clean. Hasn't seen soap since and probably won't. Don't care, and it's 20 year old silver paint - what would washing it accomplish? Lightens my wallet too much.

 

GD

[MilesFox]

if you only washed your car twice in wisconsin there wouldnt be much left to wash what has rusted away.

 

i second the drafting semis rule. its good practice for ungainly vehicles like toyota campers and u-haul trucks

 

i just acqured an a7 fwd 5spd. i stuffed 14 gallons in it and have gone over 75 miles and now the needle is just starting to move.

 

i dont think the brush-on paint job and the light rack justify much but the dern thing gets twice the economy as my toyota camper, 40 bucks in gas lasts me better than 400 miles, thats's a deal you can live with , son.

[RONAN]

After getting a 4wheel alignment on my Loyale wgn, I noticed a considerable difference in MPG. I average 32mpg and thats with 195/60/14`s and a roof rack. When shifting through the gears, I don`t run my tach over 3K until I get to 5th.

[tidd1340]

I put in a new coolant temp sensor and went from a steady 425-430 miles to a tank to 500 miles on a tank! This was done with NO other changes!