Get better mileage!

[Bobb]

Hi everyone, I thought this might help at the pump. Take care,
BOBB http://hypermiling.com/

[dcarrb]

Excerpted from the linked article:
Remember the window sticker on your car when you bought it? Did you ever get the miles per gallon that it showed?

Subarus have never been fuel mileage champs, but one thing you have to give the SVX: It easily meets or beats its EPA mileage numbers.

As regards "making skillful changes in the way you drive" in order to save a bit on fuel, it's abundantly clear that folks have lots to learn. Lately I've noticed how many people leave their car idling when they run into the convenience store for smokes and a Red Bull, or while they sit and talk on the phone. Zero MPG.

dcb

[ensteele]

A friend of mine uses the egg method. He pictures an egg between his foot and the gas peddle. If you press the gas too hard, you break the egg. You want to drive and not break the egg and it helps with your MPG.

[Subie59]

Sorry for such a long post but it's one of my pet peeves....

ok what really drives me nuts on a daily basis is how people drive approaching and driving on off-ramps. The ramp I get off to get to work has a pretty good vertical slope to get off the highway onto the main road. I like to hit it around 110 to 120 kms an hour and then just take my foot off the gas and coast. By doing this I hit the ramp at a fast speed but quickly lose speed as I climb the ramp. By the time I merge onto the main road I'm at the right speed and I can coast almost all the way to work. (It's just off the ramp). But I get drivers in front of me who hit the ramp at 110 kms instantly put their brakes on because it says 60kms. They come down to 40-50 kms/hr and then stomp on the gas to get their speed up, brake to make the turn at the top and then more gas to get going again.
Here's news people. It's not so much going fast that uses too much gas, it's putting the breaks on. The gas used to power up to speed is what kills you.
On a similar note: People who follow too close on the hwy. and have to put their brakes on every thirty seconds forcing those behind them to overreact and slam their brakes on. Eventually, even those leaving a good distance are forced to put their brakes on....

[LetItSnow]

For the super psycho hypermiling maniacs: Please don't turn your engine off in traffic, especially in motion? Let's not get too silly.

[IceBlade]

But I like leaving everyone behind at a stop light..

Ya I spent a lot of money on gas.

[Crazy_pilot]

My car, despite being 16 years old with 192,000 KM on it and a bum O2 sensor, still beats the window sticker mileage.

[JaySVX]

I get 25mpg or so from driving like a lunatic. No complaints here. Except people that drive onto onramps and refuse to get above 35mph, hten try to merge onto 70mph traffic like that. The onramp is for you to get up speed so you can merge in with traffic at the same speed, not get onto the road and then eventually speed up, as hte cars pile up behind you. There's being an easy driver, and there's being rediculious.

[tiv0]

i use neutral a lot
in the article it talks about how if you can tell the upcoming light will turn yellow/red to let off the gas and coast to the light. i always put it in neutral. ill leave it neutral while sitting at the red light until i know that my light is about to turn green, then ill put it in D or 3. ill do the same thing when getting off the interstate on the off-ramp.

forgive me for not knowing, but is this at all bad for the car?

[NikFu S.]

I already do all this "hypermiling" stuff (though I don't use neutral, too often do I need to power avoid idiots) and have been since I started driving. How could anyone not consider these things?
Seems like common sense to me.

[svxistentialist]

Originally Posted by tiv0

i use neutral a lot

forgive me for not knowing, but is this at all bad for the car?

Coasting in neutral is a recognised way to save fuel. It does not harm the car at all.

[It could harm YOU if you are not quick enough to react to an emergency situation, but that's another story! ]

If you want to get the best mileage possible from your SVX you need to service all four calipers. As they get older the dust seals on the pistons fail, then the pistons get corroded and won't/can't retract.

The results of this could be your brakes dragging. Your pads might only be barely touching the disks, maybe only for a while after you use the brakes, but while they are touching the disks in any situation that you are not pushing the brake pedal, this is wasting energy, and costing you gallons of gasoline.

This may be the single biggest reason why people do not get the economy they expect from their cars [ For economy people, not for lead-foot adrenaline junkies ]

Your car weighs around 1.6 tonnes fuelled and watered incl driver. With the brake pads just barely touching the disks your drive train is trying to push the equivalent of 2 tonnes, or maybe 2.5 tonnes or even more. Will this give you worse economy?

I dunno, what do you think?

Joe

[tiv0]

Originally Posted by svxistentialist

As they get older the dust seals on the pistons fail, then the pistons get corroded and won't/can't retract.

Joe

this happened to me
it got bad enough to the point where i finally recognized the problem when i could hear metal on metal coming from the front passenger tire when i was braking
one pad was completely gone and it had eaten away some of the rotor