Great Gas Mileage Tips that WORK!
 

Just got back from a 200 mile trip into Pennsiltucky on the N.J. Turnpike and the Pennsie Turnpike. Kept the cruise on @ 64 mph and had almost NO traffic. Have 5W30 Mobil 1 in my 1995 Grand Am with the 3.1 V/6 that was rated at 29 mpg highway. Using VERY gentle pressure on the gas pedal, coasting up to lights and no air on, it got 33.7 mpg. I did hit 32 mpg on my runs to Toms River(again on the G.S. Parkway)and using the cruise @ 64 mph, does the trick. I KNOW THAT EVERYBODY AND HIS MOTHER WAS PASSING ME, but if thats what it takes, then so be it. I just read that for every minute you idle at a light, you could have driven a 1/2 mile. So small things like shutting off you engine if stuck in traffic or at a long light add up. It may be EXTREME, but if you can afford to pay $4.00 PLUS for a gallon of gas, God Bless You!

I thought shutting off your car and starting it up again uses more gas then being at idle. Yea I usually drive like that but luckily I only live 10 minutes from work and have an occasional 45 minute ride every few weeks. These gas prices are certainly keeping me away from getting another v8. I wonder how much its going to hurt the 5th gen maros. Still wanting something american and performance wise I think a srt4 is in my near future.

I think that's true, but he said "in traffic". If you aren't moving at all, go ahead and shut it down.

yeah i have a 94 grand am with that motor, great car. i was averaging 27mpg commuting to school with it, doing about 80ish on rt. occasional air and traffic as well.

He also said a long light. I think hell freeze over before I shut off my car at the light so I can save .01 gallon of gas.

Rule of thumb is 90 sec of idle is worth shutting down and restarting.
(btw don't you mean mpg not mph?)

Unless you are on 80 during rush hour and there has been an accident I do not see traffic standing still for that long, usually it moves but at 5mph pace. Although I did get caught there once, and I actually did shut down the car but we stood for over an hour in one place :lol:

I guess i just don't see traffic standing still for that long, and constant restarting of the car would get really annoying really fast. :shrug:

constant restarting puts a huge strain on your car. not worth it IMO. save a dollar now or risk a potentially more expensive repair. pick your poison

Wasn't paying attention. Yeah, that's not right at all.

With todays Fuel Injection motors, you will use NO more gas when starting it back up when it is shut down. I'am not saying that you stop and start it every few minutes, but if you know you have up to a long light, shut it down. Even going down a long hill or seeing a traffic light in the distance, it pays to put it into Neutral and coast to the stopped traffic. Also try not to hot foot it from a stop. Gas it slowly and let up on the pedal to allow it to shift up into the next gear and then give it more gas. Getting into the highest gear possible quickly will also help quite a bit!

Neutral to coast, OK. But shutting it down and starting it up at lights can't be that great for the motor.

I find, considering i drive 94 miles daily, that gas mileage "tips" are totally dependant on the vehicle.

Shutting off the car at a light I think is silly, the car still has to be in open loop for x amount of time, and open loop = more fuel than when in closed loop like you just were at idle at the light.

Second, I think being "gentle" from a light can be a waste dependant on the car again. If you were to graph it, by being at very light throttle, the engine is under a given load for a longer period of time, instead of just climbing through to get to its high gear. That relates to using more fuel while attempting to get up to speed. This is why, a car with a 3.73 gear will get better city mileage than a car with a 2.73 gear, under the same conditions of course.

Speed on the highway is totally dependant on where the engine is most effecient. Most small engine cars tend to be most efficient around 55 mph. A bigger engine that likes to breathe will be more efficient at speeds above that. My camaro (87) for example, will get 17 mpg at 55-60, 19 at 65-70, and about 22 mpg at 75-80 mph. My hyundai will get 35 mpg at 55-58 mph, but 32 at 65-70. A customer at work was talking about mpg in his E63. City driving the car will get 12-14 mpg, however if he cruises at 85 it will get 25 mpg, lower than that and he gets only about 17-19, which is where they are rated at.

A/C will deplete gas mileage in city/traffic driving. However at highway speeds the load is much less on the engine so mpg doesnt suffer nearly as bad. 1 mpg or less on the highway loss to me is worth it if im comfortable.

I find one of the universal tricks to geting decent mpg is not to necessarily use a light foot, but more so a steady one. Cruise control is your friend. Some cars even have it setup so that when cruise is engaged fuel trims are leaned out substantially.

Yep goin slow is key. In my truck with no over drive and the big old 36in tires I turn like 2800 rpm's keeping up with traffic doing 70/75. Yesterday I went from Point Pleasant to Highland Park which is basically a 50min drive on the GSP. Instead of slamming there I took my time and did 55-65, light throttle, right lane all the way. It only took me a 1/3rd tank of gas there and back vs more than a 1/3rd taking a 20min drive doing 75/80 in that truck.

All very good points, especially the last one.

Other good things to do are to pay attention to what's going on down the road from you, so you can adjust accordingly. Also pay attention to the cycle of traffic lights on your commute. There is a set of lights on my way home from work where if you at the first one when it is red, there is no way to come remotely close to making it through the next light before it turns red. Every night I see the same cars tear away from the first light like crazy, only to slam on their brakes when they get to the next light. I don't bother going over 40 (55 zone), and I arrive at the light just after it goes back to green and roll past every sitting, smiling to myself about all the idiots I'm rolling past.

- Justin

i shut mine off if im stuck at a bridge. look at how the hybrids work though, shutting the engine off and restarting. every car is different and they are designed for this purpose, but in the right application it works.

I've been able to get over 40mpg doing 50-55mph with the cruise on in my GTP, just staying out of it is the best way to get good mileage. As for the shutting off the engine thing I have done it at lights where I know I'll be waiting a good 3-5 minutes or at DMV, other than that I'll let it idle...there are open loop tables in the pcm that will automatically richen the mixture upon startup for a set amount of time even if the engine is warm so depending on that mixture & how long its set to stay rich its usually not worth it for any short amount of time although I wouldn't be worried about starting your vehicle. If thats your main concern maybe you should ride a bike instead as they have no 'startup' issues...I dunno about you guys but I've started my gtp up probably 10-20 thousand times over the last 4 years I've owned it so starting it isn't much of an issue ;)

with today's injection anything over 10 seconds of idling it's more efficient to kill the car. That is of course not counting wear and tear of engine / starter etc.

What I don't understand is why today's cars don't get much better gas mileage. My old 89 Cavalier Z24 with the 2.8 and 5 speed would get 33 mpg on the highway easily. There aren't a whole lot of V6 cars today that truly get 33 mpg on the highway and they all should. Cars got bigger and people got power hungry. And they are all pedal to the metal and slam on the brakes when they get to a light. As for shutting a car off at a light, no way I would do that. Starting a car is the worst thing you can do so why do it more than you need to.

Don't forget all the wt from soudn deadener & miles of wires & needless electronics. Does the average joe need 10 speakers & nav? Then there are 48 airbags, etc, etc,etc.

This weekend I learned 6 speeds are better then 4. I got 20.5 mpg in the Z going out to Carlisle with a very poorly tuned carb. Up from ~13 mpg.

Not true in most cases....read the post above yours. He works for HP Tuners and I'm betting that he knows the computer in your car better than you.....no offense.

- Justin

theres somethings i dont get, my brothers truck, 2000 Ford Explorer w/ a V6, gets about 13ish mpg, but had he gotten the v8 Explorer he would supposedly get better than the v6.
Someone wanna explain this to me?

Fords are F**King Over Rated Disasters....if this doesn't help, please refer to the fact that they are F**Ked Over Rebuilt Dodges

the v6 has to work a lot harder than the v8 to get it up and moving, i dont know how much this applies to an explorer but, yea you get my point :-P

That thing needs a tune up or he needs to quit flooring it.

My mom has a '99 5.0 AWD Explorer and that gets better than 13, with a bigger engine, probably the same gearing (3.73) and an assload of parasitic loss with full time AWD.

I gotta agree with WildBilly. something's up, i've driven a 94 explorer with a dog of a V8 and gotten better than 13 mpg