Boasting my two tank average

[1993CivicVX]

Well, can't complain. Some solid FE over two tanks of gas. First tank I posted about earlier, how the gas nozzle was in backward and overspilled--and I wasn't sure the tank was full. So, yeah, it wasn't full. So that first tank ended up averaging 67.06 over 529.82 miles (that was a false reading of course, because the tank wasn't full. And therefore the following tank which averaged 58.45mpg was also not accurate). However, the average of the two tanks does yield an accurate reading of 62.6mpg, which is an accurate reading for both tanks because it's the combined fuel for the 1026.64 miles traveled and the 16.4 gallons of gas used. I filled the tank properly this time all the way to the top (topping off a little as I normally do)

Things to bear in mind about this FE. Car has cheapo $35 Walmart tires on the front and michelin sport tires on the back. Definitely not anything close to spec tires. No mods have been done to the car.

Edit: some details on the sort of driving:

lots of pulse and glide on the hills with some engine off coasting, otherwise steady state driving at speeds mostly between 38 and 48mph. Fair amount of driving in town, which is often crowded for several minutes of 3-8mph driving.

Multiple futtsing around to get the brakes seated right and stop making noises. About 10 miles of accelerating to 50mph and then braking short to 0mph and repeat. and in reverse etc and other miscellany poor FE practices, like today when I passed 2700RPM and momentarily felt the VTEC surge to merge into traffic. The little snot-nosed hatch goes when it needs to. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I drove 75-80mph the first 80 miles of the tank from Worcester to Lee, MA on I-90 (The Mass Pike). Other than that, it was slow on the go!

Hmm... couple other little things. Filled up in Worcester MA (probably a lower elevation than the rolling hills of the Berkshires where I finished the two tanks) The route on I-90 is fairly hilly all the way including reaching an elevation of 1736 feet. But I don't think hills hurt FE much because I think they act like P&G. But who knows, maybe FE in Florida would be better.

On that note, couple notes on temps. Obviously plenty of cold starts. Last night was the coldest start. There was frost on my windshield! So we'll call that a 32 degree cold start. Otherwise driving has been mostly in the 50s-70s.

[SVOboy]

Pretty decent. What kind of commute do you have?

[MetroMPG]

Congrats! The VX is a MPG monster. I am always envious.

They're a particularly good cruiser for the "lazy" (ie. non-obsessive) hypermiler (not saying you are one). Just stick it in 5th, keep the speeds under 65, DWL a bit, and Bob's your uncle! A Metro can't touch its performance in those conditions.

[1993CivicVX]

DWL? you get used to driving slow. It's hard for me to understand how I used to drive so fast. Now when I'm in a rush I don't feel comfortable going much more than 15mph over the speed limit!

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Pretty decent. What kind of commute do you have?

It's pretty rolly hills. 27 miles one way. So I usually leave at 8am to go to school to arrive at 8:46 am. What's that for an average speed? Something like 35mph. Gonna take the scenic route tomorrow -- more hilly but very pretty--plus lots of opportunities for long engine off coastings. Although, that raises a point I want to mention. My car hasn't been so happy with bump starting of late. It will start, but then lag... no power... then go. Once, bump started, and it lagged, and didn't go! So I dropped to 3rd and no problem. But makes me wary of bump starting. Could bump starting be confusing the lean burn? Sometimes bump starts no problem - other time causes car to lurch before starting (more in lower gears) and the lag problem I just mentioned happens (I think) only in 4th and 5th gear. Also seems to be a smell accompanying the lag starts. hope I'm not damaging the engine! Anyway, with the kind of FE my car gets, like another VX owner said, I shouldn't be bothering with EOC at all.

[cfg83]

1993CivicVX -

Man that's great MPG!!!!!!! Thanks for posting you're route.

Maybe you should have a "no bump start" tank to establish a comparative baseline. But, I know it's hard to accept a lower MPG tank after getting such good ones.

CarloSW2

[Gary Palmer]

Great mileage, any way you look at it.

From what I've heard, the lean burn tends to get bamboozeled every time the ecu restarts. I thought I read it takes a pretty long period of time, on the order of several minutes, for the lean burn to kick in.
My suspicion is that your fuel pressure is bleading down and maybe it takes a couple of seconds for it to kick back on, when you bump start. The ecu turns off the pump, if the engine isn't turning over, even though the key is on.

I'd try driving your average speed, without EOC and see how it does.

[omgwtfbyobbq]

I wouldn't knock small tires just cuz their cheap. I got my $20/tire set after I found a Civic hybrid owner saying they didn't change mileage one bit. In fact, given the fuel efficient compact market, I would guess that most small tires tend to be designed for minimal Crr and wear.

[1993CivicVX]

I think given that I shouldn't be doing anymore brake testing or other FE killing stuff, a no bump start tank could still yield me low 60s. Today I parked my car at the top of the driveway, hehe. I have a kind of steep driveway and felt inspired by these two tanks. I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by my first tank of 56mpg, but I guess that was mostly due to the fuel cleaner additive and also getting familiar with the car p'raps. I think bump starting as compensating for gas used idling at traffic lights. But, yeah, maybe I should do that... especially since the engine doesn't seem to like the bump starts. Battery could have been low... I dunno.

Yeah, other than some of the mechanical stuff still needing to be ironed out, I am real pleased with the car, especially the FE. 70mpg should be well within reach, but I don't think I will achieve that anytime soon if ever as I will prolly never do mods to my car. I don't even know if I'll ever even be able to get decent tires for it. The list of things still needing to be fixed is still quite long and the head lights suddenly don't work anymore (although the high beams still do!) But, yeah, it's a good, realistic goal.

cheers

[1993CivicVX]

Originally Posted by Gary Palmer

Great mileage, any way you look at it.

From what I've heard, the lean burn tends to get bamboozeled every time the ecu restarts. I thought I read it takes a pretty long period of time, on the order of several minutes, for the lean burn to kick in.
My suspicion is that your fuel pressure is bleading down and maybe it takes a couple of seconds for it to kick back on, when you bump start. The ecu turns off the pump, if the engine isn't turning over, even though the key is on.

I'd try driving your average speed, without EOC and see how it does.

Sounds like the gains I might be making are negligible if any if the lean burn isn't working as soon as I turn the engine back on! Yeah, I will try to control myself, but I seem to have a habit of killing the engine on certain parts of my commute. Probably causing undue wear on the car--prolly not worth it.

[SVOboy]

I think dan used to say he stopped EOCing with the VX in order to keep it in lean-burn longer...

[Danronian]

That's some great mileage for that old vx you've got there and considering the break work just done to it. My vx never got that kind of mileage, but then again I was never ever easy on it. My highway cruising, to stay with traffic, was generally around 75 mph, and I remember visiting red-line in that car all of the time, but yet it still got over 40 mpg for me.

When I get back to the states, I'll actually start to care about my driving style, and the mileage should go up a lot hopefully.

Goodluck with the repair work on the car. The headlight problem could be a fuse in the fuse-box. I believe there is a high and low circuit, but I'm not 100% sure. The stalks off the steering wheel are notorious for going bad on Honda's with a lot of miles on them (in fact I once test drove a 94 civic that every time you hit the bump with, the wipers would go on...haha). Luckily, they are quite easy to replace.

[1993CivicVX]

on this tank I will be doing one EOC per trip once the engine is warmed up because since my car has a funky idle issue it won't drop down to 1000RPM when it's warmed up until I've shut the engine off and started the car again--then it will drop all the way, otherwise it will idle at 1400 when in neutral going down hills etc.

[1993CivicVX]

Uhh... I don't think the tank before this one was filled up entirely either! What is going on!! Very frustrating. 9.662 gallons of gas this tank. Only 54.34mpg which is totally inconsistent with the last two tanks and below old EPA mpg for highway, despite the lack of 75-80mph interstate and brake testing this tank. I'm at a loss. The only thing I can think of the last two times I filled up the auto shut off cut too soon and the tank wasn't full. I did go to a different gas station today. Anyway, little disappointing. But I suppose 54mpg isn't terrible. It's almost as if someone siphoned gas from my tank while I was in classes today.... Was below E the entire drive home. I didn't think anything of it because when I drove to school today it was above E. I totally thought I could go home and go back to school again, but I would have run out of gas if I had tried. Usually there is a period of bouncing around the E line. But ride home never budged- stayed below E. 10 gallon tank is near empty at 9.662 fillup! Now on this new tank the gas gauge isn't falling as fast as it did on the last two tanks, which only confirms this tank was filled up more than the previous two, which would account for the high MPG numbers for the last tank 62.6 and the low mpg for this tank. Guess I'll have to average this one into my total as well to get an idea of my actual FE. So for the three tanks the average is 59.51.

The only other thing I can think of the bad FE run is the right rear tire has a leak. I topped off my tires right after filing up this tank and the PSI was fine for the other tires but the right rear was like 25PSI. If it had been low for awhile, and there is reason to suspect so, since I noticed a nail in it about two weeks ago, (when Wombosi and I first did the brakes) then I suppose it could significantly hinder my FE. What do you guys think? Also, do I need to get a new tire, or is it repairable? If I get a new tire I have to get two new tires, right? Cause you can't have one new tire and one slightly worn tire on the same axle, right?

[mrmad]

Are you filling at the same gas pump at the same station? My gas log was all over the map until I started using the same gas pump. I put the pump on slow and let it stop at the first click without trying to top it off. Once I started doing this, my tank to tank avg mpg seemed to be alot better.

[McPatrick]

The hilly country definitely seems to yield the best mpg's (just look at our number one hypermiler). I'm sure it's also the fact that your average speed there is somewhere between 38 and 48 (which I would not dare drive on the highway), but still great mpg.
Just clocked my personal high on a tank of 58.8 going just under 60 for 450 miles. I do mostly highway driving and the terrain is pretty much flat and I feel that driving wise there isn't too much left to do and that that 58.8 is close to the best I can do with the car it is right now. This weekend I am going to put a temporary grill block on the VX and cover up the rear wheels and then it is off to Michigan again and back. I will drive the same way I did last weekend and will post what the difference is in gas mileage. I have seen the numbers on MetroMPG's site and thus am expecting a 3 percent increase in mpg.

[1993CivicVX]

My route is pretty good. It's a winding road so you can't really go that fast anyway (there are a few straightaways and I always feel guilty if I don't go 50 on them, but I usually don't!) and there are few stops. I rarely stop at stop signs (unless cars are coming of course) so that helps the FE a lot I think. I also try to maintain speed turning so I can go into 3rd and not second after the turn. 20mph you can use third gear.

3% increase on 58.8 would be 60.56

A little story: A friend of mine went roaring by me recently in his big contractor Chevy pick up. He's like "Jason, you drive slow." I'm like "yeah, but at 40mph I'm getting 75mpg (I dunno if that's true, but it's prolly not too far off) He's like "wow, I get about 12mpg" Well, he did make it to the hardware store in time. It's always fun telling people I get 60mpg. Their amazement is priceless. I don't always tell them I drive like their grandmother tho. I don't think I've ever seen someone hypermiling. At least not the way I do. Never been behind someone going real slow, then they get to a hill and go real fast, and then slow at the bottom of the hill. I have been behind plenty of slow drivers who drive really slow for the sake of driving slow. Braking down slight down-grades at 40mph!! Kills me. I've almost passed someone in neutral. Was so tempted. There is a pretty big hill on my return route. I start coasting at 40mph and max out at about 53-54mph. So this guy is driving really slow, ridiculously slow - 35mph. I leave a gap between us so I don't have to brake at the hill, but I still caught up with him going down it--but didn't have to brake fortunately. If I had timed it right, I could have passed him at the top of the hill in neutral. Always knida wanted to do that. Would be grand.

[striegel]

Originally Posted by 1993CivicVX

... I've almost passed someone in neutral. Was so tempted....

I had to chuckle out loud at that. My own commute sometimes has me cursing the need to brake on downhill runs. If only those other cars weren't merging from side streets or braking to keep under the speed limit.

[garyhgaryh]

What mods do you have on your car?
The bst I got was 52mpg. I avg about 46-48MPG on a cal vx.

Gary

Originally Posted by 1993CivicVX

Well, can't complain. Some solid FE over two tanks of gas. First tank I posted about earlier, how the gas nozzle was in backward and overspilled--and I wasn't sure the tank was full. So, yeah, it wasn't full. So that first tank ended up averaging 67.06 over 529.82 miles (that was a false reading of course, because the tank wasn't full. And therefore the following tank which averaged 58.45mpg was also not accurate). However, the average of the two tanks does yield an accurate reading of 62.6mpg, which is an accurate reading for both tanks because it's the combined fuel for the 1026.64 miles traveled and the 16.4 gallons of gas used. I filled the tank properly this time all the way to the top (topping off a little as I normally do)

Things to bear in mind about this FE. Car has cheapo $35 Walmart tires on the front and michelin sport tires on the back. Definitely not anything close to spec tires. No mods have been done to the car.

Edit: some details on the sort of driving:

lots of pulse and glide on the hills with some engine off coasting, otherwise steady state driving at speeds mostly between 38 and 48mph. Fair amount of driving in town, which is often crowded for several minutes of 3-8mph driving.

Multiple futtsing around to get the brakes seated right and stop making noises. About 10 miles of accelerating to 50mph and then braking short to 0mph and repeat. and in reverse etc and other miscellany poor FE practices, like today when I passed 2700RPM and momentarily felt the VTEC surge to merge into traffic. The little snot-nosed hatch goes when it needs to. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I drove 75-80mph the first 80 miles of the tank from Worcester to Lee, MA on I-90 (The Mass Pike). Other than that, it was slow on the go!

Hmm... couple other little things. Filled up in Worcester MA (probably a lower elevation than the rolling hills of the Berkshires where I finished the two tanks) The route on I-90 is fairly hilly all the way including reaching an elevation of 1736 feet. But I don't think hills hurt FE much because I think they act like P&G. But who knows, maybe FE in Florida would be better.

On that note, couple notes on temps. Obviously plenty of cold starts. Last night was the coldest start. There was frost on my windshield! So we'll call that a 32 degree cold start. Otherwise driving has been mostly in the 50s-70s.