miles to the gallon

[synjim]

when I first filled my '98 Escort wagon with gas it went about 25.5 on a gallon. At 80k from the first owner who even had changed the ATF . I put in new Bosch 4 plugs and Amsoil 0w-30 series 2000,35k long life synthetic oil.With in 3 tanks of gas the miles / gallon came up to 28.5 , cool or what! After 12,000 miles I changed the little filter thinggy and went another 13,000 miles and did an oil sample . I also had my mechanic take of the boss, ford molded in there to put on a bigger filter like it should have had in the first place!Now the sample came back and it was OK but the TBN was too low so I went another 5,000 and then dumped the 35,000 mile oil. the fresh fill and right size filter now make me 30 miles to the gallon in Upstate NY and I do like that! Any similar tests out there?

 

[Thomas Pyrek]

You will probably need to change th eoil more often than 35k miles. When I first bought my beater it didn't run. After getting it so that it would consistantly start I averaged about 17mpg. (December). Less than 2k miles later I've pulled that up to just shy of 29 mpg. How? Full tune up, air filter, fuel filter, short 1k oil change, dump oil, 1k into first AutoRX, spray a healthy amount of carb cleaner into the carb, two cycles of Gumout carb/fuel system cleaner into the fuel and a bunch of Italian tune ups. [ March 30, 2004, 01:58 AM: Message edited by: Thomas Pyrek ]

 

[HondaRD]

Everytime I buy a used car, I do a full tune-up. I mean I replace every filter and common tune-up item right when I buy it and to OEM spec using quailty (usually OEM) parts. That way I can get a good baseline of what the car is capable of obtaining in both efficiency and power and I know for a fact everything is new and in good working order without having to rely on what the previous owner told me or the quality of the shop they took it too. Plus I can start a new maintenance schedule where things are replaced together.

 

[TOMBUCK]

When you use Amsoil OIL+ Amsoil Oilfilter and a Amsoil airfilter, along with Amsoil tranny fuild + rear end lube you will get better overall preformence and mileage provided you keep your out of the throttle. I use these in both my vehciles, a 98 Ford CV LX W/HPP and a 01 NISSSAN PATHFINDER 4X. They both preform outstanding and get good mileage when I keep the foot from pushing too hard on the gas pedal.

 

[leinad35]

To boost my miles per gallon, I like to excede OEM quality when tuning my cars. - NGK plugs (Iridium IX, Laser Iridium, Laser Platinum) - performance wires (MSD, Accel, Magnecore) - Goodyear Gatorback belts - performance air filters (K&N, Accel Cool Blue,...) - synthetic lubricants (Mobil, Amsoil, Valvoline) - oil filters (Mobil, K&N, Puralator Pure One) followed by preventive maintenance (fix it before it breaks) and conservative driving habits (I am in no real hurry to arrive at my destination). Ð

 

[FowVay]

The oil in my car is over 8500 miles old and is due a change at 10,000. On my long trip this past weekend I averaged 53.4 MPG (gotta love the TDI). I'd love to change the oil, oil filter and air filter and try this trip again. The trip was 1280 miles so it gave me a good average. Strangely enough I have never gotten any measureable difference in fuel economy between oil viscosity grades. They just don't seem to make that much difference in OTR applications.

 

[Mark in NY]

I would like to see you try 5-20 or M1 0-20 in the Escort and report back to us. Look on the Ford and Motorcraft sites and I think you will see that the 20wt is now the prefered oil in that car. (BTW, Great numbers on the TDI! If not for the pollution issues I would be driving one myself.)

 

[darkdan]

My dad's sebring went from 26.1 to 28.3 avg after switching from Valvoline Maxlife 5w30 to S3k 5w30.

 

[oilyriser]

I've gone from 26 to 27.5 mpg in the past month, and all I did was change my headlamp bulbs. The warmer weather has probably made the difference.

 

[SteveD2]

Right now is the time many places switch to the summer gas, too. Anybody with a computer controlled car should also make sure to unhook the battery to reset the computer after doing a tune up. My cherokee was getting 11mpg highway, completely stock. I changed the plugs/wires/cap and they were really bad, although it had no effect on mileage. Then I reset the computer...now I'm getting 18 city/24 highway!

 

[Bob Woods]

Anybody with a computer controlled car should also make sure to unhook the battery to reset the computer after doing a tune up. ZmOz Why? If you have OBD1 it will reset it to defaults, if you have OBD11 (1995 and newer) it will not do anything good for you. Let the computer do it thats what its there for.Go to the following link and read about readiness monitors. http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/Dec%202002%20RepairCare.pdf [ April 03, 2004, 05:57 PM: Message edited by: Bob Woods ]

 

[SteveD2]

quote:

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Originally posted by Bob Woods: Anybody with a computer controlled car should also make sure to unhook the battery to reset the computer after doing a tune up. ZmOz Why? If you have OBD1 it will reset it to defaults, if you have OBD11 (1995 and newer) it will not do anything good for you. Let the computer do it thats what its there for.Go to the following link and read about readiness monitors. http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/Dec%202002%20RepairCare.pdf

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Yes, it will do plenty good for you. It will reset it self to factory settings. Did you not even read my post? I gave it a tune up and it had absolutely no effect. The only other thing I did was reset the computer and I went from 11mpg highway to 24mpg highway. That's more than double. Obviously resetting the computer made a considerable difference. The computer had adjusted itself to run better with the bad plugs and wires I had, and when I replaced them it was still running as if they were still bad.

 

[Bob Woods]

Could be your right, everything I've read about OBD2 tells me disconnecting the battery will not change the PCM data, or reset the MIL, just screws up the readiness monitors. What year of vehicle you working on? I remember reading in service manuals for OBD1 cars to unhook the battery for 10 minutes to reset the ECM to default values for driveability problems.

 

[SteveD2]

It's a '96. I know for a fact that it resets everything when you reset it. After you reset it you need to make sure to drive normally for a little while, because the computer is learning. If you drive harder than normal, for example, it will start running differently...

 

[Last_Z]

I was getting better mileage in the cold months......I wasn't using the A/C as much!

 

[Bob Woods]

A 96 should be OBD2, maybe everything I've read has led me astray. wouldn't be the first time!!!

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

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because the computer is learning.

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ZmOz is referring to the "adaptive cells" in the PCM. It shouldn't effect the system in closed loop where all the sensors are monitoring and controlling the timing and injector pulse width. In open loop, however, the PCM doesn't modify the pulse width and only "hears" the MAP output. It doesn't react to the O2 sensor ..but records the rich and lean conditions throughout the premapped fuel curve (based on MAP output). It then increments or decrements the pulse width to compensate. This is how the system comensates for long term degradation. I'm uncertain if it is that sophisticated to remap the entire rpm range. That is, I believe that it has an acceptable range of "not rich or lean" and when it encounters so many rich or lean conditions it narrows or broadens the pulse width for the entire premapped fuel curve. I don't think it has the ability to correct for lean condtions at one map output ..and a rich at another (as in modifying and assigning various pulse widths over the full span of MAP readings). I've tried to research this ..but no one seems to really know. I base my assumptions on the factory service manual (99 jeep - OBDII) where these adaptive cells are listed. They're merely two registers that note the compensation (one for rich and one for lean) and the magnitude of the compensation adjustment (-1, +4, etc.). [ April 04, 2004, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: Gary Allan ]

 

[Bob Woods]

Gary, On OBD2, aside from setting the readiness monitors to zero what other effect does disconnecting the battery have? I have been told and read that guys that disconnect the battery prior to going in for testing have to come back for retesting if they haven't driven the car 3 or 4 cycles. I had hoped a certified tech would jump in and tell us, or is this board full of shade tree guys like me?

 

[Bebop]

Depending on which make you have. My 04 Civic needs the car's cpu relearn in a procedure that takes 5 minutes every time the battery is disconnected.

 

[KW]

I unhooked the battery on my wife's '98 Jeep for an hour or so and it seemed to help keep it from jumping in and out of OD. Now it would have been great if that would have got it to stop pinging to. [ April 05, 2004, 07:54 AM: Message edited by: KW ]