I made 1/2 tank today with my test run.
Almost 100% A/C use
No shuting off or coasting with eng off.
Little to no drafting

all else is about the same

SG says 40.8mpg so far.

Figure my norm is about 45 soooo

for a 10gal fill, that works out to be $4 saved

 

my bad....Either way, it looks like i'm doing even better on my 2nd tank.

How the hell do you get 500 miles on one tank???

 

Completed my test run today to see how my average 45 to 48 of late would be with out a few comforts and other methods.
362 miles
8.76gal US verified

41.32mpg

SG data
358 miles
8.71gal
41.0 mpg


So you can figure that
A/C use
no 1 sec drafting
no eng off or coasting into a stop


is worth around 4 to 7mpg
around 10 to 15% less eco

The next tank will have all my normal stuff but with A/C when needed.

 

35mpg on my last tank. 90% city. Nothing special at all. A few redlines for fun =D

I love how I can drive how I do, and still get amazing gas mileage. I mean, I don't gun it or anything, but I keep with traffic and I definitely don't drive like a granny.

 

Methods to increase your fuel mileage in my 2008 Honda Fit
Paul Schultz
6-13-2008

As an intro, the items listed below are not listed in order of effectiveness, but every one has been verified to increase the mpg on my 5 speed Fit over the last 6000 miles and 4 months.

When calculating your mpg using the trip odometer divided by the pump gal, you should be skeptical of the gas that you pump. Pumps have proven to be off by as much as 40%. What I recommend is get a 1 gal clear container that can seal gas and measure in 1.00 gal of gas. Make a mark so it can be seen easy. I recommend you frequent the same station, do that and use the same pump, even if you have to wait. Pick the pump you like and use your calibrated container to check that the 1st gal pumped is in fact 1.00 gal. If it does not, find a pump that does and stick with that pump. Once you establish that, it’s not necessary to recheck unless you see shift in your mpg or you change station or pumps. Anything else is a crapshoot.

Driving with the engine off saves gas for sure. You have to make sure your car can do that without issues. The Honda Fit has electric power steering, so as long as the key is in position II, it works fine. The vacuum boosted power brakes are good for 6 good stops with engine off. After that they work, just take way more pressure. Most cars will not lock the wheel unless the key is pulled. Don’t pull it.

I have been doing this in a pretty congested road area in SE Fl. I have yet to insight a single case of rage. You have to keep others in mind and stay to the right. If you are creating a bottleneck, speed up or get out of the way. It’s not that big of a deal to be considerate of folks in a big hurry and practice this stuff.

Buy a Scan Gauge and use it. Mine is always within 1% or less of miles driven and gal’s used. Mount it in a good spot to see and mess with as you drive. Set it up in the hybrid mode not gas engine. That will let it keep track of the miles driven with engine off. Also set the gal to the next integer value of the tank volume. Use the “current” tip gauge and reset to get short avg’s when testing. The instant reading is about useless because it moves all over.

Keep a logbook in the car and take notes of everything.

OK Here’s a list of what I have done and proven.

• Pump the tires to the sidewall pressure when the tire is hot, after a trip. The idea is run the sidewall pressure but never exceed it.
• Never warm up the eng, just start and drive.
• When you park, try and find a pull through spot so when it’s time to go you just drive off. ie drive in and drive off. No backing.
• Accelerate medium to brisk to speed. Slow accelerating, contrary to belief, wastes gas. Hard acceleration wastes gas.

Drive like you have NO BRAKES!

• Anticipate your stops a ¼ mile or longer before you get to them.
• On the freeway coast with eng off to the exit and stop. If you have a green light or merge lane, coast till your 10 under the limit on that next street than let the clutch out and restart. (assume it’s down hill like most)
• Use this same method at rural urban intersections. If you have to stop, just start the engine and go when the cars start to move.
• At any stop (that’s longer than 15 sec), stop the engine. Restart when cars start to move… no sooner.
• If you look well ahead at an intersection light change you can lift off the gas and coast with eng off. If it’s close, just keep in gear and lift off the gas. Engine braking. The Fit’s and most new cars shut down the fuel flow 100% when in this mode. You will not glide as far because of the engine braking, but the fuel flow is zero, the same as eng off.
• Starting the car uses about 7 sec worth of fuel so the coasting in gear if it’s a short coast works the best.
• Using a combination of these things will take some time to get use to but it’s the method that works the best.
• When you get very good at intersections, you can get to the point that you see the light change and coast to a slow point just catching the traffic as they leave the intersection after the light goes green.
• What I have coined, “1 sec drafting”. Soon as I get on the freeway I go slow and look for my “host” 18 wheeler or other large box truck. When they pass, pull up within 1 sec of them and stay with them. 1st thing you do is inspect the rear tires to make sure they look inflated and nothing about to fall off. I keep looking at that as I draft. 1 sec is not real close, but good enough to keep most from pulling in between you and the host, enough that the trucker will not get pissed and if a cop sees you, you are OK. Pay attention, you can stop faster, but only if you see him stop. If you can’t pay attention stop this technique. This is good for 10 to 15% mpg.
• Never go faster than 65mph. Slower is always better for Eco.
• Unless it’s so hot you’re in pain, leave the A/C off and the windows 4” cracked. Under 50mph, you can just open them up.
• Pulse and Glide or fast auto start. This can be a number of things. When going down a hill cut the engine off and neutral coast or if steep eng coast in gear. Restart when below seed limit. I recommend that. P&G is the practice of accelerating to a speed say 60mph, than neutral coast (with engine off) to a lower speed say 40mph, Pop the clutch and start over. Set the high and low to fit the road speed limit and traffic. This is good for 15%, but can be unsafe because of the number of steps needed to complete the cycle. I do not recommend this unless you are all alone on the road.
• Notice the winds. Any type of head wind kills mpg. 1 sec drafting and or slowing down are your only defense unless you can just wait till it calms down. Like wise a tail wind in very helpful. I have clocked well over 65mpg on a 15 mile trip with 1 sec drafting and a 20mph tail wind.
• Try different routs to work and use the SG to figure out what the best way is.
• Log your miles in the CleanMPG, An authoritative source on fuel economy and hypermiling web site. Tracking your results helps you see results.
• Join a form for your car and learn what other do.
• Use the thinnest oil the OEM recommends. Never over fill.
• Keep your air and gas filters clean.

 

Nice writeup, Paul... It should have been a new thread!

 

thanks Rich,

Well it was I put it here so it would stay with the sticky. With the lack of appreciation on the new thread in the ECo with the same info I'm about ready to delete. No matter what I do to help on here it seems this Eco site has so many cluelss ones that come here to base the entire point of the area Eco

 

Great job Paul and I agree with you about people here which is why I commented in your other thread.

I am still working on my 500mile plus tank, I went to Beaver Falls, PA on Thursday and Just returned Last night. We drove the wifes CRV. If you are wondering the CRV did pretty well, we achieved 30.5mpg round trip considering we used CC and the thing is rated at 21-27mpg. We encountered REAL hills being the mountains in VA, WV, and PA.

 

Paul wrote:
No matter what I do to help on here it seems this Eco site has so many cluelss ones that come here to base the entire point of the area Eco.
*******************
This may be partly true, but not totally. I believe there are others who are learning, but not posting.

We did our longest trip (390 mi) this weekend up to the 4 corners region of NM. It was very hot, and we did some city driving plus climbed a few mountains. So we missed the 45 mpg....but we did get 43.3 mpg, using 9.00 gal gas.

One evening we drove up into Colorado for a few hours....gas was $4.19 up there. That hurts, but I did not buy any. I did pay 3.99 in northern NM. Here in my town it is 3.90 right now. Diesel seems to have dropped in price, down to 4.55 here.

I have concluded that driving in the mountains makes the 50 mpg impossible, but I am still striving for that elusive 45 mpg. It will likely take some cooler weather to accomplish that.

In the 4 corners region, we were the only small, fuel efficient car. Up there, everyone drives an SUV, or a truck, or bigger truck, or huge truck. Hard to believe.

 

Results:





Yeah, I forgot to take a picture of where the needle was before I filled it but it was near the beginning of the letter E(to the left but not past E). So, that was 9.4 gallons used at $3.78 a gallon which yields 56.7mpg. This is my best but NOT 60mpg. I am giving up on the quest for 60mpg for now or until the end of the summer. I still may check in here and there.

 

Cool that's 3 of us on here and one other on cleanmpg LOG that has recorded over 600 in a Fit

nice work

 

w00t~! Excellent work indeed, both of you.

(Excuse us while we go laugh at the EPA numbers on our window sticker)

 

i LOVE FASing!!!!!!

hella fun!

 

Another day with my new friend, p&g lol
I have done that for about 1/2 of this fill

I have jumped up +10mpg adding this to my other tricks lol

AM trip
44.2miles 52mph-avg 58.7mpg 74mph peak

PM trip
39.1miles 53mph-avg 61.2mpg 75mph peak

I'm short of 1/2 tank and read for the "tank"
239miles 42mph avg 50.9mpg 4.68 gal used

weee haa

My SG has been within 1% of actual

 

Nice work! Let us know how p&g affects the tank FE accuracy...

 

Will do. Do you think the SG will be off more than normal? After I made it hybrid it's been within 1% for miles and fuel.

It may be a week or so. I'm going away for a week in the Accord. The eng was running when I glided.

 

Well, I only got 46.2mpg this time and drove 411.6 miles and used 8.9 gallons of gas. I wasn't even going to do FAS or P&G but when I was at half a tank and only had 225miles it started to irritate me that I was wasting fuel. :P Damn, I am getting anal with this mpg shit! :P


Today as I drove my boss and the the boss's boss's wife to lunch I automatically did FAS/P&G with the A/C going full blast.

The boss's boss's wife was like , "I couldn't do this and it is getting hot". I restrained from it on the way back to lunch. I think this is a damn addiction!

 

Paul: a few people, and myself seem to get higher than usual readings during engine-off glides. I drive so infrequently that I haven't been able to draw my own conclusions yet, as I had moved the scanguage to my STi for one tank.

pb&h: yep its true. a few times I told myself I'm "just going to drive". Then get a few miles in, see numbers in the 30's and resume hypermiling.

 

You guys are going to hate me, but this is just too easy.
My normal 45 to 50mpg ride to work was 65.4 today
holy sh1t!

65.4mpg
47mph-avg
71mph max
23.1miles

I will not know how far the SG is off till I fill it up in a few weeks, but can say I hit the 1/2 mile mark and I was at 265 miles on the odometer so that alone backs up the "tank" avgs I have going.

I'm truly dumbfounded at what my modified P&G has enabled in my Eco

As always, I'll share the results.

 

It just hit me this morning that I have been wasting fuel........ assuming that 7 seconds of idling = starting the car. You know how you just unknowingly do things and then think about them later??? Well, if I am coasting to a stop light with the car off, then I just leave the car off. My thought was that I wasn't wasting any more fuel starting the car since the car was off. This is only true assuming what I stated above is true and if the light you arrive at holds for longer than 7 seconds.

I realized my ignorance this morning when arriving at a light that I knew was about to change after only 2-3 seconds. When I encountered this I decided to pop the clutch because it would annoy me to manually start the car. My timing was on and I adjusted this way of driving the rest of my way to work. I will implement this from now on. Live and learn