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I looked it up and apparantly the sentra I am driving has an epa of 28 in the city. By my rough calculations (totaly not accurate because I'm guessing on both miles driven and fuel used) I'm getting about 25. I feel good that I'm likely getting close to epa. I just miss getting a minimum of 40 in my HCH and watching the fuel gauge go down day by day is awkward.

At least Tuesday is not far off....

man too bad you didn't have SE - R, i woulda ripped it so much hahhaa

Hi Tom:

___To bad you didn’t have access to the upcoming Versa instead of that ancient Sentra. I bet the FE would have been much different. Still not anywhere near HCH territory but at least better then the Sentra ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I think a properly-driven Sentra - esp. w/5spd - should deliver pretty good mileage. I had an 85 Sentra that was good for near 40, when trying. The ones from the mid-90s w/16V 1.6L engines were excellent cars - much more refined engines than what my Escort Wagon has (heck, anything is more refined than the 1.9 - but it works!). Very snappy performance. The 2.0 Sentras of mid-early 90s were just too much fun, but with nowhere near the MPG numbers.

If I didn't like the Wagon so much, I'd drive a Sentra.

You SHOULD be able to do pretty good with the Sentra. I own an older Altima, and am getting over 37mpg combined city/highway. My goal is to crack 40mpg. I had an ancient Sentra (1982) when I was in college and got 40+ with it despite the fact that it was pre-fuel injection. Of course, the engine was a bit smaller than what they put in the later models.

I own an older Altima, and am getting over 37mpg combined city/highway.

Shoot, my alignment must be WAY off. I'm in a 2000 Altima and have a hard time cracking 32 combined.

Yeah, 37mpg is pretty good with an Altima.

Is yours a five-speed or auto? Which engine? I don't think Altimas come with small engines... it's getting to be a pretty big car nowadays.

>"Yeah, 37mpg is pretty good with an Altima.

>Is yours a five-speed or auto? Which engine? I don't think Altimas come with small >engines... it's getting to be a pretty big car nowadays."

It is a 5-speed. The year model is 1997, although I actually bought it new in 1996 (you know how they release the year models during the summer of the previous year). It has over 184,000 miles on it. The CV joints are bad, so I am having them replaced as I write this. I'm hoping that will prevent future alignment problems and improve the MPG even further. The engine in it is the 2.4L 4-cylinder. That was all that was available at that time. It is the GXE version, which didn't come with some of the fancier bells and whistles like the SE or the GLE did. I believe they are slightly bigger these days, and there is a V-6 version as well. The Altima's overall size and weight has increased too, which doesn't help the situation.

I don't carry much extra cargo in the thing, and I'm usually the only passenger, so I do manage to keep the weight down. I overinflate the tires (just a little), use synthetic oil, and I will take advantage of opportunities to draft. One technique that I really like is skip-shifting (I don't know if there is another name used for this technique here). In addition to taking my time accelerating, I will frequently shift 1-3-5 instead of going through every gear. I try to shift around 2000RPM. I find that this gets me up to a good cruising speed in a conservative way, and puts it in high gear sooner than normal. I kind of baby the car along, and it rewards me with much better gas mileage.

Mine's a 2000 5spd. It weighs just over 2500 (funny how heavy cars are now). I've gotten 36mpg on a commute once.

Mine's a 2000 5spd. It weighs just over 2500 (funny how heavy cars are now). I've gotten 36mpg on a commute once.

2500 lb? It's not a Civic... Try 3000 lbs...

http://www.theautochannel.com/vehicles/new/reviews/2000/russ0006.html

Actually, considering my '02 Elantra is at 2630lbs, that might not be far off for a year 2000 Nissan.

Just looked it up - 2875 lbs. with manny tranny. For some reason I thought it was in the 2500-2600 range.

Still weighs less than a 2 dr Rabbit does now.

Hey, that's nothing to sneeze at - especially with the heavier 2000 model. Have you ever tried skip-shifting? If not, I wonder if you might give it a try and let me know what you think. I like it, and feel like it helps the MPG #s. But I could just be crazy....

Generally speaking "skip shifting" will put you at a higher RPM than is really efficient. Typically you'll get much better results by moving through all the gears and shifting at no more than about 2K RPM. The only times I exceed that RPM are when I'm pulsing for P&G work and when I'm on the highway and the gearing isn't high enough to keep me below that target.

I'm still working with the difference between low accel and and high accel for FE, finding out what's best, but I feel that you want to use all the gears available to keep it in the sweet spot. Currently I'm shifting low on straights ~1500 rpms. Scanguage DEFINITELY helps.

Oh, and I use quick shifts - sport-like shifting to keep it on when it's on, because it takes a second or two for the needle to fully descend, wasting gas.

Well, I really don't rev the engine over 2000RPM when I'm skip-shifting - I just end up accelerating slower and getting into a higher gear faster...........

My experience with Nissans - should be able to get some good numbers over EPA.

i have a 2000 GXE and have increased my City MPG to nearly 30,
Has been a long time since i took a highway trip to gage the actual Highway MPG.
Have scangage on order to really fine tune the numbers.
I try to keep RPM under 2K ( have asked for BSFC plots on several Nissan forums to no avail). With the Scangage i want to test some TP on acell for overall MPG ( would faster acel give me an overall improvement on MPG?)

I have pondered would it be possable to put a 1.8L sentra engine into the Altima? Not that i would - more like a "Thought Experiemt" the QG18DE has a nice Torque curve - as i never get up to the max HP - the heavier Altima with 1.8L would be interesting

(in realty it us easier to use the Sentra itsself)

Good to see other Altima owners here. ( any specific Nissan Tricks you have??)

Steve.

I had a 08 sentra 2.0L cvt for a loaner. 25-33mpg was sticker. it had a ave. mpg guage, it read 25mpg so i re set the guage and drove 2.5hrs /75-80mph all the way up and got 33.3mpg. 2100-2200rmp at those speeds that is nice for a 4cly. on the way back I was easy on the speed- 50-55mph and came out with 40.6mpg one spike at 44mpg down the bridge. thats double the mpg i get in my truck.

"Good to see other Altima owners here. ( any specific Nissan Tricks you have??)"

I see this thread is getting kinda old......and I haven't posted in a while.....sorry 'bout that.

My Altima is an older one (1997), so it might not be practical to compare my results with the newer models. BUT - I'm getting some pretty good tanks. Surf over to the mileage logs and take a peek - it might surprise you what an Altima can do. There is a fair amount of time between my tanks - I only drive the car about once or twice a week. I have a company vehicle I use for work, and I haven't been posting it here (although maybe I should - I've been practicing with it, too - but it is a far different vehicle - a 2002 Ford E-150 4-speed V-8).

I can't say that anything I do is specific to the Nissan, except that I am REALLY used to driving Nissans. The car I had before the Altima was a 1982 Sentra, and it could get some really good mileage, too (although I wasn't trying so hard back then).

At this point I'm getting pretty consistant 32+ MPG tanks (combined city/highway), and I can usually get 34 MPG trips on my commute. Tires at 40psi (rated for 35), radiator block, and WAI. After several attempts on the WAI, I'm now using 2" clear tubing from Lowes - it's stuffed in the air intake and directed to pull air from where the o2 sensor is mounted because there is a hole in the heat shield there). I monitor my coolant and intake air temps. coolant floats between 190~210, and once up to temp the air intake can exceed 80 degrees.

Anyway, not too bad for a car that gets new epa 28 highway!

I've owned a 2000 Sentra 1.8L with a 5 speed for almost 3 years. I used to consistently get between 34mpg and 36mpg with the occasional 33mpg thrown in, and 30mpg once that was corrected by replacing two of the O2 sensors. The new EPA stat says 23/32.

This past year I significantly changed my driving habits. On a trip from Denver to Santa Fe on the highways, I got 45, 44, 44, and 44 mpg on successive tanks with three people and gear (this was on the highways). With combined driving, including about 25% city driving and trips into the mountains on weekends, I have been averaging somewhere between 41 and 42, generally with two people in the car. It's a bit hard fought/compulsive, but I find I'm a lot more aware of the road and other cars, etc. I also do not give up on the speed limit at all- if it's 65, I go 65. I do use the clutch a lot and coast whenever possible, even if it means for 10 seconds down a minor hill. I expect it could mean a new clutch sooner, but I'm not convinced it will be a whole lot sooner. I also keep the revs low, but not to the point of any obvious vibration or laboring sounds. But that's about it.

I would have eyed a hybrid in the future as I start thinking about changing vehicles, but it is a difficult value proposition when the gains are so slim in terms of fuel consumption, and the pollution from a hybrid (batteries, energy of production) is so large. While I think similar gains in most other vehicles would be hard fought if not impossible, I also think most other vehicles could easily see a 15% increase over average driving habits. If the average person saves 10% by changes in driving habits, and liquid fuels account for 60% of our oil consumption in the US, it is equivalent to finding 6% more oil. This kind of gain has not been seen in real energy development in several decades. It is also several times more energy than all the alternative energy in existence in the USA today.

I drive a 1997 Nissan Sentra. Trying to get the best fuel economy. I am still a bit new to hypermiling but I've read a lot of articles.

Well, I've actually gotten a 45 mpg tank out of the old Altima since my last post on this thread. Feelin' pretty good about it........

-"I also think most other vehicles could easily see a 15% increase over average driving habits. If the average person saves 10% by changes in driving habits, and liquid fuels account for 60% of our oil consumption in the US, it is equivalent to finding 6% more oil. This kind of gain has not been seen in real energy development in several decades. It is also several times more energy than all the alternative energy in existence in the USA today."
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Yeah, if EVERYBODY started hypermiling, it would really be something. I could see foreign oil going "whoa, all of a sudden the US doesn't need as much oil, but they haven't started drilling. What gives?" We would lose our "rabbits" to help us with stoplights, though ;-D.

-"I drive a 1997 Nissan Sentra. Trying to get the best fuel economy."

I remember those sentras. If you've got a manual transmission, you should be able to get some screamin' good fuel economy.

Hey Guys,
new to hypermiling and even newer to the forums. I have a 1997 Nissan Sentra that I used to regularly achieve mpgs without much effort in the low-to (sometimes) mid 40's when I commuted to UC from Franklin from '99 to '03.

Recently, my car's mpg has steadily decreased but I put some TLC back into it and now I'm slowly bringing the mpgs back up. I had an accidental adjustment to the front quarter panel and bumper that severly altered the efficiency. I recently did some at-home adjustments to repair the body (nothing professional) and it has GREATLY improved the mpgs and of course, aerodynamicity.

I'm trying to apply some of the more basic hypermiling techniques to my driving and I'm seeing good results. On my recent tank of gas I'm at 5/8 of a tank and have 177 miles. I'm estimating right at 40 mpg when this tank is finished.

Any tips or advice you can provide would be awesome. Thanks!

Joe

Welcome, Joe! Have you read the Beating the EPA - The Why’s and how to Hypermile. (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510) article found on the home page yet? It is chock full of very useful tips and is an excellent hypermiling primer. :)

What transmission do you have in your vehicle?

heavy cars make less road noise... I like engine noise, myself...

Well, I've actually gotten a 45 mpg tank out of the old Altima since my last post on this thread. Feelin' pretty good about it........

I'M impressed. Good god!

Hey Right Lane Cruiser,
thanks for the replay with the helpful link. Good read, some of it was a little over my head, but it was informative.

Is there an advanced information portion someone could send me to? The reason I ask it, although the article listed items into Pros and Cons, I'm curious how some of the Cons add up (blowing trannys, etc.)

The part I found the most informative was the best (obvious) ways to be stopped at a traffic light and how it's actually better to be constantly approaching the light. That seems so obvious the the author did a great job of describing it, "half way to the goal, half way to the goal line, etc."

Thanks for everyone that has provided info so far!

Joe

Hi Everyone, Just thought I would post my experience with my 2000 Sentra GXE. It's a 4 speed auto and I am consistently over 40MPG. I have only been keeping track accurately for a month now. In the winter I was getting tanks around 35-36. I wasn't using any hypermiling techniques then though. My best single trip was 46 miles at 45MPG. Best tank so far was 42.5. I am currently running a 42.5MPG tank as well. Today I achieved 37.7MPG on a 10 mile in town round trip with a couple of stops along the way. Average speed was 35MPH. I'm still running snow tires which will be coming off soon. Just haven't had the time. I'm hoping for at least another 1 or 2 MPG. All in all I think this car does very well considering highway EPA is 33MPG.

Hey Scott,
when you were achieving 35-36mpg without hypermiling, what kind of commutes were you making? With my '97, before hypermiling, I was using cruise control and consistently getting great tanks of gas for that make, year, model (usually between 36-38 mpg.)

I'm anxiously waiting to see where this tanks winds up to see what kind of output I am getting from hypermiling. I haven't used cruise control in the lat two tanks and I just want to make sure that the effort from hypermiling is worth the extra amount.

I'd love to hear any information you can provide, Thanks Scott!

Joe

Hey Scott,
when you were achieving 35-36mpg without hypermiling, what kind of commutes were you making?
Joe

Same 46 mile each way commute. Been doing it for 3 years now, but only this past year with the nissan. Was running cruise most of the time. The 35MPG tanks were likely a result of cold temps, below freezing and often below 0F. Also no HM techniques were used. My current tank average is 42.6 and have not run cruise since I got my SGII and started HM. It most certainly makes a difference. Let your speed trail off going up hills and then let the downhill get you back up to speed applying only enough gas to gain back the speed you lost by the time you hit bottom. I coast as often as possible by just taking my foot off the gas. I don't bother to go into neutral because at fast speeds I achieve fuel cutoff by just taking my foot off the gas. In neutral it is only as good as idling. Until I have a full year of HM driving, I won't know for sure what is helping.

Yeah, Nissan has had some vehicles that do pretty darn good on the 'ole MPG......but they seem to be making everything a little BIGGER than they used to. At least the new Versa should be a fuel-sipper.

joe, what speed are you cruising at? 40mpg on my 1997 sentra is my goal and I am without a scan gauge or means to purchase one. Wondering what your most efficient speed is on the highway.

Glad to see some other sentra owners on here, they don't seem to get much love around these parts. I am on my best tank in the 3 years I have owned this car though. 400 miles so far, and I used to get excited about a 300 mile tank.

-David

Hmm. It has been 4 months since I got below 41 mpg on my 2000 Sentra 1.8. This mark may be because I live in the Denver area (less air density =less fuel flow on average). The average for the past while has been over 42, and a lot of that (perhaps 30-40%) is city-ish driving. Highway, 3 people, our stuff, 44-45 mpg consistently. I think the worst tankl i ever got was in the low 30's which was fixed by replacing 2 of the 4 O2 sensors. I don't htink anyone who rides in the car realizes I'm doing these things- so I'm obviously not hard-core about this stuff....

Hello! I am new to this site--am just learning about hypermiling, drive a Nissan Sentra and have a question:
In Philadelphia where I drive 90% of the time in city traffic, drivers are often rude.
I try to not shot gun ahead to the next red light but coast into the light. Whenever I do this people beep and curse at me. They will drive as fast as possible to the next light.
If I do not accelerate immediately out of the green light, I get beeped at, or people pass me, giving me dirty looks.
I am trying to conserve, but it is socially very difficult and stressful for me.
What do I do--just ignore all the idiots?

Hi Elevatorguy:

___Welcome to CleanMPG first off :)

___WRT to those that want to win the prize by being first at the light, we have at least 5 methods to take care of them plus the ability to control a long line and save fuel for everyone in some cases.

1) RR. Do this everywhere.
2) Reverse pass. Whenever there is an opening, do it.
3) Alternate of an alternate. If there is a place to dive into and out of without being impeded while letting the other driver win the prize, do it.
4) E-Flashers.
5) Do like they do and grab speed and the brakes at the same time. Dumb method but if there is an accident waiting to happen, by all means.

___If you can slow an entire conga line down and save fuel for everyone by timing a light, by all means do exactly that. They may not know what you are doing but that doesn’t matter, they do not know what they are doing in the first place so take the heat, save everyone some fuel and walk away the better for it ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

What year Sentra are you driving? I have a 97 and looking to share tips with drivers of similar generation sentras. I think having a slighter older small car helps me because maybe people think that slow acceleration is all my car is capable of :) I have been hypermiling the last two tanks and am getting almost 37mpg with an automatic with no FAS or excessive tire pressure, so some good numbers are possible (I consider these numbers good, don't know what others would say)

Wayne has some good tips, not sure what a reverse pass is but I am guessing it is moving over and letting them pass and then getting back in your lane.

I've kept a mileage log since last Spring, for more than 7400 miles, and I'm averaging over 37 mpg. If I can do that with the thirsty 170 hp 2.5 liter engine, you folks with the 1.8 and 2.0 L engines should easily top that ;).

I'm hoping so...we'll see what the AT allows. If this car just had an MT - I could think of absolutely nothing wrong with it. I'll be filling up tomorrow so we'll see what the verdict is.

And by the way - nice job on the numbers you are pulling out of a car specifically designed to be less efficient than its brethren with the smaller motors. Kudos!

In the last three months, since I started hypermiling, I'm averaging over 40 mpg ;).

I just filled up yesterday in the 01 Sentra AT. Averaged 37mpg over 398 miles. Not bad - but I know some things that could have gone better. 40 is within my reach, especially with warmer weather coming.

The difference between AT and MT! 37 mpg isn't bad for an AT. I only get 38.6 out of my wife's AT auto, on strictly highway drives. If you can squeeze 40 mpg out of yours, you'll be doing well. Try keeping the AT under 2000 rpm while accelerating, and force it to upshift into overdrive lockup early (about 42 mph). That should yield your best mpg.

The car needs some things too that should help with economy - if only a little. It needs an oil change, transmission fluid change, and probably needs new spark plugs. With those things and the warmer weather + summer gas I should be able to hit 40 - or at least I hope so. I really like the car though. It is quite solid given what its been through. Planning on working on it this weekend - so hopefully next week will yield higher numbers.

I've kept a mileage log since last Spring, for more than 7400 miles, and I'm averaging over 37 mpg. If I can do that with the thirsty 170 hp 2.5 liter engine, you folks with the 1.8 and 2.0 L engines should easily top that ;).

I used to have your exact car brand new but wrecked it. Black with the red and black interior I'm guessing? I loved that car, so jealous. I didn't realize it could get such great FE.

Now I have a 1997 Sentra GXE with an auto and 40mpg is my goal this summer. Also a 500 mile tank is a goal.

I don't play the longest mileage tank game. It's too hard to restart a dry fuel injected system. But if I P&G my car, I can get about 43 mpg. Taking a fairly conservative 41 mpg, and figuring I'll leave .7 gallons for insurance in my 13.2 mpg gas tank, I should be able to squeeze a 512.5 tank out of my SE-R.

I have the silver paint job, with the red/black seat colors.

Darrell, you can just carry a gallon or so with you when you know you're getting close. When the car starts hesitating, just pull over and dump your extra in (after recording all the relevant info first, of course!). You have to do some calculating after fillup to take into account the amount you added and then subsequently burned to get to a gas station, but it isn't that bad.

I did that for my Insight (as it ran out just before work -- nowhere close to a gas station). I had a can ready in my Elantra but she lost all power (wouldn't do more than idle RPM :eek:) just as I was passing a station so I pulled a U-turn and coasted up to a pump. ;)

Neither vehicle needed to be primed and neither actually stopped the engine from lack of fuel. I had a few miles worth of warning in both due to loss of acceleration power.

Probably a stupid question, but if you let a vehicle run out of fuel, wouldn't it be running very lean as the amount of fuel that reaches the cylinders drops off? Could that cause damage to the engine or emissions equipment?

I've also heard that some fuel pumps can be damaged by running the tank dry as they're lubricated with gasoline.

As for leaning out, no -- the ECU maintains the air to fuel ratio. What I experienced was a severe drop off in fuel pressure. This is why the ECU wouldn't let the engine go past idle in the Elantra. I had just bump started and when I pushed the accelerator the engine just kept idling! :eek:

The Insight acted just a little different because it does actively lean out the mixture under certain conditions. I had to pull over before getting to work because the car ran fine until I loaded it more. That would pull it out of lean burn and then it started to stumble. Because of this I couldn't make it over the last hill (less than a half mile from my work :p) and had to dump the extra fuel in.

In neither case did I actually run completely dry -- if I had there would have been no fuel pressure at all and the engine wouldn't have run.

Are these throttle by wire vehicles? Otherwise how can the ECU maintain the correct mixture except by supplying more fuel?