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View Full Version : New personal best tank


HyChi
06-24-2006, 12:10 AM
I just tanked up and I sure hope this one is right. My display was reading between 54.1 and 54.8 depending whether I was going or coming home from the office. My fuel reminder light had come on while on my way to the office and I decided to tank up on my way home. The fuel gauge had just gone from 2 bars to 1 bar, displayed mpg was 54.5 and 604.3 miles. I filled the tank to the first click (my usual) and this pump was a slow one, no bubbling frothy sounds when it clicked off. Imagine my surprise when it displayed only 10.134 gallons! The last tank was 11.03 at zero bars, so I figure this can't be too far off (I hope!). My mpg has always been off by a bit, but the tank before this one was off by 2.7 mpg (which I had assumed was from a short fill). Now this one had a discrepancy between the displayed mpg and actual of 5mpg?!? I noticed that the instantaneous mpg gauge reset itself on virtually every trip, usually during coasting or 100mpg/EV display periods. Maybe that has something to do with it. In any case, it was a great tank! Thanks, everyone, for showing me how it's done!:D Now, it's a question of what the next tank will bring in about 10-14 days.

tbaleno
06-24-2006, 01:24 AM
Nicely done! I look forward to see what you get in a few months as you get more and more tanks under your belt. A 2006 civic hybrid sure is tempting. Heck all the hybrids are pretty tempting now that word is getting out about how to drive them. EPA is just a starting point for people with hybrids I think.

Hot Georgia
06-24-2006, 01:35 AM
Wonderful job HyChi!

I found, at least in my '04, that when I get below a certain point the FCD is usually 1-3MPG optimistic, and above a certain point cuts me short. I'm thinking it's the excessive FAS and NICE-On Coasting that skews the FCD calculation and cuts me short (Sometimes about 5MPG).

I always fill to the rim.
The gas gauge usually works itself down to 4-5 bars from empty and stays there for a long time. Then quickly drops to 1 or two bars. I get the low fuel light at 1 bar.

It stays at 1-2 bars for a long time, then jumps back to 4-5 bars and stays there for about 20 miles.
(I've always wondered if this is caused by the excessive fuel dumped back into the tank from the various venting lines?)

After about 20 miles it then drops to 1 bar for a couple miles, then no bars.
I've driven it before on no bars for 22 miles and pumped almost 15 gallons to the rim.
Never ran out, but fairly close I think.

Filling every 10-14 days! Oh, so many only dream of that :rolleyes:

philmcneal
06-24-2006, 03:27 AM
Filling every 10-14 days! Oh, so many only dream of that

sweet i'm already living the dream. My best tank fillup was over 21 days, I hope to break the 1 month record this tank! Lucky I don't drive far at all ;)

Hot Georgia
06-24-2006, 04:54 AM
My best tank fillup was over 21 days
That's fantastic.

A very good friend of the family drives his '05 Explorer alone to work and fills up every 5-6 days and costs him just under $70 a tank.
I've rode with him and if he'd have my car would likely suck it down into the 30's. A real lead-foot. He doesn't really say all that much about it but I can tell it's really putting a big financial strain on his family.
I've tried to explain a couple of times that if he'd only change his habits that his mileage would drastically increase, but he won't have any of it. His truck just gets what it gets.
If I bug him enough he gets irritated so now I just leave him alone about it.

Kind of sad I think, he should be able to extend that at least a couple more days and pocket the cash.

HyChi
06-24-2006, 07:35 AM
Wonderful job HyChi!

The gas gauge usually works itself down to 4-5 bars from empty and stays there for a long time. Then quickly drops to 1 or two bars. I get the low fuel light at 1 bar.

It stays at 1-2 bars for a long time, then jumps back to 4-5 bars and stays there for about 20 miles.
(I've always wondered if this is caused by the excessive fuel dumped back into the tank from the various venting lines?)

After about 20 miles it then drops to 1 bar for a couple miles, then no bars.
I've driven it before on no bars for 22 miles and pumped almost 15 gallons to the rim.
Never ran out, but fairly close I think.

Filling every 10-14 days! Oh, so many only dream of that :rolleyes:

I noticed with my last tank (I was shooting for my first 600 mile tank) that like you the bars really do drop quickly from 4 to 2, then 1. My last fill-up at 0 bars was 11 gallons, so it seemed that when I got down to that level the tank was pretty low. Realistically, I know that I can go back and forth to the office 1.5 times on a gallon, but after watching the bars disappear so quickly it really acts as a motivator!
Yeah, everybody should have my problem of filling every 10-14 days. But, as you guys have shown, almost every vehicle can get 10-20% better gas mileage by driving while paying attention to the pedal. Can you imagine what would happen to the amount of oil required to fuel the good ol' USofA if all of a sudden every car suddenly got 20% better mpg because people cared enough to make it so?



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