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Greetings.

Over a month ago, i received an '06 Ford Fusion S, 2.3L 5-speed @ 47000 miles... the non-hybrid version... :-( It's EPA rating is an average of 23mpg. :mad:

By trade, i deliver hot pizza-related items to customers ... all within a 15-20min one-way drive. This accounts for 90% of the driving done to this vehicle.

After applying the basic and various intermediate hypermiling driving techniques, my average has been low 40's mpg... with no scanguard, and using the techniques that feel "natural" to me.

Eventually, i will acquire a scanguard-like device that can be monitored via bluetooth.

Meanwhile, the current goal is to reach an average of 46mpg. i peaked once at 56mpg not too long ago, but's been difficult to reach that since.

My favorite hypermiling technique... killing the engine and coasting wherever it's safe to do so-- i guess it's called FAS. (The car is so quiet that the pedestrians & 10-speeders on the road couldn't hear me until...

restarting the engine by "popping the clutch" in 5th gear (around 25-30mph), and continue driving... saving wear on the starter motor and eliminating that 7-sec worth of lost fuel when cranking the engine. :D )

I'm all ears to hear from other owners of the Ford Fusion on how to improve the FE of this vehicle... especially for delivery use.

Hi Edward:

___Welcome to CleanMPG and I am sure you are going to like it around here :) When Dale (DRImportracing) come s back from Florida, you will find another who has much in common with you.

___When it is time for a ScanGauge, let me know as the fun has just begun once you install one of your own ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Thanks Wayne!

The plan is to get a bluetooth version of scangauge since i can use Carman to connect to it via bluetooth. i found a few on ebay that come from the Asias... would there be any recommendations?

Meanwhile, i'm noticing the FAS technique causes a greater battery drain during night-deliveries... does this mean a charger must be put on the battery more often than before? Or can the battery "recover" on its own, especially when it's "new"?

--edward

Hi Edward:

___FAS'ing at night is a 12V killer indeed. They recover but every deeper discharge and recharge takes a little bit out of them unfortunately :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hmmm... :cool: since night-delivery is a regular occurrence at this time, it appears a nightly charge is necessary...

Any recommendations on other "most efficient" night-time FE driving at this magnitude?

Or if you were to rank the techniques for night-time driving, what would you recommend?

Edward, I installed a deep cycle (Optima Yellow Top) in my Elantra for this reason. I still have to charge it up occasionally, but not every night.

Hmmm... :cool: since night-delivery is a regular occurrence at this time, it appears a nightly charge is necessary...

Any recommendations on other "most efficient" night-time FE driving at this magnitude?

Or if you were to rank the techniques for night-time driving, what would you recommend?

One think I have found useful for night time driving is to accelerate on the pulse portion of my p&g at a slower rate (lower LOD rating, when you get your SG). This give the battery a little additional time to charge between glides, and does not make the fuel economy appreciably worse.

Larry

Edward, I installed a deep cycle (Optima Yellow Top) in my Elantra for this reason. I still have to charge it up occasionally, but not every night.

Hmmm. i cannot afford this just yet. but, if i were to hook up 2 5W solar panels trickling in about 350mA, would that be enough to keep a regular car battery charged?

Edit: hmph...:cool: perhaps not.. not at the level of drainage inflicted on it using FAS at night...

Hi Edward:

___Welcome to CleanMPG and I am sure you are going to like it around here :) When Dale (DRImportracing) come s back from Florida, you will find another who has much in common with you.

___When it is time for a ScanGauge, let me know as the fun has just begun once you install one of your own ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Well, the time has come. The "fun" begins. i received one of these :o http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:bnKovPvJNzELNM:http://cdn1.ioffer.com/img/item/124/832/821/fvkf.jpg @

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Wireless-Bluetooth-Scannner-OBDII-OBD2-OBD-II-2-V1-3_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem3ca72a9b63QQitemZ260502625123QQptZMotorsQ5fAutomotiveQ5fTools#ht_2162wt_1036

in the mail from eBay. The buyer i used is no longer registered with eBay at the time of this writing...:mad: yet this one looks quite "young" at eBay...:eyebrow:

Plugging it in, i tried to use Carman on my Nokia 770/bora and Nokia 770/chinook "out-of-the-box" (OOTB) / "no hacking", The main Rich-view gauge renders well, but the app remains connected for 10 seconds gathering and rendering the data on the GUI-gauges, then disconnects asking me if i want to re-connect again. A pain. :(

I also tried to use WinOdb on my HTC Mogul running WM6.5, and it works, but only sporatically. Every 5 or so seconds after displaying the data, it pops up a dialog box saying "OBD Initialization", and re-initializes its connection with the obd2 device, displaying the AT codes used and the device's responses. After 5 or so reinitializations, the program ends (or crashes...) Another pain. :(

Finally, running OBD Gauge on the HTC Mogul, it's the most stable "scan-gauge" like software that runs "out of the box". But it doesn't have the GPS tracking, nor MPG "on-the-fly" calculation that was present in WinODB and Carman. But it is a start. :o

So, using OBD Gauge (for now), it shows 4 screens. The most informative screen shows the Current vehicle speed, throttle position, RPMs, and Calculated Engine load. This leaves me 3 other screens to "program" other various engine info. It also records the data to a file for later analysis (TBD).

what "scan-gauge-like" info would you/ have others put on their screens?

Hey edwardb,
Welcome to cleanmpg. You just popped up on my radar. Your doing phenomenally well without a scanguage already. You should get one as soon as possible, they appear to be the most important purchasable aid to mileage. My car is too old for one.

Set up a mileage log here on site, it's a really useful tool and can tell you a lot about effects of temperature, techniques and modifications if you put in the information regularly.

I work nights off exit 36, Wed-Mon for PH. Who are you with? Which exit?

I use a 1.5 watt trickle charge solar battery charger to recharge during the day, it helps some but the 5 watt one is on my list of upgrades.

We'll have to meet up sometime. :D - Dale

Hey edwardb,
Welcome to cleanmpg. You just popped up on my radar. Your doing phenomenally well without a scanguage already. You should get one as soon as possible, they appear to be the most important purchasable aid to mileage. My car is too old for one.

Hi there Dale. Pleased to meet you. :-)


Set up a mileage log here on site, it's a really useful tool and can tell you a lot about effects of temperature, techniques and modifications if you put in the information regularly.

Done. :-)

I work nights off exit 36, Wed-Mon for PH. Who are you with? Which exit?

I use a 1.5 watt trickle charge solar battery charger to recharge during the day, it helps some but the 5 watt one is on my list of upgrades.

We'll have to meet up sometime. :D - Dale

Sure thing!

Yes, the 5-watt one seems more appropriate.. however, on eBay, there's a 2A solar charger for sale, and the price seems "right"... i'll have to dig it up again to make sure my eyes didn't deceive me...
Would you happen to be using a yellow-top deep-cycle battery?

I work with D, exit 23 off I-77. Heh, there's more than enough customers among the both of us! :D

In the meanwhile, the Water for Fuel possibility is nagging at the corner of my mind. i've scanned the discussions about it here and am concluding that if i have access to the ECU, then it just might work, pushing the FE into the 80's and 90's mpg range... but we'll see.

--edward

I use a standard Autozone battery. I can FAS a good bit every night before I have to give it a break for a few miles and let the alternator recharge the battery. If I were to do 100% of the FASing that my path allows I would run my battery down daily. I pick and choose my techniques because of the battery. You know there is plenty of opportunity to practice all the techniques you feel comfortable with in our area each day so I do everything except warm up Pulse and Glide and high speed P&G regularly.

I'll PM you my number and we can meet. I used to work at the PH on 23 near you about 6-7 years ago and PJ on 25 too. I was an antihypermiler then. I used to change my schedule so I could drive my Civic Si on deliveries during the day then take it to the drag strip in Mooresville on Thursday nights. Good times. (It's not backsliding if you just talk about it.) :D - Dale

I use a standard Autozone battery. I can FAS a good bit every night before I have to give it a break for a few miles and let the alternator recharge the battery. If I were to do 100% of the FASing that my path allows I would run my battery down daily. I pick and choose my techniques because of the battery. You know there is plenty of opportunity to practice all the techniques you feel comfortable with in our area each day so I do everything except warm up Pulse and Glide and high speed P&G regularly.

Sounds familiar. Pulse and Glide isn't comfortable, and FAS 'ing is my favorite technique. Right now, considering FAS 'ing as long as the clutch can pop the engine back into operation... during the day, it's a habit to FAS up to a red-light, and crank the engine when it goes green... i can't do that much at night...

Now, using a bluetooth obd2 scanner, i notice there's something about the calculated engine load, and the throttle position numbers that i had no idea about without the scanner. Maybe driving to "work the numbers" might help overcome the FAS withdrawal at night...


I'll PM you my number and we can meet. I used to work at the PH on 23 near you about 6-7 years ago and PJ on 25 too. I was an antihypermiler then. I used to change my schedule so I could drive my Civic Si on deliveries during the day then take it to the drag strip in Mooresville on Thursday nights. Good times. (It's not backsliding if you just talk about it.) :D - Dale

Thanks for your number. i'm sure we'll meet soon.

--edward

Edward, I installed a deep cycle (Optima Yellow Top) in my Elantra for this reason. I still have to charge it up occasionally, but not every night.

Hey there Sean...

It looks like the time has come to get the D75/25 Optima Yellow Top... but there's just one problem... it won't fit. What must be done to insure it'll fit the Fusion, and remain "legal" for inspection-sake?

Is it too tall? It looks like that is the only difference.

Optima sizes (http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/?gclid=CPDs_rOL0Z4CFQoeDQod7TthsQ#CtekChargers)

The Optima size chart includes the post height.
stock size:

Width: 6.88
Length: 10.94
Height: 6.88

I'm afraid I don't have any advice on that point. :o

Mine fit okay (though it is tight) after I took out the plastic tray spacer. I did have to modify the positive battery cable clamp slightly as it had been designed to hook over the edge of the battery in a right angle to the post. The Optima battery has a positive terminal that is a bit further inboard than the stock version.

Is it too tall? It looks like that is the only difference.

Optima sizes (http://www.1st-optima-batteries.com/?gclid=CPDs_rOL0Z4CFQoeDQod7TthsQ#CtekChargers)

The Optima size chart includes the post height.
stock size:

Width: 6.88
Length: 10.94
Height: 6.88

Actually, it's 10.94 x 7.88 x 6.88

it's that 7.88 that i'm concerned about... :(
Perhaps putting it on its side?

I'm afraid I don't have any advice on that point. :o

Mine fit okay (though it is tight) after I took out the plastic tray spacer. I did have to modify the positive battery cable clamp slightly as it had been designed to hook over the edge of the battery in a right angle to the post. The Optima battery has a positive terminal that is a bit further inboard than the stock version.

hmmm... it looks like i'll need to invest in longer battery cables to actually reach the posts... :(
But if the battery is installed onto its side...