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hey,

I just found this site on Friday and I already have 44psi in my tires and I have changed the way I drive - only a couple miles driven so far, but if I can get my better half to do the same on her commute ( she drives the care more than I do) we should be dandy..

As you can see from our gas logs - we have been doing OK on the mileage front despite having a brand new engine (only 5k miles at this point, the car has 55k miles) ... so we are no road rage fanatics .. but any little bit can help.

As I posted in my other posts:
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/start-your-journey-here/t-new-04-mazda3s-mtx-here-of-course-i-need-advice-d-5870.html

My biggest question comes with FAS .. I have been doing OK the last couple days predicting red lights and and turning of engine there, but I have not figured out FAS and P-G while driving.

Also .. will P-G work even if I do not FAS the engine during glide - but let it idle? I know the benefits will decrease, but the question is - Cruise Control of Pulse&Idle? (I am guessing it will be specific to our car and only S-G will be able to answer that, eh?)

Any specific things we can do since the car is a manual?

And Finally - her commute is
1) 4 miles "canyon road" - twisty 4 lane with 35mpg limit and traffic speed well above that - not many hills, about 2 lights altogether.

2) 2 miles crowded highway - regular 6 lane highway with 65mph limit and actual speeds between 30 and 70mph .. of course the usual perils of a highway during rush hour

3) 3 miles of a straight city "through street" - no stop signs, but a light every 1/2 mile - the usual race from light to light - 6 lanes.

Any specific recommendations for her commute?

Thanks for any help

Igor

PS: I f you are wondering why I am not mentioning my commute - well I walk. So 2,000,000 mpg for me :D She has a reverse commute out of center-city to inner-ring suburbs.

Also .. will P-G work even if I do not Fas the engine during glide - but let it idle? I know the benefits will decrease, but the question is - Cruise Control of Pulse&Idle? (I am guessing it will be specific to our car and only S-G will be able to answer that, eh?)
P&G will work somewhat.

I would hold of on FAS until you have mastered a lot of the other techniques and practiced it in safe areas.

As far as your wifes commute, is it possible for her to avoid the highway by taking a side road or frontage road? She may even save time if it jammed bad enough.

P&G will work somewhat.

I would hold of on FAS until you have mastered a lot of the other techniques and practiced it in safe areas.

As far as your wifes commute, is it possible for her to avoid the highway by taking a side road or frontage road? She may even save time if it jammed bad enough.

Thanks for the reply.

About the commute routing - we have been debating alternatives, and will possibly explore some .. she could just drive about 11 miles straight on a "through street" - as described in the OP .. that route just turned out frustrating because of the number of lights, the lack of synchronization among them, and the nature of the traffic on the road ... it all was just too much. we are trying to figure out other ways mostly using roads that are not "through streets" - 2 lanes but have less lights and less "race to the light" traffic .. we shall see

About FAS and other techniques - what other things should I or we start attempting? what would be the most useful to master since we are beginners to actually "deliberate" and "systematic" hypermiling?

Finally, so you think the "Pulse and Idle" will be more efficient than steady CC?

Thanks again for your comment.

Igor

Do you have much of an opportunity to drive with load? That can be very good on hilly commutes.

CC is good for beginners, but most hypermilers abandon it because they want steady mileage and not steady speed.

the commute right now is completely flat, so P&I would be probably the most likely, as some turns require slower speed than other sections ...

driving with load ..well - right now there are not hill in the way - just one long steep (uphill) on ramp from the "canyon road" to the highway (about .2 - .3 miles) .. everything else is reasonably flat .. the "revised" commute might have some hills .. but we shall see ..

thanks

Igor

Hi, Igor2!!

I would concentrate on DWB and light timing initially. Anything you can do to avoid coming to a complete stop is going to help you. Once you have mastered that you can start trying to throw more into the mix like P&G. Using idle during the glide will work, but at slower speeds it isn't going to help much.

As for your question about CC, this is an averaging game. As an example, consider my car cruising at 35mph. In 5th I'm doing about 55mpg or so if the road is completely flat without potholes or anything else of that sort to slow me down. Idling while rolling at that speed will net me something more than twice that amount. Accelerating at all brings the numbers down into the 20's. The thing is, if I can use P&G I'm averaging (weighted by time, of course) 20 something with 100+mpg. The longer I can glide the more positive the effect of the glide and the higher my average mpg is going to be. Of course the faster I go the higher the idling mpg will be when I glide. If you can cut out the engine altogether, that is essentially an infinite mpg but acts more like just a ridiculously high number (because you still used gas somewhere on the commute to get up to speed, right?) that pulls up your average REALLY quick.

If you can afford one I highly recommend you purchase a ScanGauge -- there is a link to buy one at the bottom of the left column on the home page of this site. It is a bit expensive but the ability to see the effects of what you are doing REAL TIME is really valuable. With that you'll be able to fine tune and see the effects immediately.

One thing to note, though -- the SG relies on the diagnostic port and the bus it is attached to for information. When you FAS you are cycling that bus and different cars take different amounts of time to complete that reset. During that time the SG will continue to read the distance but will freeze its recording of fuel usage at the point it was last able to read it (so that it keeps using the same number) until the bus reset completes and it can get new data. Because of this your numbers won't start climbing immediately and for highway travel in my car often my P&G interval is too short to really show the improvement when I FAS because I've already lost half of my speed delta by the time it starts using the correct numbers. To avoid this I often just use NICE ON gliding (Neutral ICE ON) at high speeds because the instantaneous numbers for idle at high speed are pretty high anyway.

Hope this helps a bit!!

^^Thanks a LOT ..

Oh OK .. so my P and Idle is really called NICE ON Gliding? .. OK good to know ..

I have been experimenting with with NICE ON Glide when I first got the car - it was my first stick .. but with inconsistent technique, I failed to really see the improvement and stopped - I also started enjoying the car too much ... however now I am going back to trying to squeeze out all the mileage I can get.

Thanks

Igor

Welcome igor2!

As a owner of a MZ3 2.3L, 5MT Sedan. I can share with you there is mpg to be had. The car is touchy gas pedal wise.

Stay tuned to cleanmpg.com. There is going to be some good info coming out soon concerning these cars.

psy

thanks PSY..

PS: the MAzda3 EPA mileage was downgraded to 22/29 for 2004 - 2006 models and 22/30 for 2007-on models (per the revised 2008 EPA methodology) .. that is what I am using in my log ... and I believe so should you :D

Igor

thanks PSY..

PS: the MAzda3 EPA mileage was downgraded to 22/29 for 2004 - 2006 models and 22/30 for 2007-on models (per the revised 2008 EPA methodology) .. that is what I am using in my log ... and I believe so should you :D

Igor

I don't know where those number are coming from your posting. But it very clear on the window sticker and on the epa site what Im using. If the founders and admin's on this site would like me to use the 2008 numbers. I would be glad to.

psy

I don't know where those number are coming from your posting. But it very clear on the window sticker and on the epa site what Im using. If the founders and admin's on this site would like me to use the 2008 numbers. I would be glad to.

psy

yeah - I guess I cheated then :D I used the 2008 numbers . .they are not on the window sticker, but they are on the fueleconomy.gov website ... it is the revised methodology that mostly affects the city numbers and makes them finally realistic and is even more conservative on HWY than before ...

but I guess I should change mine to the window sticker of 25/32 :D

Igor

Welcome Igor,
I'm sort of afraid to ask, but your posted mentioned 55k on the car, and 5k on a new engine. What happened?
Bill

Welcome Igor,
I'm sort of afraid to ask, but your posted mentioned 55k on the car, and 5k on a new engine. What happened?
Bill

belt tensioner failed at highway speed - stopping the coolant pump - because the engine was under load, it instantly overheated and the alternator pulley seized - the car was towed in leaking coolant and the engine was dead .

The car officially was JUST out of warranty (50,183 miles), but thankfully I bought the car Certified Used - so I have 100k miles power train warranty - so I was amazingly lucky.

But it was fun times - my better half was driving - she was 5 hours away from home. she got a rental to come back home, but I had to take a red-eye bus out there 2 weeks later to pick it up ..

plus we were reduced to one car for those two weeks - an Expedition ... a truck that is used rarely - only when we need to.

but overall , I bought the car with 38k miles .. and now I have a brand spanking new engine in it ... I do not complain :D
Igor

We had a discussion back in late winter re. using new or old EPA numbers.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/website-news-discussions/t-new-epa-figures-3774.html

At the time the EPA site was showing the old numbers for existing cars, and the '08 cars were going to get numbers measured using the new method. We were not aware at the time that all older cars were going to get "new" numbers and that the old numbers might disappear completely.

We agreed at the time that older cars would use their existing (old) numbers and '08 and later cars would use their new numbers. The mileage log now has additional factors built in (somewhat like a handicap) so that drivers of newer cars have to reach a higher standard to achieve "Skilled", "Expert" and "Elite" status. This keeps the playing field level and fair, or at least that's the intention.

Hope this makes sense and seems fair.