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So, the intense heat destroyed my weekend driving and I only just held onto a 40+mpg tank by its hair. That's actually pretty good for a 4-year-old Accord but I was probably robbed of a 43-44mpg tank. Oh, well. But on the bright side I had a killer afternoon commute today. I'm used to getting 38mpg, today it was up to 41.0mpg. I attribute it to higher temperatures (resulting in a saunamobile) and traffic that tripped me up at just the right times. It seems that heavy traffic helps my fuel economy sometimes by forcing me into an extreme DWL when I drop a bunch of speed heading up-hill. It also holds my average speed down. So I have that much to be thankful for!

On a side note, 64 square feet of 6mm coroplast just arrived at my doorstep. It's way too hot to start working on a belly pan, but at least I can whenever it becomes convenient. I anticipate a very minimal gain, but what the heck? May as well give it a shot.

I had a terrible drive yesterday to work, fell well below my goal.
I was able to make up for some of it on the way home by reeeeeely stretching it, mainly going slower. I hate the extre 15 minutes stretched ontop of the ususal extra 10 minutes but well exceeded the goal back home.
(My work to home commute is 2:00AM)

Then Wallah today I was blessed with a strong tailwind and well exceeded my goal again.

I truly hope to have my 1,000 mile barrier under my belt before the big fest this weekend.
-Steve

Hi All:

___Add my name to the terrible drives this afternoon. 91 – 100 degrees F temps, 15 + mph headwind, 95 miles, and 4 hours and 3 minutes of the most torturous crawl and stop I have experienced in years. Used A/C about ½ the drive as my Ice Vest ran out about 1 hour into the mess. An 18-wheeler heading south bound stalled in the Center lane of the Tri-State (I-294) at Cermak and backed the toll way up for almost 30 miles. I just so happened to be heading southbound about an hour behind (would have been an hour behind) :mad:

___Result: 43.3 mpg segment per the SG. The tank is shot at 375 miles since her last fill up but I should have over 600 miles to make some of it back :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

96F on the way home today. I was prepared with a nice thick towel on the driver's seat. Before even starting her up I had my shirt off and the windows open. During the non highway sections I had both windows down and the fan off. On the highway, both windows closed with the fan on full. I arrived at home with nary a sweat on my brow and 65 MPG to show for my effort. Not bad considering that I chose the 50/50 city highway route compared to my normal 75/25 city/highway. I saved 10 minutes at the expense of 1-2 MPG. Not a bad tradeoff.

On a side note, 64 square feet of 6mm coroplast just arrived at my doorstep. It's way too hot to start working on a belly pan, but at least I can whenever it becomes convenient. I anticipate a very minimal gain, but what the heck? May as well give it a shot.
**ssy! I spent 4 days of the previous two weekends under my friend's Jeep Wrangler installing a whole new long-arm suspension setup. This in Phoenix, where it's a nice 95 degrees by 10am and 105-110 in the afternoon. Show some dedication, man!

**ssy! I spent 4 days of the previous two weekends under my friend's Jeep Wrangler installing a whole new long-arm suspension setup. This in Phoenix, where it's a nice 95 degrees by 10am and 105-110 in the afternoon. Show some dedication, man!

Uh oh. I sense a challenge! Tell you what, I'll compromise and look for a shady spot somewhere in the parking lot to start fitting things up. Tell me you at least had a driveway of your own to work in ;)

blessings to the tailwind, which i also had on the way to work. add that to how slow i was driving because i was tired and my readout when i got there was 66.9MPG!! for 40 miles!

it became a headwind on the way home, but i was pleased to still keep it above 60MPG. heat was gone enough that i didn't need the A/C.

I took a road-trip last weekend, about 3 hours each way... A/C
on low-to-medium most of the way, out of necessity. I've started
playing with an injector duty-cycle display, whose range and
limits are somewhat arbitrary but at least consistent with itself
if I don't change the circuit ... allowed me slightly finer
feedback on trying to minimize FC on the interstate, so I could
stay right in a high-torque, low-RPM sweetspot as much as
possible. Probably averaged just north of 60 mph, slower on
the ups and actually [whoo!] passing some people on the downs.
Started a tank shortly before taking off for this, so I had a
fresh average to play with ... which hovered right around
60 mpg the whole way, pretty much. For *highway* travel in
a 3rd-gen Prius, that's not too bad.. especially given the
relative lack of RPM vs ratio one is given.
.
Now, I shouldn't be surprised by other cars with similarly-sized
engines doing pretty well on steady-state highway, right??
Everyone's up against the same set of constraints, no?
.
_H*

I just couldn't make any headway with my tank mpg yesterday. Temps in the 90's, drive home at 99 degrees. I swear that the tar in the asphalt was acting like glue and slowing me down!!! I could barely keep the car at 55mpg in areas where it is usually around 75-90mpg. Darn that sticky asphalt!:mad:

In 95+ heat, mileage starts to fall 2nd to safety/sanity.

I don't want anyone having a heat stroke trying to get better mileage out there! Please use your a/c if you have to!

It was 7 pm when I was driving the other day and a sign on the road with temp on it was reading 103. These temperatures are not 'fun'. I watch my mileage suffer as well, I am also less likely to keep it in auto-stop mode very long in this weather,

I guess it is time for an HCH II ... you lucky suckers with auto-stop a/c :(

:D ;) :cool:

I made it home yesterday with no A/C in 102f temps. For 51 mpg. I will try it today at forcast temps of 102 to 104f. Just have to wait and see how I feel. Just got back in the office from being out in a boiler room. About 130f in there. Had to check out a pump for a custmer.

I hate summer!!!!!!

Uh oh. I sense a challenge! Tell you what, I'll compromise and look for a shady spot somewhere in the parking lot to start fitting things up. Tell me you at least had a driveway of your own to work in ;)
Yeah we had a shaded garage to work in, although it's not always as much a blessing as you'd think. Although it provided us shade, it also traps the heat in and blocks any of the passing breezes. I had to regularly go out of the garage and just pour water from the garden hose all over me to cool down. It was very frustrating really, although you learn to suffer through it and push onward. Working in a parking lot really sucks though because generally you don't even get shade to work under. Ugh! No fun.

i hate summer because the sun eats up my gasoline tank. Having a black car sure doesn't help with the process. IF my calcuations were correct, I would have lost 3 liters during the course of 22 days I had my gas (which was E10 by the way).

I try to park in shady spots, but later the day the sun goes around and then my black car takes a shiny beating :(

Well, my FE has tanked. Traffic has gone completely wacko and it's been really tough to mitigate the effects. The entire highway has been coming to a grinding halt for absolutely no reason, at least half the time at the bottom of a hill. My morning commute is generally in the 41-42mpg range but in the afternoon it's in the high 30s at best, kicking my tank average down a little bit every day. Painful.

A/C is killing my mileage. :( Its just to hot for me to screw around with it.