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Well, I guess I'll start it off. After Larry so nicely brought up my tank average I have been able to successfuly bring it back down to depressing numbers. I got about 45mpg going in to work today. Maybe a slight head wind to deal with but on the other hand temps were about 15F higher than most of the trips this tank.

Reasonable commute of 35.4mpg in temps of around 40F. It was nice to be driving with some sun at my back instead of total darkness.

The warmer temps were ok today. My morning segments were 37.5 to my wife's work and 55.9 from her work to mine. This afternoon was 63.6 back to the wife's work and 55.9 from there to home. The temp is 68F now.

Happened again.

After cruising along happily at around 40MPH in a 35, the guy behind me reached his limit and zipped right past me. Oh well. But then, as I reached the red light - which I knew was going to be red - he was sitting there in the back of the line.

I always time it as best I can so after the light turned green and the cars started moving again, I started approaching the line. The jerk who had just passed me started moving and then slammed on his brakes. Of course, I had to also.

This is not the first time someone has figured out that I was timing the lights and intentionally stopped short just to break my stride. There is no other reason for him to break; there was nothing happening and the car in front of him was now well in front of him.

It's amazing how one jerk can really change your whole outlook. What a way to start the week.

It's amazing how one jerk can really change your whole outlook. What a way to start the week.

Witness.

This is the kind of thing that demolishes any faith I may have had in humanity. Today I was rolling through a parking lot when a guy in a Jeep nearly hit me while pulling out of his space. Rather than follow me out he decided to pull a hard right across the aisles and blow a stop sign, ultimately cutting me off and nearly hitting me again to get ahead. It's funny because ten minutes later I was listening to a BBC story about a guy who wants to replace every traffic signal on Earth with a four-way stop and depend on human cooperation to make things flow. "It's really amazing what happens when you have one of these situations...people really look out for one another and cooperate." yeah, right. That sounds like the ganja talking. At most, four out of every five people I have seen at a four way stop both a)know how a four-way works and b)have the required courtesy to follow the rules. To me, it's a description of everything wrong with society. There is no cooperation, there is no common good. It's "me first, screw the rest!" Even something as simple and socially responsible as courteous hypermiling...getting the job done without holding anybody up...will be punished by someone who doesn't get it, doesn't want to, and doesn't think it's wrong to play the role of a common playground bully.

Yes, one jerk really can change your whole outlook. And someone else's, and someone else's, and on until the only people who still care are those inexperienced enough not to have been affected.

How to fix it?

Hi Tim:
How to fix it?

___Avoid that 4-way stop if at all possible? Any nearby subdivisions or alternate routes you can duck into and out of to avoid it and to maintain you momentum?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hi Tim:


___Avoid that 4-way stop if at all possible? Any nearby subdivisions or alternate routes you can duck into and out of to avoid it and to maintain you momentum?

___Good Luck

___Wayne

HA! Good answer. :D

On a better note, I managed a 36.1mpg segment in 36-40 degree F temps on the way to work, which is easily the best since early September. The difference was "The Great Circle Route." On a map it looks very out of the way, but in terms of miles travelled it's nearly identical to hopping on the highway. However, speed limits mostly range from 30-45mph and there aren't nearly as many traffic controls as the other back way that I was taking. It should be really interesting to try this in the afternoon with temps approaching 65!

Refueled last night.

Tank Miles: 544.7
Refill Amount: 9.388 gal.
Tank average: 56.3 MPG

Rather dismal relatively. But the first 200 miles were on the interstate and it included some very cold mornings and very windy evenings.
So far, 40 miles into this tank, I'm at 64.8 MPG. Maybe I should refuel now just to document the number.

82mpg this morning and it was around 65F.

The temps started out this morning at ~60F so I went ahead and FAS on the first leg of my morning trip as well as the second leg. I ended up with 56.6 by the time I got my wife to work and I had 56.2 showing by the time I got to work. By the time I got out of work at 2:10, the temps had fallen to ~ 42F. The FE numbers fell accordingly. The trip back to my wife's work was 53.4 and I had 53.1 by the time I got home. The temps are forecasted to be in the upper 20's tomorrow morning.:(

Last month I took sort of a break and only did "Supermiling" 95% freeway and averaged lower than if I'd went 1/2 my usual side road.

Well I'm back to "being all I can be" again starting last night.

My commute time has changed. Used to be:
4:30-5:30PM and 2:00-3:00AM
But is now 3 hours earlier.

It's amazing how much more traffic there is at 11PM vs 2AM. :rolleyes:

Hi All:

___A wonderful 4:15 minute drive in tonight. Jackknifed and over turned semi rig shut down I-94 for over an hour and the traffic kept crawling into it until they opened 1 lane and then 2 and then 3. 2:15 to travel 9 miles and a lousy 21.0 mpg to show for it :mad: After that ordeal, now I am fully locked into a Chicago rush. After 90 miles, the best I could do was 44.3 mpg’s :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Hi All:

___A wonderful 4:15 minute drive in tonight. Jackknifed and over turned semi rig shut down I-94 for over an hour and the traffic kept crawling into it until they opened 1 lane and then 2 and then 3. 2:15 to travel 9 miles and a lousy 21.0 mpg to show for it :mad: After that ordeal, now I am fully locked into a Chicago rush. After 90 miles, the best I could do was 44.3 mpg’s :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

OUCH! The consollation is that you probably did better than anyone else that was in the same jam. :) Hang in there.

I realized earlier tonight as I was typing a PM to Tony Schafer that I don't remember posting the SG numbers for my trip to Tom's house and back home Saturday. By the time I parked at Tom's house, the SG was reporting 48.7. By the time I got home, the SG was showing 61.9. The numbers I gave Tony in the PM were about 8% too high. I found the error just a bit ago as I was going over my figures for the weekend and the above numbers are the corrected values.

My trip home via the latest experimental route was a little disappointing but not unexpected. I was over 36mpg until I hit the final, big hill and subsequently lost over 1mpg in just that half mile. It's a nasty push but there's literally no way to avoid it. So 34.9mpg in 60-65 degree temps. I think there's plenty of room for improvement in both directions, owing to the long stretches of rolling hills and speeds right in the sweet spot for this car (40-45mph). One of the biggest factors will be to maximize glide distances, (either NICE-on or in FAS...both offer measurable gains), by dialing in entry speeds and locations. The other major challenge is to find the best strategy for the achilles heel of this route, which is three hills on the way home that offer a 50/50 shot of getting stopped while facing up-hill. That might mean finding a way around, or it might be as simple as getting the timing down. Time will tell.

I was bored and couldn't sleep; so I took a drive to pick up something from work. Life is nice without traffic.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/504/DSC_7081.jpg

Thanks,

Chris

Good drive!! I rolled into my space with 37.0mpg showing on the ScanGauge...another best of the season. I nearly didn't make it the last 1000ft when someone decided it would be a good idea to make a left turn from the lane to my right, but at least she woke up at the last minute. Conditions were fog, damp roads, and temps around 50F.

Morning

My last tank was better than I expected so I went ahead and did the full tank top off and ended up with 44 mpg.

Monday morning started out great with the trip into work segment coming in at 52 mpg. Home was another story. Winds had switched to a head wind. That segment resulted in 48 mpg.

Tuesday was horid. With 15 mph winds with 30 mph gusts and 40f temps in head wind fashion i got a soild 46 mpg. Home was a soild 46 mpg also. I had to go late in the day and reprogram a mod controller for a boiler the college boys screwed up.

Ive already had to do 60 miles of running around for work on this tank including the boiler reprogram run. This type of driving net me .40 cents a mile. At times the Civic can be quite the money maker. :)

Getting 81mpg is not bad considering it was 40F or colder this morning.

This morning was a bust. 41 mpg. A head wind cool temps and over 20 min's. to get thru two traffic lights in Glenpool and Jenks. The traffic jam area isnt more than 3 miles. Then I hear this morning a Walmart and its resulting mess is going into the area. Also in the area that one of the lights are in and a interchange between Hwy 75 and the Creek Nation Turnpike they are going to build homes. That action alone will cause massive backups when the homes start going in. then there will be flooding of those homes. As its a low ,,, very low area bordering on swampy. Only a fool would build there and a idiot purchase a home in there.

Come on low paying job in Okmulgee!!!!! I need out of this drive!!!!!!

32F here at work. Rolled in at about 46mpg.

32F here at work. Rolled in at about 46mpg.

Tom - did you know that 46mpg was the EPA rating of the Accord when it first came out in 1976? It had 68 horsepower - on par with the Insight. Cars have grown. ;)

They measured epa mpg differently back then a 46epa would be about 38epa these days.

Cars have indeed been getting bigger, but apparantly engines have been getting much more efficient. Even what we may consider inefficient today is still getting far better MPG than similar cars in olden days. ;)

Maybe I did a poor job of saying you are meeting/beating the FE of the smaller and lighter 1976 Accord.

Another great run this afternoon, at least by seasonal standards. I improved the segment to 36.0mpg, and saw 37.4mpg shortly before "charging" that last hill. I attribute the improvement to more gliding and increased glide distances (NICE-on for now) and better DWL practices now that I have seen the route a couple of times.

One of the things I really love about this route is that after 6 miles on the interstate I'm just driving through farmland. The roads are moderatly travelled and so far I haven't encountered much in the way of impatient drivers. (I don't drop more than 1-2mph below the speed limit and exceed slightly when it supports DWL.)

This tank is up to 35.6mpg on the ScanGauge. My next endeavor is to get cracking on a lower grill block.

Today was a below average day.:( This morning's drive to my wife's work was 32.7. From there to my work was 53.8. This afternoon, things got worse. From my work back to my wife's work was a measly 47.9 and from there to my mom's house ~45. Cold weather and cross-winds stink. :mad:

76mpg in 40F today.

It's a wet, cold, nasty morning. The light and traffic gods were not with me, and I got stuck at what felt like every traffic light along the way (not that many but enough to make a difference) as well as a school bus. It came out to 32.3mpg on the ScanGauge, which reduced the tank FE to 35.2 or 35.3mpg. It's going to take some work if I want to re-emerge in the 36mpg+ range, reducing my cold weather losses to 10% vs. average summer FE.

I keep getting the itch to re-implement a P&G-style FAS routine but haven't quite convinced myself that this battery can handle the extra electrical loads (headlights, sometimes rear defroster) over and over again. I suppose a trip to AutoZone for a battery test would be the right thing to do.

Last week all my roundtrip commutes got over 65mpg. This week so far not one has made it to 65, maybe due to much cooler nights now as nothing else has changed I can think of. Most mornings now I don't see autostop at all before hitting the freeway. But hallelujah for the morning light being back again as I really started hating driving in the dark these last few months.

Don't think I've mentioned this before but on the "death loop" interchange I've noticed my car handles this so well. Maybe since I brought the tires up to 44psi. I can take it at a screaming 45mph and not a sound from the tires or any "tilting" feeling. Well at least not for the driver? ;) SUVs on my tail to that point generally start dropping way back.

Another thing I've noticed is that I haven't seen a forced regen in a very very long time and I've used EV w/assist very heavily at every opportunity these last few weeks, especially in the slower homeward traffic. Yesterday evening traffic was backed up and moving very slowly. I happened to be stopped at the top of a slope and managed to glide all the way down--about .3 miles-- at 15-16mph while in autostop mode. My thrill of the week.

Just trying to maintain things another day or so to fillup and I should wrap up my third 6X mpg tank though it may be my last one for a while as it gets colder. Right now I still have at least 6-7 bars on the gas gauge. I sure have fun telling my coworkers I fill up every 3 weeks--whether I need it or not.

No wind this am with temps in the mid to upper 20's resulted in 46 mpg for the drive to work.

Today was a bad day.:( My morning commute to the wife's work was 29.1 and from there to my work was 47.2. This afternoon the winds had really picked up and the FE dropped like a rock. It was so bad I didn't even bother to write it down but it was only in the upper 30's.:(

Did OK this afternoon despite the temp drop from about 65F to 45F since yesterday. I threw in 4 or 6 FAS cycles, which were the "low hanging fruit" so to speak. There ought to be a few more good opportunities in there that will come with some more effort. The end result for the afternoon was 35.6mpg.

A cold day down in the 30s. Only able to pull off about a 42 this morning. OUCH!

(I won't be able to play here every day, but I'm going to try at least comment on my week once in awhile.)

I've been pleasantly surprised with my mpg numbers now that I'm using my newly-discovered block heater. I filled up Monday night with 40.4mpg reading on the NAV display; the calculated FE was 38.8. So my average since April got to stay just above 40mpg for another tank.:)

We've had temps here in the 40's during the day, but my morning commute has been in the low- to mid-30's - in fact, this morning the temp was 28, w/a 17-degree wind-chill. Tuesday & Wednesday were my regular commute to & from work, & Tuesday night I parked in the garage with 41.4mpg on the NAV screen :):)

Then yesterday, I had to do some freeway travel & it dropped below 38mpg :( I was able to come home through town & bring it back up to 40.1, but then this morning the engine just did *not* want to stay off, & it's parked with an even 40.0. Not bad, I know, but not what I've become used to.

At the meeting on Saturday, I talked to a couple of people about blocking my radiator, & that's the next thing I'm going to try. Unfortunately, that looks like it's going to be a little more complicated than just slipping a piece of cardboard down between the radiator & the grille - I'm thinking I may just cut a couple of pieces to fit in front of the grille, tape them together for a double thickness, & tape them to the bumper (another reason to be glad I don't have the painted bumpers:) ). If any of you northern FEH-owners have any other suggestions, I'd be interested!

Today was both good and not so good. I started out this morning with temps around 28F. The trip to my wife's work came in at only 29.3 mpg.:( From there to my work was 47.1. On the trip to my wife's work, I don't FAS to let the engine warm up; I do nICE when I would normally FAS. I noticed that when I was coasting in neutral that the engine was running abnormally fast; sometimes at nearly 2800 rpm's. I've heard from other Saturn owners that this is not an uncommon thing with lots of FAS. At lunch time I went up to the gas station and refilled. While I was refilling, I disconnected the battery so I could re-set the ECU's keep alive memory. When I re-started, I didn't FAS on the way back to work, just nICE. The car idled at just over it's normal idle speed of ~900 rpm's while coasting. I forgot to mention that the idle speed would drop to normal if I sat at a complete stop for long enough. This afternoon on the way back to my wife's work I did only nICE and I was able to pull off 51.2 mpg. From there back to my house I got 51.5 mpg. The temp was 36F. I think what I'll do for this tank or at least part of it anyway, is do only nICE and see how the tank FE goes. After that I will try adding some FAS and keep an eye on the idle speed. Another thing that alerted me to a possible problem was that the ECU was running in open loop most of the time when I was doing my pulsing. This is yet another benefit to having a Scanguage.:)

sounds like you all need to start cutting some cardboard!!!!

For me only 2 weeks owning the car and i've already gone through at least 5 pieces of cardboard! The rain sure loves ripping my board into useless pieces, but it works so well I didn't even travel for like half a KM and my engine is already shut off! (10 degrees C temps) Manged to fill up the tank and was surprised that the MFD was dead on with my calculations, hm well this last tank represents ALOT of cold starts since I always wanted to take the prius out when I'm on my lunch break hehe. I never did that EVER on the civic since I knew how much gas a cold start eats.

Even though the cold starts kill the mileage, I was very happy I managed to keep it above 100% EPA despite my much more relaxed driving style, and learning how to naturally deadband with this car although the flick of N is still easier :)

Right now I am not pushing the limits of this car due to a) I'm nice right now I'll speed up for traffic if I must (yes sometimes for the red light too :(

b) I got a hybrid, I feel for you the gas you must puke out on a daily basis ;)

c) I don't think I ever freaked out in this car, not once, not nada, I don't think I want to break that streak yet since... hypermiling attracts attention :P

Maybe when I switch over to 0-20 and change over to WS fluid for my transaxle then maybe i'll start pushing for 70 mpg since I know its very possible. Just lazyness has a thing over people.

I just turned in a 43.1 mpg tank. This really sucks! The SG showed a 46 mpg tank. This was a full top off to full top off tank. The sg keeps lieing like this to me,,,, Im throwing it under the buss and shipping all the small parts back to its creator.

This really hacks me off!!!!!!!!

Hi Psy:

___Have you performed the offset on your tank fills? With a ton of P&G’s and FAS’, the SG-II in the Accord displays a higher then actual tank FE by almost 4% and the distance shown is ~ 3% less. The NAVI TC is even more useless under that scenario … While driving steady state, the SG-II is dead on with the tank using no offset as is the NAVI. On the tank fill, you can adjust your gallons filled which automatically installs the offset to bring her back in line for your next tank.

___And if you are going to throw the beast under a BUS, at least let me have the chance to send you a few bucks for it intact and I will blow up some old computer parts and send those to Ron instead ;)

___Debbie, you are doing EXCELLENT in your FEH for the temps we have been experiencing lately!!!

___Good Luck

___Wayne

it piss me off.... i dont work my numbers... to be lied to at a margin than the navy dosent except for a nuke stike!!!! My god,,,, if a sg dosent read right at whats basic 16 bit data and ooo my god,,, heaven forbid 32 or 64 bit stuff... Screw it and its mount.

its actions to me shake the basics you saw on the insight run. you trust the 85 mpg we saw because you trusted the fact that i trusted it,,, and you belived my mark.

Fact is i dont trust SG for anything now but the velvet in a bank acct.

I know longer trust sg anymore than than a honda gps system..

Hi Psy:

___A bit OT for all …

___This is more a Honda problem then the SG’s from what I have experienced. Place your SG-I in your Ford and pull a FAS. See how fast after Key off it starts reading distance and FE? Watch how fast it starts reading on the clutch or key start as well. Our Honda’s (Accord’s and Civic’s) take as long as 6 seconds before they start reading the stream during the key off sequence whereas the Ranger will start reading in less then 1 in some instances. This Honda induced OBD-II read lag is just one of the problems killing the SG-I/II’s accuracy in our Honda’s. The inability to see Fuel cut is a SG-I/II problem. I do not know how Ron will be able to fix that one?

___My last 3 tanks using the SG-II were +/- 2% but those tanks included a ton of long distance highway miles. As soon as I got back into the swing of things here at home, the FE accuracy went to almost 4% over recorded vs. actual.

___The SuperMid would be far more accurate here but having to tap the ECU is one of its downfalls. Yoshi all but promised us a SuperMid with English units and a full blown spread of pics as to how to connect them up with a minimal of issues. I cannot wait to see the final results for myself as I know the readings will be within .5% after your first calibration.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Maybe that's just a little harsh? I see the same kind of fluctuation from time to time and it's irritating, but I don't think the purpose of the ScanGauge is really to give us dead-accurate averages all of the time. In principle it is a learning tool, and it doesn't have to be perfect as such. As long as it shows you what works well and what doesn't it's doing it's job OK IMO.


**Edit**
Talking to Psyshack there, hit the quick reply instead of quoting.

Hi All:

___And to get back on topic … A very tired member here with an uneventful 53.1 mpg ride home. 7 hours before I am back on the road again :(

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Today is unfortunately, a commute day for me and what a way to start it out.

Supposed to leave for work by 6:30 and we look out our window and see a car parked in the street right across our driveway, so we can't get out. Thank heavens daughter's car is parked on the street so husband can at least take that and make his 7am appointments. But I'm stuck at the house waiting for the tow truck. Finally they come and haul the POS out of the way. Don't think it was stolen and abandoned--they had to parallel park very carefully to get it in that space when they could have just left it in the red just a few feet away. Felt extremely satisfied to see this sihtforbrains get ticketed and towed.

The only good news today is, the freeway was clear and and temps higher later in the morning so I made a fairly nice 69mpg segment.

Now I'm at work, but is it nice and quiet? No! There's 4 construction guys right outside my office putting in cable conduits. Nothing to do but make a second cup of tea and shut my door. Now one is sawing through some drywall and I can tell another one clearly has a bad cold. Wish I had an iPod.

I think that is why we all verify using hand calcs based on miles driven and fuel used. When you try to fas and stuff it loses time and makes guestamates on fuel consumption. Use the SG as a tool for other things if you don't like its mpg calculations. It is still a valuable tool. Calm down and relax and figure out where you can use it that will make sense for you.

Parked in the garage tonight after dinner out - 40.4mpg on the NAV display. Not bad for a week of temps in the 20's, 30's, & 40's. Sigh...

Parked in the garage tonight after dinner out - 40.4mpg on the NAV display. Not bad for a week of temps in the 20's, 30's, & 40's. Sigh...

Indeed, not bad at all!:) I think Wayne was right about you being the world's best FEH driver.:D

I think Debbie and Rich (Pravus) Are going to have to fight for that title at hybridfest 2007 ;)

Hi Tom:

___I think Rich is going to kick my @$$ but my money is on Debbie and her FWD (I am doubling down too ;)) vs. Rich’s AWD … That is unless Gary decides to show up :D

___Tonight’s drive in was an uneventful 49.0 in 46 - 49 degree temps and a stop to pick up my carpooler.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Oh, right Gary. Forgot about him. Maybe we should give out a prize if those guys compete at hybridfest for best FEH driver. It will have to be percent over epa so the 4wd doesn't get penalized too much.

:embarassed: Aw shucks guys... :embarassed:

I think a FEH mpg challenge at Hybridfest2007 would be great, not just to try to outdo each other, but I know I have a lot more to learn from people like Pravus Prime & GaryG, if he could make it next year!

And actually, I need to point out that my 40.4mpg is what's on the NAV display - that probably equates to somewhere between 38-39mpg. And my average in my signature only represents my FE since last April - after this winter I'll have a much more accurate idea of my lmpg.