valman wrote:managed to get 50 out of my 5 speed 1.4 on motorways, and thats going at 75! cant say the same about them around town though, shocking - put a 10er in (yeah yeah im student dont laugh
) 40 miles later the lights on!!
50 is ridiculously good, with my 360 never managed to do better than 31MPG, my french crap drinks half from that, but that does require advanced fuel saving techniques, like feeling the force and use of force pull
Cut off brakes from car and you learn to save petrol, that is best way, 2nd best is to try to avoid touching brake pedal, you could get some 0,25£ coins or similar and every time you touch brake pedal put coin to yar, where you are not allowed to take them out until you have met some predefined goal like getting 35MPG, 40MPG and so on. It is really just a trick, but it helps in learning.
Rest comes quite naturally when you are not allowed to touch brake and you will get better driver in a process as skill of prediction gets lot better, also place where you look on road changes etc.
When brake is mastered, then comes engine braking, so no braking and no engine braking, that improves mileage even further, just don't do ecodriving on high traffic, I don't do it if someone is behind me, as it can be annoying as hell to other road users, but luckily our roads are often quite empty.
I hardly ever stop to traffic lights, no, I don't run red lights either, but I just don't increase speed toward red lights, I keep speed down and slowly roll so that lights will change before I have to stop, also when I'm gaining line of cars, I slow down early by shifting neutral and not touching brakes.
I may be half senile, but somehow I can find fun in competing with myself if I can make even better mileage.
Planning to get clear package tape and tape all seams someday to test what that does effect
It is important to remember that all energy comes from petrol and it is just transformed to different form, braking will transform your petrol to heat, when idea is to get as little as possible to be transformed to heat and most transformed to movement, gravity can work against but it can also help, so remember to use downhills to gain speed.
My tyre pressures are on high limit, maximum that is allowed that is, it does not affect too much for comfort, but it clearly does help car to pick speed better and also less petrol consumption.
Any weight adds to petrol consumption, keeping tank full increases consumption, so does seats and any sound system + whatever you carry with you.
Smallest consumption is also at maximum torque rpm when throttle is floored, seriously that is how it is, but you would need to cut engine off right after power is not needed and as there are constant resistances that slow car down it is better often to teather the throttle, put sponge under the throttle pedal and you save over 10% again.
I did manage to get better MPG with yank tank (weights 2 tons, 5l v8 + automatic box) than I ever managed to get with 360, but I think that I could make lot better now with 360 than what I used to get as I have learned many things about how to save litre or two.
I do need to check my pressures!