gas mileage help

kicknaoffroad · Post by **kicknaoffroad** » Mon Jun 23, 2008 2:47 pm

i guess my weight redux has payed off!

i get 35 to 36 mpg just driving regular with some spirited driving now and then. and 38 to 40 when i try to conserve. i drive 25 miles to work one way 50/50 city and highway.

nate-00neon · Post by **nate-00neon** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 10:04 pm

what did you take out?

kicknaoffroad · Post by **kicknaoffroad** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:06 pm

nate-00neon wrote:what did you take out?

-power steering
-air conditioning
-cruise control
-windshield washer resevoir
-back seat and trunk liner/sound deadening
-radio and all speakers
and i'm using a walmart 230 cca lawn and garden battery to save alittle more weight...

i'm sure theres more but thats all i can think of right now.

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 11:25 pm

Sounds uncomfortable. I like all the options my R/T has, and plan on adding more. Hopefully I can offset some weight here and there with CF, but I plan on making the R/T a bit more luxury.

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:56 am

kicknaoffroad wrote:
nate-00neon wrote:what did you take out?
-power steering
-air conditioning
-cruise control
-windshield washer resevoir
-back seat and trunk liner/sound deadening
-radio and all speakers
and i'm using a walmart 230 cca lawn and garden battery to save alittle more weight... i'm sure theres more but thats all i can think of right now.

What exactly did you remove for the power steering, ac, and cruise control? The washer fluid tank, full, probably only weighs 7 pounds. Hope you replace that battery with an automotive one before winter if it gets cold where you live. So, how's that road noise with no trunk carpet/sound deadening?

Mach · Post by **Mach** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 1:54 am

Wouldn't it better to hit the treadmill, put down the fork and shed 15 pounds. Thats the same as removing all those items.

Post by **occasional demons** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:40 am

The criuse control would help save more gas than the effect of it's weight

Paul56 · Post by **Paul56** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:55 am

kicknaoffroad wrote:
nate-00neon wrote:what did you take out?
-power steering
-air conditioning
-cruise control
-windshield washer resevoir
-back seat and trunk liner/sound deadening
-radio and all speakers
and i'm using a walmart 230 cca lawn and garden battery to save alittle more weight... i'm sure theres more but thats all i can think of right now.

Add running boards and you will almost have a 1920's era car!

WickedJester · Post by **WickedJester** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 10:07 am

I average about 28-30 mpg with the a/c blowing driving in the hills of WV. One of my tires has a busted belt so once its replaced should help get even better.

kicknaoffroad · Post by **kicknaoffroad** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 12:37 pm

Mach wrote:Wouldn't it better to hit the treadmill, put down the fork and shed 15 pounds. Thats the same as removing all those items.

if i shed another 15 pounds i'll be looking anorexic skinny.... and i think your 15 pound figure is way off.

WickedJester · Post by **WickedJester** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 4:37 pm

Ive lost quite a bit of weight recently and plan to lose a lot more. Maybe it will help on my gas mileage.

Adionik · Post by **Adionik** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 5:34 pm

That sounds horrible...I'm not hurting for money and I can't fathom the idea of taking girls out in a piece of shit with no AC

Paul56 · Post by **Paul56** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 7:53 pm

Adionik wrote:That sounds horrible...I'm not hurting for money and I can't fathom the idea of taking girls out in a piece of shit with no AC

She is just going to have to roast... because the windows cannot be rolled down as that decreases gas mileage.

Oh and she might have to help out with the hypermiling by pushing the car in the club parking lot while I steer.

Mach · Post by **Mach** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:54 pm

No no. the windows won't roll down becuase the windows are Saran Wrap. The glass windows were removed for weight redux.

The starter is heavy so thats gone too. Now the car has a ford model T style starter, with a big crank in the front.

nate-00neon · Post by **nate-00neon** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:46 pm

this is not helping guys lol but it is very funny

kicknaoffroad · Post by **kicknaoffroad** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 2:30 am

Adionik wrote:That sounds horrible...I'm not hurting for money and I can't fathom the idea of taking girls out in a piece of shit with no AC

i personly prefer having the windows down over a/c any day and your right, it really hurts me to have to take girls out in my

piece of shit with no a/c... as for the starter, thats long gone! at first i went with the model t hand crank only to later decide that i'd save more weight by just bump starting my car. that combined with no powersteering is a hell of a workout and aside from the savings at the pump i dont need to pay for a gym membership anymore. no need for an automotive battery in the winter. it doesnt even crank slow. 2 northeast ohio winters with not a single prblm. my reason for weight redux is for performance gains i just happened to notice that i am getting above the average gas mileage on here and i'm guessing that has alot to do with it. i'm not the only one on this site that has done weight redux to improve performance. unfortunatly tools like adionik cant grasp this concept

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:02 am

Yeah, you're taking it to the extreme on a daily driver tho. Most people do that shit to their toys.

Addicted2Boost · Post by **Addicted2Boost** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 6:21 am

im getting 28 mpg beating the hell out of her.

kicknaoffroad · Post by **kicknaoffroad** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 9:04 am

Wenuden wrote:Yeah, you're taking it to the extreme on a daily driver tho. Most people do that shit to their toys.

unfortunatly i cant afford another toy so i make the best of what i have. and i enjoy driving it the way it is. its like a big go-kart

Swordfish2Cowboy · Post by **Swordfish2Cowboy** » Sat Jun 28, 2008 11:26 am

Northern Ohio sucks. It's been hot lately, besides. But not too hot just to roll the windows down.

measy27 · Post by **measy27** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:20 am

id say thats pretty normal for gas mileage.. i wish I got that in my SRT

dbesade · Post by **dbesade** » Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:44 pm

measy27 wrote:id say thats pretty normal for gas mileage.. i wish I got that in my SRT

x2 I get about 180 - 200 Miles before my gas light comes on.

IowaNeon04 · Post by **IowaNeon04** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:15 am

Hmm, well mines a 5-spd with 82k miles, and I get 32-36 mpg regularly, mixed city and highway. I just drove from Iowa to Michigan two weekends ago, and averaged just under 42 mpg on the way there, averaging 69 mph with the AC on about half the time, never took it over 2800 rpm.

0W-30 Mobil1
Champion coppers
$19 OEM plug wires from Advanced Auto, changed 6k miles ago.
Front tires (205/40/HR17) filled to 35 psi. Rears at 29 psi.
K&N air filter
Second intake hole cut in bottom of stock air box
Air inlet resonator removed
25" x 2-1/4"glasspack from axle-to-bumper
Tranny drained and filled every 36k
New accessory and alt belts, proper tension

MXer · Post by **MXer** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 8:08 am

With my old setup - You can see it in my Signature, I was normally in the 33mpg range. I ran 55 PSI in my tires even thou they called for 50PSI. I didn't baby it, I drove normally and my commute was around 50 miles each way to work.... most of it Highway miles. I have to believe the UDP, cleaned out Cat, Borla header/exhaust and Iceman Intake had a positive impact on mpg's under normal driving down the highway. I believe the AFX Street
Now with the Stroker I'm installing, I don't know where my mpg's will fall. The new motor has a whole lot more modifications done to it.. and eveyone will most likly have a negitive impact on fuel mileage. To counter that a little - I installed an 05 manually tranny that has a .72 fifth gear, so I'm anxious to see how dramatic my mpg's change. I feel the confident my mp's (mile per smile's) will go up!

matguy · Post by **matguy** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:56 pm

I drive about 130 miles round trip a day to Seattle in a 04 SXT Automatic (No cruise.)

65 mile one-way usually takes about 1.5 hours, which equals average 40-50MPH (Seattle-Tacoma traffic, ugh)

With totally normal driving in cool, dry weather, 65MPH tops, light traffic I get ~33MPG

AC usually takes away 3MPG
Bad Traffic usually takes away 3MPG (obviously "bad" is reletive, but I would call it adding 20-30 minutes to the drive)
Hypermiling rarely adds more than 2MPG
Spirited driving usually takes away 3MPH (blasts of 100MPH, mean speed of 75MPH where possible, hard accell.)

Spirited driving and AC are a give and take, when I'm driving hard, the AC is off. Spirited driving and traffic can be cumulative when it comes to acceleration and tire spinning (yes, it'll do it... for about a second by full throttle stall take-offs.) Hypermiling in the Neon usualy equals light drafting (2+ large car lentghs,) coasting down long hills with engine off (1+ mile hills, there's 2 of them on my drive each way,) light pulse and glide in with neutral, and loosing 2-5 MPH going up hills. I haven't tested the difference between windows down and AC, but I generally don't like the windows down anyway.

So, in the end I seem to average 30MPG by mixing all of the above.

Now, I just bought the car a month ago with 40k on it from a dealer. I haven't changed the oil yet, haven't checked any filters, haven't even checked the tire pressure, but I've found that in mine, being an Auto, serious hypermiling isn't really possible and I don't think it'd do much; definatly not enough to warrant the extra wear on the trans, starter, etc and even light hypermiling doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I even had a scare last week where I was going down a long hill (people around here would know it as the hill on I5 from "Wild Waves" down to Fife) and I put it in neutral, shut off the engine then turned the key back on and coasted; when I was ready to start going again I forgot to start the engine, put it in gear, realized my mistake, but obviously without the hydraulic pressure nothing happened, put it back in neutral, turned the engine back on, went to put it in gear and it wouldn't engage, at all; I ended up turning it back off fully again, waited while still coasting, then turned it back on and put it in gear and it went. Neutral-off coasting in an automatic just isn't safe, it's easy to screw up if you get distracted at all which can be not only a little scary, but could break something. In a stick you can always pop it as long as you're rolling decent and no one is right on your but.

Before this I had a 05 Kia Spectra SX, manual. It's much easier (and safer in my opinion) to hypermile some with a manual, if I was really going at it I could get 40MPG out of the Kia; I assume I could get similar out of a standard Neon. I wish I had stayed with a manual at this point after the Spectra was rear-ended (Jeep couldn't stop in the rain, not my fault, not a hypermiling issue, just traffic.)

First thing I need to do though is check tire pressure, it just doesn't seem to roll freely, on hills that I used to pick up speed coasting in the Kia I loose speed in the Neon.

Wenuden · Post by **Wenuden** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 4:20 am

everything I've read about hypermiling except the pulse-glide and not stomping off a light and coasting to a light, and of course making sure your car is in good running order, is a bit excessive. Turning your car off while driving and drafting is just retarded, and puts everyone around you at risk.

If you want good gas mileage, get a motorcycle. During the Carlisle meet, I got 55mpg. That was with sustained speeds of 100+ on the way up and back, when traffic permitted, quite a few low gear runs to 140+, and riding in 4th or 5th on the highway instead of 6th. I could probably see 65-70 mpg just cruising at 80 in 6th.

Post by **occasional demons** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:57 am

"First thing I need to do though is check tire pressure, it just doesn't seem to roll freely, on hills that I used to pick up speed coasting in the Kia I loose speed in the Neon."

The ATX will still have drag in neutral compared to an MTX.

matguy · Post by **matguy** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 1:56 pm

Wenuden wrote:everything I've read about hypermiling except the pulse-glide and not stomping off a light and coasting to a light, and of course making sure your car is in good running order, is a bit excessive. Turning your car off while driving and drafting is just retarded, and puts everyone around you at risk.

If you want good gas mileage, get a motorcycle. During the Carlisle meet, I got 55mpg. That was with sustained speeds of 100+ on the way up and back, when traffic permitted, quite a few low gear runs to 140+, and riding in 4th or 5th on the highway instead of 6th. I could probably see 65-70 mpg just cruising at 80 in 6th.

I can't seem to strap a baby seat on a motorcycle and I have to be able to pick up the kids (2) on the way home without warning. But, as I mentioned above that at least in this car, and probably most Autos, it's usually not worth it. Although, one mans (or womans) excessive is another mans desire/drive/need.

occasional demons wrote:The ATX will still have drag in neutral compared to an MTX.

I've had plenty of autos (2 Reliants's, Aries, Firebird GTA, Olds Cutlass Cierra, VW Rabbit, and a VW Bug Autostick; ok that doesn't really count, but it's lubed with gear oil instead of ATF even though it uses ATF for the TC so there should be some drag when it's cold,) and I've never had neutral drag like this; is there something unique about this design? Is there an output driven hydraulic pump or something? (good to know for towing.)