Mileage/other issues

Hi Drazzst,

My guess is that the car is getting into a high SOC (State of Charge) situation, and the car is acting to run down that charge at the expense of mileage. When you get up to 7 or so bars, try accellerating in the yellow bars up hills. If you can find a near flat area, it would be good to try to stealth (below 41 mph) to run the battery down to mid SOC.

I am assuming that you are not running up to stopped cars, or stop light, then braking hard in the last 50 yards. See a red light 1/2 a mile ahead, that you are pretty sure will not go green soon, then stealth lift throttle, glide down in speed and then stealth up to the light.

If the weather is warmer than 85 F, best to run with the windows closed and the AC on Auto. Another possibility to the frist paragraph is that the battery is getting too hot. This would jive with your comment about the car loosing power. In such a situation no power from will be used. You should hear the battery cooling fan though, and you did not mention that. So maybe that is not it.

 

I am in Boston area I get typically over 50 mpg commuting to work and over 55 mpg on longer trips. My commute is only 10 miles and my first 5 minutes bar is typically only 25.

Heavy ac use in a traffic jam can pull it down into the 40's.

Now if I take back routes to work and use as much battery as possible I can keep my mpg over 65 to 70 mpg going to work. Can't do it returning home due to more traffic.

My normal route is on 128 and mpg stays at 55 to 60 the whole way after warm up that kills my average.

Contrary to others advice every time I take back roads and can drive 40 or less, if I try not to use the battery my mpg drops below 60.

I keep my tires at 42/40.
Synthetic oil below full mark but just a bit under.

Also contrary to others advice I find big differences in fuel brands, but all are worse now with the ethanol.
I have lost about 3 mpg at least from it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Drazzst @ Aug 7 2006, 08:45 AM) [snapback]298974[/snapback]</div>

Can you elaborate on what you mean by "slow starts"? I have found that gradual acceleration from a stop is a real MPG killer. If traffic conditions permit, it's better to accelerate quickly to the speed limit.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tomdeimos @ Aug 9 2006, 01:50 AM) [snapback]300064[/snapback]</div>

What brand of fuel do you find is the best? I never considered that, as my grandfather used to driver a tanker truck many years ago. He said he'd deliver gas to different stations out of the same tank on the trailer. That was 15-20 years ago....

 

all this advice is good, but the one thing that makes all the difference is how many times you use the brake. my rule of thumb, if there is less than a 5 seconds of time between foot on gas and brake, you are losing mileage. this only happens in emergency or other unavoidable situations (which cant be avoided) or from lack of proper anticipation.

"keeping up" with traffic means driving the same inefficient way as everyone else on the road. watch as people accelerate until a half block from a traffic light that has 5 cars waiting there. we all know that it will take at least 30 seconds to clear the intersection AFTER the light turns green. there is NOTHING wrong with starting to coast at anytime when you know you will be stopping. and YES, people around you will not understand this.

i know so many people who live in my area and do nearly the exact same driving as me and average 45 mpg when i am doing 60 and that is the reason why. by keeping up with traffic and trying not to piss anyone off, the only thing you accomplish is longer standstill time at the light. an ultimate win is to drive thru town without touching the brakes or having to come to a complete stop. do that and i GUARANTEE you will easily be over 50 mpg

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(mike_m @ Aug 10 2006, 12:58 PM) [snapback]300896[/snapback]</div>

Most here still claim the gasoline all comes from the same tanks. I don't buy it because I see big differences. However I no longer have any idea what is best. I used to get best mpg with Shell and worst with Hess. Mobil and Exxon were close to Shell.

But now with the new Ethanol mixes I'm starting to see big variations all of a sudden from tank to tank even with the same brand and station for a fill up. I've had fill ups vary due to the fuel by over 9 mpg when I could not explain by any other changes in wind or temperatures, etc.

Regarding the gasoline all coming from the same place. I expect that is true except for differences due to different refineries or the actual oil well location. This might affect the amount of Ethanol needed and maybe it is not all right at 10%. The other additives are maybe different too. So using one of the top tier rated gasolines may matter. Then there is the issue of dealer volume, and older fuel may not be as good.

Anyway it's pretty easy to tell if there's a problem. I just check my mpg at steady 65 mph on a flat highway. Long as there is no problem from wind I find mpg instant readout tends to be the same before and after a fill up. Normally this will be at least over 50 mpg depending on temperatures etc. When I get bad fuel of some kind it will often never reach 50 mpg even at steady 60 mph.

For more see other thread here:

http://priuschat.com/Low-octane-causing-an...ems-t23316.html

 

I live in a hilly area, very hilly and do mainly short trips...5 minutes, maybe 10....but with increased tire pressure, P&G, brisk acceleration, even up hills, especially when ICE is in initial warm-up, I have gone from 31 mpg on my first tank to between 41 and 45 mpg on my second tank.

And, mostly, I don't care if others behind me are annoyed when I coast toward that red light...I find that often I simply don't have to brake at all and can just join the flow.

I coast a lot, since I often have lots of lights....I also use P&G as soon as I can....and do so successfully between 30-40 mph....

I'm just a beginner....and the car is brand new...so we'll see.