Fuelly Forums - Dramatic drop in FE. A few questions...

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Okay, maybe I'll just start up and go. I bet that would save quite a bit of fuel. I think I spend probably about 6 minutes a day idleing, and 8-10 actually driving.

I also park in the garage so the car never gets that cold anyways. I'll just start and go for a while and see if that helps.

Thanks for the tips!

Why not use a 5W or 0W synthetic oil? Anyone?

The advice above is good, in particular:

For the morning journey
- get an engine block heater, use it before each journey. This will dramatically reduce the outgoing fuel consumption (and, the engine will get closer to full operating temp on the outgoing journey, so will be a bit warmer when you go to do the return journey.
- Grille / rad block to help the car warm up faster
- Start the car, leave it for 10 seconds (unless you can roll off your drive in Neutral). The 10 seconds is just to let the oil get around the engine (should take just a few).
- Drive gently, but get up to speed efficiently, not labouring the engine.
- It is more efficient to use 40-60% throttle, even when cold, to get up to the right speed, then choose 5th gear.

Return journey.

When arriving at your destination, put an engine blanket on - without creating a fire risk. This will hold in a bit more of the heat.
If you could plug the EBH in at work that would be brilliant, but not likely to be possible
When arriving at home, try to arrange it so that you can quickly get the car where you want it e.g. lined up in the garage, then switch the engine off. On my car (small 1.8 engine), the fuel consumption at idle is like driving at 10-20mph, so you lose fuel economy simply by idling.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Peakster (Post 42568)

I always start and go too. Even when the temperatures linger around the -40 mark. I have a windshield washer fluid heater that melts the ice and frost off my window when it's squirted on and I also use "Anti-Fog" by Rain-X for the interior of the windows. All I need is stove and chinmny and I'd be set for heat too :p.

hey peakster, ive been thinking about using the anti fog from rain-x. does it work well? my windows are terrible for fogging up, i have to keep my window down otherwise it fogs so bad that i have to scrape the inside as i drive for the first 10km.

Quote:

I think this is happening for a few reasons:

- It's been cold out, and I usually let the car warm up for 2-3 minutes in the morning and in the evening before I drive it.
- The car never really gets fully warm during the 2 mile drive to the park & ride.
- The 2 mile drive to and from the park & ride is low speed, through a neighborhood and through a few stop lights, I am under 40 mph the whole trip.

Could those reasons alone be enough to decrease my fuel mileage from 36+ to more like 20? I'm not really complaining since I went from filling up once a week to less than once a month, but I still am a bit perplexed at this dramatic decrease in fuel efficiency.

This is almost the exact thing that happened to me when I worked 2miles from home. The cold-start 2 mile drives made my fuel economy go from the mid-30's to the mid-20's (and that was in the summer).