[spacegravity4me]

This is mostly a question for other manual drivers but auto's can get in on this one as well. Any of you guys ever try to get as much millage as you can? Money has gotten tighter for me lately and I live in a town with a lot of hills so now when I start going down a hill I throw it into neutral and pray it adds up. lol. What's the max you have gotten from your car?

 

[FordBass]

mistake..

 

[MaxKlinger]

when I start going down a hill I throw it into neutral and pray it adds up

Generally on newer, multi-port or direct fuel injected engines it is better to leave the car in gear than to coast down in neutral. This is because the control systems on most modern engines shut the fuel injectors off (0% duty cycle) when the throttle is closed and the engine is spinning above a certain RPM (in the neighborhood of ~1200 or so). In that case, the dynamic engine braking uses the vehicle's kinetic energy to power the accessories (alternator, power steering, water pump, etc). When you put the car in neutral, the engine must burn fuel to maintain idle speed and power the accessories.

So provided that someone can verify that the Duratec/Zetec EFI systems shut the injectors down to 0% duty cycle during engine braking, you're actually using more fuel.

 

[2011 SE]

I still don't fully believe people when they say this, but going into neutral supposedly uses more fuel than if you just coast in gear. When you're in neutral, the engine idles, which uses gas to keep it running. When it's in gear, no fuel is being added to the mixture, and only air runs through the engine.

It makes sense that coasting in gear should be more efficient, but I generally get better fuel efficiency if I coast in neutral. Clearly I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Elizabeth]

Hypermileing is my new hobby.
Just got back from grocery shopping at the co-op. So it is a short jump to freeway, short to street, store, and street back to diff, freeway part hop on off few blocks home.
Averaged 39.4mpg At startup i was at 40.1mpg from a few miles two days before.
(more freeway on that one)
So I am working had to keep it near the 40mpg mark.
(some folks hate me repeating myself, but jeez, this is a diffrent thread)
I find that stoplights are the big curse when trying to get good mileage.
Too much traffic, so slow and stop. like for left turners.. and stop lights.
With no stoplights at all, any driving from 25mph to 50 mph will pull over 40mpg.. every time given a long stretch of road. With a few stoplights, that drops it down to upper 30's lots of stoplights, slowdowns, etc lower 30's.
I swear if I had a level fifty mile long 32 mph drive I could do 50mpg...
I am driving easy. minimum rpm at all times. minimum throttle. (naturally downshifting if needed so no stress on low rpm engine.)
I watch the mpg indicator all the time. My new hobby!!
I have been resetting the mpg meter a lot. it resets no problem even when driving.. so that is how i 'discovered' how bad stoplights are for the saving gas.

I am lucky a lot of different roads around with long stretches of open driving at 35 or 40 45mph. I now plan on using those sorts of roads, and avoiding the stoplight Hells. Construction, rush hour, traffic lights.. Combine to waste tons of gas.

I thought about buying the "UltraGauge" to better watch the mpg, but apparently taht is having problems in 2012 Focus with draining the battery if not used every day (i go days between trips, so no good for me)
So I am a happy crazy hypermiler I guess.
I used to despise tailgaters, now I just tell myself they are helping me get better gas mileage!

Doing stuff to the wheels and all that is not gonna happen though. But I am impressed with the Focus. My old car would get about 21mpg no matter what i did or where. The new Focus I really CAN make a difference in how I drive of up to 18miles per gallon from worst habits and driving 24mpg, to best 42mpg. Which is spectacular.
I am PUMPED over it [woot]
There are sites dedicated to hypermiling. Some of the comments there might help the op on hill issues.
I also have been saving all my gas receipts and from those i have a calculated by miles/gallons of an over all average when last checked of 34mpg. (At total 900mi) i am pretty certain my current total average has gone up, but i am waiting to fill up again to check. (currently at 1,300mi total)

 

[MaxKlinger]

Elizabeth, the 1st gen Foci don't have an internal measurement of fuel economy, at least not one that reads out on the dash. Even then, those devices are usually not very accurate when you compare actual calculations on fillups. My mom's Mercury Milan consistently estimates about 2-3mpg higher than actual.

Spacegravity, to answer your initial question my car has gotten anywhere from 18-36, with an overall average of 26.0. But I also live and work in what I call "third gear suburbs" where every other driver is a dunce who can't bring him/herself to exceed 30mph.

 

[Elizabeth]

Spacegravity, to answer your initial question my car has gotten anywhere from 18-36, with an overall average of 26.0. But I also live and work in what I call "third gear suburbs" where every other driver is a dunce who can't bring him/herself to exceed 30mph.

I am among the 'third gear dunces'. i used to drive fast. now i drive the speed limit. The car does just as well at the speed limit for mpg's. Though actually I tend to drive around 32mph as then i can use fifth gear better.
One thing I do hate is another slow driver deliberately driving side by side with me on the freeway. I think that sucks, and i will not allow it. I take off and loose the person just trying to slow ALL the traffic down.
And yeah, enough folks try to pull this that i notice it and scoot away, (if i speed up a few mph , they tag along, slow down ditto, like they are just locking on so no one can get around.. sucks...)

MY favorite are 25mph parkways. Which are next to parks, and are not for rush hour heros.. So I DRIVE the 25mph and some folks just go crazy...
Then a big boulevard near my home is 25mph. the cops are on it all the time. 25 it is. same for a long bridge in the other direction 30 with radar cops many days of the week. folks can't help hitting freeway speeds just due to long, no exits.. pop ticket! [mecry]

((I HAVE to drive slow, i cannot take another ticket or bye bye license...)) i WAS bad, like I mentioned...[bigcry]

 

[MaxKlinger]

Elizabeth, I don't think you understand. I'm not asking anyone to go over the speed limit; I don't need a speeding ticket any more than anyone else. I just get very irritated with people who do 25-30mph in a 45 zone every day. Even tonight I was on the highway behind someone who was doing 50mph in the passing lane. If I have to slow down and drop out of overdrive because some clown is afraid of his or her own shadow, this person is costing me both time and fuel, neither of which are getting any cheaper.

 

[EnJoIthaReX]

I used to do this when i had a CRX. I live in an area with alot of hills and big ones at that. I used to throw it in neutral and see how fr i could get coasting, but i think they're right, you dont use much fuel at decel and no throttle

But

Maybe someone can post up something close to a stock Zetec fuel map, and compare fuel trim values at idle and decel.....Another thing to keep in mind is that youll be traveling at different speeds at these values, but im sure it would be a start in a solution

 

[miragesmack]

Hypermiling can also be done with the car off, given the right roads. Going thru the mountains or hills, you can turn the car off going down hill, and still have your brakes and steering as long as you keep speed up. It's no different than my GTO with no power brakes or steering, in fact its much lighter. In one stretch, I have gone as much as 3.5-4 miles with the car off, just keep key clicked forward in ACC to keep speedo working properly and steering unlocked. I have a 1.2 mile hill I go down every day for free. If it freaks you out though, you shouldn't try it.

 

[iminhell]

For the zetec MTX,

Fuel is cut on decel above,
- 150*F Coolant temp
- 1,500 RPM
- 45 MPH

There are also 2 delays to shut the fuel off. The initial one is 1 second. But if you tap the gas it will wait 10 seconds to shut the fuel off the second time (stating from the initial decel).

 

[04RedRocket]

for some reason my duratec gets drastically lower mpg by staying in gear versus neutral down hill

 

[EnJoIthaReX]

@miragesmack...Thats pretty funny but true. No better way to save gas than to just turn the car off, might start doin that and seeing if i gain some MPGS....Periodically my car turns off by itself >.<, so i can use this to my advantage