The daily driver is a stock '89 /w AT and gets around 23~24 mpg in the summer and 18~22 mpg in the winter. I drive roughly an even mix of city and highway (time wise).
Would disconnecting the AC compressor or power steering pump give me any noticeable improvement?
Did anyone notice any mileage improvement when they put in a CAI?
Has anyone experimented with retarding the timing or adjusting the spark plug gaps?
I would have searched on this first but search doesn't seem to be working tonight.
Any ideas for better gas mileage
That sounds like pretty typical mileage to me.Drive gently; that'll give you the biggest gain right away. Tune up the car so it runs as well as possible... seafoam, new plugs, filters, etc. Don't use the AC if possible, and keep the windows closed at high speeds (open windows on the highway reduce mileage about as much as running the AC). Pump up your tires.
I don't know how much mileage improvement over stock you'll see. Car manufacturers are under a lot of pressure to get good mileage figures, so you may not be able to get much more. Good luck though!
I don't know how much mileage improvement over stock you'll see. Car manufacturers are under a lot of pressure to get good mileage figures, so you may not be able to get much more. Good luck though!
Re: (93sleeper)
See that's the strange thing. I've noticed it doesn't matter whether I floor it or drive like a granny, it was always 23~24 mpg this summer. I also noticed it didn't matter if the windows were up or down (while driving slower than 60 mph, it was just too loud with the windows down going any faster). It also doesn't matter so much if I'm hauling around a couple 50 lbs bags of sand around in the back. Maybe it's because of how the AT shifts gears. To be honest, nothing has ever effected the gas mileage other than maintaining proper tire pressure and the temperature outside.93sleeper wrote:That sounds like pretty typical mileage to me.Drive gently; that'll give you the biggest gain right away. Tune up the car so it runs as well as possible... seafoam, new plugs, filters, etc. Don't use the AC if possible, and keep the windows closed at high speeds (open windows on the highway reduce mileage about as much as running the AC). Pump up your tires.
I don't know how much mileage improvement over stock you'll see. Car manufacturers are under a lot of pressure to get good mileage figures, so you may not be able to get much more. Good luck though!
I've done all the tune-ups, new plugs, distributor cap & rotor, wheel alignment, timing, seafoam, fuel filter, O2 sensor, new diff oil, new ATF, air filter...
But what I'm really interested in is anyone's experiences when their AC or PS was removed. I'm hoping for an extra 1 mpg from them, otherwise it doesn't seem to be worth the effort. I know you're probably thinking, without AC, how would I drive with the windows up during the summer. But that's not a problem since the AC hasn't worked in years.
Does anyone have experiences of using a hotter or colder thermostat versus the standard 170 degrees F?
I'm not looking for normal gas mileage, I'm looking to sacrifice things for better than normal gas mileage.
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rawill240sx
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MikeMurphy
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For fuel economy I would seriously suggest finding an underdrive pulley if they make it for the E! I absolutely loooove my ASP for more power and fuel economy.
Also, if you want to get serious, get a simple fuel controller and a wideband to lean the mixture out at low throttle for some substantial gains depending on what your mixture is now.
Consider it as a long-term investment.
Also, if you want to get serious, get a simple fuel controller and a wideband to lean the mixture out at low throttle for some substantial gains depending on what your mixture is now.
Consider it as a long-term investment.
Another thing to consider is a ground wire system to tie all the grounds together and also make sure the coolant sensor connector and wiring are clean. You may not notice any driveability problems but the coolant sensor connections get corroded and cause a slightly rich condition over a gradual preiod of time. I'm experiencing the same conditions now and am working on solving my problem. You can also convert over to an electric fan setup too and save just a hair more gas.......
Re: (007jpang)
With the temperatures dropping week after week, it's kinda hard to see the effects of anything I try.
Another popular option if you're really into doing it yourself is dropping the fluid pan. Once it's dropped, you can change the filter, however you only get to replace half the fluid this way because the other half is stuck in the torque converter. It takes a couple hours to do this and it's rather messy and all you really get out of it is that you can change that damn mosquito netting filter. You also get to check underneath your car every day for the next week to make sure the new gasket isn't leaking. Some mechanics have said that to change the remaining fluid in the torque converter, you can reroute the return line to a container and run the engine in gear while also filling it up with new fluid as the old stuff leaves the return line. This only seems to work if the fluid system went, pan->torque converter->radiator->pan. Instead the 240 seems to go pan->radiator->torque converter->pan because it didn't seem to matter which line I rerouted, anything coming in or out of the radiator was new fluid, not the old stuff in the torque.
A lazy way of doing it that I've heard but haven't tried is stick a tube down the dipstick and start a siphon. It's really slow and takes hours for the siphon to work and only gets half the fluid just like pan dropping method and doesn't even change the filter but it's a lot easier and cleaner.
Probably the easiest do-it-yourself method to change all the fluid that I "think" will work is to reroute both inlet and outlet of the radiator to their appropriate drain pan and container of new ATF. Let whatever is in the radiator naturally drainout. Then let the engine run for an appropriate amount of time for it to cycle through the fluid once.
In hindsight, my suggestions are:Pay to have it hooked up to the machine to flush the system.
If you really want to change the filter, try the siphoning trick the night before, that way dropping the pan won't be as messy.
I think very few people properly maintain their Auto transmission anyways or as the schedule describes because car manufacturers wouldn't have made it nearly impossible for all the fluid and filter to be replaced if it was such a concern for people (unless this is their way of having the cars die by around 150k).
Use synthetic because that way you won't feel as bad about neglecting to change the ATF when you should.
You can look around for a more thorough explaination, but changing the ATF is a PITA. You have a few options, you can either have it hooked up to a machine that will flush the entire system and fill it with all new ATF. The downside of it is that the filter won't get replaced. In hindsight I don't think leaving in the old filter is a big deal, the filter looks like window mosquito netting, I can't imagine it filtering anything.007jpang wrote:also how do you change the transmission fluid????
Another popular option if you're really into doing it yourself is dropping the fluid pan. Once it's dropped, you can change the filter, however you only get to replace half the fluid this way because the other half is stuck in the torque converter. It takes a couple hours to do this and it's rather messy and all you really get out of it is that you can change that damn mosquito netting filter. You also get to check underneath your car every day for the next week to make sure the new gasket isn't leaking. Some mechanics have said that to change the remaining fluid in the torque converter, you can reroute the return line to a container and run the engine in gear while also filling it up with new fluid as the old stuff leaves the return line. This only seems to work if the fluid system went, pan->torque converter->radiator->pan. Instead the 240 seems to go pan->radiator->torque converter->pan because it didn't seem to matter which line I rerouted, anything coming in or out of the radiator was new fluid, not the old stuff in the torque.
A lazy way of doing it that I've heard but haven't tried is stick a tube down the dipstick and start a siphon. It's really slow and takes hours for the siphon to work and only gets half the fluid just like pan dropping method and doesn't even change the filter but it's a lot easier and cleaner.
Probably the easiest do-it-yourself method to change all the fluid that I "think" will work is to reroute both inlet and outlet of the radiator to their appropriate drain pan and container of new ATF. Let whatever is in the radiator naturally drainout. Then let the engine run for an appropriate amount of time for it to cycle through the fluid once.
In hindsight, my suggestions are:Pay to have it hooked up to the machine to flush the system.
If you really want to change the filter, try the siphoning trick the night before, that way dropping the pan won't be as messy.
I think very few people properly maintain their Auto transmission anyways or as the schedule describes because car manufacturers wouldn't have made it nearly impossible for all the fluid and filter to be replaced if it was such a concern for people (unless this is their way of having the cars die by around 150k).
Use synthetic because that way you won't feel as bad about neglecting to change the ATF when you should.