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HEY! I resemble that comment!Awesome job. And you didn't even run out of gas!
800+ Mile ECO MT Tank Range
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I didn't want to "push" my Cruze.Awesome job. And you didn't even run out of gas!
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What I want to know...is how in the **** did you get a 800 mile tank out of your eco? Im not sure exactly what mine is but id love to be sitting where you are hahaha=]I filled up today and seriously topped off the tank, I have been running about 51 MPG for the last 2+ tanks of gas so I decided to see if I can get to 800 miles. I had put 243 miles on the tank and the range estimate was 397 miles for an estimated range of 640 miles.
First Click: 3.828 Gallons => 63.5 MPG
DIC: 4.6 Gallons => 52.8 MPG
When I finished filling the tank I had put 9.794 gallons for 24.8 MPG. The car say I have 650 miles to empty, but I know this is wrong simply because the tank is so full the fuel level sender is pressed against the top of the tank. If everything goes well I won't have an accurate range estimate for 200 miles.
My wife says if I run out of gas she's not coming to pick me up.
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Short Answer: Very carefully and somewhat slowly. I started with between 16.1 and 16.2 gallons of gas and never exceeded 60 MPH and with one exception did this during my daily 59 mile round trip commute. That exception was to go downtown to watch the last stage of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Also, I have been a mild hypermiler for almost as long as I have been driving, always exceeding the EPA estimates in my cars. I started tracking my fuel economy when I bought my first car in 1985 to help me identify issues with my car. If your fuel economy starts dropping and you can't figure out what you have changed it's a good idea to get the car checked for mechanical problems.
Long Answer: Take a look, in order, the following threads and web-sites:
XtremeRevolution's http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/27-fuel-economy/5387-how-get-better-fuel-economy.html for a good introduction.
Wayne Gerdes' Beating the EPA - The Why’s and How to Hypermile - CleanMPG Forums has a real good description of the problems with EPA testing vs. real world driving and what to do about them.
My previous range record: http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/27-fuel-economy/6514-what-i-learned-715-1-mile-tank-2012-eco-mt.html
What I started doing at the end of March: http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/27-fuel-economy/13421-hypermiling-eco-mt.html This thread has specific tips for the ECO MT. Read this entire thread as there are modifications and additional tips later in the thread.
Also, Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com has efficiency modifications and tips.
If you aren't already tracking your fuel economy in a spreadsheet, create a https://www.fuelly.com/, Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com, CleanMPG, An authoritative source on fuel economy and hypermiling, or Fuel Economy account and track every single tank. Don't depend on the DIC or guess how you're doing - I guarantee you'll overestimate how you're doing. I keep a spreadsheet and a fuelly account. I know that Fuelly has iPhone, Android, and mobile web interfaces so you can update your fill up while you're at the gas station. I would be surprised if the other sites don't have at least mobile web interfaces for this purpose. Fuelly and EcoModder both have updating badges you can insert here.
Finally, practice. Even with my mild hypermiling experience it still took me over three months to boost my commute MPG from 44 MPG to 50 MPG.
One final thing - the first 25 miles after leaving the gas station are critical as they set the overall tone for your tank MPG. I have discovered that my final tank MPG will be within +3/-5 of the average after 25 miles.
Edit: I always use my cruise control, even though in theory you can do better.
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My car and I have been having a serious discussion over 50 MPG since I filled up on Tuesday. Normally I'll be back in the mid to high 40s within about 10 miles of filling up. This tank didn't get there until almost 90 miles. I finally saw 50 this morning.Looking good. You're getting very close.
I think when this is done, we all give you permission to just take it out and attempt to get the absolute worst mileage for 50 miles. Just jack rabbit every start and keep your foot in it. Only single digit averages will be accepted.
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Yeah and that's where I fail. My 1st 25 is stop and BLUE TEAM GO GO GO!
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Great summary, Mike. I think that covers it!
Absolutely right. It takes a long time to study your daily driving routine and find all of the inefficiencies in it, and then devise a routine that minimises the impact of them. It takes a very concentrated effort to study this over time and then apply the teaching and techniques in a way that you can benefit. This will also be different for every person's routine, and should your own routine change due to moving or changing your place of work you can expect another learning period before settling into a high efficiency routine again.
It's amazing how powerful that mileage display can be when it comes to influencing your driving style! After having reset everything, if you set off from the pump with the mindset that you are going to "do good" on this tank, you'll quickly see a nice mileage number on the display and for the rest of that tank you will subconciously (or VERY conciously) try to keep that number up. All cars should have displays like this.
I'm a firm believer in cruise control and use it every chance I get. In hilly terrain it has been proven that cruise control can be beaten by anticipating hills, but just about everywhere else it makes sense to use it. Personally, I find that with the cruise set I don't have to worry about maintaining my speed and I can better focus my attention on other things like traffic patterns and up-coming intersections.
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It depends on the car. The Cruze's cruise control works very well and actually somewhat anticipates hills...you will see it start accelerating as it begins to lose speed over your set speed (e.g. going into a valley and starting up the other side again). On the other hand, our Toyota's cruise control system is a POS. It lets off the gas, starts going up a hill, FLIPS OUT over losing 2 mph, and kicks down to 5th or 4th gear. It's super annoying, jerks the car, and wastes gas.
So my 18 MPG start...now up to 34 MPG on the DIC...isn't the normal, eh?
But yeah, for the most part I agree. Since I've been paying more attention to my driving, I've gained about 3-4 MPG on an average tank, and my Fuelly probably shows that progress. I still enjoy winding it out every now and then, but I've learned to use the torque and shift low more for my advantage.
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The Cruze has the best cruise control system I have ever used. Dial in your desired speed, resumes to that speed (many will slowly up your speed with repeated resumes), and some anticipation of terrain.
Every car and driver combination will be different on how predictive the first 25 miles will be. This rule of thumb will work for all cars, but the exact mileage may be different and the final delta from the initial value will also be different. My guess is you are significantly harder on the throttle while your tank is full. Many people are. I tend to be lighter on the throttle at the start of a tank - don't want to spill gas out of a sealed container.So my 18 MPG start...now up to 34 MPG on the DIC...isn't the normal, eh?
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Well done, Ober! /applaud
31 mile score on a fresh tank today got up to 73 mpg. Got to work (63 miles) averaging right around 60 mpg . Had a 2 club tail wind
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Sweet! Is that a new display on the diesel's DIC? Maybe just the Canadian "Bowmanville" Edition.
On a side note, this morning's tail wind was a typically cool post-labor-day tail wind... fall she is a coming.
Dic hit 73.4 .. That tail wind going west this morning didn't change much so it slowed me down a bit. Going to work at 3 am tomorrow so I'll be able to do 55 mph on the 401 and not get in any bodies way. Dic read 57 mpg when I got home
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55 MPH/88 km/h on the 401? You are DEDICATED, my friend! Your diesel aught to get some pretty ridiculous mileage at that speed.
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What I want to know is how is it even possible to fill the tank in these ECOs with 15.6 gallons of fuel when the owners manual says 12.6 gallons. Ive read a member actually did this but how can you do it without having gas come out of the filler neck and running down the side of your car? Anybody know the trick?
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Because it's not the tank size that's the contributing factor. It's the pump assembly shutting the fill down prematurely so GM can say the car weighs 15 pounds less due to this. If you fill very slowly and remove the nozzle out of the fill tube ever so slightly and the pump achieves trickle fill you can get 16 gallons in there. I know, I did it last time, I'm at around 120 miles on the tank and the needle hasnt even budged. It's predicting 530 miles to empty and my DIC only says 45 MPG (Thanks wife). I should be able to hit 700 miles as my MPG is going to be encroaching 50 before the tank is empty
The ECO MT has the same tank as every, other, cruze
The ECO MT has the same tank as every, other, cruze
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Trickle fill, it will ruin your MPG calculations. I basically trickle filled until it ran out of the fill hole lol. That's probably 16.1 or 16.2 gallons. It is time consuming too, might take five or more minutes. Also some will say it may damage your evap system over time.
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If you do it right, you will see a small amount of bubbles trickle up the fill pipe. If you do it at the right pace, they never come completely out of the fill pipe. I would film it but, I need 2 hands to pump slow. I have 3 fingers wedged into the trigger guard to acheve the slowest consistancy even when they guy next to me is clicking away on the vapor shut off because he picked the highest setting to fill his tank. Also try to fill in the morning and before the fuel truck gets there if it hasn't been said in most of these threads.
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When you say it ruins the mpg calculations...do you mean it is off a little or does it stay the same? Does your fuel range increase on your DIC too?
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