How to Get Better Fuel Economy
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Possibly but I think you'd measure the savings in single digit gallons over 100,000 miles. Learning to drive more efficiently in general will pay off a lot quicker.
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very good info here. i will use my old truck for ex since 90% of yall got the turbo model. i know on my old truck its a diesel non computer controlled. driving 75mph netted me 16 mpg with a boost of 10psi or so. driving 65mph netted me 21 mpg with a boost of 6psi or so. i could tell when i was using more fuel, because my exhaust gas temp and boost would rise up. now since i got the cruse na model. i gotta find its sweet spot.
i havent done good with my cruse but i did get 30mpg making 2 round trips out of town mostly highway without cruise control. i been using sport mode. during that time. dic shows 28mpg in town now even in sport mode. either way its still a win for me.
i havent done good with my cruse but i did get 30mpg making 2 round trips out of town mostly highway without cruise control. i been using sport mode. during that time. dic shows 28mpg in town now even in sport mode. either way its still a win for me.
H. Don't idle. Your car doesn't actually need to warm up for minutes when you first start it up before you leave. This only applied to older vehicles that needed a substantial amount of time to allow oil to circulate and to fill the hydraulic lifters and is not an issue with newer cars. Get on the road soon after you start your car. If you're waiting for someone, turn your car off until they get there. Basically, unless you're moving or know you will be moving soon, turn the car off.
I would have to completely disagree with you, by not allowing your vehicle warm up before taking off your doing a lot more damage then good say you do have enough oil in the bearings before you take off u will still have air pockets and such in the oil circuits, u also havnt given anything the time to expand such as piston and rings so your oil pressure will be down and everything is sloppy I don't move the car until the gauge at least moves first and then after that I don't get on it until it is fully warmed up (when the engine is fully warmed not just the coolant) your not spending that much money allowing your engine to idle for a few minutes first you will be doing more damage by not allowing it to warm up
I would have to completely disagree with you, by not allowing your vehicle warm up before taking off your doing a lot more damage then good say you do have enough oil in the bearings before you take off u will still have air pockets and such in the oil circuits, u also havnt given anything the time to expand such as piston and rings so your oil pressure will be down and everything is sloppy I don't move the car until the gauge at least moves first and then after that I don't get on it until it is fully warmed up (when the engine is fully warmed not just the coolant) your not spending that much money allowing your engine to idle for a few minutes first you will be doing more damage by not allowing it to warm up
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There are a couple of reasons why I said what I did.
Our engine oils have a far better viscosity index than other cars of the past did, and our DEXOS1 requirement ensures that. Notice how we have absolutely no valvetrain noise on cold starts? That's because the car is extremely well lubricated. The oil is able to flow very well under cold conditions even in the winter, which means you don't actually need to warm the engine to get it moving. If you want a technical reason, our refining processes have made group 2 conventional oils mainstream, whereas not more than 10-20 years ago, group 1 oils were common. This oil is a Group 2/3 blend, with significantly more paraffin wax removed and consequently far better cold temperature flow performance. Move this up to a full group 3 synthetic or even better, a group 4/5 true synthetic, and your car is pumping oil within a fraction of a second. In fact, you've got oil at the valvetrain by the time the starter has disengaged.
The filtration system prevents drainback, which means you have oil pressure flowing across the valvetrain the moment you start the car. There is no need to sit and wait for the oil to get moving through the car and fill the lifters like you did with older cars.
The pistons and rings are an entirely different design as what we had in the past as well. It is absolutely ridiculous how tight the tolerances are here. Any thermal expansion of the pistons will be accounted for by the piston ring design. Were this not the case, we'd be testing significant fuel dilution in our oil, but we don't.
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XR made some great points in his post.
I will add that many car companies advise against idling at startup, and indicate the engine will warm up faster under light driving conditions than it will idling. The key there is LIGHT drivng. Placing the engine under high loads and/or high RPM is not recommemded while it is cold since parts have not thermally expanded to the proper fit, which can increase wear. Also, oil has anti-friction additives that don't work at low temperatures.
Avoiding start-up idling (like using remote start):
- has a dramatic impact on your car's efficiency, and that impact is greater as trips get shorter
- reduces cold start wear, as parts expand to proper size/fit sooner
- increases oil life, since the engine "leans-out" sooner and adds less fuel contamination to the oil
As XR said, modern synthetic oils flow very well at all but the most extreme low temperatures; temperatures below what anyone living south of Alaska is ever likely to see. In most modern engines oil has fully circulated and pressure has stabilized within a few seconds of startup. Drive it easy until the coolant gauge starts to move, don't beat on it until it's fully warm (or at all if you want to save gas), and you'll be good to go.
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81 Posts
Every time I start my Cruze, I allow it to idle until the idle drops from 1,500 to 1,000 before I begin driving. It's a habit I carried over from my V-strom where if I attempted to put it in gear and ride before the idle had dropped, the engine would die.
I figure that it idles high for ~15-20 seconds for a reason, why not let it finish?
I figure that it idles high for ~15-20 seconds for a reason, why not let it finish?
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Not shocking the cold transmission to a sudden 1500 rpm drop is an added benefit of waiting as well!
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6,915 Posts
That might be 15-20 seconds on a warm day, but when cold outside it might be 2 minutes before it comes off high idle. Best bet to not waste gas idling is to let it run for 10 seconds & get moving ASAP.
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I've only ever seen mine hold for 30 seconds at most, even on days around 0. Then it falls to 1000 RPM.
I got my car serviced recently from GM serviice center, on 50k km , They had changed the oil for it with synthetic. Car runs smooth but fuel economy is still the same or worse i feel. My average mpg is 21 b4 i used to get 23-24 avg. weather here is crazy hot & nt cold unlike US. So why is the fuel economy bad for me. My tire is pumped to 42 psi on all four, whereas max press was stated as 51 psi.
Whats wrong then, could it be coz i idle sometimes & put the ac to med- high fan mode ?
Whats wrong then, could it be coz i idle sometimes & put the ac to med- high fan mode ?
I find that on most winter days around here, I need to let it warm up for safety reasons. Can't see well when the windows are fogging up or icing over.
For me, when winter time rolls around... I will take comfort and safety over fuel savings. In summer... well if it's hot out, I'm going to be running the air conditioner. I don't mind adjusting my acceleration and braking habits, but I still need my comfort and for sure need saftey
For me, when winter time rolls around... I will take comfort and safety over fuel savings. In summer... well if it's hot out, I'm going to be running the air conditioner. I don't mind adjusting my acceleration and braking habits, but I still need my comfort and for sure need saftey
I live in Canada and have the same wild temperature swings. I also get about the same mileage you do. 22 city and 35 highway. Either these guys are running the eco model or they reset the trip computer after they are moving. Even the US EPA tested these cats at 23 and 35.
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10,711 Posts
The answer is
*1.8L engine especially if attached to an auto trans
*Idle instead of cutting it off while waiting for that person to come out the store or house
*A/C usage and on high especially if sitting idle
The 1.4 when attached to a eco manual trans does wonders in the hands of those with gold hypercruiser tabs under their username.
Here is the RPM's in 6th gear riding down the road.
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*1.8L engine especially if attached to an auto trans
*Idle instead of cutting it off while waiting for that person to come out the store or house
*A/C usage and on high especially if sitting idle
The 1.4 when attached to a eco manual trans does wonders in the hands of those with gold hypercruiser tabs under their username.
Here is the RPM's in 6th gear riding down the road.
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2,000RPM is 57-58mph in my 2012 1.4T auto. Must be nice to only run that low of RPM at 7-8MPH faster.
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What usually happens is you speed up to 77 and the mpg starts to fall a little bit.
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Honda has been making their goal to be fuel efficient, GM is just now trying to do that because cafe laws are starting to make them do that. If it wasn't for that, there's no way us Americans would see a tiny 1.4 engine. So many of us look at the 1.4 and go nope the 1.8 is bigger and better because it's bigger with a lesser price tag. 12 years ago I would have laughed at the idea of a engine less than 2 liters. The cruze in general is heavy for the crash ratings so that also hinders MPG
That's the marketing and country decisions possibly. May be the reason we can't get the cool engines like 1.6 and 1.7 here. The cost of the engine may be more than what your demographic would pay. Also where the engine and car is built may also factor in. If you had a Mazda 6/Atenza right out of Japan back in 04, you got all kinds of cool navigation HIDs and other stuff. When it was built here in America on the same line as the Fords, you had the top model almost $30k USD still missing navi and HIDs with blank plates where those options would have been.
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