"hybridizing" your car?

[dick541]

I hate to say anything BUT my Prius is a hybrid but I have not ever got less than 50 mpg with either of mine without doing anything but drive it. This week I am adverging 57 mpg at 65 mph. Not even trying to conserve.
dick

[Trent Mason]

This is very interesting. I have an 05' Honda Civic. I would love to try and implement some of the things you all are doing to save money on gas but my never-ending pursuit of not hitting a single stoplight on my way to work prohibits me from doing so. I've found that if you go about ten to fifteen miles over the limit on Eastwood/MLK and time it right, you can hit about 25% of the stoplights or less. Gas prices are outrageous, but it seems like everyday is a Sunday in this town as far as traffic goes. You folks in Charlotte/Raleigh be thankful. Here, people go 35 in a 55 all day long. Drives me insane. (no pun intended) I actually did the math and my 10 mile commute takes me twenty minutes on average. And almost all of it is 55 mph. That means that my average speed is around 30 mph on a 55 mph road.

Trent

[russellellis]

Back in high school we used to do the pulse and glide method. pound it from a stop to just above speed limit and then shut it off and glide until we had to pop the clutch and start up again. We were wreckless and stupid back then because it was easy to lose control of it more than a few times. As everyone has stated already.....power steering and braking is seriously compromised.
So now days i do it a lot safer. I run my old mercedes on veggie. Im getting around 153 miles per diesel gallon. Costs me nearly nothing.

[NCPete]

yes, I will be buying a diesel when this car finally wears out. The concern about lost stearing boost may be a serious one on a car with 'recirculating ball' type stearing, but in my lightweight compact, with 'rack&pinion' steering effort is not significantly affected.

I thought the interesting thing was that I have achieved a 15% improvement in fuel economy, and not spent a dime to do it.

[rsitzejr]

What probably increased your mileage more then anything was slowing down. By popping the clutch to start it, your decreasing the life span of your clutch, the repair bill will probably offset the small savings in mileage your gaining. I would still use the ignition.

The myth that starting uses more fuel then idling comes from the days we had manual chokes and had to use them on cold engines. Doesn't apply any longer, especially with fuel injection.

BTW, I had a diesel, loved it, especially for towing, but the repair costs more then offset the mileage I was getting. (in my Ford truck anyways) Turbo, EGR cooler, oil pump = $3000. I haven't spent that much in gas in my Cheby with a 454 in it yet. I do understand the Volkswagon cars with diesel's are very reliable though.

[russellellis]

are you saying you lost your turbo, oil pump and cooler from running veggie? something else was at fault to cause that damage. Unless you had bypass at the rings and getting polymerization of the oil by the veggie slipping by.

[rsitzejr]

Originally Posted by russellellis

are you saying you lost your turbo, oil pump and cooler from running veggie? something else was at fault to cause that damage. Unless you had bypass at the rings and getting polymerization of the oil by the veggie slipping by.

No, I wasn't running veggie, just diesel. I'm just saying, the repair costs on some diesels outweigh the fuel savings.

[Hook]

Sounds like you're trying some of the hypermiling tricks to maximize economy.

I own a VW diesel, 1996 B4 variety. I consistently get 45mpg driving it like I stole it. The VW diesel is rated much better than the gasser varieties in that it is more reliable than the VW gas engines.

VW's do have their quirks though. Follow the maintenance schedule and all should be well from a drive train perspective. As far as cheap switches, cheap plastic components, vacuum hoses that don't stand up to the heat of the engine, window regulators, cheap electronics and other places where VW tried to save money, get a repair manual and learn how to fix it yourself. Otherwise, just drive the car for the first 100K miles and then let someone else worry about it after that.

I'm all for running biodiesel if I can get my hands on it, but not in a heavy concentration due to its solvency characteristics. BioD and rubber do not mix.

[russellellis]

Originally Posted by Hook

I'm all for running biodiesel if I can get my hands on it, but not in a heavy concentration due to its solvency characteristics. BioD and rubber do not mix.

thats why you need to replace all the rubber with viton. and other than that, for its (non)lubricating qualities, just mix some power treatment or transmission fluid and youll be fine.

[Tarhead]

My daughter also has a 96 TDi (Passat wagon). We replaced the fuel lines w/Viton and fuel filter before running BioD. The car had 174,000 miles on it when she got it. She started running ~50% mix of BioD for most of the time she had it in Chapel Hill. Ran fine until you took it up to the mountains. Then you started looking for the pedals to start pedaling it up the hill.

Tire selection/pressure really help with mpg as does drafting. The quality of fuel also impacts it. The best she gets is ~45mpg w/B50-B100 and has gotten 54 on a tank of high Cetane diesel she got in Indiana on the way to Wisconsin...all hwy and flat. Some of the guys on www.tdiclub.com spend a lot of time and money with putting wheel well covers and undercar shrouds to improve aerodynamics.

Now she's in SW Louisana and doesn't see much BioD. She frequently uses a few gallons of left over peanut oil (filtered) from the turkey/fish cookers after her friends have cookouts. Smells mighty nice if you're behind her at a stoplight.

[NCPete]

Originally Posted by Hook

Sounds like you're trying some of the hypermiling tricks to maximize economy.

yup, and I am seeing results as I get better at applying those principles. I achieved 36.3mpg on the last fill up, Which means that I am not quite at a point where I am spending only 1 gallon to get to work and home again each day, but as my technique improves, I expect to hit 40mpg in urban driving.

[jeff...]

Not sure I would be clutch popping to restart - gotta be bad on the clutch and the repair I'm sure would outweigh the gas savings - have you tried the ignition switch instead? A tune-up may also help get a little more miles to the gallon

[DaveD]

Here is my idea of a 'hybrid', dual purpose automobile. Sometimes its on the 'juice' and sometimes it isn't
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7rSF-HFTEo
He does have the 'coasting' part figured out at the end of the video.

[NCPete]

Laurinburg-Maxton Airport is only 25 minutes from my house. Biggest glider airfield in the world!