chrisHHR

Just thought I'd share since MPG is what brought me here.

I have a 2007 1LT 2.2L. I drive 40 miles round trip, 8% of that interstate, but the trip home can get congested.

The car is bone stock other than Mobil 1 oil, though I'm going to be testing a tune from Trifecta Performance very soon.

I get between 28-30mpg for a week, depending on my habits and extra driving I might do.

My techniques include:
1. Shift to neutral at stoplights to reduce tq converter drag on the engine. You may not even feel the change, but if you watch the injector pulse widths on a scanner you can see the difference. Every little bit helps

2. If I'm going to be stopped for more than 1 minute, I shut the car off. NO IDLING!!!

3. In stop and go traffic on the interstate during congested commute hours, I "pulse" forward on the gas, then drop into Neutral and coast. This technique can preserve your DIC MPG average and keep it from tanking when you're stuck in a slow-moving traffic jam.

4. "pulse" the A/C off and on. Luckily I park in a garage at home and a parking garage at work. Therefore I don't really have to cool the car down. I will run the A/C on full cold and then cycle it off...you can get a few minutes of cool air out of the vents before the outside air warms things up again. I know the A/C compressor cycles on/off on its own, but this is a way to extend the "off" cycles.

5. Shift to N and coast any time you are moving downhill.

My plans are to analyze improvement in MPG after the tune, and then look at aftermarket exhausts and possibly doing an exhaust manifold mod per GTOMIKE's thread in the 2.2L forum.

a76marine

Interesting techniques... some I use and some I never thought of.

Let us know!

Clevelandhhrss

That all sounds great. Using the pulse is how I can get 26-28mpg in TRUE STOP and GO...as long as the stops don't last too long. The combination of the boost gauge and inst-mpg have allowed me to see 36 on the highway over extended drives, 30ish overall since i bought my SS 7000 miles ago, and never have i ever seen less then 28mpg for a tank except my first (26.2).
Keep in touch...im working on a diy "reapir your driving" thread for those that actually WANT help increasing their FE.
I am exhausted to keep typing the same things...so I hope the thread allows me to just say "follow this link to salvation" lol....

1Panel2NV

I could see people doing this if there was some kind of improvement, but I get better mileage than you and I drive in a "spirited" fashion, as a few members might agree with. So I say just enjoy the drive!

Clevelandhhrss

Some of us "enjoy" efficiency :)

There is an improvement by hypermiling. Accoding to the poll in this forum 85%+ of the owners can't come close to my mileage EVER. We are all driving the same vehicle....many are getting 30% less...thats a $1.20 a gallon on a cheap day.

What mpg do you get while driving spirited???? I hope you do get better mileage....tell us your methods......but....

We need the facts....

Back it up. Or it's drivel


And I think my SS has plenty of spirit......about 55% more...lol
Just Joshin with you.......:)

diskullman

The whole downside to trying to save all this money, is that one day, you may overshoot neutral and pop it into reverse. ASK ME HOW I KNOW. You then relize that you didn't save a dime, and maybe spent an extra thousand for a trans that was perfectly fine before your downshift. This is really not good for your car, and if the mfgr knew people did this a lot, they would design the auto trans in a similar fashion to the manual, with a reverse lock-out. Also, I've heard rumors before that putting your car in neutral while rolling down hills is illegal in some states. Any truth to that?
I saw a Jeep rolling through my neighborhood this morning. I could hear him re-starting the car after losing some speed on the turn. Don't you lose power steering and power brake functions? I'm not so sure sacrificing ANY amount of safety is worth what you save in gas. The gas pedal has saved my ass in many accident situtions, almost dead even with the brake pedal.
I thought I was getting better mileage after I switched over to synthetic oil, but I also noticed my average speed for the week increased, and I'm getting to work on time and NO OIL can possibly to that. There are just less drivers on the road. Here in NJ, your mileage drops when you get on the highway, like it's the opposite of EPA standards.

kornellred

There's and old expression that goes someting like "what you gain on the swings you lose on the see-saw". All those extra mechanical actions employed to save fuel cause wear and tear on the starter, shift linkage, battery, the ignition cylinder lock. They will wear out prematurely (after the warranty has expired, of course) and cost you more to fix than all the gas you saved.

chrisHHR

BTW, those are actuals, not DIC averages. I've found the DIC is usually .7-1.0 mpg higher.

It has occurred to me I might prematurely wear out the shifter linkage. I haven't decided if that is enough to dissuade me from the technique yet, however.

As to 1Panel2NV, I get that these cars can be fun, but I bought mine for practicality and MPG. The month before I bought the HHR in '07 I had just sold my 440hp highly modified Trans Am, so I have never fooled myself into thinking I can replicate that experience with a 2.2L FWD 4-banger. The pursuit of higher MPG is today for me what getting that 11.99 1/4 mile timeslip was 5 years ago.

Goose

I get between 31-34mpg by staying between 60-65..that's it.....I find if I do 70-80 like I used to mpg drops off pretty quickly


I don't think it is just me but I have noticed that traffic overall has slowed down quite a bit on the highway..



Goose

Snoopy

Just saw on the news this morning...

UPS saved several million gallons of fuel last year by eliminating and greatly reducing LEFT TURNS. It appears the rational was waiting for traffic to clear to make the turn and in waiting to make the turn in line.

Interesting concept. What do you think "cleveland"....willing to try it???