I finally used my GPS to track my mileage exactly, since my Odo. doesn't work.

I got 30 mpg!! All highway miles. And I had 2 tires that were a bit low so I may be able to get a HAIR better heheh

Go me go!!!

 

VG or VE

BTW I hate you :cuss:

 

I have been able to get 30 mpg on several occasions.

That's good, though. It shows your car is running good and is in a pretty good state of tune.

 

my brother goes to school there in E-ville....

30 is friggin good. highway i get like 26, 27 depending on how many old ladies i gotta pass

 

don't pass the old ladies.

 

Is there a simple way to find out ones "mpg"?

 

yes, a very simple way... Simply divide the miles you travelled by the gallons you filled up with. miles per gallon, lol.

 

why didnt i think of that



btw good job

 

damn 30 mpg. i can only wish for that. you doin any special tricks?

 

putting car in neutral(manual tranny only) while going down hills or long down grade roads, turning off car and just let gravity pull you down and hope you have enough arm power to turn the wheel(not suggested) not drivng like a manic(depends which of your to better half is driving). Not racing anyone and driving on highway (constant speed, with little lane changes and acceleration. Not carrying extra weight(got to take those dead weight out). be aerodynamically correct, windows up and a/c on the fresh air outlet only. cruise control. Using good premium gas, having you car tuned up and maintained( wheels tires alignment spark plugs fuel filter air filter, etc...... What else am I missing??

 

Yes, you did. One of the most important things.. Tire PSI

So would using premium gas on a VG help MPG? Why? Thanks.

 

Well, I tried the method mentioned above, and I got 17.837837837837837-- and so on and so forth. Does that mean I get 17 MPG?

I do about a little over 330 miles per tank, and max out at 18.5 gallons. So I divided 18.5 into the 330 and got that interesting number above. Im just a bit confused cause 17 MPG seems pretty bad when I get compliments on being able to run a V6 tank longer then alot of 4 bangers out there.

 

well yeah, your mpg would be 17.8 or just say 18. It takes you 18.5 gallons to fill the tank up? If so then you've run the tank dry becuase max capacity is 18.5 and I would imagine the car wouldn't run anymore if you ran it THAT dry. You're supposed to look at the amount of gas you put in the car to fill up while at the pump, then divide that number by the miles on the trip meter since you last filled.

If so, then your mpg isn't too good, but thats what I got with my old GXE. My SE is about 20, but I have a very heavy foot and like to fly by traffic.

The only time i got over 30 mpg (30.5) was when I was on the way to Mexico, and had a full car with many downshifts and redlining. Driving that concerned about mileage is difficult for me. I know its possible to get better than 20 in the city, but I am way too addicted to that y pipe/intake growl, and the look on peoples faces when they hear/see the VE power, Grrrr lol.

 

exactly what garbury said. You don't want to divide by the amount of gallons your tank can hold only the amount of gallons acutally used for the milleage you have. If your going by the gas gauge......don't. It isn't necessarily accurate. My gauge for example I have found will go below E, when in actuality I have like 3 or 4 gallons left in the tank. It is important to use gallons used in the equation. for example you have a full tank, you then drive 300 miles. You then hit up a gas station and refill again. take the amount of gallons that you just put in to refill your tank, that is the amount of gallons that you have used since your last filling, divide the miles you've driven by that. theres your answer. I doubt your getting 17.8mpg unless your car is in dyer need of a tune up or, you have a lead foot.

 

Nothin else counts, but dpm.

dollars -per- mile: it might be mpg, not necessarily... why? Seek the KS/octane -discussions.

 

I've gotten 30+ MPG on several of my long highway trips (VG engine, 200k). I once came close to getting 500 miles on a tank.

 

what type of GPS do you have

 

No, no special tricks. It was all highway, I only passed one person.
I used cruise control at about 72mph, shifted ALWAYS under 3K, and had good tire pressure.

I wouldn't say my car is tuned especially well, but it runs great minus a pinging exhaust stud.

Biggest thing about MPG is to drive like a grandma

 

It never ceases to amaze me how people don't know how to calculate MPG. Its not rocket science! It also helps to fill the tank up each time as quite a bit of gas can be pumped after the automatic shutoff. This allows for a more accurate reading since a true fill otherwise might vary by say $2.

 

well when I has my vg gxe I advance the timing on her. to about 23~degrees, as you advance the timing you need better octane to prevent knocking(pinging). If you advance too much it can seriously hurt your engine. I always put premium in all maxima's that I have owned. It saves the engine. The cheep gas you put in now will cost you later on down the line in terms of your injectors and valves etc. Preventative maintance now helps to keep the engine driving strong later on. Its a fact and has been posted here before. For those who had maximas in the winter snow belt area, I would suggest you look at your fuel filler hose and breather. It tends to leak and at one time i got 160-180 for the tank. After fill up the whole gas came out and i was only using about maybe 1/2 to 5/8 of a tank.

You can use regualar as per owners manual, but even at normal stock timing the premium burns alot better and cleaner= alittle more pep.

 

Well, I have run the tank dry on a few occasions, but hit 330 miles while having some more gas to go. The reason for my 18 MPG's Im thinking is because I am running on "C" most of the time, and it's not my T-stat. Running cold kills gas mileage big time. Im sure I would get alot better, since I recently got 6 rebuilt injectors in, and full tune-up.

Am I understanding this correctly? - "The only time i got over 30 mpg (30.5) was when I was on the way to Mexico, and had a full car with many downshifts and redlining"....

I don't mean to argue with you man, but I have been through this in alot of threads and using premium on a stock VG is just a waste of cash. From what I hear, you don't get anything out of it, neither do your valves, injectors or anything else for that matter. The VG wasn't designed for premium fuel. The higher octane rating in premium is there for more resistance to heat, such as on high performance engines that burn up gas alot quiker, if Im not mistaken, and it really doesn't make any difference in the long run. In my tech school that I go to, my engines teacher said that your throwing away money when you get higher octane at the pump if the manufacturer doesn't require it. Please correct me if Im wrong.

 

just follow what the manufacturer recommends, i throw 87 in my truck and it runs fine, however the VE (and most other motors of the type) needs premium since its a high compression motor

 

newb question, but i have a bike too, and one of my buddies refuses to throw the 93 octane into his ducati because he claims the ethanol they add will eventually hurt the engine, any truth to this, and is this added to all the higher octane fuels?
Thanks

 

That is true - unless KS knock sensor retards ignition because of ping which is often because of bad gas. Sorry, u see that (ign retard) only at gaspump...

Yes, VGE is 1:8 as VE is 1:9 comp ratio. But if KS retards ignition, then it pays to use higher octane. VGE owner: make sure.

In older cars KS has already blown. Only way to know is $tealership tst (?) or bypass test with a resistor:
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/748507/9

The KS 'sensor' is actually pre-tensioned piezo soundgenerator -element found in kid toys. Will not last...

 

Yeah man, its definately freaky. I only went 130 miles or so, so it wasn't that average over a full tank but still 30 mpgs is 30 mpgs no matter how many miles. I had me and 3 other guys in the car plus a trunk FULL of luggage and crap like that. The rear tires were tucked. I was following some crazy people and they passed at least 15 cars, and i was right there with them. Even got into a little race with the people i was following. I'd say average speed was 85-90 and I got to the top of 3rd (105) about 4 or five times hitting like 120 in 5th just cruising. I turned on the A/C halfway through so that might've helped. Maybe that air on the way to Mexico is special, but its satisfying putting 10 bucks in a tank when everyone else is putting 30!

 

Driving in smdy's suction wake pushes - instead of airflow drag... Drag might be 70% of fuel consumption.

Truckers tease each other with this: as one truck comes behind another, say 20-30 feet, the wake suction locks and the front vehicle starts to pull the one behind. With limited pwr resources, there is no way the front truck may escape. Pressing pedal only "adjusts the blk cloud". Nasty. The front truck pays the diesel bill... The only way for the poor trucker is to pull over and stop, let that one behind go past...

 

higher octane fuel is only used to prevent detonation. it does not burn hotter or cleaner. you will not see more power with higher octane fuel, unless you are pinging with lower octane. 9:1 compression is not what i would consider "high" compression. i got away with running 87 octane on 7 psi of boost on my 8.2:1 compression Supra, no knocking at all. now that i'm running 17 psi, i need higher octane gas

 

Does having the A/C on fresh air really help mileage?

i've always wondered if the A/C really effects mileage in the maxima. I've always been superstitious about turning it off whenever I don't need it

 

I'm suprised about how little people know about fuel consumption.

A/C does affect mileage in any car, when it's turned on and the compressor is running it puts a drag on the motor. My mom had a Geo Metro that ran on 2 cylinders and we had to turn off the A/C going up hills on the interstate just to keep at 65mph.

garbury-no offense but I doubt you were getting a true reading of MPG on only 130 miles of gas consumption. To get a fairly accurate reading most people take readings on three full tanks of gas and then average them together to get a real number. Calculating gas mileage can be very inaccurate because you have to top off the tank each time. So if you drive 100 miles and then fill up the tank just a little bit instead of topping it off completely it will look like you have REALLY good MPG's when in reality the numbers are just skewed, and the fewer the miles that you take a reading on, the more the numbers will be skewed.

crazy4maxima covered pretty much all I could think of for higher mpg's, except for the part about turning off your car...I think restarting the car would burn more fuel than just coasting down a hill in neutral, unless the hill is a few miles or something.

 

I got 30mpg WITH THE A/C on 80% of the time, while driving through West VA mountains (uphill for the most part). I always get between 30 and 34mpg on the highway. Many members here get that much. This topic is covered here every two weeks pretty much.

And by the way, calculating at re-fill time in the ONLY truly accurate way to check your mileage. GPS, eye-balling the gauage etc, are all not-so-accurate ways. Write down your mileage when you fill up (or zero it), subtract it from the mileage at the time of refilling, and divide that number by the number of gallons needed to fill the tank to the top. That's your accurate mpg.

 

"Yes, VGE is 1:8 as VE is 1:9 comp ratio. But if KS retards ignition, then it pays to use higher octane. VGE owner: make sure." - So on the VG, does the KS need to retard timing while running on 87 either way?

"The KS 'sensor' is actually pre-tensioned piezo soundgenerator -element found in kid toys. Will not last..." - I read about how the knock sensor works. Something about when the sensor feels the ping, depending on how hard it is.. It will adjust timing effectivaly to prevent anymore detonations. They are located somewhere in/on the side of the block?

Oh and is it true that in Europe, a certain car manufacturer(s), maybe BMW, puts a special sensor in that reads what type of fuel you have just added and adjusts timing specifically for that fuel or something like that, and this is done because the farther East you travel in Europe, the crappier the gas gets? I think they even use it here.. Bosch develops this, I believe.

Doesn't detonation occur because the regular 87 burns up much faster, due to the lesser amount of ethonal located in the fuel, and in turn occurs "ping"?

Wow, thats pretty amazing. 30mpg with all that weight and A/C on, slash casually doing 120... Very cool.

 

Man, I'm getting like 18mpg.

 

Not only that, but higher octance fuel is less explosive, so not only are you spending more at the pump, but you are losing power as well. Of course the gains from higher compression and advanced timing far surpass the explosion losses from higher octane fuel, so that's why you need to run a higher octance to get the most out of your high compression VE or VG, otherwise KS retards timing and you lose alot.

 

lol i got like 14 before i did my engine overhaul

 

- I suppose it lives on the edge??? Sooty engine and ign is retarded. We had a long fight HERE two weeks ago: I have bypassed KS with 0.5MOhm resistor, and will not repent from my maximized unorthodoxies... Note: I use 95 octane, lowest available.

- VG has one KS under rear exhaust manifold. Connector pic at:
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/748507/9

- euRope: Cannot verify, possible. You have to go to CCCP and/or US to have possibility to buy low octane gas... But you wont go to CCCP with a fancy BMW, if u want to return alive, that is. Buy old lada and pay a visit: that runs even on cow pee.

 

Im sorry, Im having a bit of trouble understanding the first part... So your saying "it lives on the edge" meaning it is about to detonate but stops?

My father had a Lada back in my country(Ukraine).. Im not sure how you would recognize it, but all I can remember is it was called a "sixer" in russian. Looked like an old BMW 5 series. When I was about 4 yrs old, I ran a key through the fresh paint when dad wasn't home.

 

There is a common misconception on the ORG that the KS on the VG forms an active part of the ignition system .................... and nothing can be further from the truth.

The way the KS has been implemented on the VG ignition system is in a preventative capacity - IE - as long as there is no knock/pre-ignition detected its purpose will be absolutely nil and nothing other than to be an extra weight to drag around.

If all other ignition sensors actively influencing ignition timing are working correctly and if the proper signal levels reach the ECU, the KS serves no active purpose and just like Wiking did you can replace it with a 500K resistor and see no adverse effect on performance or durability.

Since the standard VG ignition mapping has been done BY DESIGN to be compatible with low octane fuel, there is no need to "retard" timing at all when running 87 ..........................

I still have to see anybody with experience/knowledge on the specific details of the KS and ECU being able to answer the following much more important question:

Is the ECU able to use the KS and affect more than one "level" of retardation should continued knock be detectable even after the KS triggered timing retard the first time or is there an absolute limit to the extent that the KS input can affect timing?

Aslo - to me it looks like the ECU reverts to factory ignition mapping on powerdown irrespective of KS having detected knock or not - it therefore runs stock curves on engine re-start ..............anybody able to say/proove differently?

 

Hi, nice to 'see' ya!

Based on common sense of electronics -and- FSM, the things are absolutelu as u say. Alas, try that with jeff and automator: better have bulletproof life vests... They almost tried physically to stop me driving

The GRAND KS BATTLE:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....48#post3792548

BTW. Pls, tell what u know about tranny slip to dave at:
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=391096