Ok well my friend is annoying me to no end about how if you turn the heat on in a car than your gas mileage will go down. I haven't experianced this... To me it seems like the heat has to excape the engine one way or another and it either goes in the cabin or out the exhaust. Mabye this is just because he drives a 1.5L paseo lol and it takes so much to run the little fans to blow the heat. Has anyone had worse mpg in there maxima because they turn the heat on??

 

Well technically, the less the heat the engine is sucking in, the more dense it is, which = more fuel used to mix in, which = worse mpg. Thats why you get sh!tty gas mileage in the winter.

 

Never heard of heater affecting gas mileage. Urban legends....

 

no, you get ****ty mileage because of winter gas...and during the winter it doesn't "suck in" any hot air....and the engine NEVER uses anything 'extra' to make hot air like the a/c compressor does to make air cool.... wow, so many things wrong in the same two sentences... it's almost like you were trying!

Your heater works off the cooling system for the engine and is just waste...it would be there anyway. Using it to heat your car takes no more gas than it takes to run a fan. Your friend is thinking of how much power it takes to run the a/c, NOT the heater. Tell him he's an idiot and we said he's

 

Haha funny how you didnt really read at what I said, I clearly state that in the winter you are NOT sucking in hot air, its cold air, and cold air = more dense, which = more fuel to mix in inorder to compensate for the more dense air. THATS why gas mileage goes down, hot air wouldnt require as much fuel as cold air would. And yes, winter gas is worse, but that wasnt my point. Any yes, running the heater wont make your gas mileage worse.

 

yep, that's why mileage goes down

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=279376

cold plays a part but it's oxygenated fuel that's the big mileage killer

http://www.chevron.com/prodserv/fuel...realwrld.shtml