540maxima

i mean yea i guess that could be true. i drive mostly city though so 28 is pretty good average.

MaxedOut513

This may have already been covered. But I have a 5th gen maxima. I usually put 87 in my tank since im cheap lol. I know putting 89 in will increase performance a tad but what kind of difference in gas mileage would you expect, if any?

trooplewis

iTrader: (1)

If there was a positive answer for that, EVERYONE would use premium, there would be no reason to use 87.

cheese123

You can always try to improve your mileage by HHO production.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Q4H9C8N2LY
You also need a MAP/O2 Enhancer.
Also a Pulse width modulator to increase your Amps.
Then you just cut some O2 wires and reconnect to enhancer and to Ecu.

spiers

This is a great thread!!

talldudenumber5

i have a 96 gle auto and have gotten 2 tanks on the highway of 34.1 and 33.8. i rarly take long trips in the max since my wifes malibu get 35 to 40 highway(no brainer which car to take on long trips). i have been doing some basic aeromods to my car. i have covered the upper grill at a slight angle(front of bumper to hood). reduced the opening in the lower grill and removed the mud flaps. besides the aero mods my car is bone stock and all i did was change the nut behind the wheel.

cover the grill (the engine bay acts like a parachute to the air coming into it. so the more air you can divert around instead of in the better. but you have to be careful to balance the air in and engine temperature)
remove execess parts(mudflaps, spoilers, etc)
coast in neutral (drops my rpm to 635 to 700) lower rpm = less gas used
scanguage (shows me my mpg on my 96, plus all my other sensors if i want.)

i average around 21-25 in the city, the bigest thing that helped me was ecomodder.com .

PopCulture

I put 87 in mine too. Try using the one that contains no Ethanol. It seems to increase my performance and, of course, give me more mileage.

nba0203

iTrader: (4)

great info ill start using these tips from now on

vq35power

6th gen:
140K miles
Gas: 87 octane
Oil: Valvoline 5W-30 (thinking about switching to Mobil1 synthetic or Castrol)
Average speed: 40mph
Average mpg city: 21-23mpg
Average mpg hwy: 30-37mpg (depending on wind resistance, weather. cruising 64-69mph)
DTE highway: 545 - 565 miles (best ever displayed on-screen was 625 miles)
DTE city: 320 - 345 miles

City driving: 57% Hwy: 43%

Best I have ever gotten is 42mpg on the highway but that was only one time and I have never been able to achieve that again. Will continue to try though

Worst was 16mpg when I first drove the car home from a used car dealer. After a 25 mile drive I inspected and the tires were grossly under-inflated, coolant was extremely low, car was dirty and i think had not been driven for quite a while.

FYI, I do not use many methods that other hypermilers use. Also, I'm not satisfied that shifting to neutral for an automatic transmission will not cause long term damage so I just leave it in drive. Can anyone confirm if you have been doing this for years and transmission is still good?

Although, with my mileage stats, I plan to stick to my driving habits. They're safe, and seem to save me money on fuel so far. Furthermore, I do use heat and a/c more than the average hypermiler. As you can tell from my signature, this is my 5th nissan and every single one of them has always produced great mpg for me. This is the first one that I use 87 octane gas in.

aackshun

iTrader: (3)

Best: 38mpg all highway.

Current: 30 City / 35 Highway (Previous 25 city / 28 highway)

Tips: 6mt + lightweight flywheel = win (so keeping the revs low and making the engine work less = win).

I always used premium with this car.

I just put on my lightweight rims, I need to do more driving to find out if there's any real mpg difference, should help things out a bit, 6th gear is feeling more like my old 5th now.

//edit just read the OP, kinda covers it all.

NmexMAX

iTrader: (22)

So, what was your total miles driven on that 38MPG tank?

Also, my LW wheels helped increase my MPG by 12-15%. 24.xx to 28.xx.

Itz Shak

Incredibly useful information o.O

CS_AR

I may have missed this post already but, "lazy O2 sensors" will have a negative impact on MPG. I've seen car owners become dissatisfied with performance and mileage after 100,000 miles. For ODBII Nissan/Infiniti products, I change O2 sensors with new NGK/NTK OEM specs at 100,000 miles or when I purchase one with over 100,000 miles and I can see the car is still running the Original O2 sensors. I change all 3 or 4 sensors (in sets) like I change spark plugs and windshield wipers. I can usually gain a ~2 to`~3 mpg increase with improved around town driving responsiveness. For OBDI cars, I've read the O2 sensors should be changed at 60,000 miles.

I've seen cases where lazy O2 will shorten the life of catalytic converters.

The most extreme cause of O2 sensor replacement based MPG improvement came on my son's 1995 F-150 where mileage increased from 15 to 18.5 MPG on the highway. A new O2 sensor for that truck put $5 to $8 a week back in his pocket.

I also only use Premium in the VQ30DE and VH45DE.

Amerikaner83

iTrader: (17)

Just like your 3 year thread bump

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

I have 200k on both original primary o2's and still get high 20's daily driving.
Trips get me 30 if I stay below 80.

dwapenyi

iTrader: (3)

The TIRE manufacture’s recommended maximum, be it Pirelli, Michelin, Kumho, Firestone etc, will get you the higher gas mileage, probably around a 10% improvement in mpg over the car manufacturer's recommended PSI setting. Bear in mind, that while this tip may increase gas mileage, there is also a tradeoff. By increasing tire pressure to the level that is suggested on the tire's sidewall, the car will suffer a loss in capability in other areas:The Car Manufacturer's (in this case Nissan) recommended PSI will achieve the best balance between performance, comfort, fuel economy, and safety.

Typically the 4th gen Maxima has a recommended tire pressure around 30-32 PSI, and the tire manufacturer's list a max pressure of around 44 PSI on their sidewalls.

Sticking to the car manufacturer's recommened PSI rating is the safest. The information is listed under the lid of the center console.



It should be fair to add that buying skinnier tires reduces your car's capability in other areas:All your other advice is excellent. I felt the need to comment on these 2 because most of your other advice does not affect the car negatively in any way.

Having all these suggestions listed together suggests that all the recommendations won't affect the car negatively.

For bullet points 6 and 7, however, there is a trade-off, and that trade-off is in performance and safety. It should be mentioned, as noted above.

zillafreak

I only read the first post. I disagree with 14. With a stick shift, using it to slow down will save gas in many vehicles.
In many vehicles, when rpms are above idle and no throttle is given, it will cut off fuel.

In my last couple stick shifts, this would happened. It even in my auto truck.

My truck was a diesel, so I would monitor EGT. I could get my EGT below 200F going down some big hills. It would idle around 300-350F

courtneyjr

Great advice, well needed!

JEB Davis

Excellent writeup overall! Just one point I disagree on.

Easy stops don't help your MPG. Obviously they do help you financially by saving wear on your brakes, don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating slamming on your brakes.

With a manual transmission, the most fuel-efficient way to come to a stop is to put it in neutral early and then coast, letting the speed bleed off gradually while the engine is just idling. While coasting you're getting huge MPG because you're keeping your speed up but using very little gas. Then brake moderately hard to a stop.

CichlidKid

iTrader: (1)

The most fuel efficient way to stop is to let off the accelerator and keep it in gear with a manual. It slows you down with engine braking (not true engine brakes like semi has, but still applies friction to slow your car down) and does not use any gas. You can even downshift to third to really bring the revs up so you can slow down purely with engine braking. The car only starts to add fuel at around 1400 rpm as to prevent the car from stalling.

If you were to throw the car into neutral the car would be idling therefore using gas.

JEB Davis

Thanks! I stand humbly corrected because I always thought some gas would be burned doing it the way you describe. I've been wrong on this for a long time! Thanks again Onward to even more gas savings!

george__

iTrader: (1)

I used to engine brake a lot when I had MT but I was taught engine braking was a big no no in Ontario. Driver ed school...

Certain areas have signs where you can even get fined for it but it's highly unlikely. It's aimed at trucks from waking up neighbourhood at night or so I've been told.

alaskanjackal

I don't know if the Maxima, at least my 2000 5th gen, actually does DFCO. I have a Bluetooth ODB-II adapter, and monitoring DashCommand when decelerating (even going down long hills with feet off the gas pedal), I still seem to draw about 0.4 gph. It's possible the ECU is reporting an erroneous fuel flow during DFCO, but I'm skeptical.

FWIW, I'm totally NOT a hypermiler (I like driving fast too much to do the nutty things some hypermilers do), but I do try to save gas where possible. A few issues with the OP have already been addressed throughout the thread, but here are a few comments based on my research and experience:

9) "Easy accelerations/stops" -- WOT is bad for fuel economy, but I've read in numerous places that super-slow starts increase pumping losses. Supposedly the most optimal throttle position to minimize pumping losses without unnecessarily dumping fuel into the cylinder is about 50%.
10) "Lower your top speed" -- absolutely true. I usually get just shy of 400 miles on a tank, depending on numerous factors. I filled up in El Paso this afternoon and then drove I-10 to Junction, TX. I knew I'd have to stop somewhere en route to put at least a couple gallons in. I was shocked when my low-fuel light came on well before Ozarka with my trip meter showing 330 miles on the clock. Why so bad? The speed limit on most of I-10 in West Texas is 80mph, and Texas speeding laws are pretty lenient and loosely enforced, so I had the cruise at 89mph. Apparently that eats up fuel quite a bit more than my normal 79mph-in-a-70 driving in the eastern US. HOWEVER, the comment about "Plus, it’s a lot safer!" needs to be fact-checked: it's not speed that kills, but speed differential. If everyone on a road is doing 80mph and you're the only one obeying the 65mph limit, you're far more a danger to everyone on the road than anyone else going 80. See https://www.motorists.org/does-speed-kill/.
11) "Drive at a steady pace" -- the "pulse and glide" technique was already discussed upthread but it wasn't really analyzed. https://www.metrompg.com/posts/pulse-and-glide.htm talks about it (both in hybrid and non-hybrid terms). I suspect its success has to do with several factors, two of which are minimizing pumping losses and maximizing peak torque by accelerating the car a little harder than steady-speed draw during the pulse phase, plus then DFCO when the car is gliding (assuming you don't do the tranny-in-neutral variant of the glide phase). I tried it once for about 20 minutes and gave up messing with pulse-and-glide because it's annoying as heck when dealing with other traffic on the road. A further look at the topic is at https://ecomodder.com/forum/showthre...d-22986-4.html.
18) "Rolling windows up/down versus using your air conditioning" -- this was already discussed a bit further down the thread, but every test I've ever seen has windows-open as less drag than running the A/C compressor--at all speeds, even high freeway speeds. Likely even better is running the fan full-blast with the A/C off and the windows up--I can't imagine the few watts the fan uses adding more drag than an open window. But that only works when it's reasonably cool outside.

Some of the things I most commonly do to eke out better mileage:

-Minimizing use of the brake--I anticipate traffic and lights and offramps and things and maximize coasting (and potential DFCO) for slowing instead of keeping the throttle open and then using the brake. You really have to be an aware driver to constantly do this. I like to think I'm a pretty good and aware driver, unlike most others out on the road...
-Drafting (where it is mostly safe and makes sense), though after a short while I get tired of going slow and end up passing the semi I'm drafting
-Manipulating the throttle to shift as soon as possible and avoid downshifting as much as possible (I have the AT)
-When the heat load and geography allows, I'll pulse the A/C--I turn it on (full fan) when going down hills, taking advantage of the car's downhill rolling energy to power the compressor, and then turn the compressor off (and possibly fan, depending on outside temperature, etc.) when I level off/start climbing again (before I reapply the throttle)

My 5.0 gen doesn't have a DTE/MPG meter, but the ODB-II adapter does report fuel flow and the phone app will calculate MPG. Unfortunately, it seems to read about 10mpg high (based on calculations from actual tank fills, dividing the mileage driven by the fuel added to the tank. When I first got the ODB-II reader, I was shocked to find my car was getting 32+mpg, but several tank fills later, I realized the app was just too optimistic.This trip (with lots of 80-85+ driving), I've been hovering around 22mpg. Best I normally get at a slightly lower top speed is around 24mpg. Best I ever saw driving most of a tank on back roads at 55mph was around 32mpg...but I doubt I'll ever have the patience to recreate that.

krismax

iTrader: (15)

I use to get in the 40's all day long with my max. I would only put $5 in gas in at a time.

3.5 swap 5 speed it weighed between 2550-2600 lbs

I would start off in 2nd never 1st unless i was racing.Could start in 5th very easy also.Light kosei k-1's 15 inch 13lbs. A shift into second at 40 MPH would smoke both tires for over 100 feet.

You want good gas mileage make the tires,rims and car as light as you can.