Wow, great job and good write up.

I am thrilled to be getting 48mpg so far on my 4th tank ever.

I feel like this thread needs a disclaimer though. "Please don't risk running out of gas in a bad neighborhood, on a busy freeway, or in the desert trying to get a big number on your screen!"

I once found myself babying the car on the interstate trying to make it to the next gas station, with my baby and wife in the back seat, and semis zooming past me. I won't put myself in that situation again.

I have been thrilled with my +400 mile tanks. I am lucky to get 300+ in my bimmer!

 

Good point, anti personality (noflash), and my wife gets thrills out of pointing out when a Cadillac of retired people passes me now or a Oldsmobile or Buick with Senior Citizens zooming past me. That's funny now. I passed 4 State Police cars on the side of the road with their radar guns and never had to lift off the gas or hit the brakes. THAT is something hard to get used to. I was UNDER the speed limit all 4 times. Neat.

Anyway, on all of my tanks, except the one that ran it dry, I have filled it up to no more than 12.5'ish gallons and since I put in 14 gallons once I know there is at least another 1 gallon left in there so even though I'm "pushing" it to get 600 or 700 miles there is still another gallon in there for 50 miles or so. I'm hoping other realize this too because sometimes they might feel the need to stop but are in East St. Louis and just need the assurance that they can make it another 20 miles out of the bad neighborhoods.

So, if you take the displayed FE and multiply it by 14 gallons then that will roughly estimate your Time To Empty. On my last trip I think that would have been 53.1 mpg * 14 gallons = 743 miles and I filled up at 687 or about another 56 miles to empty and I filled up with 12.4 gallons so 1.6 gallons were left, roughly. Makes sense to me at least.

 

Is there a safe way to keep a small amount of gas in the trunk for those of you that like to push the envelop?

 

Here is what I did ever since the tank did run mostly dry on me. I got to wondering who would sell a half-gallon gas tank that seals. Well, nobody does - as it should have a vent on it for the fumes to escape and not blow up. As it is nearing winter though the Auto stores are starting to stock their Fuel Line Freeze-up products and Fuel Line cleaner products. If the directions on the bottle say, "Dump in the entire contents of this 12 fl oz bottle when the tank is nearly empty and then fill up with a full tank" then that seems to be the perfect scenario.

So, I bought 2 of the bottles (labeled "For SUVs") because they were 20 fl oz bottles instead of 12 fl oz bottles. So, if 20 fl oz is 0.156 gallon then two of those makes 0.312 gallon and multiplying this by, assuming, 50 mpg yields about 15 miles. Around where I live it is hard to even go 8 miles in any direction without passing a gas station so this seems perfect for me. I tucked the two bottles below the trunk carpeting between the spare tire and the spare tire well wall. I can probably put in 2 more but I don't plan to ever use them -- just for extreme emergency use. I don't think the car will run well on Fuel Line Cleaner only and no fuel in the mix but that is my way of keeping a "way out of trouble" lined up in case I run dry somewhere. And the $4.79 in fuel saver is cheper than the bill to a local tow truck to rescue you or fill you up so I've justified it with the voices in my head. =)

 

Wow. We truly are total opposites.

 

I'd be very cautious about running ANY engine on fuel line cleaner alone. The chemical is a strong cleaner... and while it may ignite and run in an engine, it might also cause problems... from upper cylinder lubrication (or lack thereof), to damage of fuel line components, to changes in combustion temperature which could impact various sensors, and quite possibly damage to the catalytic converter.

Those cleaners are supposed to be put into an empty tank and IMMEDIATELY filled with a full tank of fuel to dilute to the proper ratio.

You might have better luck DRAINING those little bottles and filling them with gasoline!

 

Now I agree it is bad to A) run a car out of fuel and B) run the car on fuel cleaner alone but that is the easiest way to describe it. Actually, if you've ever experienced fuel cut or fuel starvation in a car you realize it 10-30 miles before you run out of gas completely. On my old car I would be 100 miles from filling up and any left turn more than 90 degrees would starve the fuel pump (which was on the left side of the tank).

On this last one when the exit ramp was 1 mile away and I noticed it to fuel cut I shifted into Neutral and coasted or shut the car off and coasted with no fuel being used and was able to make it most of the way (within 50 feet of the crest of the small hill) where I put in a 20 oz bottle of fuel cleaner so the fuel pump would not run dry.

When I did fill up the car (two clicks past initial cutoff since I knew it was low) then it only took 12.139 gal at 56.7 mpg for 688 miles while the previous tank was 12.473 gal at 55.0 mpg for 687 miles. I figured that since I was getting 1.7 mpg better than the previous tank then there was at least 0.5 gal still left in the tank if not a tad more. This meant that the fuel cleaner stuff was in there near an empty tank and filled within half a mile with a full tank of gas.

Good idea though, Anahymbrid, with draining those bottles and filling with gas. I just don't know where to store them in the car. I don't want them on TOP of the gas tank where they will get warm, expand, leak, etc. I just keep going about 100 miles beyond when the second fuel block disappears or 50 miles beyond when the last fuel block disappears as this averages me over 600 miles to a tank.

I have my 9-week birthday with my car tomorrow and will be turning over 10,000 miles by the time I get home for an average of 1,111.1 miles per week and the four previous tanks are averaging 48.4, 49.9, 55.0, and 56.7 mpg. Neat.

 

Do you guys with super long commutes turn over your cars quickly? I mean I'm lucky to get 10K miles in 18 months much less 9 weeks (still on 2nd tank after 8 weeks). All my previous cars started having minor issues at 80K (usually CV joint issues) and I've never kept them over 120K due to increasing issues (granted my previous cars have all been used).

 

First car out of college that was "mine" (not the family car) was a 1996 Honda Accord EX. I bought it in 1999 (3 years old) with 72k miles on it all highway. I put an additional 25k-30k a year on it for the next 2 years including breaking the 5th-Reverse synchro gear on a manual transmission! (Nearly impossible to break a Honda tranny let alone one that is only 3 years old - still not sure how I did that.) I kept that car until mid-2000 when I bought the next one. I sold it to my parents with about 140k on it and they still have it at 185k.

My next car was a 1995 Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4 which I bought in mid-2000 with 40k miles on it. I sold it in mid-2006 with 180k on it so 140k miles on that car in 6 years. It had regular maintenance items at that point (clutch at 120k, timing belt & water pump every 60k, etc.).

I make good use of the cars I own. This one is no exception. My mileage will slow once winter approaches but I definitely put on the miles. In fact, in the Mileage Database logs I moved up from 84th to 51st in 9 days (2,463 miles in that time and it was almost all work miles!!!). I will just about hit 11,000 miles on Monday which is the 10-week birthday so I should be solidly in the top 50 in the Database at that point on 20 tanks I believe (550 miles/tank avg).

My commute is actually just 22 miles. The rest of the 150+ mi/day avg is work miles. I don't know about others and their long commutes but I too would be interested to hear.

 

Delighted to say that today I got my first 600 + (actual 603 miles) tank with one and a third gallons still remaining (if you accept the published tank capacity)! I am not a hypermiler, driving carefully with standard tire pressures. It really is an excellent car!