Dec.04 - Monthly MPG Competition

SUNRG

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Location
Roanoke, VA
TDI
None currently. Previously owned 04 Golf TDI & 05 Passat GLS Wagon TDI
Join the TDIclub's monthly MPG competition! Last month's results are here(website) or here(PDF).

It's easy to participate! All you have to do is post your fuel economy data in this format:

[Driver]AudiLikeA4 [Car]04 Golf 5m [Fuel]D2
10/5 721.0m/16.1g=44.8mpg
10/10 742.4m/16.1g=46.1mpg
<font color="red">Oct.Total 1463.4m/32.2g=45.4mpg*</font>
<font color="green">MMPT: 742.4**</font>
<font color="red">*The Month's Total line of your MPG report is critical. Please remember to total your miles / gallons and MPGs. </font>
<font color="green">**MMPT [Most Miles Per Tank] is a new catergory that acknowledges our "range-superheros". To be considered for the monthly MMPT podium you must add the MMPT line to your final report each month.</font>

Note: Report in US miles and US gallons for consistency (and to avoid confusion).

Other optional data you could include are:
Speed: =, +, or - (how fast you drive in relation to the posted speed limit)
Shift:(your most common shifting RPMs)
ODO: (the total mileage on your TDI)
Additive:(fuel additives)
Notes: (anything else you'd like to share)

Remember to absolutely never compromise safety in pursuit of MPG Competition glory.

I will post standings updates weekly or bi-weekly. If you have a reasonably accurate MFA, you do not even need to fill up to have your data included in the standings! Just send in a post with the MFA computed MPGs. (incredibly, Rammstein and possibly others can drive for an entire month, more than 1200 miles, and still not need to fill up)

At the end of every month we'll crown numerous champions.
Overall (of course this is the most coveted title), A3/B4, A4, A4PD, B5, even Touareg (and titles for any other models I've missed).

Two MPG award categories that absolutely everyone has a shot at are PR [Personal Record] awards: a "Road Trip PR" and a "Standard Driving PR".

Road Trips are often nearly all highway miles - MPG numbers (for some) are much better than their Standard Driving. Standard Driving is just your normal commuting and recreational driving. If you set your own Personal MPG Record [Road Trip and/or Standard Driving] please post and I'll record the PR you achieved in the standings.

Good luck! - Rob
 

AudiLikeA4

Veteran Member
Joined
May 26, 2004
Location
Middle Tennessee
TDI
2004 VW Golf GL Anthracite Blue Manual
I found out my tire pressure was low last month so hopefully this month's numbers will be better. I also started using PS white bottle on my second fill and did my 20k mile oil change and fuel filter change, we'll find out if theres any improvement next fill.

AudiLikeA4 04 Golf GLS 5spd
12/01/04 701.2 mile's 15.554gal, 45.08mpg
12/07/04 731.5 mile's 15.687gal + .0625gal PS white = 15.75gal, 46.44mpg
12/12/04 718.9 mile's 15.134gal + .047gal PS white = 15.181gal, 47.35mpg <Personal Best>
12/18/04 691.6 mile's 14.931gal + .0625gal PS white = 14.993 46.12mpg
12/23/04 669.1 mile's 14.847gal + .015gal PS white = 14.862 45.02mpg Ran this tank a lil harder 70-75 cruise w/ 2 trips of 100mile's at 80mph cruise.
12/29/04 671 mile's 15.456gal + .062 PSW = 15.518gal 43.24mpg Lots of high speed driving 80+ 1st half tank and some 60-75mph driving last half.

4188.3 mile's/ 91.858gal = 45.59mpg

Car currently has 22600 mile's since delivered in mid June


I think I hold last months record for most mile's traveled
I only wish my mpg was in the 50's
 

diezelwiezel

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2004
Location
Running the highrail somewhere in Tx.
TDI
2004 Mojave Beige Golf
SUNRG,

I have tried to access the November standing with no luck, maybe its me. Anyway;

'04 GL 4dr. Golf 5m (D2)
tire pressure 38f/36r, CCV mod.
additives: PS diesel kleen, 8oz. per fillup
speed: 65-70 mph

12/05 672.9 miles/13.341 gal = 50.43 mpg

My VW has obviously reached nirvana as it has broke the 50 mpg barrier. Goodluck Veedubing.
 

skinz2k5TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Location
Apex, NC
TDI
Jetta, 2005, silver/blk
Here are my miles so far...

I use PS Diesel Kleen (grey bottle)(8oz per full tank)
Drive 65-80 on highway (with traffic), 85% high/15% city
Bike Rack on car, 42psi rear/40 psi front

12/2 4975 miles on car 14.215 gal 656.6 driven =46.19 mpg
12/9 5576 miles on car 13.319 gal 600.5 driven =45.08 mpg
12/12 5940 miles on car 8.539 gal 363.7 driven =42.59 mpg
12/14 6577 miles on car 14.053 gal 637.0 driven =45.32 mpg

changed over to diesel kleen in the white bottle cold outside!!! Mileage is definitely affected 4-5 mpg

12/16 6994 miles on car 9.789 gal 416.0 driven =42.49 mpg
12/19 7479 miles on car 12.250 gal 484.6 driven= 39.55 mpg
12/22 8083 miles on car 13.568 gal 604.4 driven= 44.54 mpg

running total 3762.8 miles/85.733 = 43.88 mpg avg
 

SUNRG

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Location
Roanoke, VA
TDI
None currently. Previously owned 04 Golf TDI & 05 Passat GLS Wagon TDI
SUNRG, I have tried to access the November standing with no luck, maybe its me.
It is a newer type of webpage format. If your browser is not currently MS Internet Explorer v6 that might be the problem. Tomorrow I'll post the Nov. results in a PDF file that everyone should have no trouble viewing.
 

skinz2k5TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Location
Apex, NC
TDI
Jetta, 2005, silver/blk
Diezelweizel said...

[I have tried to access the November standing with no luck, maybe its me. Anyway;...]

Try running firefox (www.getfirefox.com) it's created by the people who made mozilla... I like it a lot better than IE. No pop ups etc.... I can view the results fine with it....

HTH
 

gdr703

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2002
Location
Vancouver, Canada
TDI
Golf 2 door 2002 Indigo
My numbers are down on the current tank. Had to take a trip to Seattle, down the I5 and back, that was 190 miles of driving at 70mph, and in the rain, which will drop my figures, I know it.
 

Lug_Nut

TDIClub Enthusiast, Pre-Forum Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 20, 1998
Location
Sterling, Massachusetts. USA
TDI
idi: 1988 Bolens DGT1700H, the other oil burner: 1967 Saab Sonett II two stroke
Momentum.
Not the car's, the rain's. Each drop has some mass, not much, but collectively there is enough that one doesn't like to be hit on the head by them. These drops are falling down at a terminal velocity of about 15 to 20 mph. They have little lateral speed other than the wind speed.
Your car, with a frontal area of about 15 to 20 square feet is hitting each drop within that area and nearly accelerating those drops from a lateral speed of about zero mph to whatever speed the car is moving in an instant.
Every instant.
Air with rain has more average density and mass per volume than air without. It makes sense that moving through that denser media requires more effort.
It's seldom necessary to be correct.
It's more important to sound convincing.
 

SUNRG

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Location
Roanoke, VA
TDI
None currently. Previously owned 04 Golf TDI & 05 Passat GLS Wagon TDI
SUNRG, 04 Golf 5m, B100
12-10 7152ODO 402.6m/10g 40.26mpg

too much city and mountain driving, plus i've just been off my economy driving game. i have not been looking ahead enough, so instead of coasting-in-gear toward stops and turns, i've been braking into them and then accelorating out... not efficient. plus, it just seems like i've been running late for everything the last few weeks and it's hard to get good MPGs when your in a hurry.

all that said, and considering that i only do about 15-20% of my driving on the highway, and running B100, 40.2mpg is pretty good. EPA says i should be getting ~36mpg...

i've been using this fill technique that i think is very accurate and instantly gives you your fuel economy. it works like this:

1. when the low-fuel light comes on, immediately reset the Trip ODO
2. the next time you get to a fuel station put exactly 10 gallons in
3. when your low-fuel light comes on again, write down the miles on the Trip ODO and immediately reset. move the decimal point one place to the left on your trip mileage and you have your fuel economy.

the low fuel sensor is always in exactly the same place, so if you reset the trip ODO as soon as it's triggered, you can then drive however long it takes to the next fuel station, put exactly 10 gallons in, and your trip ODO keeps track of how many miles you travel on the 10 gallons before tripping the low-fuel sensor again.

two bonuses of this method are that it saves some weight and gives me a little space to add petroD should we have some "too cold for B100" weather.

if you don't like filling up that often you could add 15 gallons instead of 10 gallons. i like adding just 10 because then i know my goal is to drive an even 500 miles before the low-fuel sensor is triggered [50.0mpg]. but, i have not been able to do it yet with B100.

with only 7152 on the ODO, i'm optomistic that a 50+mpg B100 tank is in my future
.
 

Rammstein

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 3, 2002
Location
Québec city baby, Canada
TDI
Golf 92 D
Sunrg, here's my technique: fill it up when empty, reset MFA (both mfa 1 and 2) and the odometre.

Last time I filled up was November 26th...


1400 km since, but fuel economy is going down the drain...only 20 litres left...


Cold weather is no fun!
 

cram51

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Location
Illinois - St. Louis Area
TDI
2005 Jetta - Spice Red
Switched to 8 oz of Power Service Diesel Fuel rather than Diesel Kleen this time. Getting lower temps this week so I decided to dip into the 96 oz jug of anti-gel.

12/4/04 - 425.8 miles/10.42 Gal = 40.86 MPG
12/11/04 - 347.9 miles/8.88 Gal = 39.18 MPG
Dec. so far - 773.7 miles/19.3 Gal = 40.09 MPG

I drive the car usually once a week. She drives it the other days. Yesterday she tells me that she drives at 73 - 75 mph (on her 70 mile round trip commute - with 90% of it being interstate driving). I drive at about 69 - 70 mph (in my 55 mile round trip commute - with about 90% of it being interstate also). I think I would see slightly better numbers if I could get her to drive around 70. The chances of that happening though is slim and none. Slim just left also


Total mileage on the car is 4545 miles.
 

gdr703

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2002
Location
Vancouver, Canada
TDI
Golf 2 door 2002 Indigo
Momentum.
Not the car's, the rain's. Each drop has some mass, not much, but collectively there is enough that one doesn't like to be hit on the head by them. These drops are falling down at a terminal velocity of about 15 to 20 mph. They have little lateral speed other than the wind speed.
Your car, with a frontal area of about 15 to 20 square feet is hitting each drop within that area and nearly accelerating those drops from a lateral speed of about zero mph to whatever speed the car is moving in an instant.
Every instant.
Air with rain has more average density and mass per volume than air without. It makes sense that moving through that denser media requires more effort.
It's seldom necessary to be correct.
It's more important to sound convincing.
That sounds good Jonathan!

The other aspect is an increase in the tires rolling resistance due to the road surface being awash. The tires disperse the water as they hit the road. The visible effect of the water dispersal is all the spary that is thrown up off the wet road. The energy for the tires to disperse the water, and the throw it into all that spray has to come from somewhere. Hence my mpg's will be down 5% or in this case its probably down 10% as the road was largely awash and those tires were working hard to avoid aquaplaning.
hth.
 

watercop

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Location
Clay County, FL
1st December fill, a top up - 232.6 miles / 3.699 gallons local driving 62.88 mpg
2nd December tank: 10Dec04 1035.7 miles 16.433 gallons = 63.02 mpg.

#2 was an experiment - ran EGR at Max (31768) on a 1000+ mile road trip mostly at my usual 64 mph / 2000 rpm. I expected a tad higher for those conditions so I have returned EGR to stock because of that and that the engine surged while climbing mild hills
 

watercop

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 13, 2002
Location
Clay County, FL
You are welcome to join us here in July when the 4 AM low temperature is 80 and the relative humidity even higher.

Mind you, I grew up in New England and enjoy visiting, but I'd have to be down to my very last cornflake before I'd spend winters there again.
 

DareDiesel

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Location
Western Washington
[Driver]DareDiesel
[Car]97 Passat 5m
[Fuel]D2
12/13 1002m/18.71g=53.55mpg
Dec.Total 1002m/18.71g=55.53mpg
MMPT: 1002m

Speed: posted speed limit or 55mph max
Shift: 1750rpms
ODO: 139,719
Additive: White PS
Lifetime avg.: 49.01mpg
 

skinz2k5TDI

Veteran Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2004
Location
Apex, NC
TDI
Jetta, 2005, silver/blk
Ahhh Dude... nice numbers...

[snip]
local driving 62.88 mpg
2nd December tank: 10Dec04 1035.7 miles 16.433 gallons = 63.02 mpg.
[end of snip]

Having the patience to drive 65 with all the snow birds in Fl. you deserve those numbers... gotta say.. I'm jealous!!
 

straw10

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2004
Location
Wallingford, CT
TDI
looking to get back to the TDI soon
I know I'm not going to be anywhere near the top, I did have a personal best on my 3rd vented tank.

690 mi-16.409gal= 42.05 mi/gal

had room to make 700, but facing 10's temps.

powerservice 6 oz.
driving 400 miles 60-65 mph home from work
other 300 maniac...80+mph running late in the morning
 

Rammstein

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 3, 2002
Location
Québec city baby, Canada
TDI
Golf 92 D
[Driver]DareDiesel
[Car]97 Passat 5m
[Fuel]D2
12/13 1002m/18.71g=53.55mpg
Dec.Total 1002m/18.71g=55.53mpg
MMPT: 1002m

Speed: posted speed limit or 55mph max
Shift: 1750rpms
ODO: 139,719
Additive: White PS
Lifetime avg.: 49.01mpg
I bet you get better mileage with the black sedan DareDiesel...
 

Rammstein

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Sep 3, 2002
Location
Québec city baby, Canada
TDI
Golf 92 D
Here's my last tank in pictures (I know you love it when I do that!):



For those curious, a B4V when filled up, the nozzle usually clicks around 70 litres:

But you're able to go all the way to 90+ litres anyway...;)


So 5.12 litres per 100km or 45.93 US mpg. I added .15 litres to the total fuel put in, so 93.605 litres or 24.728 US gallons.

1135.93 miles....


-20C here, winter sucks...
 

DareDiesel

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Location
Western Washington
I suspect that your right Rammstein. I think it's the black paint... it's just more slippery than other colors.
(I have to add that since I don't drive the blue one all the time, my wife's, I can't say for certain if it does)
 

cram51

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Location
Illinois - St. Louis Area
TDI
2005 Jetta - Spice Red
Is there any chance of getting a separate automatic transmission division?
I know I will never be able to compete with you guys - even when I get my engine broken in. No matter what though, I will continue to post. I think this is a lot of fun. Thanks again for setting this up SUNRG.
 

cram51

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2004
Location
Illinois - St. Louis Area
TDI
2005 Jetta - Spice Red
So the auto has a better 5th gear ratio compared to the manual? I didn't know that. She loves the high speeds though. The slowest I can get her to go is 74. The days I drive it to work is the only days it will see numbers around 65.

Also, I think it is pointless to start a different division for auto's in this competition. I have never seen any other auto's post yet. Then again though, that will give me a for sure win in my division
 

SUNRG

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 19, 2003
Location
Roanoke, VA
TDI
None currently. Previously owned 04 Golf TDI & 05 Passat GLS Wagon TDI
Is there any chance of getting a separate automatic transmission division?
consider it done! as of this minute we've added an automatic transmission podium to the final standings.

No matter what though, I will continue to post. I think this is a lot of fun. Thanks again for setting this up SUNRG.
you're welcome. a competition that rewards participants for conserving a finite natural resource <u>and</u> it's fun and free to enter, that's hard to beat
 

Lug_Nut

TDIClub Enthusiast, Pre-Forum Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 20, 1998
Location
Sterling, Massachusetts. USA
TDI
idi: 1988 Bolens DGT1700H, the other oil burner: 1967 Saab Sonett II two stroke
Technically we're not conserving, just consuming less that otherwise. Guys like Rammstein that drive the long way around to run up a few more km. before refueling are actually using more fuel.
 
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