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djminfll

I finally got past the mpg plateau!

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I wrote something last week about not being to get past the plateau of 44.1mpg. My lifetime mpg wouldn't budge past that no matter how good my fillups have been. But I FINALLY broke through the plateau and am sailing along now at 44.2mpg lifetime!

 

My car will be 2 years old in February; as soon as it hits 2 years, I will reset the lifetime and start over.

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Edited by djminfll

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I reset my Long Term Fuel Economy ( "Lifetime?" ) in my 2010 at the 10,000 mile oil changes and record the previous one in the maintenance section. If you don't reset it for two years, it's not telling you anything of value.

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I reset my Long Term Fuel Economy ( "Lifetime?" ) in my 2010 at the 10,000 mile oil changes and record the previous one in the maintenance section. If you don't reset it for two years, it's not telling you anything of value.

Its telling you the lifetime fuel economy. To me, thats pretty important.

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But it doesn't tell you any trend for any period of time. The longer you don't reset it, the more it is set in stone. New changes in fuel use don't move it hardly at all. I know within a mpg what my lifetime fuel economy is and I also know that the first 10,000 miles after I replaced the OEM Michelins with the same tires, my mpg seemed to go down about a mpg from 41.5 to 40.5. I don't know why and I can't do anything about it. Maybe tires are stiffer when new. The next few 10,000 mile intervals may clarify the issue. Temperature can be the cause. If I reset every year I could rule that out. Maybe I will.

 

I reset my average fuel economy at fill ups so I have data for 10,000 miles, ~600 miles/tank, each trip, 1-6 minute periods and instantaneous fuel economy. No car has ever provided that much information. When you add DTE that's SIX different calculations.

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Being "set in stone" is a good thing, small changes don't affect it. If I would notice my trip MPG changing, I would know something was going on.

 

Six calculations and it still can't tell me how I am doing while driving, only after I shut off the key...sad.

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In the 2010, there are the bar graphs selectable in 1 to 6 minute intervals and the instantaneous mpg gauge. Is there no equivalent in the 2013+?

 

The bar graphs show me headwind or tailwind changes. I was headed NW on the interstate in Mississippi and the bar graphs showed a decrease of about 6 mpg over about a half hour with no temperature change. When I exited the car at the motel the wind was whipping out of the NW about 20 mph. Headwinds cost 3 mpg per 10 mph. The car is so quiet that i couldn't hear the increased wind noise of the increasing headwind but I saw it clearly on the bar graphs.

Edited by lolder

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I think what Griswald would like, as do I, is a digital read for instantaneous mpg. The analogue bar graphs are not very precise.

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A digital readout of instantaneous mpg would be constantly changing and be difficult to read. The analog display is the best. The digital mph displays of the past faded in popularity.

Displays in "Glass cockpit" aircraft have an analog component that resembles a dial sometimes with an an accompanying digital number at the bottom. Angles of "dial hands" are more quickly read than digital numbers and an abnormal value is more quickly noticed. Ford could easily have displayed instantaneous mpg digitally but wisely displayed it in analog form. I can read it to within 1 - 2 mpg.

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I usually reset Trip 2 every 10K miles or so - the last time I reset it was when the car turned over 36,000 miles. This pic was taken about a week before the ones above, but in the last 5000 miles, I've achieved 46mpg, not too shabby.

 

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