Energy saving gadgets

[elizilla]

After my success with using the metering gadget to figure out how to save power in my house, I am looking at another such item. Anyone ever played with one of these?

http://www.scangauge.com/

I'm thinking of getting this for my truck. I get crappy fuel mileage in that thing, below the EPA estimates and below other F-150 driver's averages. Maybe with real time feedback, I can makes changes to my driving habits that will improve mileage. Or maybe I can find something specific that is wrong with it. At the very least it would be interesting.

Plus it's a tool, I can plug it into any car to read the trouble codes. It will no doubt come in handy for that, at some point.

Unfortunately, motorcycles don't have the data port to plug this gadget into. Cars only.

Comments

[also-huey.livejournal.com]

I've played with one, and two of my cousins have them hard-mounted in their cars. And I like it enough that I recommended it as a product to my friend who owns an auto parts store. It's a really cool little gizmo. The ability to read trouble codes from the engine computer is a lot more useful to me than the live readouts for hypermiling (since my overpowered little truck is never going to get great gas mileage, no matter how mellow I drive) but even that is still kind of neat to have.

[elizilla]

My overpowered big red truck is never going to get great mileage either. But it sure seems like it shouldn't be THIS bad.

[encorecrazay.livejournal.com]

If you're looking at the EPA mileage, it's based on the best results from tests by the manufacturer - they only have to report on one vehicle - they test a bunch and report the best. Found this out when I was doing prototype work at Ford.

[elizilla]

My previous truck got about 50% better mileage than the EPA estimates, when I first bought it new. It didn't drop down to the EPA estimates until it had over 100K on it.

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

I recommend getting an error-code scanner of some sort.

But as for that thing--do you really put enough miles on the truck to warrant trying to find 1 or 2 MPG? You can probably gain that much by inflating your tires to their maximum load, and using a lighter weight motor oil.

EDIT: And have you cleaned your Air Mass detector? Or the throttle bodies? (How many miles do you have on Clifford the Big Red Truck, anyway?)

[elizilla]

What is an Air Mass detector?

Clean the throttle bodies? How? Dump FI cleaner in the gas?

I'm up to 31K these days. I started specifically tracking mileage last August. Since then I have spent $395.14 putting gas in it, to travel 2461 miles. I doubt I would ever pay for the gadget out of my fuel savings. But it still interests me. :-)

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

For how many of those miles did you have motorcycles in the back? Or were towing something? Obviously those miles are going to have extra-low MPG.

The air-mass detector thingy is an electronic bit attached to the air intake somewhere. It measures the mass of air flowing in your intake and the ECM uses that to help determine where it should be on its map. You can clean it just by spraying it with Throttle-Body Cleaner.

I misspoke about the throttle body--there's just the one. You disconnect the air intake from it, and manually work the butterfly. Look for splooge build-up on the body around where the butterfly comes to rest. Spray off said splooge with afore-mentioned cleaner.

But on the whole you're kinda screwed. The typical F150 buyer doesn't give a shit about mileage, and so the truck is not designed with high MPG as a priority. Hell, that's why there aren't many (if any) non-turbo'd diesels available in the consumer truck market. In Arizona I had a normally-aspirated diesel Suburban. It was slower than a riding lawn mower, but it got 18 mpg driving in the mountains.

Anyway, the gadget is a pretty cool piece of kit. You should get it and play with it. I predict your biggest potential gains will be lowering your cruising speed on the freeway.

[elizilla]

Yeah, it makes sense, cars had single carbs, as well. We're just used to thinking of them as multiples, and insanely tiny. At some point I'll go out there and try cleaning it out - shouldn't be too hard to find it, or to work with it.

I'm a bit more concerned about mileage than most pickup drivers, I think. But at 3000 miles a year, mileage only really bothers me on principle. In day-to-day ownership, my biggest gripe is actually the sheer size of the thing. It needs bigger parking spaces everywhere I go, and more road space. I am spoiled by driving much slimmer vehicles!

[(Anonymous)]

Does it use a MAS or a MAF?

My car uses a MAF. I use the avg mpg display to work on best mpg when commuting. I use the Cobb AP to remap the EFI for better turbo boost and power (the rest of the time). But the AP would be overkill for what you're wanting. Why not chip the truck with a replacement programmed for mpg instead of HP/Tq?

[elizilla]

I don't know how to do that, but it sounds like it's worth investigating. I'm familiar with doing stuff like that to FI bikes; how hard can it be to do it to the most common truck on the road?

[mistrtoad.livejournal.com]

It uses a Mass Air Flow sensor--MAF. More comments in your next post.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

How poor is the mileage?

How old is the truck?

Is it a manual transmission?

When was the last time you gapped the plugs/changed the air fliter?

There are several things (which I'm sure you know, from maintaining a bike) which can affect mileage.

If it's age, then the possiblity the pistons have worn, and you are getting poor compression/combustion does arise. If that's the case... well you can tear it down and do a ring job (oi!), go to higher octane fuel (or an additive), or just accept it's got crappy mileage.

The gizmo sounds great.

[elizilla]

Over the last year I have averaged 14.3 mpg.

It's a 2004 F-150 with 31K on it. It's an automatic; they didn't offer any manual transmission F-150s in 2004, or any six-cylinder models. This is the smaller of the two gasoline eight cylinder models. It's the smallest body style as well, but that's still pretty freakin' huge. The base model included AC, cruise, and a decent interior, so the only optional equipment I bought was the towing package.

I changed the air filter last summer, so it's got about 3000 miles on it. I've never touched the plugs, but it's a cage and it's only got 31K - the interval is 75K, I think, though I suppose I could take a look at them. I guess I'm not expecting any age or mileage related stuff yet. It still has new car smell, lol.

The EPA estimate was 16 city, 21 highway, so my mileage is lower than the city number, but not insanely so. I'm guessing the problem is that I rarely drive it more than 5 miles or so, and those miles are mainly city. In between, it sits unused for long periods.

My previous truck, during the last couple years I had it, did about half its miles with a bike in the back, or hauling loads for friends. It was obviously straining; entering the freeway was a bit hair raising. :-) So when I bought this one, I shopped with bike hauling in mind, and got the full-size instead of another small truck. But I haven't ended up doing nearly as much bike hauling, lately. And I got fed up with people borrowing it and damaging it or bringing it back full of dirt, so I've cut that way back as well. Nowadays it's mainly serving as a highly impractical grocery getter, and for transportation in ice and snow. I work from home so I don't commute in it. It's stupidly large for that, but at less than 3000 miles a year, it would take about a hundred years to save enough gas to pay the cost of switching vehicles, even if the replacement got three times the mileage. :-)

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Short hauls, with city traffic (stop signs?) = poor mileage.

For towing, I prefer a deisel.

With those details, it's almost certainly a case of individual truck and conditions. As you say, it' just a gaz guzzler.

[pi3832.livejournal.com]

The base model included AC, cruise, and a decent interior, so the only optional equipment I bought was the towing package.

Did the towing package include a different rear differential? If so, you'll never hit the EPA numbers.

[elizilla]

No. It included a receiver hitch, pre-installed trailer wiring, a larger radiator and a larger battery.

Pulling the trigger

[elizilla]

Even if it's not financially advantageous, I am in favor of improving energy efficiency. And I like gadgets. I think I will buy it.

[eviljohn.livejournal.com]

... if it's not too late ...

A co-worker bought a OBD-II reader from ebay for ~$30, and it works just fine, giving all of the diagnostic codes, and CAN messages that include air-flow and other info for calculating on-the-fly gas mileage.

We tried it out on multiple cars and it works just fine. I'm planning on buying one for myself, but haven't pulled the trigger quite yet. If you get ones with e Elm CAN chip then there's a lot of open source software that works with it.

[elizilla]

I already ordered this one. Probably just as well - I don't know how to do anything with Elm CAN chips. :-)

[c-maxx.livejournal.com]

Hello new friend! May have to post again...

14.3 isn't too bad. My last Dodge 150 got 12.~ in stock condition [318 CuIn], but then it was carbureated; I hear they jumped when they went to FI.

I did manage to improve it by about 2 mpg by adding a cap [rough home-made pallet wood and 2x4s, even] to the bed. I was a starving student and driving const. inspector at the time so mileage MATTERED to me.

Initally, dropping the gate only added about 1/2 mpg, but covering up that big old vacuum-towing bed [and half the back-of-cab] put me into the 14s from the 12s, a worthwhile jump.

Run lots of tire pressure too, and your body roll may improve also, if not the ride. I never managed to run so much pressure as to get uneven- center weighted- tire wear in the Ram. Even when I was running 4 over the book, I was just starting to get rid of the outside-first (underinflated) tire wear. Ev. veh. is different on this tho, my Cherokee I tend to over inflate and get slightly center-first tire wear.

[(Anonymous)]

I see you've already popped for the ScanGauge (hopefully the version 2?)...

FWIW, folks over on the smartcar forums are loving 'em, and it's possibly the next farkle I'll be getting for my little cabrio. Have fun with it.


-R
(big in japan)