Greybrick wrote:
Thanks Steve, the flaps were left off intentionally to check this aspect of mpg improvement. As I don't see the rear flaps as doing much work other than keeping mud from filling the rear bumper, keeping the spare tire clean and keeping rocks from chipping up the underside of the rear plastic bumper, they'll be staying off as I seldom go on unpaved roads.
I have construction going on at both entry points to my office, so I've been driving through the resulting dirt for months now. I remembered this thread as I was walking out to drive home yesterday & noticed that I had mud and dirt splattered all over the rear/rear sides & front sides. I'd hate to think how bad things would be w/out the flaps. I was giving some consideration to replacing them with a self-made rubber flap, or some kind of light poly material (there's a post floating around here with such). But, that was only if I had installed the oversized tires, which I never did. Still, if you don't need them, by all means don't use them. True happiness for me will be the day we can purchase a new vehicle & specify exactly what should be included, down to the type of bolts used.
Sorry, as far as I can tell this dashboard recorder doesn't give overall (L/100) or mpgs since the vehicle was first purchased
I was actually wondering if you kept a written record of it since I don't think any of us never reset the overall MPG readout.
My local driving conditions are fairly varied so I'm not sure if checking mileage against liters put in the tank would give acurate info, when I do another long trip then I'll post some better long distance and hopefully more accurate info.
That would help. My driving consists of everything between fillups, yet I know that my mileage calculations are absolutely correct, based on distance driven and gallons consumed.
I have no reason to think that the trip recorder is seriously inaccurate or deficient as a couple of months ago I did a +/- 500 km trip which is about 300 miles, which showed to use just over 1/2 tank of gasoline, as I recall that was a night trip that gave the best previous mpg of 9.4 L/100 kms, 25 mpgs number.
Yeah, I remember you posting about that one. I don't buy it (the readout, not you). Let me preface that by saying that my fuel gauge is pretty much a joke. The upper half of the gauge (1/2 tank to full) gives me lots of miles, whereas the bottom half of the gauge acts like someone poked a hole in my tank. The way you make your mileage sound, one would presume you could get just under 600 miles per tank. No way is that going to happen. That's why I've been trying to persuade you to get your speedo readings verified as a first step. Something is obviously going on, and it isn't the lack of elevation or slow driving. Nobody anywhere has reported mpg figures like that on a Pathfinder. Does it not seem odd to you that you are the only person who has posted hybrid-like mpg readings? Unless somehow the factory messed up and installed a 4 cylinder in yours.
What is your current average or best highway section mpg's
My current overall mpg is about 17.3. The time between fillups (every 2 weeks) is 50% highway, 50% city. The city portion of that is mostly just sitting idle at lights, and probably 2 days per week the highway portion is mostly idle in traffic. Anytime I leave town, it involves long enough distances that I have to at least fill up twice, so I have a very solid idea of what my mpg is/can be on the highway. The best so far was close to 21 mpg with a fully loaded rear & 2 16' kayaks on top, cruising the freeway at about 85mph. I've also noticed that I tend to get really good mileage if I'm driving in the mountains. The Pathie just doesn't suck that much fuel when climbing, and the downgrades certainly help as well. I also don't drive below 4300' more than a couple of times a year. I'll be at over 12,000 ft in a couple of weeks (*if* the fire outside Yosemite is still burning, that is), so it should be interesting to see how it does at the upper end of the US elevation scale.