ha-ha, 6 yrs in TN. mof, i just started getting used to the heat, when we moved to Seattle. i'd have returned back no questions asked, but The Boss won't let me. she's rooted here.

well, 1tly, i appreciate bringing tire pressure up. guess what. all 4 where 25 or below. just a tad. have no idea. at what pressure do the tire pressure warning lights come up?

sorry, i will not pump it up to 40. 32 is where my tolerance level stops. too bumpy and ruins suspension. but yes, it was all waaaaaay too low. thank you. i drive my Silverado at 42, it's a jawbreaking experience.

here's the thing about oil changes. I WILL NEVER EVER LET ANYONE CHANGE OIL IN MY HORSES(CARS). no matter how much it influences warranty and such.

this is how i change oil:
1. add can of seafoam to crankcase about 500 miles before oil change;
2. get her up on the ramps and drain;
3. refill with a cheap oil in the right weight and run engine for about 15 minutes, doing occasional rev/hold to increase oil pressure, so it flushes out junk from narrow passages;
4. drain(you should see it to believe it - fresh oil comes out basically like as if it had 10 000 miles on it), remove filter; i buy only 2 filters, reckoned to be 2nd and 3rd best in the USA: Mobil1 or K&N. best filter ever is not available and is made by Honda for Japanese market only.
5. refill with good oil; i do synthetic only; i used to do Royal Purple, but then my heart warmed up for Amsoil, so Amsoil it is. i do not use synth on engines that take oil.

my oil changes cost me about 80 bucks or so, more for Silverado, it's 6 qrts; all of my engines run like Swiss watches; Boss's Lexus RX300 easily pulls 12-15 000 miles between oil changes. surprisingly, TCH darkens Amsoil(0W20) quite faster than Lexus engine, or even Silverado's. i don't think it'll last into 10K miles. mof, i want to get there faster, as i want to return back to 5W20 for mpg reasons.

been great chatting with y'all.

 

on a quick note. so, basically, this car has bogus mpg benefit for say Alaska or northern Canada? if that hybrid drive needs to be babysitted and warmed up continuosly in cold weather, than is sounds like any late model DFI, or, even better, SDFI engine will match or outperform this particular hybrid system, w-out all the hassle of sensitive electronis and price markup. honestly, Toyota Hybrid is not even that much green, looks like any PZEV or ZEV does better w-out above mentioned hassle.

yes, and i am well aware of imperial gallon. for British cars, yes. but it is not that much of a difference from American one plus, if a work van is doing 67mpg, it's still helluva better than anythin in the USA. and yes, they do loose mpg if imported, 1stly, due to engines being choked by emission controls and 2ndly, by that gasguzzling mix they sell here as fuel. i am aware of at least 2 folks that live up north in Michigan, and drive to Ca to buy gas. it's GAS, not booze or other additives.

 

There is NO WAY going from 5W20 to 0w20 can cause a decrease in mileage.

I suspect you may have gotten some mislabeled oil containers. The guy pushing bottons and loading conatiners at the refinery may have thought 0w20 looked a lot like 10w20 or 10w30.

Did the 0w20 flow much like the 5w20? If it seemed thicker, I would suspect mislabeled oil.

As for tire pressure, yes most tires loose pressure when the temp drops. Also, did your local stations just go to 10% ethanol? You'll DEFINITELY loose MPG due to 10% ethanol.

Good luck.

Joe

 

Just look at some of the mpg stats around here, you'll see what kind of impact cold has. I've got a lifetime average of ~38.5 mpg (manual calculations) in the Boston area. I get well into the 40mpg range in summer, and mid or even low 30s when it's particularly cold. Lots of things will affect how much impact there is, namely how long you tend to drive the car (short trips means the car never gets a chance to compensate for the warmup fuel burned), what you do for cabin heating (I tend not to use the heat a lot personally), how long the car sits still while too cold for the ICE to shut down, etc. And of course all the usual factors will be intensified, like your speed, route, etc. And if you've picked up some of the insights & tips about driving for good mpg, that will help (took me the first winter before I figured out the "full hybrid mode" some have referred to, as well as realizing a non-highway commute was both more consistent in travel time, on top of being shorter and letting me take advantage of hybrid/EV driving much more than I had been--that's why my mpg after 1 year was only ~35 mpg).

Bottom line, cold and learning curve each impact FE, combined just makes them worse.

 

100% 0w20; i do not do mistakes like this. drop was over 2-3 days thereafter. i am very observant.

so, basically, it is not as much hybrid drive, as it is driving habit modification to get better mpg. and yes, truly, isn't it interesting how hwy mpg is still better than city one?

 

It's both--it's driving habits for the hybrid engine, which I have to say are different from the driving habits you'd want for a non-hybrid. There are lots of common techniques to improve mileage (park where you can drive out, etc), but I think the ability to drive in electric mode gives some techniques that wouldn't be as good in a non-hybrid.

And honestly I don't think either highway or city are all that good for your FE. Highway is mostly using the ICE to maintain speed (plus wind resistance, etc), and city is too much stopping/starting. Forget about backed-up highway driving, it's terrible (one more reason I don't use the highway for my commute now). The best is just suburban driving when you can cover lots of ground in the 30-40 mph range where you can do a good amount of battery-only driving.

 

well, i found that keeping her in cruise control mode works the best. on all of our cars, i can always do better mpg wise with my foot on the throttle. this one - apparently engine management system does better than a human with its drive by wire configuration. no matter how well i cruise with foot, engaging cruise immediately drops that mpg handle down several notches.

sorry, i do not believe pulse driving will work for me. esp around here, where it's very hillocky. it may be good for plains. engine turns on too often on the slightest uphill. and engine start ups is a known gas guzzling moment.

also, i was cruising through owner manual, looking for maintenance schedule for trannie, and found that 3.2 is recommended tire pressure. 4.2 is for 17 inch rims; 3.2 for 16 inchers.

 

[quote=ukrkoz;230366]on a quick note. so, basically, this car has bogus mpg benefit for say Alaska or northern Canada? if that hybrid drive needs to be babysitted and warmed up continuosly in cold weather, than is sounds like any late model DFI, or, even better, SDFI engine will match or outperform this particular hybrid system, w-out all the hassle of sensitive electronis and price markup. honestly, Toyota Hybrid is not even that much green, looks like any PZEV or ZEV does better w-out above mentioned hassle.

Well, every car I ever drove would get very poor mpg in very cold weather, there is just no way around it and hybrid gets a little worse hit, since if the engine needs to run most of the time there is not much benefit from electric drive, but still better than normal car.
With a lot of snow and poor road conditions honestly hybrid would be my last choice for a car I would want to use there, as a matter of fact without solid 4 wheel drive, 2-3 spare tires in trunk and at least 10 inches off the ground clearence, I wouldn't dare to drive outside well populated areas. I mean those are the places where actually driving SUV or big truck makes perfect sense. I would kindly disagree with you about "hassle of sensitive electronics" ??????? and gas savings and lets just leave it at that.

 

I live in South Florida. I'm sure I won't get any pity from anyone who lives in the far north. But even here, the cold affects the fuel mileage.

It has been cold here recently, with outside temperatures in the upper 40's this morning. We're not used to that. A couple days ago, I turned on the heater for the first time this year. The cars fuel efficiency has reduced by at least ten percent.

We also get severely reduced gas mileage during the heat of the summer, when the air conditioner has to run continuously, so I guess it works out about even.

 

I live about 10hrs NNW of Minneapolis. Our winters are from about mid Oct to end of April. Winter temps can range from 10F to -40F and will average around -20F.

Our previous vehicle was a '99 Explorer, where summer mileage was averaged 20MPG, winter was around 13 with bad tanks getting down to 10. This is a general observation over 9 years.

The TCH has a summer average of 41MPG, and in the winter it drops down to 25. this is over 2.5 years.

In the winter the Explorer had some highway miles, the TCH has had none and our commute is ~6mi on a major city street so that does not help in getting good averages.

For me, in the winter there is very limited benefit to having a hybrid drivetrain, but there is some when we do a lot of running around on weekends. In the summer, there is a huge benefit, so overall it is still good to have.

One more thing. I can get a lot better mileage out of our car than my wife, because I will try to get the most 'hybrid' out of it. The difference between us is about 5mpg, and she does try. So driving style can account for a lot.