Twice, once in Oct. and this week I have added gas to my tank and the MPG took a big hit. Only about 6 gallons were added both times and the mixture knocked off my ability to keep a 60+ mpg EV drain ICE charge cycle. The hit I'm talking about would be like running the A/C or even worst.

Both times the gas was from Central Florida as most of the time I fill up in South Florida and have had no problems. My daughter put gas (a little) in my FEH this time and I fill it up with about 9 gallons of what I thought was good gas where I fill up most of the time. Right away my mileage was harder to maintain and I now have 120 miles on the tank. Its hard for me to get within 5mpg on the computer what I normally get driving consistanty. No matter how hard I try, I can't bring up my 15min average over 41.8mpg to where I stay at about 46.8mpg most of the time now, It falls off as soon as the ICE starts.

It maybe because the refineries have all of a sudden changed all the gas being supplied in Florida to a winter blend but I won't no till I drain this tank and fill up again.

What a difference!

GaryG

 

Hmmm.... yo, Gary --- I think you might be a little **** here..... Don't take it personally or anything....

Don

 

I don't have the link handy, but cruise over to the EPA website site for auto fuels, look for reformulated gas/RFG, and there are links listing the counties that use RFG and when, as well as historical data tables with winter/summer properties. You want to look for Ethanol/MTBE content change and RVP- vapor pressure. Higher means better (for mpg, not air quality). Many areas are requried to be under 7.0 in summer, 9 in winter.

 

Don, just trying to explain how the quality of gas can affect your mileage. If you are referring to my gas mileage in the FEH, sorry if it offends you. The fact that I have a very close eye on FE in my FEH, I though some here that don't get top numbers could see how the gas they maybe getting could be one reason. With my MPG, it is clear at this point it is inpart because of getting good gas most of the time.

From looking at the type of vehicles you are driving, you don't drive a FEH. How can you justify calling someone **** when you have no idea what your talking about. Is this why you have the ignore message on you sig page?

I suggest you take a good look in a mirror before calling someone **** and not explaining why. Maybe you had a little to much to drink, I don't know.

GaryG

 

Gonavy, I did look at the web before I posted and it looked like a mess of explaining the regulations on gasoline. It looks like it cost more to make summer gas so cheaper winter gas is handed out when posible. Pollution and temp play a roll also.

The thing is, they say it doesn't matter that much with MPG. In a vehicle that gets 15mpg, a 10% lost in FE is only 1.5mpg. People might not complain about that. People that get 30mpg will get a 3mpg loss which should raise some concerns. This is all new to me getting 45mpg and taking a hit of 4.5mpg when running the ICE. All of a sudden it takes a big bite out of my combination EV driving because of battery recovery charge and the ICE percentage drop. What I don't understand is why a third mixture with good gas would hurt that much. Does 100% of winter gas do worst?

Most of the fuel I get I think comes from Port Everglades to the south of me. They must take into acount the warm temps down here. Hope they don't make any changes because the winter gas sucks.

GaryG

 

What's the weather been down there Gary? I have noticed a huge hit on the mileage with just small temperature changes. If you factor in cooler temperatures and its effect on engine and battery performance, reduced tire pressure and then throw in some of the winter gas mix, all that combined could be a big hit.

Or maybe your car is still mad at you for letting your kids hot-rod her for the trip to Disney.

One day when enough data is collected someone will be able to tell us all exactly what the different variables are and how they effect gas mileage. This is all uncharted territory and it is good to have someone who is a little ****-retentive (not a bad thing at all in this situation) who has the time and the patience to experiment, document and share the results of his testing. Once we know what helps and what hurts mileage in these cars, we all benefit.

Boosting your post rating again.....this is becoming part of my morning routine Gary.....

 

Hey Ray, thanks again but this time I was **** in typing the topic. Meant to type MPG not MPH, that may have caused the problem also.

The weather has been a little cooler but has not changed getting into the EV mode. The bad gas and my daughter driving 80mph was that problem. It was around 50F in Orlando but she drove the turnpike so I don't think that was much of a factor. As far as the tires, that was the first thing I checked. Three tires were at 44psi and one was at 41psi so that was not the problem either.

There is no way I could hold my FE using that gas and I was wrong suggesting that anyone could get a 600 MTE reading using EV if they run that crap for gasoline. The slightest change in my FEH FE I notice and try to correct. I tried every trick in the book to correct the hit of the gasoline quality and its just was not gonna help. After resetting my 15min average, I normally would have kept it in the low 50mpg at 120 miles on the tank and the bad gas put me down in the low 40's on the computer.

Had a talk with my daughter and told her about thinking the FEH had been raped and told her now I think it has a case of VD. Then I told her that VD meant Vehicle Disease and she felt better it was because of bad gas. She said she got the clap (I mean gas) at a Citgo station on the Turnpike near Orlando.


When I talked to xcel on the phone about FE in the FEH, one of the questions he asked was about my gas blend. These hypermilers know the game of the gasoline blends and there impact on FE. Scangauge mailed my unit Tuesday and maybe soon I can be of more help with everyone owning a FEH. Our vehicles are only a year old and we are still learning with them.

Thanks again Ray, - GaryG

 

Several people in this discussion have confused me. For the fuel economy read-outs on the Navigation System, I was under the impression that:

• The bar graph on the left is an instantaneous measure;
• The 15 minute graph shows the most recent 15 minutes of fuel economy in 1 minute updates; and
• The white bar is a running average going back to the last time it was reset. It has no direct relationship with the 15 minute graph other than the first 15 minutes after you reset the running average.

A number of people are referring to item 3 as a 15 minute average, and it is my understanding that is not the case. Can someone clarify this?

 

Chuck, sorry to take so long to respond, it was a matter of timing and forgetting about your question.

You are right in stating the 15min average is effected by mileage other than the last 15min reading. It is more of a long term tool I use to compare a full tank reading average or more. Thanks for making my point clearer as no one has responded to wake me up that its not as clear as I thought.

The longer you go without a reset, the 15min average gets harder to change. When I start out on a reset and drive EV drain ICE charge repeat (with pure gas), I can keep the 15 min average in the high 50's mpg. The next day I go through a warm up which drops my average down to say the low 50's mpg. Every day I go though a warm up, my 15min average takes a hit till I reach a point and hold that number within a mile and a half up or down. This number is generally close to the MPG for the tank when I fill up and do the math.

When I used 46mpg as a normal 15min average, I should have said sustained 15min average. Generally I can have some highway, fast traffic condition or run the A/C and I may drive the 15min average down to say 42mpg for a short time. Because it went down over a short period, I can make it back to 46mpg with a little longer period of driving of good FE. Same thing with 46mpg , I may drive it up to 48 mpg, but a warm up the next day will adjust it down and I back to square one again. When my 15min average is at 46 or so at fill up, I don't reset the 15min average. What I was trying to explain with the bad gas, I was having a hard time holding 41mpg on my 15min average where I normally can hang around 46mpg with no problems. There is no question that my numbers are better than most, that's why I posted a picture of my MTE on my sig page here. The FWD FEH can get this kind of mileage using the tricks learned here.

Hope I answered your question.

GaryG

 

Different stations use different additives, and sometimes they aren't 100% compatible. If they react and form other substances you could have problems because of that, it's happened to me before. I tend to let my tank reach nearly empty before filling so minimal mixing happens, but using the same station all the time will let you fill whenever you want without concern over the additive compatibility.