mileage at higher elevations
 

Filled up today, and realized that I got approximagely Sacramento winter MPG (ie A/C not blasting every time I get in the car).

So, do you guys experience better MPG at higher elevations? Does that even make sense, or is it possible that I'm driving more conservatively up here (I don't think so, but its really the only explanation I can think of)?

I didn't notice any MPG gains or loss when I was in Tahoe last winter, but I blame that on literally freezing startup temperatures.

I'd guess higher average speed per mile traveled = better milage until you get up to where wind resistance goes crazy. Tahoe has even less air, and is less flat, so probably why you didn't see much change there.

my MPG SUCKS! I can get close to 270-300 miles per tank. What do you guys get? 13 gallon tank btw.

:lol: I'd kill for that kind of range. On the freeway, I'm lucky to get 290 miles out of my 16 gal tank. In town, I get more like 220 miles per tank. I'd guess my average mileage is around 17mpg.

If drive slow, and 65mph on highway, I can reach 300 per tank.

i get about 350-400 on 16 gallon tank :D

I'm about the same and when I fill up I put about 13 gallons in.........I get 23 MPG everytime I go to Sactown and back :D

The lowest my mileage around town has been 250 that I've seen

Ah... I guess Im not that bad then. Sweeet...

If I really push it I get 400 but I do drive an N/A 2.5 when it was turbo I'd get 25 miles less per 1/4 tank.
I got better gas mileage in lower elevations turbo and N/A.

BUMP for mileage question to na 2.5 owners...

What kind of mileage do you guys get for what kind of driving? All the sources I have found to answer this question so far just confuse me.

So far my semi-educated analysis is that I get about 22mpg average. This seems normal compared to a couple sources. I believe it's because I do mostly short trip driving and I mash more than most. Is this analysis accurate or totally off base? This reference is from a post on RS25 about short trip driving. However I am posting here because I don't generally trust a lot of what gets said in the tech section over there.

I don't drive a NA 2.5 but I get 20-22mpg mostly city driving. I thought the MBC would have had a negative effect on my milage, but it hasn't really seemed to.

22 is pretty normal for your car and kind of driving. I used to get 32 mpg or more in my RS on my courier route, but that was with me doing literally every possible thing I could to conserve fuel. "Normal" in-town only driving for me was 23-25 mpg, and 27-30 on freeway trips with a little mixed driving. I very rarely mash on it though when I'm just driving around.

Hey Nick, was there any kinda tail wind on the drive. If the wind is up aroud 15-20 with gusts up to 45 and it's at your tail it may have helped you out.

That's what I thought. I just wanted it confirmed.

Also, nice uh side-sig-catch-phrase-thingy.

Also also, I'll be surprised if Nick can remember if it was windy on an August day in '04. :lol:

yeah, anywhere from 21-25, in town.

I guess I was just used to my L getting me farther before fill ups.

back from the dead.

Actually, my OBS (same weight as an RS basically) is getting somewhat worse gas mileage than my RS in similar driving. Mainly it's been freeway, as the OBS won't make it uphill in 5th above about 4500'. :( 4rd gear isn't so great for economy... also I haven't finished bringing the maintenance up to date. After I do plugs, wires, fuel filter, oil change, and clean the air filter, it may pick up a bit.

13.2 gallon tank + 23mpg highway FTL.

You got an OBS?! Deets nigga deets. Wow I'm so observant... you even listed it.

Uh, yeah, in my "nice uh side-sig-catch-phrase-thingy." :p

Nothing much just yet. Green over gray, PC'd flat black SDRs with studded Noks, Stromung dual tip, garbage intake, Stoptech brakelines and teeny tiny stock L brakes. Oh, and the Recaro SRD. :D

Near future, it will get HID projector conversion, RS front bumper w/Hella 500s, Supertones, front STB installed, steering rack bushings, TiC Klunk Killer, kartboy shifter bushings and rear mount. I'm also hoping to get a 1.8 gearbox and frotn LSD in by autocross season.

I'm glad you can put that bumper to use now.

Damn this is an old thread. This is from when I first moved here, and didn't have a job so I was bored off my ass, posting random shit :p

Man, right now I get like 16-18mpg in the winter. Being close to work has its downsides, namely that the engine never heats up to operating temperatures on my daily commute in the winter, so I'm running a cold (rich) map for like 90% of my driving :(

That might be a good reason to go catless man. They're gonna clog up eventually given your commute and such.

Yeah, at the very least I want to get the uppipe cat out of there. I still haven't decided on the post-turbo cat though.

I would almost always manage 28 or 29mpg when I was catless, but I had a pretty light foot. Now that I'm all back to stock I can barely manage 26, but with no change in driving habits. This is about 50/50 city/hwy

That's about what I do.

Last time I checked I was getting about 26 with about 60hwy/30city.

I hope the other 10% is spent driving to remedial arithmetic lessons. :p

18-20 in winter for me. that includes letting the car sit there and warm up. plus the occasional bounce of the 3rd gear rev limit going less than 20 mph on the ice. this year i may manage more than that because i have a garage now.

No, but I'll be using it to drive around looking for my pride. :lol:

60/40 sounds much better.

Are you serious? That's no good. All the mods ruined it! ;-)

The L gets around 26-27mpg average, but on highway trips it's like 29-30+ I think. It's got a bigger tank that holds over 14.5gal, and it can do 400mi if I ignore the Empty Light. I log every fillup, so I guess I could go figure it out...also, I have to shift to 4th if I want to accelerate through 65 on the way north out of Carson. It runs really strong in 4th, though. I'd like tighter gearing ratios, but oh well...

The Legacy gets much less, at like 23-24mpg average, mostly due to the very tired auto tranmission, I'm sure.

:lol: "All the mods" = POS intake. I'm going to try to hack together the Weapon-R poop that on there with my old Cobb to see how that works. The WR filter is disgustingly dirty.

Well, like I said, I've done almost no maintenance to it yet. I also have plugs waiting to go in (NGK V-Powers) and Magnecor wires on the way. Ran some Subaru Top Engine Cleaner through it this afternoon, and it will get an oil change this week too. If it doesn't pick up after all that, I will do the O2 sensors also. But I think part of the problem is 25-30 minutes at either WOT in 5th, or >60% throttle in 4th gear comming over Donner Summit. The RS used to average ~28 mpg on the return trip over the summit, but I could leave the cruise on in 5th gear the whole time and it would run in closed loop almost the whole way.

I've got a vacuum gauge as part of the "factory performance gauge pack", and I've noticed that (let's see if I get this right) I get more vacuum in 4th at 50% throttle than I do in 5th at 90% going up long hills --- that tells me that I'm getting better fuel economy in 4th, and I can also find the speed that keeps momentum, but doesn't require extra throttle input. Plus, I just don't like to run over 4k rpms for extended times...but as long as I don't have a carload of people and gear, I can run Donner as fast as I dare.

No, wait, maybe it's that hood scoop slowing you down! Yours has the extra 0.7" lift, or whatever it is, right?

I get about 7 laps at RFR on a 1/4 tank. So that's about 17 miles for 5 gallons... probably somewhere around 3 or 4 mpg. :lol: