^^Does fuel economy improve with cruise control or without? I've noticed the opposite.
I've noticed that on highway cruising at 65 with the cruise control, and 410lsd, I get about 26mpg on the obc. But if I turn it off I can get somewhat better mpg.
Anyone else notice this?
I use the cruise more for speed camera avoidance over here, but the primary benefit it offers in terms of fuel economy is going to be the consistency. Your foot may think you need "x" amount of pressure (throttle opening) whereas the cruise controller realizes you only need "y" of pressure and thus can help a good bit.
Admittedly it is more of a convenience thing for me.
I will say that although you are right at what OEM states for mileage, I'd say that is a bit low. I think mine is low and I'm at 29 in autobahn conditions which means I generally keep it around 80 mph.
In mixed, I'm now getting 26-28.
Biggest punches in the tank that I've found:
- roof rack (kills the mileage and I lose from 2-4 mpg)
- rabbit starts (drop 1 mpg with 3-5 of them on a tank)
Things that don't matter (much) in my experience:
- AC (I might lose 1 mpg, but I wasn't using it constantly last summer- when I get home to CA, I'll have more accurate data on this)
- Going freeway speed (I actually get better economy cruising at a constant 65+ than a constant 25-35 which is more frequent than you think over here)
Biggest assistants (just from driving style)
- coasting on hills
- short shifting (this one is HUGE as I generally keep the revs below 3k)
I've posted to a couple of these threads at varying stages of my just over a year and 10k miles since I bought the car. It now has just a bit over 194k miles on the clock. I still have not replaced the air filter or spark plugs and I'm getting that mileage. Perhaps this week I'll do that and clean the AFM and see if I get an improvement. Aside from my eventual rebuild, I'll be doing the COP conversion, electric fan, and low temp T stat to try to help more.
