Vertigo Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Any got some good fuel saving advice? more so tune up or perfomance tips to help. Does a chip help or does anyone know were to get a cold air kit for a 94 pathy. -vertigo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GhostPath Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Cold air kit will make you consume more fuel, not less. Chip won't really help fuel economy either, unless you really want to be running premium all the time. Keep it tuned up, keep the injectors clean, change the O2 sensor at regular intervals, make sure the tires are properly inflated, keep it at or below 60mph on the highway, use cruise control when possible, use smooth throttle inputs, don't hammer the throttle everywhere. I get 19.2mpg average per tank - 90 SE V6 *automatic*. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pathmaker1 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 buy a honda hybrid or at least something with better aerodynamics than a brick :tonguefinger: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpawela Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Depends always how frugal you want to be. Two options here: option one: Drive smoothly, steady, easy, keep 'er tuned and well maintained keep tires up to the recommended pressure keep the speed down as much as you can stand use A/C as little as possible and don't drive with the window open on the highway. option two: shed weight and help out aerodynamics as much as possible: remove roof rack and spoiler (if equipped) remove rear spare tire and carrier get rid of any junk on board slightly over inflate the tires leave all extra passengers on the side of the road get some free running hubs use smallest possible tires let me just say, if you bother going for option two, then maybe you should reconsider owning a thirsty SUV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vertigo Posted April 28, 2008 Author Share Posted April 28, 2008 I just got a new job where I have to commute a an hour each way and I cant part with my pathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 (edited) hmm I dont think airpressure has a major effect (i think mythbusters busted that one) but low air pressure can increase the contact patch and give a higher coef of friction but I dont think it would be significant...but I could be wrong...and I think the same goes for the roof rack and spoiler...they don't increase your frontal area all that much so I don't see removing them saving anything more than maybe .1mpg if that but yea keep up with the and fix any exhaust leaks for sure... I just got a new job where I have to commute a an hour each way and I cant part with my pathfinder I was driving 700 miles a week B4 I moved to CA and that was at $2.50 a gallon and was paying about $100 a week in fuel...take that in a month and thats enough to keep the pathfinder and go buy an older accord that gets 28ish mpg and keep the pathy for offroading and what not... just run out the cost of fuel vs keeping the pathy and getting a commuter car... you'll see that the fuel is eating your budget quickly Edited April 28, 2008 by unccpathfinder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatutoryApe Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 more surface area contact doesn't = a rise in the coefficient of friction (the coefficient stays the same. the CoF of rubber on asphalt is 0.5-0.8). the amount of force that friction exerts is equal to the coefficient of friction times the weight of the truck. the amount of surface area in contact has nothing to do with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Like others have said, just drive it easy, keep it in tune, and get RID OF THE JUNK IN THE TRUNK! Although, today i got my best mileage in a month, with a computer, monitor, a stereo system, 3 people in the pathy and the a/c on the whole time I always get the best mileage when I'm not staring down at the fuel gauge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coucoui6 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 best mpg for pathfinder is not to drive it.... consumer reports voted it to be back back in the days but reliability very very good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MY1PATH Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Any got some good fuel saving advice? more so tune up or perfomance tips to help. Does a chip help or does anyone know were to get a cold air kit for a 94 pathy. -vertigo Here's a hard one, I picked up about 2 mpg after I had my Doug Thorleys installed... well actually the first week It went down cause I kept gettin heavy on the gass trying to test 'em out but after learing restraint my higway mpg went up to about 20 (17ish before headders) check your o2 sensof and your Mass AirFlow sensor too. I think theres a MAF cleaning writeup in the how too section here if its dirty that could hurt your mpg too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteeevO Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 Just maintain the thing... but the thorleys to help. I've got the ceramic thorleys with a K&N drop in air filter, 4.88's pushing 35's... I get ATLEAST 18MPG on the way to TDS i got 21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9sar Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 (edited) the fuel pump in a dodge caravan is easily accessable from the drivers side midway back. If you pull the hose with the yellow clip, run a tube from that port into your tank and jumper 12 v into the connector, it'll drain the caravan into your pathy. not that I have ever done such a thing. edit... if you use the green clip connection, that's the return line and you'll have to attach your hose to the fuel line rather than the fuel pump Edited April 28, 2008 by k9sar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 the amount of surface area in contact has nothing to do with it. ok your right on my terminology but yes contact patch does have a lot with the force of friction being resulted into the system...This is why dragsters have wide tires and not some regular street tire on the back of them...If the same compoound/dia were used for a dragster but one was half the width of the other and everything else in the system remains constant the one with half the contact patch will slip more...it's also a function of the rubber compound (a stiffer rubber will provide a lesser resultant force than a soft "sticky" tire A tire to the road is much different than a block to sandpaper or a book on a slope as typical statics's problems portray them...so yea my terminology was fuzzy but the concept is true...we talked a lot in RVD (road vehicle dynamics) of how rubbers and adhesives do not typically follow standard equations of friction (which is not 100% true its a matter of finding the equivalent coef of friction for the specific tire and applying it to the equation) but any how tire pressure is insignificant to loosing MPG's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedbuggy67 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 ok your right on my terminology but yes contact patch does have a lot with the force of friction being resulted into the system...This is why dragsters have wide tires and not some regular street tire on the back of them...If the same compoound/dia were used for a dragster but one was half the width of the other and everything else in the system remains constant the one with half the contact patch will slip more...it's also a function of the rubber compound (a stiffer rubber will provide a lesser resultant force than a soft "sticky" tire A tire to the road is much different than a block to sandpaper or a book on a slope as typical statics's problems portray them...so yea my terminology was fuzzy but the concept is true...we talked a lot in RVD (road vehicle dynamics) of how rubbers and adhesives do not typically follow standard equations of friction (which is not 100% true its a matter of finding the equivalent coef of friction for the specific tire and applying it to the equation) but any how tire pressure is insignificant to loosing MPG's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kittamaru Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 What about getting summer tires (smaller treads) instead of all terrains? And lighter rims? I'm thinking of getting a set of smaller, lighter tires and lightweight rims for my rig. I can change it to the all terrains and my stock rims when I start wheeling Also, yes, any exhaust manifold leaks you have, fix them... mine is leaking and it's cost me about 2 mpg... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
speedbuggy67 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 i always keep my tires inflated around 40psi they tires are rated to hold more but its like riding a bike whats easier low air or keeping them hard? Think of it this way your getting what 15-18mpg but how much are you saving cause the pathy is so reliable? If you had a crappy american car you'd be spending more to get it fixed so it all balances out in the end. Now a lil jap car to commute...... Scott Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 I checked it again last night and even paying for insurance on both pathy's and on my 07 camry and driving 80 miles a day...I'm saving enough in fuel/oil costs on not driving my pathy to pay for my car and insurance on it...as gas goes up that margin grows even larger... If you're not making more than I'd say $65k you better get a commuter b/c its going to cost you more on gas then what your are making to make the drive...that or drive to the town you work in and get a hotel room for 4 nights and then drive home on fridays after work b/c I bet that would be cheaper than the gas as well... If you max out the pathy for mpg's you're still only going to get maybe 23 or 24 but I seriously doubt it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatutoryApe Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 ok your right on my terminology but yes contact patch does have a lot with the force of friction being resulted into the system...This is why dragsters have wide tires and not some regular street tire on the back of them...If the same compoound/dia were used for a dragster but one was half the width of the other and everything else in the system remains constant the one with half the contact patch will slip more...it's also a function of the rubber compound (a stiffer rubber will provide a lesser resultant force than a soft "sticky" tire A tire to the road is much different than a block to sandpaper or a book on a slope as typical statics's problems portray them...so yea my terminology was fuzzy but the concept is true...we talked a lot in RVD (road vehicle dynamics) of how rubbers and adhesives do not typically follow standard equations of friction (which is not 100% true its a matter of finding the equivalent coef of friction for the specific tire and applying it to the equation) but any how tire pressure is insignificant to loosing MPG's no chit? i guess if different rubbers don't typically follow the standard equations of friction, then i don't really know what i'm talking about. lol. and i'm just going off of what my physics professor said. he also brought up the question "why do dragsters have wide tires?" he told us it was because since the tire is bigger and has more air in it, it's harder to heat up. and since energy is lost as heat, it would be a good thing to have a big tire that's hard to heat up. but i could be mistaken. i can't remember 100% of what my professor said because i was spacing out at the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laxman0324 Posted April 28, 2008 Share Posted April 28, 2008 no chit? i guess if different rubbers don't typically follow the standard equations of friction, then i don't really know what i'm talking about. lol. and i'm just going off of what my physics professor said. he also brought up the question "why do dragsters have wide tires?" he told us it was because since the tire is bigger and has more air in it, it's harder to heat up. and since energy is lost as heat, it would be a good thing to have a big tire that's hard to heat up. but i could be mistaken. i can't remember 100% of what my professor said because i was spacing out at the time. I would love to have your professor...mine just talked about how to derive the equations, not even the uses of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 no chit? i guess if different rubbers don't typically follow the standard equations of friction, then i don't really know what i'm talking about. lol. and i'm just going off of what my physics professor said. he also brought up the question "why do dragsters have wide tires?" he told us it was because since the tire is bigger and has more air in it, it's harder to heat up. and since energy is lost as heat, it would be a good thing to have a big tire that's hard to heat up. but i could be mistaken. i can't remember 100% of what my professor said because i was spacing out at the time. yea...I was talking about it with an "engineer" i work with he's got his BS in physics and he started digging on all these physics/engineering sites and all kinds of philosophy's came up about the different realm's of friction there are and how to in theory take a completely frictionless material and put it in a vacuum to make them become "bonded" together so that the friction is infinitely large It gets into dynamics instead of statics and all crazy with tires...I like you had a hard time paying attention in school but I recall discussing that the leading edge of a tire of its contact patch is considered "static" where the rubber elastically stretches to provide rolling resistance or some crap heres a link to the google search that will give you tons of different philosophies on it...http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS247&q=friction+of+tires&btnG=Google+Search sorry to thread jack...but yea I think we both agree that tire pressure in this application isn't going to gain fuel mileage Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatutoryApe Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 sorry to thread jack...but yea I think we both agree that tire pressure in this application isn't going to gain fuel mileage actually, in my last post i said that less air pressure = less air in the tire = more heat = more energy loss. so by that reasoning *which was the theory suggested to me by my physics professor-i don't know how it works in the real world* less tire pressure means less fuel economy. but i'm no expert. well all that different friction theory sounds way too complicated for me anyway. lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unccpathfinder Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 for sure...along with all other "engineering/physics" in the real world...they teach you these BS equations that aren't true in real scenario's and you go to get the real world calcs and you have to make the right assumptions to have a valid analysis and then you have to convince someone else it's true...they've got me doing loads reports and stress analysis' here at work and I hate it b/c I suck at making assumptions and I'm either super conservative or I make one wrong assumption so I can do the calc and it's not applicable according to the boss actually, in my last post i said that less air pressure = less air in the tire = more heat = more energy loss. so by that reasoning *which was the theory suggested to me by my physics professor-i don't know how it works in the real world* less tire pressure means less fuel economy. but i'm no expert. whoops...I missed that one...ohh well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StatutoryApe Posted April 29, 2008 Share Posted April 29, 2008 for sure...along with all other "engineering/physics" in the real world...they teach you these BS equations that aren't true in real scenario's and you go to get the real world calcs and you have to make the right assumptions to have a valid analysis and then you have to convince someone else it's true...they've got me doing loads reports and stress analysis' here at work and I hate it b/c I suck at making assumptions and I'm either super conservative or I make one wrong assumption so I can do the calc and it's not applicable according to the boss yeah, the only way to get real information is to do a field test, mythbusters-style. and to actually contribute to this thread: try to coast for a while before completely stopping. say you come up to a stop light and you're about 100 yards away. just let off the gas and roll to a stop. best-case scenario is by the time u get to the limit line, the light will have changed to green and you still have some momentum so that you don't have to start from a stand-still. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chriskaw440 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Ya wanna know my best fuel saving technique?? got all those other things beat by a mile..... My secret is...... I drive my WIFES car whenever possible (it's brand new too.....) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9sar Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 My secret is......I drive my WIFE whenever possible Fixed that for ya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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