Yesterday I measured the mpg going uphill.
It was 22.2 MPG going Uphill 4.7 Miles from elevation 50ft to elevation 1250 ft. It is more than 50% drop in the mileage.
Do other cars ( non-prius / non-hybrid ) too drop 50% mpg going uphill ?
So, I was in Wash. State for a while this month and rented a Prius. I decided to check some mileage on mountain roads, and here's what I got. All of these are indicated by the computer, so they are probably 5% or so high. Unfortunately, I did not see either the maximum incline or average incline of these roads posted anywhere, so unless someone else knows them, these numbers are not worth too much scientifically:
UPHILL:
Going uphill on I-90 to Snoqualmie Pass from the West (from Seattle), at 70 mph (the speed limit), fairly steady, with a few decreases for traffic and curves: 18.6 mpg.
Going uphill on US 97 to Blewitt Pass from the north at 50 mph, also the speed limit: 27 mpg.
Going uphill on the Olympic National Park road to Hurricane Ridge, speed limit varying between 35 and 25, with a couple of sections as low as 15 mph: 22.1 mpg. (Maximum incline here might have been 6 or 7 percent).
On the Hurricane Ridge road, I reset the Trip Meter A about a mile from the top (interestingly both segments of the uphill trip registered 22.1).
DOWNHILL, mostly:
The Hurricane Ridge downhill produced an interesting number, because I didn't reset the thing at the top, so I had a mile of 22.1 mpg at the beginning. You go down for about 18 miles, losing about 5200 feet of altitude to nearly sea level (Strait of Juan de Fuca). We kept driving, and at 24.7 miles (so about 6 miles of driving near sea level), the mileage gauge still showed 99.9 mpg. (I took a picture, but it's too fuzzy to put in here.) It was a couple of more miles before I noticed that the trip mpg was down to about 91.
The road my house is on is a steep hill. In the morning when I first start the car I have two choices. I can jump right on the hill and start climbing. Or I can drive down the hill and do a little quarter mile loop before I start climbing the steep hill. Which approach is best? Or is there a better way to handle this?
View 19 RepliesMy car has 109000 miles and we live in SD. Recently the car just won't go uphills - the engine revs up, but the speed doesn't get above 40-45 miles per hour. Once at the top of the hill, the car just takes off and drives normally until the next hil! What could be the problem.
View 5 RepliesHow many miles does it say you can drive after you fill up? Mine says 334 and that's what I'm getting. I want to hit 400 for a tank and can't.
View 13 RepliesIn the last month, I've been getting less miles per fill up. Previously the gas light would hit 1 bar around 400 miles. Now its hitting 1 bar around 350-360 miles. But when I fill up, I only fill up about 8 gallons so I haven't lost any gas mileage. It feels as if the tank shrunk on me.
View 6 RepliesHave owned this car for 8 days and the wife is driving her normal traps, only shows having used 1/2 tank and over 240 miles, something must be wrong with this thing, must take back to dealer,
View 6 RepliesI bought a 2005 Prius with 128k miles on it a month back. I have driven around 900 miles on it and the average shows as 49 mpg. Is it okay or am i getting less? I normally drive 40 miles a day(20 miles either way) to office and back home, total of 50 minutes with 25 minutes either way, including both Uphill and Downhill both ways. Driving includes 10 minutes on city with frequent stops and 15 minutes on highway either way.
View 7 RepliesThe clutch started to slip on my 2006 Matrix at just 32K miles.Only going up hills ~3500rpm, near the engine's torque peak.The previous owner must have dogged it in the 8,100 miles they had it.Unfortunately no way to know that time bomb was there.
Got the car back today. (Excellent indie shop in College Park MD)The flywheel and pressure plate had blue color from overheating.The flywheel had to be resurfaced.The friction disk was not worn down much.The pressure plate springs apparently were weakened from the heat.I can really feel the difference.
Just wondering about the "miles to empty meter", should I disregard it when I have high mpg? (50-60 mpg)
View 6 RepliesI have been a happy 2009 Prius owner for 2 weeks now but am a bit concerned with the fuel capacity I have been experiencing.
The first tank I went to fill-up when there were three blips left on the fuel guage and the tank only took 5.7 gallons. I wrote this off as I did not know how much gas was in the tank when purchased (the guage was on full). The mileage was around 250 miles.
Today I had to stop again for gas. There were 3 blips left on the guage and the tank again only took 5.4 gallons. I am not concerned about the MPG, but with the tank only taking around 5 gallons.
So I'm now on my second week with this 2012 Prius and still trying to learn how to roll in it.
I filled up my very first tank yesterday (dealer gave me a full tank when I bought it) and the miles remaining display said 424 miles after I filled up. Does it display 424 on all Priuses by default?
The first tank gave me right around that many miles before I filled up - the miles remaining display said I had 9 miles left so I got too scared to see if I could go farther. But when I filled it, I only filled just under 10 gallons - does that mean there's more miles for me to drive, despite that remaining miles meter?
And...am I getting pretty bad fuel economy?
Recently, my 2006 has been showing a decline in MPGs. I purchased a K&N filter several months ago hoping that it would work in getting better MPGs. I also watch my tire's air pressure, but the MPGs still fall off. I used to get around 43mpg in town and 45 to 47 on the highway. Now, I'm lucky to get 39mpg no matter where I'm driving.
I've been thinking of changing the spark plugs since I'm sort of grasping at straws. Also, someone told me that the older the battery pack (NHW20) gets the less MPGs I can expect. Maybe true maybe not! My Prius has a little over 60,000 miles on it and it shouldn't be loosing MPGs.
In the past I have had my fuel Gauge go down 1 bar after about 60 miles traveled. Since my last fill up my fuel Gauge has only gone down 1 bar (9 still ON) after 185 miles travel. The gauge appears to be struck with 9 bars ON after 185 miles traveled!, Any fix to a stuck fuel Gauge indication?
View 18 RepliesWe just bought a 2011 and are only getting 40 mpg max. I wonder if the 110 Arizona summer heat has something to do with it. Pretty bummed. I have read 50 with careful driving is normal? I let bicycles outrun me? 12 volt battery? New plugs? It has 107,000.
View 19 RepliesBeen driving for 3 days now for a total of about 100 miles from a full tank averaging 50 miles per gallon. I noticed the gauge still shows FULL. Not even a bar below or something. Is there anything wrong with my gauge?
View 19 RepliesJust bought a used 2010 prius II about 2 weeks ago with 10000 miles on it. As I've been driving I feel the consumption display is misleading. It averages around 52-53 mpg, but I'm only getting about 480 miles before I'm running on empty. The tank capacity is 12 gallons right? If so I should be getting at least low-mid 500's before I need to fill up again. Hopefully I'm calculating something wrong and its not the car itself.
View 16 RepliesI have had my PIP for just about one month now and I have only filled up twice. This car is awesome! I noticed when I filled up the last few times that the last block on the fuel gauge started blinking and my miles to empty reading was pretty low. However, when I filled up the tank, it only took around 9,2 gallons. Doesn't this car have a 10.6 gallon tank?
View 19 RepliesHow many miles can be driven after the computer tells you have zero miles left to empty? Or rather how many gallons do you think is left in the tank after the computer says you're empty?
View 19 RepliesI have a 1986 27ft Class C RV on a E350 chassis, 460 ci with about 140,000 miles on it. I inherited it when my Dad passed. I live in the southwest and I am have trouble with it, it seems to be a fuel supply problem, I think?
It runs fine on level ground, but we tried to go to the white mountains this weekend and could not do it. On an incline the engine would start to starve for power. At times we could only drive at 25 mph! It kind of seemed like it was running out of gas, if I tried to give it more throttle it would just die or fall on its face, if I let off the pedal and gave it gas again, it would run for a bit and then do the same again. We were lucky to get it back home. I replaced the electric fuel pump (on the side of the road) during the trip, but that made no difference.
The engine ran cool the whole time! it has only one 40 gallon tank. I can find any other fuel pump on it. but don't understand all the lines going to and from the gas tank either?
I noticed there are these silver metal tubes that feed off the exhaust manifold up to a cylinder looking thing on both sides of the block. One of the tubes is broken from the ex manifold and the manifold is plugged. Not sure how this got damaged or what this parts function is but was wondering if this could be a problem ..
I filled up on sunday, drove about 100 miles and on tuesday my check fuel cap warning went off. I pulled over took the cap off, put it back on and started the car back up, light still on. I drove about 25 miles turned the car off and back on about 5 minutes later, light was off. When i started up this morning the light was still off but about a mile of two from my house my CEL went on. I would imagine they have to be related, should i just take it in?
View 4 Replies