Gas mileage?

[sx sonic]

anyone have nitrogen in there tires and if so is helping with your gas mileage? pm's are welcome as well.

Put simply NO.

Almost as simply..... Not if you keep your tire's properly inflated. tires filled to the proper psi with nitrogen will get the same mpg as tires filled with the same psi of normal "air".


To briefly explain it..... Nitrogen comprises ~70% of the air around us with the rest being oxygen, something something, and traces of other crap.

The parts that aren't nitrogen are for the most part smaller in molecule size (like finer sizes of sand or rock) and will 1. slowly permeate, aka leak thru rubber....... OR if you never check your tires it will eventually go flat and 2. are more susceptible to changes in temp. Which as we learned in chemistry as a gas changes temps it increases or decreases in volume. Confined in a sealsed space means cold temp = less volume, increase in temp = more volume..................... no volume in a tire = flat tire.... lots of volume = really really inflated tire.


So the benefit of "Nitrogen" is that it leaks thru the tire substantially slower than air, meaning if you suck at maintenance your tire's will stay inflated way longer.....

AND PROPERLY INFLATED TIRES WILL ALWAYS YIELD BETTER GAS MILEAGE THEN UNDER INFLATED TIRES... From what I've seen car tires below ~30 psi result in significantly worse gas mileage and much worse tire life


Another benefit of nitrogen is it is inert which again we learned in chemistry class means less susceptible to temperature, and other scientific crap. Real world this means it tire psi doesn't go up and down with temperature changes....................... Which is HUGE in the winter, people that don;t check their tires usually have under inflated tires during cold snaps. Which of course means worse MPG and tire wear...

This also means the tire psi doesn't change as much during driving as the friction from the tire = heat which increases tire psi......... this doesn't really matter unless you're a race car driver or landing an airplane or space shuttle. And to be honest would result in fractionally worse mpg since a tire inflated with "AIR" (70% nitrogen) will go up in PSI as the car travels down the road and over inflated tires = better mpg........

 

[bandita52]

imo i've had nitrogen in my other car and had no problems with gas mileage.

 

[Swordsmith]

Nitrogen itself should not affect your gas mileage in the short term; having tires inflated to a higher pressure should help a little, but it wouldn't make any difference whether they are inflated with air or pure nitrogen (air, by the way, is already nearly 80% nitrogen). The idea behind using nitrogen is that you should lose pressure more slowly, and that therefore not lose mileage in the long run due to not running around with low pressure tires.

A better question would be "has anyone done a rigorous test to determine how much, if at all, tire pressure affects gas mileage". I've seen many people claim that high pressure (as high, in some cases as 42 psi) does help over low pressure, (seen people running as low as 28 psi, for better acceleration), but don't think I've seen real Mythbusters style proof.

 

[sx sonic]

Nitrogen itself should not affect your gas mileage in the short term; having tires inflated to a higher pressure should help a little, but it wouldn't make any difference whether they are inflated with air or pure nitrogen (air, by the way, is already nearly 80% nitrogen). The idea behind using nitrogen is that you should lose pressure more slowly, and that therefore not lose mileage in the long run due to not running around with low pressure tires.

A better question would be "has anyone done a rigorous test to determine how much, if at all, tire pressure affects gas mileage". I've seen many people claim that high pressure (as high, in some cases as 42 psi) does help over low pressure, (seen people running as low as 28 psi, for better acceleration), but don't think I've seen real Mythbusters style proof.

Well said Sword.

Nothing crosses my mind as far as a scientific test for the MPG improvements of over inflating tires vs properly inflated tires.

What I can say absolutely is tires below 32 psi will get worse MPG and wear out sooner than tires inflated with more than 32 psi.

BTW 42 isn't the highest run on a sonic. 44psi is the max and I'm at 50

 

[bandita52]

on my last fill up the mte was around 370 and i had an avg of 40-45 mpg's. there is between 80-90 mte left. would my mte be higher than 370 since my avg mpg's. my avg mpg has dropped to the low 30's since i've been stop & go driving since being back.

 

[Al Marino]

It might just be the way your commute is- if you cruise on the hyw at 65, you should see mid 30's to low 40's mpg- with the a/c and or defroster off- a little better with a k&n air filter and synthetic motor oil.

 

[SuperFudd]

Resetting while on level freeway at 60mpH and holding that for 8 miles got 45mpG.
(see below)

 

[Ever Victorious]

"Level" being key.

It might just be the way your commute is- if you cruise on the hyw at 65, you should see mid 30's to low 40's mpg- with the a/c and or defroster off- a little better with a k&n air filter and synthetic motor oil.

I can barely get mid 30's if I'm the only one commuting in the car, which is 90% highway, and I cruise at 60 mph. But I also live in the Seattle area, and my commute area is hilly as crap.

Also, there seems to be a "sweet spot" in fuel economy around the 45-50 mph range on my car. The place where I usually fill up is about 4 miles from my house, and there's only a minimal elevation change (about 20 ft total elevation loss) over that span. If I fill up at night, reset as I'm leaving the pump, and try to maintain that speed as best I can (not always possible due to lights), I get really good numbers. Highest I've hit so far is 50.3 on the DIC for that span. Theoretically I'd get 50+ MPG if I could cruise on the flat and level at 45 forever.

Again, absolutely impossible in practice given where I live.

 

[ls1jt]

Any updates on this? We just got a 2013 LTZ and the mileage seems kind of low on ours as well.

I was getting 29mpg on an only highway trip the other day. The Sonic only has 400 miles on it. I'm curious if an oil change will help since maybe they have a thicker break in oil in the engine or it just needs to in general, "Break In" - Just curious. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[SuperFudd]

Break in oil?
That is so last millennium !

 

[ls1jt]

Break in oil?
That is so last millennium !

Haha well, who knows. You're so last millennium! :banana:

 

[mowcowbell]

I have tracked every tank (64 fillups) since I bought my LTZ Auto Hatch back in Dec 2012:

2013 Chevrolet Sonic LTZ Hatch 1.4L
Fuel Economy Log

Average: 32.82
Median: 32.70
Best: 38.95 12/22/2012
Worst: 28.75 11/24/2013

I've given up on getting the magical 40mpg... just ain't worth driving like a granny for an entire tank.

I drive it normally and not worry about the mpg. I keep my tires at the factory spec (17" wheels) of 35psi. Running Mobil 1 5w-30 motor oil since the first oil change. Tried all 3 grades of fuel available here .... 87octane, 89octane, 91octane in both 100% gasoline and 10% ethanol. The grades make little to no difference at all... expect in my pocketbook.

Darin

 

[Nimda]

I bought my 1.8L LT 5MT HB 12/10/2013 and if I remember correctly the mpg on the display showed 17.

Which makes sense.

I bought the car with 15 miles on it and I imagine all of them were from shuffling around on the sales lot and from test drives around the block. I haven't even put 2000 total miles on the car yet and I'm averaging 32.0 as of right now. The mpg has gone up each week as the car gets older. I imagine when the car is fully broken in I can achieve around 34-35mpg. I drive as efficient as I can but I'm not an extremist. I use the power and have some fun when it calls for it.

Just have to give it some time and you'll slowly but surely increase the average. Yours seems slightly out of the ordinary though. Keep us updated.

 

[mowcowbell]

You should hand calculate the gas mileage when you fillup the vehicle. Do not trust the mpg gauge on the dash. It is usually about 10% too generous in the mpg reading.

Darin

 

[fabelen]

Try resetting your average MPG setting in the menu every time you fill up with new fuel. I found out that mine doesn't move as much after I've shut the engine off & let her sit for awhile, like it gets stuck at the last figure it recorded on your previous trip. If I reset it, it quickly changes up & down according to my driving habits while I'm still going, but after a long stop it doesn't seem to work as aggressive anymore, if that makes sense. I don't know if this is normal, but I average pretty good gas mileage nonetheless.

sorry I'm new, how do you reset the avg mpg setting?

 

[NewZJ]

Hold the button at the end of the turn signal to reset I think

 

[robsander]

As often as I had seen this car advertised at 40 MPG, this is the window sticker from my purchase. However there is another options list and sales invoice/reciept along with it but it mentions nothing about gas mileage. 37 highway. 1.4 automatic 6 speed. I mostly drive in manual mode and I average like 28-29 I suppose overall.(not official or logged, just a mean median mode sort of roundabout guestimate ha)That's in 2 different states and different types of driving. Highway and slightly hilly in one state and city and flat in the other.

10.27 1/8 mile

 

[Eric Smit]

what kind of car is that?

 

[robsander]

2013 sonic sedan. LT Turbo automatic

10.27 1/8 mile

 

[Eric Smit]

my bad, auto, that's why it's 37. only the manual gets 40.