winter mpg blues

[Greasemonkey]

how many of us northerners love our fuel mileage in the summer and HATE our mileage in the winter? i drive 1000 miles every week to and from work. same road, same speed, same gas stations when i fuel. i have a routine and it's efficient... in the summer. i average 37mpg summertime. winter time (10F to -4) yesterday's trip, i fought for 29mpg.

on top of the poor mpg's, power is non existent. i accept it as air densities and the turbo not wanting to pack that much air. i have a fancy snap-on scanner that i use to watch the engine in real time. nothing out of the ordinary. oh well.. i guess i am just wondering if anyone else has the same troubles this time of year.

 

[Swordsmith]

Yes and no, MPG drops but power goes UP. Because (for both) physics. If you are not experiencing this same effect, I suspect there's something wrong. Perhaps you are using stock tune?

Second, I think it might be possible to fight this problem with a few mods.

First, get an intake that draws from the engine compartment rather than the wheel well. This should give you more power because the snorkel/saxophone the car came with is constricting air flow. But it should give you warmer air as well; oddly everyone seems to refer to these devices as Cold Air Intakes, when the SAB setup draws colder air than most of the aftermarket rigs.

Second, install a block across part of your grill. You don't need nearly as much air as the Sonic grill design gives you, particularly in the midst of winter. In the summer, maybe you need all that to keep the radiator cool in slow traffic climbing a hill. But in winter, it's overkill... and blocking most of it off will give your car warmer air at the new intake. As a bonus, you'll also be reducing drag.

That should, if you're lucky, get your car back into summer mpg trim.

What it won't do is combat all the other driving conditions that tend to chew up mpg; more stop and go traffic, running your defrost (and thus your compressor) all the time, turning your car on ten minutes before you leave the house so it's warm when you get in, things like that, no amount of modding will fix.

Winter just sucks, the mod is to move to Mexico City where it's decent weather all the time, 12 months a year.

(edit to add) I haven't done those mods because I'd rather have more power than keep my mpg. But I think they would work.

 

[Greasemonkey]

i always reset the on board mpg computer on my drive to-from work the moment i hit the highway. so, the mileage is more accurate to the drive (83mph average for half the drive, 65mph average the other half of the drive.) the car is completely stock. i am waiting for the magical 36k warranty to expire before i pour parts into it. i was thinking about covering the intercooler the way you described. only after i posted this did i see a post where you helped explain the winter mpgs on another thread. thanks for the reply though!