Actual Average Miles Per Gallon

[eastcoastLS]

Never noticed this feature. As I was driving though pressed the Fuel button on the On Board Comp and then pressed Reset twice. The Average Miles Per Gallon was going up and down as I accelerated and braked through traffic. Just thought I would share that. Haven't read the Owners Manual front to back, maybe I should. I keep finding new features I never knew about.

 

[owlman]

hmm? What did pressing reset twice do different than pressing reset once?

 

[ToddG]

Never noticed this feature. As I was driving though pressed the Fuel button on the On Board Comp and then pressed Reset twice. The Average Miles Per Gallon was going up and down as I accelerated and braked through traffic. Just thought I would share that. Haven't read the Owners Manual front to back, maybe I should. I keep finding new features I never knew about.

Average MPG is miles driven divided by gallons used. After you reset the computer, it clears both the mileage value and the gallons value. The miles number starts out small and gets bigger as you drive. The gallons value changes a little based on how you drive (WFO, idle, etc.). After resetting the computer, there are fewer data points for the computer to average. After a few miles or so, more data points are available to the computer so the average becomes more stable. Quite logical.

Haven't read the Owners Manual front to back, maybe I should.

I'm proud you have the guts to admit that on a public forum.

 

[eastcoastLS]

hmm? What did pressing reset twice do different than pressing reset once?

Read this its hard for me to explain. Owners Manual Page 19-20. Funny its in the beginning and I've read some of it and missed this. haha
http://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/tech/Lincoln-LS/2001LincolnLS-OwnersManual.pdf

Although I didn't use the cruise control until after I had reset the miles per gallon. I don't know if it was showing the "actual" distance til empty because I didn't think to press the Fuel button.

 

[Frogman]

Don't you guys have an Instant fuel economy reading in those Fancy LSs? Us Mark VIII guys with our "old" cars do. And I think even the Mark VII's have the Instant economy mode.

 

[n8bachelor]

Average MPG is miles driven divided by gallons used. After you reset the computer, it clears both the mileage value and the gallons value. The miles number starts out small and gets bigger as you drive. The gallons value changes a little based on how you drive (WFO, idle, etc.). After resetting the computer, there are fewer data points for the computer to average. After a few miles or so, more data points are available to the computer so the average becomes more stable. Quite logical.

Very well Said!! Some of us think this way, some of us dont. I myself have always been fond of math/statistics/numbers in general... that's why I became an Engineer.

Don't you guys have an Instant fuel economy reading in those Fancy LSs? Us Mark VIII guys with our "old" cars do. And I think even the Mark VII's have the Instant economy mode.

Sure wish my LS had that fancy computer thingy... My '88 LeBarron had it, but sadly not the LS.

 

[Bodyshield]

yeh i loved the instant mpg in my towncar, its hard to get used to in the LS

 

[eastcoastLS]

...i reset my avg mpg again tonight and got 31 mpg for 5 miles, with cruise control set at 55, til i came to a red light. after that it said avg 26 mpg..
do you think it was at all possible getting 30 mpg considering cruise was set at 55 mph?

 

[n8bachelor]

...i reset my avg mpg again tonight and got 31 mpg for 5 miles, with cruise control set at 55, til i came to a red light. after that it said avg 26 mpg..
do you think it was at all possible getting 30 mpg considering cruise was set at 55 mph?

Possible, but not likely very accurate. It would depend a lot on road conditions (was the 5mi of road on a downhill trend or was it even). Think of it this way... it is possible to shift into N and let the car coast down a hill at 55 mph and get wonderfull gas mileage, but this is not practicle. The time you spent getting that 30 mpg (~5min) is going to be greatly outweighed by the time you spend getting less (or zero) miles per gallon. That is why average is really the only number that matters. And the greater time that is in that average the less volitle (prone to change) the average number will be.

Do this. Fill your tank, reset your computer, run it to empty (or 1/4 whichever you prefer), fill your tank, then check your average by hand vs. what the computer reads. They should be close (within 1mpg) but not exact.
These averages will change depending on how you drove those miles.

For example: I recently took a weekend trip to see my girl. Filled up by my house, drove 200 miles on the highway with cruse set at 75, filled up when I got off the highway. I checked my mpg (miles driven/gallons added) and got 26.4 I typically get 18 in the city and 24-26 highway so this was right on what I expected.

hope this helps.

n8

 

[Roadwarrior50]

I actually just got back from a roadtrip and with the cruise set at about 115-120kph (i dont know what that works out to in mph) i got around 30-31MPG. I dont think ive ever got this good of mileage with the car before. That was also with the sct tuner and the 91 octane race tune.

 

[n8bachelor]

I actually just got back from a roadtrip and with the cruise set at about 115-120kph (i dont know what that works out to in mph) i got around 30-31MPG. I dont think ive ever got this good of mileage with the car before. That was also with the sct tuner and the 91 octane race tune.

It seems odd to me to measure speed in kph and efficiency in mpg. Perhaps that is 30 Kilometers/gallon (~19mpg)... although you say that is the best it has been. Humm.
I would expect with a tune you would get more HP and therefore less efficiency... I could be wrong.

Either way if you have a v8 and are experiencing 30 mpg highway (at a speed of 72mph) I would say you have the only LS to perform this way.

my 2¢

 

[Roadwarrior50]

Ya im kinda weird that way. I find it easier to think of mileage in MPG so i just turn the little computer thing so it shows MPG instead of L/100km. I actually took a picture of it since its my new all time high. And it wasnt over a span of like 20km it averaged out to that over about 200km. And usually for the tunes they make more power by boosting efficiency. From my understanding most car makers err on the side of caution and have vehicles run a bit on the rich side because its alot safer than running lean. So id guess that the chip takes out a bit of fuel and adds some timing which makes the engine run more efficiently. But thats just my guess.

 

[eastcoastLS]

well i'm in florida or "fla" which is also short for flat. so it was flat road no ups or downs. the reason i thought it could possibly be getting 30 mpg is b/c from the time i press reset til the time it shows avg mpg, during that time its calculated the 5 miles and gallons of gas i've used. i'm not claiming i was getting 30 mpg, but i never expected to ever ever ever see that little avg mpg saying 31.4. i was just wondering if it could possibly get those numbers...realistically

Possible, but not likely very accurate. It would depend a lot on road conditions (was the 5mi of road on a downhill trend or was it even). Think of it this way... it is possible to shift into N and let the car coast down a hill at 55 mph and get wonderfull gas mileage, but this is not practicle. The time you spent getting that 30 mpg (~5min) is going to be greatly outweighed by the time you spend getting less (or zero) miles per gallon. That is why average is really the only number that matters. And the greater time that is in that average the less volitle (prone to change) the average number will be.

Do this. Fill your tank, reset your computer, run it to empty (or 1/4 whichever you prefer), fill your tank, then check your average by hand vs. what the computer reads. They should be close (within 1mpg) but not exact.
These averages will change depending on how you drove those miles.

For example: I recently took a weekend trip to see my girl. Filled up by my house, drove 200 miles on the highway with cruse set at 75, filled up when I got off the highway. I checked my mpg (miles driven/gallons added) and got 26.4 I typically get 18 in the city and 24-26 highway so this was right on what I expected.

hope this helps.

n8