Fuel consumption problems

[Craiglxviii]

Depends what altitude your car likes to cruise at....

ABC setting zero

 

[John Laidlaw]

ABC setting zero

Unlike ABC setting “buggered” ?

 

[Craiglxviii]

Unlike ABC setting “buggered” ?

Oh oh sour grapes!

 

[BClassChris]

Think I’ve missed something here


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[John Laidlaw]

Oh oh sour grapes!

Being smug whilst I can Craig...it’s sure not to last (or will it?)
A V12 with ABC...now THERE is a challenge...luckily I’ve no space to keep one

 

[John Laidlaw]

Think I’ve missed something here


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Long series of stories sir!

 

[BClassChris]

Long series of stories sir!

Fair enough I’m sure I’ll figure it out one day - today won’t be the day and tomorrow doesn’t look none too good either


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[John Laidlaw]

Fair enough I’m sure I’ll figure it out one day - today won’t be the day and tomorrow doesn’t look none too good either


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Google ‘ABC problems’ and settle down with a cuppa sometime when you have it available, then you too can feel smug...

 

[BClassChris]

Google ‘ABC problems’ and settle down with a cuppa sometime when you have it available, then you too can feel smug...

hmmmm I’ll keep my smugness - only read the first few but I get the idea


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[Craiglxviii]

Being smug whilst I can Craig...it’s sure not to last (or will it?)
A V12 with ABC...now THERE is a challenge...luckily I’ve no space to keep one

So you’re fitting ABC to the 212 then? Hats off to you!!!

 

[Craiglxviii]

Google ‘ABC problems’ and settle down with a cuppa sometime when you have it available, then you too can feel smug...

I introduced a works colleague to ABC today. He’s never experienced it before. “It gives you two bites at each corner!”

 

[LostKiwi]

Drove the 230 into work today. My route is predominently A roads, B roads and country lanes and quite hilly over most of the distance - not conducive to economy.
Tried putting into practise about not using cruise and managed 23mpg (which is the best its ever done yet on this route)
The fundamental technique was:
1. Accelerate with a moderate fixed throttle pedal position lifting it gradually when nearing target speed.
2. Once target speed achieved hold pedal at that point with zero variation
3. Avoid braking and predict when slowing was required to simply coast to a stop.
4. If slowing/braking required gentle braking then repeating (1) to return to speed.
Braking should be avoided wherever possible as that converts momentum to heat which is then just wasted.

As an aside years ago I had a 90 mile each way daily commute almost all of which was motorways. At the time I drove an Audi A8 (early 4 auto speed version, with 4.2 300hp V8 and quattro).
This could be easily coaxed to in excess of 35 mpg by a technique called hypermiling where the car would be briskly accelerated to around 75 then coast back to 65 then repeat. This gave far better economy than cruise on its own (where 28 - 30mpg was typical).

 

[oigle]

Me too. Depends heavily on route travelled but I usually expect a 5-7% improvement over manual throttle control.

I would back myself to always do better manually than using cruise. The whole concept of cruise is bad for economy. As LK said, a constant throttle is the best method of getting best economy and CC does the opposite, maintaining speed up hills with large throttle openings and then wasting that energy down the other side keeping speed down. Crazy. Only good thing about CC is it saves points on your licence.

Ian.

 

[mikestrivens]

...Only good thing about CC is it saves points on your licence.
...

Worth far more than any amount of fuel saved IMHO.

 

[laurie.lea]

Idling for an hour will eat at least 2 gallons of fuel

My 9 litre, 5 cylinder Scan is uses 2 -2.5 litres per hour.

 

[BClassChris]

I would back myself to always do better manually than using cruise. The whole concept of cruise is bad for economy. As LK said, a constant throttle is the best method of getting best economy and CC does the opposite, maintaining speed up hills with large throttle openings and then wasting that energy down the other side keeping speed down. Crazy. Only good thing about CC is it saves points on your licence.

Ian.

But that’s where your ecoRoll comes in it’s disengages cruise and gears to allow you to roll down the other side then once you start to climb or drop below a certain speed on the flat it will kick in again taking you back up to the speed that you had the cc set at



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[oigle]

But that’s where your ecoRoll comes in it’s disengages cruise and gears to allow you to roll down the other side then once you start to climb or drop below a certain speed on the flat it will kick in again taking you back up to the speed that you had the cc set at



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That would certainly help to make CC operate as if it wasn't there. Not too many of us have that level of electronic help with our cars though. Most of us live in the "real world"
Ian.

 

[BClassChris]

That would certainly help to make CC operate as if it wasn't there. Not too many of us have that level of electronic help with our cars though. Most of us live in the "real world"
Ian.

I too live in the real word - thats just my experience with my truck dont know if it translates into something inthe car world perhaps the top end S Class may be

 

[Lord_Lucan]

Just caught up with this thread.

To the OP - have you got comparative MPG results following the work carried out? Have you seen much of an improvement? Do share.

 

[LostKiwi]

I too live in the real word - thats just my experience with my truck dont know if it translates into something inthe car world perhaps the top end S Class may be

ANY cruise which maintains a constant speed MUST use energy faster than a skilled driver will manually. This is because cruise will always try to maintain a speed. That means (as Ian and I pointed out) a wider throttle opening going up hill and slowing down (using engine braking - aka pumping losses - or brakes) to control speed going down hill. That slowing down will not be making use of the energy consumed going uphill, whilst a constant throttle opening does (when it can be maintained). Even putting the car in neutral and allowing the potential energy (altitude) to be converted to kinetic energy (speed) as the sole motive force will give better results than automated cruise control. An internal combustion engine is around (lets be generous) 40% efficient. The chemical energy used going up a hill is therefore always going to be greater than the recovered energy downhill. If you allow the vehicle to accelerate down the previous hill on the approach to the next hill then you are exchanging some of that potential energy gained by altitude (and the consumption of chemical energy) into kinetic energy (speed) as opposed to losing it to heat (engine pumping losses/braking). Energy lost to heat does not help our fuel economy.