Tradeoff: Fuel Weight V Empty Tank + All The Tank Junk

[japthree]

For eco-driving, the less weight you have, the better. Whether that means exercising (!); removing all useless stuff from the boot or never filling up to the max and running the tank dry if you dare! However then the engine gets clogged up with all the "bottom of the tank junk" so how do you trade-off, if you understand me correctly?

Also driving in SNOW mode - why does this help the mpg? Is this for all makes / models of car or just the IS200?

[Andy-R]

I'm not sure there's such thing as bottom of the tank cr :tsktsk: p, isn't the fuel pumped from the bottom? and if not every time you went around a bend the fuel would swish around dislodging any cr :tsktsk: p that would be there allowing it to be pumped into the engine.

As for snow mode on the IS this basically reduces the power output so the throttle is less responsive thus using less fuel, however the benifits of snow mode in everyday running around is probably very minimal, better used on long journey's at a constant speed.

That's my thinking behind it anyway but if i'm wrong then I will happily admit it :)

[doog442]

Ive been using the snow mode for last week or so....although clearly less power the car does seem smoother in everyday driving . ( mainly town driving)

Has anyone got any figures re MPG saving in snow mode

[DJ Wozza]

I believe I save at least 4-5mpg when on the motorway at between 60-65mph,

with cruise control on in Snow mode.

[whiteman]

just thought I would add my 2 penneth worth, you don't get crap put in your fuel tank from the fuel pumps and either from the fuel tankers that deliver it to the forecourts. neither does any crap come from the refinery. having dealt with fuel for many years working at total, phillips, petroplus etc your fuel is crap free. Road tankers normally get cleaned out only when they go for test and having seeni in many of them have not seen any crap in them which would be the same as in your fuel tank.

if any crap was in the tank is that not what your fuel filter is for.

The most you will get in your fuel is water in diesel cars but it is heavier that diesel thus sits in the bottom of your fuel filter and you can drain it off but is it is not that common to find water in the diesel as it is heavier so it will stay in the bottom of the forecourt tank.

I will shurrup up now and carry on with my stella

[loggyboy]

I think the only way any 'crap in the tank' might get out of the tank is if theres any floating on the surface, that could get dragged out the tank, but as Whiteman stated, it wont go any further than the fuel filter anyway, so theres no issues!

Also theres no real advantage to running the car on a less full tank, as the less fuel you put in the more times you have to fill up, and any fuel saved by less weight would be offset by the extra runs to the petrol station (unless you have one directly on every route you make). You also run more risk of running out at an inopurtune moment.

The best way to save fuel is to be less throttle happy. I have been experimenting over the last few weeks, I have been religously getting between 300 and 330 miles to a full tank for the last year on regular/mixed driving (ie a little M/way, a few A roads, the occasional run to the shops.) The other week i came from from a concert and it was 2am so i 'exercised' the thottle a little on the way along the m27/m3. Filling up in brighon, i did the 90 miles to bstoke in 54mins. That used half a tank, over the next few days i went back to mixed driving and managed 220 miles on the tank! Needless to say the 90 flat out miles had used 190miles wort of 'normal driving' fuel!

My latter experiment came driving to nottingham last weekend, which ment sitting at 70-80 as the wife was with me. This gave me over 440 miles to my tank.

I was suprised by the amount of difference it made in both ways of driving, nearly 50%!

[Yeldarb]

Change up at 3000 to 3500rpm, that does save a whole heap of fuel, but boredom sets in after the 1st mile.

[whiteman]

HMMM!!! i seem to have pretty ecomical car as I drive like a bat out of hell, around town so to speak I get minimum 350 miles out of a full en and if I do some motorway driving and stick to 90 to 100 alaways get 400+ best I got was 450. i don't drive like an old geezer.

[dave1]

Not 100% sure about snow mode on an IS. Snow mode on most automatics will not affect your fuel consumption to any great degree as all it does is lock out 1st gear to assist the TC in reducing the drive wheels spinning.

[Steviewevie]

Not 100% sure about snow mode on an IS. Snow mode on most automatics will not affect your fuel consumption to any great degree as all it does is lock out 1st gear to assist the TC in reducing the drive wheels spinning.

Don't think that's how snow mode works on the IS200 though. On the manual it certainly changes the throttle response, making it less sensitive. I don't know how it works on the auto but I presume that it does this too, over and above anything it may or may not do with starting off.

[dave1]

Not 100% sure about snow mode on an IS. Snow mode on most automatics will not affect your fuel consumption to any great degree as all it does is lock out 1st gear to assist the TC in reducing the drive wheels spinning.

Don't think that's how snow mode works on the IS200 though. On the manual it certainly changes the throttle response, making it less sensitive. I don't know how it works on the auto but I presume that it does this too, over and above anything it may or may not do with starting off.

I would imagine that it may work in the opposite way to the "sport mode", so that instead of holding the gears up to a higher rev limit before changing, it will maybe change lower down the range. I did try using "snow mode" for everyday driving and over a couple of weeks found nothing advantageous, I will try again if we get snow.

[edeath]

I found snow mode helps most on long motorway runs as it stops the small variations in accelerator pedal movement being transmitted to the engine due to heavier damping on the throttle response. Mines manual however.

[dave1]

I found snow mode helps most on long motorway runs as it stops the small variations in accelerator pedal movement being transmitted to the engine due to heavier damping on the throttle response. Mines manual however.

Cruise control surely eliminates these variations so that the only movement would be that required to keep at the pre-set speed and are done automatically by the electronics so would happen with or without snow mode on.

Just realised your car is manual so CC not fitted?

[edeath]

nope no cruise control on mine, hence the snow mode helps. :)

[P14NJH]

i find using snow mode on dual carriage ways or in the slow lane or middle lane of the motor way brings my MPG to around 45mpg n the MPG indicator (even though i relaise this should only be used as a guide), i also find that using snow mode on these sort of journeys make the journey more relaxed, and i hardly need to touch the accelarator pedal, however do find if im travelling below 50mph in snow mode, the car responds better in 5th gear, and doesnt like 6th overly much.

on the whole i was expecting when i first baught my IS that it was going to be expensive to run, but it was a small cost to pay for a car like a IS, however, im getting around 350-400miles per tank, which is meaning im only having to fill up every 2-3 weeks, and thats town driving, back and forth to work, social driving and going to west brom, about 20miles using M42, then M6 then scott arms (if any of you know it) normally at rush hour times.

my previous car was a 2003 renualt clio, and though i was getting 38mpg out of the car i was needing to fll up every 3-4 weeks, not much better than the IS, and i was only getting around 400 miles out of the car, raely any more, yes the clio is a much smaller car, but the clio is famous in the small car world for having a large 55litre fuel tank, so on the whole, Lexus IS200, not much worse to run than a Clio,

but sssshhhhhh, or every body will want an IS, then they just wont be as exclusive as ours :winky:

[dave1]

i find using snow mode on dual carriage ways or in the slow lane or middle lane of the motor way brings my MPG to around 45mpg n the MPG indicator (even though i relaise this should only be used as a guide), i also find that using snow mode on these sort of journeys make the journey more relaxed, and i hardly need to touch the accelarator pedal, however do find if im travelling below 50mph in snow mode, the car responds better in 5th gear, and doesnt like 6th overly much.

on the whole i was expecting when i first baught my IS that it was going to be expensive to run, but it was a small cost to pay for a car like a IS, however, im getting around 350-400miles per tank, which is meaning im only having to fill up every 2-3 weeks, and thats town driving, back and forth to work, social driving and going to west brom, about 20miles using M42, then M6 then scott arms (if any of you know it) normally at rush hour times.

my previous car was a 2003 renualt clio, and though i was getting 38mpg out of the car i was needing to fll up every 3-4 weeks, not much better than the IS, and i was only getting around 400 miles out of the car, raely any more, yes the clio is a much smaller car, but the clio is famous in the small car world for having a large 55litre fuel tank, so on the whole, Lexus IS200, not much worse to run than a Clio,

but sssshhhhhh, or every body will want an IS, then they just wont be as exclusive as ours :winky:

Try checking your consumption by brimfilling a few times. My OBC mpg seems to be within .5 mpg of consumption figure obtained by brimfilling. I suspect that yours may be a long way adrift.

How many litres of fuel are you putting in to fill up every 2-3 weeks?

As far as I am aware your Lex has a 70 litre tank. If you are getting 350-400 miles from a full tank that only equates to 23 - 26 mpg, which is somewhat more realistic than the 45mpg claimed by your OBC.

[Mike_B]

I think it's unlikely he's going to be putting in the full 70 litres. Assuming he fills it when it gets down to the light, that is about 60 litres to brim it, maybe less if (like me) you like to fill when you are about half-way through the last quarter of a tank. 60 litres in 400 miles would be 30mpg, which isn't so much worse than the Clio, and possibly better than that at 33mpg if the fillup is only 55 litres or so.

[dave1]

I think it's unlikely he's going to be putting in the full 70 litres. Assuming he fills it when it gets down to the light, that is about 60 litres to brim it, maybe less if (like me) you like to fill when you are about half-way through the last quarter of a tank. 60 litres in 400 miles would be 30mpg, which isn't so much worse than the Clio, and possibly better than that at 33mpg if the fillup is only 55 litres or so.

If you read my post you will note that I did, in fact, ask the following:

How many litres of fuel are you putting in to fill up every 2-3 weeks?

For a car weighing as much as the IS200 I don't really think that they are particularly "thirsy". However I feel that P14NJH is deluding himself somewhat in regards to the fuel consumption he is actually getting from his car which is why I suggested a couple of brimfills. For the driving he mentions, 30 mpg should be very acceptable.

i find using snow mode on dual carriage ways or in the slow lane or middle lane of the motor way brings my MPG to around 45mpg n the MPG indicator

[Parthiban]

HMMM!!! i seem to have pretty ecomical car as I drive like a bat out of hell, around town so to speak I get minimum 350 miles out of a full en and if I do some motorway driving and stick to 90 to 100 alaways get 400+ best I got was 450. i don't drive like an old geezer.

Sounds about right, I get about 300-310 out of a tank in my auto around town, so 350 from a manual sounds ok.

Snow mode is just the equivalent of not pressing the accelerator as much, it's just an easier way to do it :)

[HiTnRuN]

I've also wondered about the fuel consumption of my is200, I've only had it a few months. The last car I had was a diesel and was expecting the Lexus to just kill me on the fuel bill in comparison. However, last week I managed to drive from London to Birmingham (125 miles) on the last quarter mark on the fuel gauge at about 60-65. I was shocked that the car managed it and I don't really feel the car drinks too much petrol. On another note, I always wondered whether all of the quarter marks on the fuel gauge were the same as some appear bigger than others.

[LexusMike]

Hi All,

Interesting thread. I have been using 'Snow Mode' for about a year now on my 99 IS200 Sport after reading on here that it made a difference to fuel consumption. My car is manual and I run it down to very low in the tank normally. When I fill up I am generally putting in 65 litres and I used to always get between 315 and 330 miles on a tank. The car is rarely used on motorways and is usually used mainly for short trips, probably in total only 26 miles a day, school run mainly, so back and forth a bit but not many miles each time.

Since using the snow mode I now achieve around 380 - 400 miles per 65 litres in the tank, which certainly adds up in price savings over the year. If I am on the motorway for a longinsh trip, say around 450 miles round trip which I do a couple of times a year I have fuel still left in the tank. So I think snow mode makes quite a difference on consumption. Just hope it's ok to run my car all the time using it! :)

Let's face it, using snow mode in actual snow doesnt really do much to stop lexie from sliding all over the place!! I think it just sends a message to Lexus Head Office to say.... hahaha someones trying to use one of our cars in the snow again, fools! So it might not be great for it's original purpose but it's handy for saving a few quid.

Mike.