what RPMs should i shift at for optimal MPG?

[johnwc723]

Hi i was wondering if anyone actually has a manual for this car or knows when it should be shifted for optimal MPG as gas is getting expensive these days. I had been shifting at ~2500-3000 and always leaving the car at that with normal driving (not letting the rpms get much below that) but in my g/f's saturn I noticed that its shift light likes you to shift ~2k so now i dont know what to think. I want my 3geez to sip gas as little as possible dont really care about performance most of the time, I cant afford this expensive gas!

[FyreDaug]

3500, 3250, 3000, 2750 are my shift points

[snoopyloopy]

my automatic will shift itself between 2500 and 3000 if i'm not accelerating hard.

[Oldblueaccord]

my automatic will shift itself between 2500 and 3000 if i'm not accelerating hard.

I try to keep my car around 3 grand whatever speed im running. I got in the mid 30's on a trip to NY and back last week.


wp

[snoopyloopy]

yeah, i drive my car like a manual, so i usually gas it so that it shifts at 3k+. anything below that almost kills the engine.

[HondaMan]

I usually shift at about 3k for 1st & 2nd, 2.5k for 3rd and 4th and ride at 2 in 5th.
driving around town I'm usually below 60 at 2 or 2.5

[johnwc723]

so if i shift at like 2k at lower speeds (almost kill the engine) im probably not going to see any mpg increase and maybe even a decrease?

[HaShfIeNd]

my automatic will shift itself between 2500 and 3000 if i'm not accelerating hard.

our automatics get worse gas milage than a manual....

[pookypal15]

my car must be kinda special... (but it does have some tranny problems) in city driving my shifting is something like this
Gears RPM
1-2... ~1700
2-3... ~2700
3-4... ~always below 3500 and rarely ever use 5 unless I make it over 55mph (since in 4th I'm runnin pretty low revs)... I have driven over 35miles on the emergency light with that kinda driving, and that is the worse of the gas that it can sip from the tank! For some reason I can't shift into second above 3k unless I floor it and I do it around 6k RPM, the tranny's weird..

[mouchyn]

1-2 --> 5500 rpm
2-3 --> 4500-5500 rpm
3-4 --> 4500 rpm
4-5 --> whenever i reach cruising hiway speed (anywhere between 70-100 mph)

i get a smidge over 400 miles per tank. usually about 30-32 mpg. engine has 188k miles on it.

[halxi]

1-2:4000-4500
2-3:3500-4000
3-4:5500-6000 (i usually only use all of 3rd if im accelerating trying to get on the highway, normally i skip 3rd, and go straight to 4th and about 2k rpm for city crusing between 30-45mph)
4-5:4500-4800

Your gas mileage will vary between cars, depends on how the motor was broke in, how its been drivin for its 17+ year life, everything pretty much plays a factor. Before i got my Coolant temp sensor replaced, i was getting 80 miles per TANK, no joke... it was horrible. Now that i have replaced it, i get between 290-330 depending on how many times i hit the highway, how hard i accel... all that stuff.

[FyreDaug]

How the hell would the coolant temp sensor drop 200+ miles?

[halxi]

it went out, in turn, telling my ECU that it was running at below 40 degrees. This lead to the ECU dumping TONS of extra fuel into the engine to compensate for the cold, and keep the engine warm. Only one problem, it wasnt 40 below... it was damn near 80

[mr eff]

i get about 340 miles per the tank of driving mostly around town shifting like this:

(out of)

1st: 4500
2nd: 3500
3rd (usually sit here, since speed limits in the inner city are like 25): n/a, or 3500

4th is sort of irrelevant. sometimes if i want to sit at 1700ish rpm, i'll shift immediately out of third into fourth (my hands are trained to shift in order, exception being downshifting) and cruise around 35ish.

dunno, it's all subjective. honestly, i notice that if i'm driving hard (shifting out of 1st at 6600, 2nd at 6250, 3rd at 5000) i still will get about 300 miles per tank.

i also have a reground cam

[mouchyn]

I'm surprised that I get about 350 -> 400mpg

me too!

[Oldblueaccord]

me too!

Only time i get super mileage is when I have alot of miles under 30 mph like when I take pics and stuff in the woods cruising back/dirt roads etc.

When I was unemployed a few year I ago I went a a whole tank baby'n around town keep at 55 mph and got the same mpg that I would driving full tilt.



wp

[mr eff]

is this related? what grade fuel are you guys using that gets you such high (350+) miles-per-tank? i usually use 91, but if that's a waste, might as well use something less and help my pocket book's mileage.

[johnwc723]

this seems kinda rediclous, you guys shift at such high rpms yet still get such good gas mileage, mine is shit and im pretty conservative about my shifting

[mouchyn]

this seems kinda rediclous, you guys shift at such high rpms yet still get such good gas mileage, mine is shit and im pretty conservative about my shifting

remember that shifting low won't matter if you still press the pedal to accelerate.

for instance:

say you're driving along at 20mph in 2nd gear. if you shift into 3rd and accelerate to 40mph, you're wasting more fuel than you would if you just accelerated to 40 mph in 2nd gear.

the engine has to work harder to accelerate the car to 40mph, which means more gas is being dumped into the cylinders. most of the "work" being done is going to overcoming the low gear than actual acceleration. it's all about how/when the engine makes usable torque -- not engine speed, per se.

these little 4 cylinders are more efficient in higher engine speeds than they are down low. i try to keep my tach right at 4k rpm for cruising -- even if that means staying in 4th gear on the hiway at 65 mph.

[nismoracer99]

in my toyota pu, i shift at about 2k-2.5k rpm's, depending on how hard im accelerating. but if i floor it, 4.6k-5k rpm.

[frantik]

i've got the manual here and it has the shift points in MPH not RPMs

Normal Acceleration
2nd - 15 MPH
3rd - 28
4th - 41
5th - 52

Cruise from Acceleration
2nd - 7 MPH
3rd - 22
4rd - 33
5th - 48

[Busted_Blue]

damn you guys get alot of mileage.

[snow_man_20]

damn you guys get alot of mileage.

i get only about 30 to 32mpg, i fill out a chart at every fill up. I almost always put in about 11 to 12 gallons at every fill up.

date, station, location, grade, price, gallons, trip miles, total miles, mpg

i also enter in if i add fuel cleaner, oil changes, tune-ups, and new parts.

o-yeah i also shift at around 2.5k if i'm just taking my sweet time and around 3.5k if i'm in a hury.

[Ludi Mali]

with all the highway driving i do i wish we had a 6th gear. it'd be nice to go 70 at about 2250.

[1987HondaAccord]

i thought it was like a 14 gallon tank. when my gas light comes on that means i need about 12.5 gallons of gas. if its been on a while maybe a little over 13. i've never put more than 13.5 gallons of gas in my car at one time.