| Author | Message | ||
     Luis Constantin (Luisc) Member Username: Luisc Post Number: 175 Registered: 02-2003 |
I know that fuel mileage has been an issue for a long time. What does everybody get and how do you improve, what not. Had never considered fuel brands effecting mileage. For years I have been loyal to no brand of fuel. Just followed the low prices. Sam's Club, Costco, Shell, Exxon, etc. Been getting around 265 miles out of a tank. I recently found a Chevron that was offering very low prices. After the second tank I realised I had gotten 295 miles out of the tank. So I have been sticking to Chevron with consistant results. I haven't figured out yet whether it is a cost savings because Chevron typically cost more, usually 10 to 15 cents more a gallon. | ||
| James Sanzone (Albert) New Member Username: Albert Post Number: 23 Registered: 10-2003 |
I use shell and BP/Amoco gas only. Unless im doing a straight highway trip then I use racetrack or QT. I get about 315 miles out of a tank. (DII, from 25 gallons to when the light comes on , 3.5 gallons remain.) | ||
| peter nova (Peter) Member Username: Peter Post Number: 59 Registered: 07-2003 |
I can usually get 300 miles if I push it. But just use normal gas. Plus I use Mobil 1 5w 30 and that helped me a lot. I tried Castrol 10w 40 and I got around 260 miles on a tank. | ||
| trevor griffiths (Trevorgriffiths) Member Username: Trevorgriffiths Post Number: 198 Registered: 11-2002 |
DI, trail vehicle, 4.6 w/ big cam, heavy load, tall tires, etc. consistent 11mpg/250miles; Classic 3.9, stock, mostly highway, 15mpg,290 miles. Regular in the Rangie, super in the Disco, usually brand name fuel retailers. | ||
| Travis Argyle (Targyle) New Member Username: Targyle Post Number: 1 Registered: 12-2003 |
Have a 1996 D1 stock. I run regular grade Chevron or Shell and get between 14 and 15 mpg in town. I have not taken any road trips to check highway mpg. | ||
| Corey (Discobro) Senior Member Username: Discobro Post Number: 306 Registered: 12-2002 |
I used to get my gas a a mom and pop place that I know did not add Ethenol to their gas. It was noticably different when I would get my gas somewhere else. I can get 18-20 MPG with gas without Ethenol. With it it is usually around 12-15. Arco uses Ethenol for sure - that is why they always have cheap gas. Basically Ethenol is a gas "filler" and a type of alcohol sort of. It actually creates more carbon build up in your engine because your engine cannot burn it off completely. This in turn causes sticking valves a common site in Rovers. So shop around and use that word "Ethenol". Oh and only use high octane (92). Otherwise pinging will start. It happened to me just because of the gas. Oh and my rig is stock tires and lift (96 D1). | ||
| Kristopher March (Apexdisco) Senior Member Username: Apexdisco Post Number: 260 Registered: 02-2002 |
stock '99 DI with 145+k on it. I run premium and normally get close to 400 miles (one passenger and some light luggage/crap) if I do the speed limit - highway driving, obviously. about 350 miles per tank if I'm alone and pushing 85-90mph. | ||
| Richard Grayson III (Skaramunga) New Member Username: Skaramunga Post Number: 31 Registered: 02-2003 |
haha gas gas gas, if only it were free. my D1 gets terrible milage, 11-13 mpg...never gonna change unless your on the highway, then 15ish. i think my roof rack hurts the mpg a bit too. but presently i get excellent milage because i lost my license. | ||
| ron morgan (Rpm2429) New Member Username: Rpm2429 Post Number: 17 Registered: 08-2003 |
When I drive our 96 D1, I get about 16 to 18 m.p.g., My wife, who drives like John Force in the Dakar Rally, gets about 10 to 12. | ||
| Joey (Joey4420) Senior Member Username: Joey4420 Post Number: 507 Registered: 04-2003 |
Hmmm I love these treads....my disco get good fuel economy considering it is a all wheel drive vehicle with a small motor and a heavy diet - 16 mpg average. When I want fuel economy, I drive my 92 Buick roadmaster and get 28 mpg on the highway. | ||
| Paul Kennington (P_kennington) Member Username: P_kennington Post Number: 53 Registered: 12-2002 |
'96 SD w/stick and 4.0 I get 18hwy. BUT if I don't put a bottle of fuel injector cleaner through it every 2 months it goes down to 13mpg. Injector cleaner is 80 cents a bottle. Try it! Paul. | ||
| Keith Mitchell (Keith_indy) New Member Username: Keith_indy Post Number: 15 Registered: 12-2003 |
'96 Disco, 4.0, AT - currently getting about 16mpg, that's been with a mix of 1/3 city, 2/3 highway. Hoping it will be better with more HW miles on it. Currently using 89 octane, whatevers cheapest. Will try higher octane with the next tank. Also want to change to synthetics, a K&N filter and need to perform rountine maintenance. | ||
| Greg Davis (Gregdavis) Senior Member Username: Gregdavis Post Number: 1125 Registered: 08-2002 |
I get about 12 mpg around town. 5" lift, 36" tires, rack with lights, and 4:75 gears. But for what I'm driving, I feel that's pretty good with all things considered. | ||
| Frank Rafka (Mongosd2) Dweb Lounge Member Username: Mongosd2 Post Number: 272 Registered: 02-2003 |
Damn Greg, I thought you'd get like 12 FEET to the gallon...I get about 13mph,down hill with the wind...285/75's,4.11's,rack,yadda,yadda,yadda... | ||
| Wei Quek (Apohis) New Member Username: Apohis Post Number: 33 Registered: 04-2003 |
Greg, how much was your mileage affected going to the the 4.75 gears? | ||
| Peter Matusov (Pmatusov) Senior Member Username: Pmatusov Post Number: 1206 Registered: 09-2002 |
Corey, did you just come up with all this stuff? Ethanol (that's the correct spelling) is ethyl alcohol, which makes up for 40% of content of vodka. It's chemical formula is C2H5OH, so it has much less carbon content in it than regular gasoline's heptane/octane mix (C7H16/C8H18). It has an oxygen atom, though, which (I assume) allows for cleaner emissions. Burning one gram of ethanol produces 27kJ of heat, that of gasoline - ~44kJ. One gram of mix of 95% of gasoline and 5% of ethanol will produce 43.15kJ of heat, about 2% less than pure gasoline. Pretty tough to explain 25-30% difference in gas mileage that you mentioned. That said... On stock tires, my 96D1 makes 16-17 mpg at sustained 72-75mph, 95 LWB - same mileage but at sustained 85-90 mph. At sustained 87 mph, the Disco drops down to 13.5-14. The 89 RRC struggles to make 15 mpg, at 70-75 mph. Oh yes, the roof rack on the Disco cost me at least 2.5mpg on the highway. So now it's off if we absolutely need it. | ||
| Brian Walton (Aef135) New Member Username: Aef135 Post Number: 3 Registered: 01-2004 |
The comments above appear to be all releted to petrol. My recently purchased 94 diesel Discovery does the most incredible mpg. I'm hitting 1000k so far and still have a quarter of a tank left. That works out to about 12k per litre. Is that right or am I just the lucky one? Brian | ||
| Garth Petch (Garth) New Member Username: Garth Post Number: 30 Registered: 02-2003 |
Brian Most of the members of this board are North Americans, so don't know the joys of driving a diesel Discovery. The 200/300 TDi's are a remarkedly frugal motor (better then the TD5) and a conservatively driven one should be getting around those figures. Garth | ||
| Justin Sherfy (Jrsherfy) New Member Username: Jrsherfy Post Number: 36 Registered: 08-2003 |
Brian, As soon as I can justify it I'm going to drop a 2.8L diesel in my Disco. Right now I only have about 12,000 miles on my engine, so it's not worth getting rid of just yet. I can't believe your gas mileage. That's so awesome! JRS | ||
| jesse a henning (Darw_n) Member Username: Darw_n Post Number: 46 Registered: 06-2003 |
i can not seem to pass 10mpg, and even if i drive ultra conservatively, how are all you getting towards 20MPG? I use only shell 93, or sunoco 94, driving a well maintained 2k DII, everything stock. | ||
| Alyssa Brown (Alyssa) Senior Member Username: Alyssa Post Number: 425 Registered: 01-2003 |
I get 9 mpg, lifted, roof-racked, bullbarred, etc... '96 Disco | ||
| Andy Rigo (Ninjzx998) New Member Username: Ninjzx998 Post Number: 5 Registered: 11-2003 |
98 Disco 4.0 supercharged, stock tires & Lift. I get around 11 city probably closer to 13 highway. I don't usually drive it conservatively. | ||
| ANTONIO DAVIS (Delldavis) New Member Username: Delldavis Post Number: 2 Registered: 12-2003 |
98 D1 w/82,000 on the clock 320 miles consistently on 93 Octane in the city. Texaco, Albertson's(Grocery Store) and Exxon | ||
| Brian Walton (Aef135) New Member Username: Aef135 Post Number: 5 Registered: 01-2004 |
Makes my 42mpg in our 300 TDi diesel look rather good! Brian | ||
| Reid Walkenhorst (Runningmule) New Member Username: Runningmule Post Number: 24 Registered: 05-2003 |
There's a lot of talk about how expensive gas is, and I too feel this way when I fill up. However, when you think about how the prices of many things have inflated, especially automobiles, gas has remained relatively cheap. Take for example the cost of a new muscle car back in the late 60's or early 70's. 4-6k and you were stylin. gas was $0.75/gallon. Today, most nice vehicles range between 35-40K and gas is still under $2.00/gallon. The cost of vehicles has definitely inflated a lot more than fuel. Pay your $40.00 bucks and drive the hell out of that Rover. The cost of entry is what really puts a bind on people. It's all relative. That's what I say. RPW | ||
| Alan Yim (Alan) Senior Member Username: Alan Post Number: 996 Registered: 09-2002 |
Actually gas in the US is relatively inexpensive compared to gas in Canada so I'd say feel fortunate for what you're currently paying. I was in Seattle recently and paid $1.54/gallon. Convert to Canada's form of fuel measurement and that's about $0.40/L. We pay about $0.70/L. Vancouver where I was spending some time was $0.75/L. That's for regular fuel. Premium is another $0.10 higher. That's very high when you consider we produce our own oil. | ||
| Garth Petch (Garth) New Member Username: Garth Post Number: 31 Registered: 02-2003 |
Alan, By the sound of it Canada has a situation similar to Australia, where over half our petrol price is composed of Government taxes, and we produce about 80% of our own oil requirements I'm cynical enough to believe that the Government has this as a nice little earner for itself, but realistic enough to understand that the price does have an effect in reducing our trade deficit. Consumers become a bit more selective about what they buy...about 60% of new Discoverys sold are TD5s. 2 years ago, the price of diesel was just under US$ 2.00 per US gallon, now its about $2.60. Australians are paying less for their fuel now (but not enough); the change has more to do with the relative strengths/weaknesses of the two currencies. Garth | ||
| Alan Yim (Alan) Senior Member Username: Alan Post Number: 997 Registered: 09-2002 |
Garth, You're exactly right. Our fuel is heavily taxed, and supposedly some of it goes towards infrastructure but a look around and you can see that it's not the case. Alberta is one of the larger oil producers on the world market (I've heard after OPEC, Alberta is the next largest or at least in the top 3) yet Alberta residents pay quite a bit for fuel that is produced in our own province. On an economic scale, Alberta is the "cash cow" of Canada and the wealthiest province so our "wealth" is typically used to help support some of the other provinces so in a way it's not surprising that the Gov't keeps prices high. It pays for a lot of programs. People seem to accept it or at least tolerate it. Also, public transportation isn't widely popular so there's little incentive for people to use it hence fuel consumption is relatively high. I've paid as high as $0.91/L for fuel so it can get a little scary sometimes. | ||
| Tim '92 RR (Snowman) Senior Member Username: Snowman Post Number: 647 Registered: 12-2002 |
Alan, Have you ever seen any statistics on the percentage of fuel used in Canada that is actually produced there? How dependent on others is Canada for fuel? We are at about $1.57 a gallon for cheap 87 octane in my state. 92 Octane is around $1.69. Tim | ||
| Travis Argyle (Targyle) New Member Username: Targyle Post Number: 3 Registered: 12-2003 |
Update: checked the mpg for last week during the snow and ice storm here in Portland OR and I got 12mpg with Shell regular grade. I have noticed some pinging though while accelerating. Maybe time to change to premium. | ||
| Bill Ross (Billr) Member Username: Billr Post Number: 125 Registered: 11-2002 |
Tim: Good question. If I recall correctly, when I lived in Nova Scotia I remember reading somewhere that most of the crude stock used by the huge Irving refinery (i.e. the main fuel supplier for the Maritimes) in St.John, NB and the smaller refineries in NS came, not from Newfoundland or the Sable fields, but from the North Sea and the Caribbean. I believe, perhaps incorrectly, that most Canadian crude goes to the US. Of course, some of this is due to refineries designed to accept certain grades of crude. I know that Ontario refineries are set up to process a fairly heavy and sour grade, hence Ontario producing fuels with the highest sulpher content in the G7. | ||
| Gord Wedman (Bcrover) New Member Username: Bcrover Post Number: 2 Registered: 12-2003 |
I have a '97 SD with 5 speed and 115,000 miles. I drive mostly highway and not much faster than 65 mph. I shift up at 3000 RPM and always use the highest gear without lugging the engine (one of the best things about the 4.0 V8 is its wide power range. You can acclerate (slowly) in 5th from 1500 RPM). I generally get 23 miles per US gallon (19 miles per Imperial gallon), occasionally a bit more. I'm using Chevron premium, 94 octane. As for Canadian oil production, according to the Canadian Oil Producers Association: -Canada is 9th in crude oil production but 3rd in natural gas -Canada exported 1.4 million barrels/day (to the US) in 2002 and imported 890,000 bpd (mostly from overseas). Depending on technological developments, Canada may be able to extract 315 billion barrels of oil from the Alberta oil sands. This compares to proven reserves of 264 billion barrels in Saudi Arabia and only 22 billion barrels in the USA. | ||
| Todd Juneau (Toddxd) Member Username: Toddxd Post Number: 124 Registered: 11-2002 |
97XD w/130K miles, 2 inch lift, 235x85's, ARB, full rack - I get about 10 in town and maybe 13 HWY with no other load. Put all the typical gear on board for a trip and forget it! Wouldn't trade it for anything else either! | ||
| Justin Sherfy (Jrsherfy) New Member Username: Jrsherfy Post Number: 39 Registered: 08-2003 |
Gord, Do you have a manual transmission? How is your gas mileage so high? That's unbelievable!!!! Have you done any modifications to improve the mileage? JRS | ||
| Luis Constantin (Luisc) Member Username: Luisc Post Number: 184 Registered: 02-2003 |
Yes Gord, what gives? Share your secrets, please. | ||
| Jacquelyne Davis (Jmdavis) New Member Username: Jmdavis Post Number: 39 Registered: 06-2003 |
I cringe at the thought of putting anything OTHER than premium in my disco!! Doesn't the owner's handbook mention something in regards to only using premium? | ||
| Justin Sherfy (Jrsherfy) New Member Username: Jrsherfy Post Number: 40 Registered: 08-2003 |
Jacquelyne, In your profile picture, what kind of tires do you have on your Disco? JRS | ||
| Alan Yim (Alan) Senior Member Username: Alan Post Number: 1000 Registered: 09-2002 |
Tim, Here's a link to a provincial/industry site that may answer your question. The data is a couple years old but the site is current so it should give you an idea. Funny story (well funny to me), I rented a little Mitsubishi Outlander when I was in Vancouver and remember paying about $30 for half a tank in Vancouver. When I filled up in Seattle (approximately 3/4 tank) and the pump stopped I thought there was a mistake when I saw $14.62 on the pump. I kept on trying to pump more fuel because I thought the fill sensor on the hose was too sensitive. Finally gave up when it kept on clicking on me and went in and paid. Came out started up the vehicle and my jaw dropped when the tank showed it was full. http://www.alberta-canada.com/oandg/fasfac.cfm | ||
| Gord Wedman (Bcrover) New Member Username: Bcrover Post Number: 3 Registered: 12-2003 |
Justin / Luis Yes, I have the 5 speed manual. I think it is generally possible to get better mileage with a manual trans than with an automatic. I think I get higher mileage than generally reported for the following reasons: 1. not that much stop/go driving or inching along on the expressway. Mostly highway. 2. never use full throttle 3. always shift early, 3000rpm, and use highest gear/lowest revs possible 4. keep the speed down. At 100km/h (62mph) I'm only doing 2200rpm. You really shouldn't be using that much gas at 2200rpm. 5. keep tires well inflated to reduce rolling resistance If I really wanted to save gas I would start in 2nd and short-shift to 4th whenever possible. Also drive more slowly. As for using only premium gas in the Discovery, my understanding is that the 4.0L engine has a knock sensor and therefor you should be able to use regular gas in normal driving, especially with an automatic transmission since it will shift down when necessary and prevent you from lugging the engine, for example, when going uphill. I was told, however, that the ECU can only retard ignition by 15 degrees so if you get real poor quality gas or lug the engine it may still knock and cause damage. The other potential issue with using cheaper gas is that you might get poor quality gas or gas with fewer additives. Not so much of an issue in Canada as nearly all our gas is supplied by the majors (Shell, Chevron, Imperial/Exxon, etc.) but I think there is a lot more variety in the USA and I don't think the quality control is as good. | ||
| Jacquelyne Davis (Jmdavis) Member Username: Jmdavis Post Number: 41 Registered: 06-2003 |
BFG M/T 235x85s |
