Any little tips or mechanical tips to improve miles per gallon because i think my fuel consumption is pretty poor. Im sure it will be better once ive been tuned on rolling roads. Im going to be keeping a tab of how many miles it is doing for the money starting tomorrow so i can compare and see if anything is going drastically wrong.
I got a 1.3 stage 1 carb sprite 1993.
Thanks
Pretty usual/standard stuff (not mini specific) is windows up, turn a/c off, light throttle, avoid braking, correct wheel alignment and pressure etc etc
Rolling road tune would do world of good for a start.
But if out of service - that would be your first thing to do.
> Any little tips or mechanical tips to improve miles per gallon because i think my fuel consumption is pretty poor. Im sure it will be better once ive been tuned on rolling roads. Im going to be keeping a tab of how many miles it is doing for the money starting tomorrow so i can compare and see if anything is going drastically wrong.
I got a 1.3 stage 1 carb sprite 1993.
Thanks
the general rule is not to drive around with your accelerator pedal planted on the floor.
but being a mini its hard not to do that
Once you get it right, it’s fairly easy to drive with minimum throttle input. Change gear early, use down hill sections and a bit more throttle to pick up speed, accelerate slowly etc. The real trick is to be very aware of your surroundings and what is happening in front of you. If you can see traffic lights ahead on red, coast up slowly and by the time you’re there they may have changed to green enabling you to continue with the minimum of braking fuss. The number one thing to remember is that every time you’re touching the brakes, you’re losing energy.
Still not been to the Rolling road!?!?
Nothing you can do about it until youv’e been on the rollers for the set-up this car needs apart from using the gears wisely and not been foot heavy on the gas pedal i’m afraid.
You could also take it to a garage and get the emissions tested - then you’ll be able to see how far out the mixture is… heck they might even turn it down a touch for you. It’s only one screw.
I’ve got a 94 Sprite which is a carb model.
I was running quite rich as my plugs were quite sooty and my fuel consumption wasn’t good.
I turned the mixture down a tad now and seems to be alot better.
Only thing is the mixture screw is hard to access on the HIF38!
fit a vacuum guage.
they are great, they tell you how economic your driving is and how much fuel you are consuming.
you will end up chalenging yourself to stay within specific areas of the dial
All of the above, ESPECIALLY the vacuum gauge Stardude suggested. Once you have a properly tuned car you can re-learn your driving technique by observing what the vacuum gauge is telling you to maximize your fuel economy.
For example, a healthy engine in tune will idle with 17 to 20 inches of vacuum. Any time you’re driving and find your gauge reading higher than about 17" you can put the shift lever in neutral and coast for a while until your speed drops to an unacceptable level. Then put the car back in gear and ease it gently back to the speed you want. Learning to drive with a vacuum gauge using this and other similar techniques will save you a fair amount of gas.
As anecdotal evidence, in addition to having a vacuum gauge on my Mini, I have one on my daily driver Honda Civic. Over the past 10 fill-ups I have averaged 40 MPG (U.S. gallons… roughly 50 MPG Imperial). This is about a 15% improvement over the factory published fuel economy for my Honda.
Simple use optimax or similar…i do
few extra quid and i get over week and half maybe two weeks
Optimax:
http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind…showtopic=19840
A quality fuel with beneficial additives may slowly clean some deposits out of the fuel system. On cars with automatic spark advance and knock sensors they may also allow maximum advance for efficiency. The cleaning effects may show up with a Mini but without the knock sensor you would have to re-tune your Mini engine to get the most from the higher octane fuel.
Anyway, I am NOT saying that the higher-octane fuel won’t help. I’m only suggesting that to get the most benefit from it you really need to re-tune the engine for the more advanced ignition timing that high-octane fuels allow.
> Optimax:
http://www.lexusownersclub.co.uk/forum/ind…showtopic=19840
A quality fuel with beneficial additives may slowly clean some deposits out of the fuel system. On cars with automatic spark advance and knock sensors they may also allow maximum advance for efficiency. The cleaning effects may show up with a Mini but without the knock sensor you would have to re-tune your Mini engine to get the most from the higher octane fuel.
Anyway, I am NOT saying that the higher-octane fuel won’t help. I’m only suggesting that to get the most benefit from it you really need to re-tune the engine for the more advanced ignition timing that high-octane fuels allow.
thats my old forum…
yep i went from a lexus to a Mini…
Getting the Advance curve tuned to your car, will help enormously, ive seen from people 38Mpg change to 46 with a proper advance curve.
Hello people,
Firstly, may I confess that I’m not a “stick a V12 in it, and drive flat out everywhere” type of mini owner. I’ve a second car, should I want to drive quickly. My mini is my “cheap and cheerful” commuter.
I’m getting an average of just over 30mpg in it. I’ve only had it a few months, and only take it to work and back (15 miles, A-roads and roundabouts each way).
I’m a bit disappointed with this, as I deliberately drive like an old hen to make my fuel go further.
It’s an auto, and I’ve read on here that they are a little more thirsty than a well-driven manual. Should I be happy with 30mpg?
What-you-say, good people?
That doesn’t sound too bad if it’s a reasonable amount of stop-start driving. It probably hasn’t got up to temperature for 5 of those miles. An auto should be within a few mpg of a manual and may even do better in traffic.
If you put your car on the rollers make sure you let them know you’re interested in economy. Many operators will concentrate on squeezing the maximum power out of the engine at full revs - you can’t blame them as a happy customer is one with a nice number to boast about.
and we all know the advance curve on a sprite dizzy is massive like up to 18 degrees of mechanical advance, and can be as low as 1500 rpm if the springs are nackered
dave
The best advice about economic driving is:
Accelerate as if there is an egg between your foot and the acceleration pedal.
Rolf, I’m not even THAT aggressive when I drive! It’s boring, but saves the pennies…
I think when I next give it a service, I’ll look into getting it onto rollers. I also like the idea about the vacuum gauge.
(Don’t worry, I know to use the search option now!)
Thanks for the advice, oh and for the record, mine has the Britpart electronic-points-box-of-tricks fitted…
> Thanks for the advice, oh and for the record, mine has the Britpart electronic-points-box-of-tricks fitted…
Well you have some additional options then. Open up the spark plug gap in small steps. Start with something around 0.030". Then advance your ignition timing. (Use the search here and look for recent threads on how to set your MAXIMUM timing advance).
With a wider spark plug gap and setting your timing for the maximum advance your engine can tolerate, you will get better fuel economy and a bit more power. You cannot/should-not open the plug gap up unless you are running electronic ignition… which fortunately you are.
> > Thanks for the advice, oh and for the record, mine has the Britpart electronic-points-box-of-tricks fitted…
Well you have some additional options then. Open up the spark plug gap in small steps. Start with something around 0.030". Then advance your ignition timing. (Use the search here and look for recent threads on how to set your MAXIMUM timing advance).
With a wider spark plug gap and setting your timing for the maximum advance your engine can tolerate, you will get better fuel economy and a bit more power. You cannot/should-not open the plug gap up unless you are running electronic ignition… which fortunately you are.
So what gap should be used with electronic ignition and sports coil? I’m using 0.8mm with Champion plugs, which is standard I think.
> So what gap should be used with electronic ignition and sports coil? I’m using 0.8mm with Champion plugs, which is standard I think.
0.8mm is 0.031" so you’re at a good starting point. You can open up the gap probably to 0.035" and still be OK. When you get too wide a gap you will develop a misfire which will be an obvious signal that you’ve gone “too far”. Keep in mind that the plug gap will open (due to wear) as you drive the car. Try 0.035 (roughly 0.9mm) for a while and see if your engine is OK with that gap.
There’s lots of related information on the web. Take a quick look at this for example:
http://www.reisvalleyandmudville.com/solutions/mileage.html
