How to kill your battery or P&G at night...
 

My first foray into increased FE has been a seat of the pants attempt at P&G. Since I work 3rd shift there is rarely anyone else on the road and I've been gliding down to 20-23mph.

After 2 tankfulls my battery died. It has taken a charge again but it is clearly weaker than before, I don't think it'll make it through a VT winter. All of a sudden LED tail/dash/headlights seem very practical and I'm dreaming of deep cycle batteries.

In the meantime I'm doing a tank of 40mph max under power and coasting down hills, engine on. This may be the plan for the winter anyway, since the car also produces almost no heat from the heater during P&G, no big deal at 50 degrees F, but 28 F was chilly.

What else can I do to bump the FE without spending an arm and a leg?

How old is the battery?

Good question, I bought the car used a year ago and while the battery definitely
isn't original, I'd say it's a good 3-5 years old. Maybe it is its time to go anyway.

When you've done P&G what did you do to reduce strain on the battery?

Oh, I murdered my (then) 1 year-old starting battery over a year ago. :)

But not from P&G directly - I've been running without the alternator. I've since put in two 6v golf cart batteries to run things.

Deep discharges are brutal on starting batteries. If you want to minimize the impact, minimize the discharge depth (which varies by time & load).

I would say that typical P&G isn't a big problem for battery longevity, because the glides are typically not very long (minimizing discharge).

Deep cycle battery
Engine block heater
Grill block
Warmer clothes (particularly snow pants)

I too killed my 10 year old original battery in my Geo shortly after trying engine off coasting. Since replacing it almost a year ago, I haven't had any problems with the new one.

Mmm, 2 golf cart batteries? Now that's an interesting idea...

bump start instead of using the starter when beginning a pulse might help a little.

:thumbup: I was bump starting, it was just the lights, defroster (off as soon as I could see), wipers (ditto), and the radiator fan (which I almost put a kill switch on)

Leftovers from forkenswft?

I think your right about P&G during the day, but at night I guess my electrical load was pretty high. Maybe next time I should learn to use my multimeter before I kill the battery.:o

What type of block heater are you using?
The grill block is coming!

But snow pants? Mine are leftovers from Ski Patrol, bright blue, my kids call me "the streaking smurf" when I wear them.