ThirdPedal

I've been tracking my gas mileage and over the course of owning my car (about 5k miles so far), and I'm seeing a dead steady 20mpg. I baby it, keep it out of boost the entire tank, drive 70% highway, 30% city, and it's still 20 mpg. It seems like I should be seeing better than that. The previous owner installed an Authority stage 2 chip about 3 years ago, and I'm wondering if that's impacting fuel economy. The car runs flawlessly, starts easy, idles solid, and is quite quick. I suspected the O2 sensor, but I have paperwork to verify it replaced 6 years and 15k miles ago.

Does anyone have experience with fuel economy and the Autothority chip? Or, can you give me any suggestions on improving fuel economy?

schip43

Do you have a wide band O2 hooked up? Off the top of my head, I would say your running richer than 14.7 at idle and PT, I don't think they really cared about fuel mileage when they made that chip.

pontifex4

I'm in the same range with mine. They tuned them really rich. I'll be tuning myself with an Ostrich, as soon as I can con JoKA and Rogue into teaching me.

chrly924s

I run a Max chip & I'm in the same range. My 1st road trip I took right after I got the car was 30 MPG. That was with stock chip, steady 65 MPH, & my wife in the car.

Euro951

Gas Mileage? Your ****ing kidding right?

schip43

+1 it gets what it gets! but you can do better with a piggy back and a Wide band!

ThirdPedal

Thanks for the responses guys. I'm happy to know that it's within a normal range. I daily drive the car, so gas mileage is a minor concern, but it's not that big of a deal. More than anything, I wanted to make sure that the car was healthy. If it bothers me enough, I can always swap back to the stock chip.

onspeed

I'm usually just shy of 20 mpg with fully city driving, semi-aggressive right foot. Highway will usually go about 23 or so. Autothority MAF kit as well. I keep track of it, but I don't really care too much, it is what it is. Will be dropping in a wbo2 and new exhuast this weekend so I can track the afr.

schip43

http://zeitronix.com/
I have been very happy with this guy.

Scott H

I got 13mpg on my last fillup on stock chips on a stock S, all city driving. It has never done better than 18mpg... I blame the driver, not the car

My WBO2 came today, so as soon as I get my AuxBox and Ostrich I'll be ready to do some tuning and hopefully get some better mileage. Granted I'll be putting in a DP WG and upping the boost at the same time, sooooo probably not.

User 52121

I'm pretty good about doing the math with each fillup. On days when I commute in mine (mostly stock with a Welt chip) I was getting ~24-25 or so. Average commute is around 45minutes of cruising at 75mph, and another 25-30 or so in stop-and-go. I'm generally pretty light-footed when I commute. Just like others have said, it seems the consensus is that the Aautothority chips run pretty fat. You might get better economy going with a different chipset.

At $4/gal, I don't see anything wrong with trying to figure out a way to squeak out an extra MPG or two. Frankly I'd happily give up a few hp if it meant I could pick up the same in MPG.

ThirdPedal

Omni, you hit the nail on the head. Gas is at 4.15 for Premium here is So Cal, so I'm starting to take a look at fuel economy. I just filled up this morning and saw a record 23 mpg total (that's not seeing boost once and driving with an egg under the throttle). My commute is similar to yours except I spend about 30 minutes cruising at 75 and about 14 minutes in stop-and-go. I'm about to the point where I could give up a few HPs for MPGs.

That said, does anyone have a suggestion for a leaner chip? Perhaps I should just throw the stock chip back in for a while. I don't really have any tuning experience, so I don't want to dive into that just yet. Does anyone have experience with a switchable chip like the one from Multi-board from MAXhpkit?

User 52121

Well... for what it's worth - I've traded a few emails with Joshua @ Rogue Tuning and asked him about a possible "fuel economy" tune. He did seem to express some interest in the idea, though it's not something he's actively working on.

Might be worth reaching out to him directly. Maybe if enough people ask, it might prompt him to put in some effort and build out a mileage tune. While I have no experience with his software (yet) he definitely seems knowledgeable - he's been providing free tuning software and support for a few years now. I can't imagine you and I are the only people that would consider a mileage tune as a good "2nd map" for the times when we're not running the car hard.

fortysixandtwo

I don't see why any chips, or any type of tune for that matter, would not provide at least factory fuel mileage while at light cruse on the highway.
At about $4 per gal. if you fill up once a week, you're looking at a $1,200 yr savings going from 20 to 28 mpg avg. That would buy you some decent upgrade or maintenance parts.

alxdgr8

I got 30mpg on a 10hr drive when I first bought my car and it had auto. Stg 2 chips in it. I usually averaged about 26mpg with them and guru chips.