PuReChaos

That pretty much describes me.

MrShim78

Gosh, i get over excited when i get 25 mpg ! 97 es300 150k miles approx.

les30002

I have a 4th gen es 300 and past couple days I've been watching my mpg avg and I maxed at 24mpg and most the time I sit at 21mpg and that about 10%. Town 90% highway but I do have a stuck cylinder ATM so that might be affecting the mpg some so ill post back in when that's fixed

ohsimachi

1995 ES300,

100% grinding stop and go urban driving nets 18.9mpg.

100% highway, 70mph on cruise, complete check of car (tires balanced, and inflated to 39psi, fresh oil and air filter, mid grade gas) nets 29.9 mph. This was through hilly interstate in southern VA, and eastern TN.

BDSL

39 psi is too high. You will get excessive wear in the middle of the tires.

gabzor

15-16 driving like a granny in the city, 25-28 cruising on the highway with ac

blkstr2

I need to find a mechanic to work on mine ,still runs quite at 249k miles. any one know of one in central tx area that I can trust?

ohsimachi

15000 miles says differently, tires are rotated regularly (by me every oil change), properly balanced, and the alignment is current; tire wear is perfectly uniform so far.

285exp

The main thing you're accomplishing by overinflating your tires is making the ride harsher, increasing the stress on the suspension, and increasing the chance of damaging your tire or wheel if you hit a pothole or other obstruction, the fuel economy benefits are negligible.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/news/4199963

See the graph on page 17 of this report, the difference between 30 psi and 45 psi for the tires tested was less than 1 mpg.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/reports/200...-001CRVOL2.PDF

ohsimachi

That Popular Mechanics article actually proves my point, if you take one key piece of information into account... LA is just 71M above sea level, while Glendale is 351M above sea level, so they recorded the "best mileage ever" while going uphill on "over inflated" tires, and barely replicated the results while going downhill on tires at standard inflation.

I personally have noticed no degradation in ride or suspension performance after 15,000 miles(quite a bit larger sample size than the Popular Mechanics article) at 39psi. BTW my PSi is measured with a snap-on digital tire pressure guage capable of .1psi increments I wonder how they PM guys measured theirs?.

Snoope

We had been at 23-26 mixed driving BUT wife noticed a little bawking/stutter starting and put a bottle of cleaner through one tank... trouble slowly left us BUT she put the GOOD stuff into the tank this time and WOW...

2003 ES 300.....99000 miles and best purchase I have made BUT how many of you NEED to run High octane to get your best results ???

285exp

Do you really think that a change in altitude of less than a thousand feet made a huge difference? When I drive my car from home (sea level) to Atlanta (1000 ft) and back, the difference is less than 1 mpg. And the absolute precision of the pressure gauges is not likely to be very important. A couple of lbs either way isn't going to make much difference.

I see you ignored the other article.

ohsimachi

285exp, I read both, both back up my point, proper tire inflation, or increased tire inflation improve MPG...period.

I never said it was a huge increase, but it IS measuable. And yes I very much believe that a difference was made by comparing a trip that gains 1000 feet of altitude to a trip that loses 1000 feet of altitude, how could there not be? Is the increase "only" 1mpg? possibly...is that difference measruable? yes, and therefore valid in my eyes. I'm not telling anybody else what they should or should not do with their cars (like you presume to do), I'm simply stating what I do, and what I observe.

BDSL

I get 30 mpg on the highway as well during the summer, with AC off, on 87 octane, tire inflated to 33-35 psi, on all-season tires. My 97 ES300 has more than 280k miles.

No need to inflate tires to 39psi to get 30mpg and jeopardize tire wear, braking, and other performance.

285exp

And I never said there was no increase, just that's it's negligible, i.e. insignificant. A 3-4% increase is not significant, and there is a tradeoff in ride quality, tire wear, increased chance of damage to the tires, wheels, and suspension components, and wet traction. With the car manufacturers under increased pressure to improve fuel economy, if they could improve the fuel economy of the vehicles by 5% by simply increasing the recommended tire pressures, you can rest assured they would unless there was some good reason not to.

Both of us are providing information. You are telling people that they can increase their fuel economy, without any negative effects, simply by overinflating their tires. I am providing evidence that, while there is some increase in mileage, it is not significant and it comes with several negative effects. People here are free to evaluate what we say and the evidence we provide to back it up, and they are free to make their choice accordingly.

http://www.wheels.ca/over-inflated-t...re-a-bad-idea/