Is there a way to determine your cars fuel economy (MPG) if the odometer is broken?

Question

I'm talking about an INDIVIDUAL car, not just what fueleconomy.org's website says about that particular model. I'm trying to determine if the changes I've made to the vehicle have improved the gas mileage any.

Answer 1

Not difficult at all to get a close idea, don't even have to run it close to being empty.

Take a trip down the interstate, filling up at the station that's right next to the on ramp. Travel about 50 miles or more, counting the mile markers to track distance travelled then turn around and head back and fill up at the same station (or at another station right by the ramps) and divide the gallons it takes to fill it up again into the miles you counted. (For example, say 102 miles divided by 3.5 gallons would be 29.14 mpg)

This won't be exact, but it will be very close.

Answer 2

The easiest way is to fix the odometer.

I can think of several other ways, but they are all even more complicated. One that comes to mind include sending it to an EPA-certified lab and have them measure the mileage using the EPA's tests.

Another is to use a data logging device to log both the fuel injector duty cycle and the vehicle speed sensor readings. It's possible to calculate the instantanious miles per gallon from these, and average that over a long period of time. This assumes that it has both fuel injection and a vehicle speed sensor. But it's hard to come up with an odometer-free method for measuring mileage that does not take an insane amount of time, money, or both.

Answer 3

Can't you reconnect your odometer cable from under the hood or is it electronic? I don't know what kind of car you have but if you know how many gallons of fuel you car holds, there might be a way geusstomate by filling it up and tracking the distances that you drive using the road signs, like mile markers,etc. But you would have to keep track of it until your tank was pretty empty and then divide your gallons by your miles, like 200 miles divided by 13 gallons. If you do alot of highway driving, it would be pretty easy to do.

Answer 4

There's no way I can think of to determine you car's fuel economy without knowing how far you have traveled.
Sorry, but you will need to repair the odometer in order to do this.

Answer 5

Well I guess the best way would be to watch the mile markers and estimate. But to answer your question, no. you have to know how many miles you have driven and divide that by the # of gallons it takes to fill the car. You need to do this over X number of fill ups to get your AMPG (Avg. Mile Per Gallon) so you need to get the OD fixed if you would like to know. Unless you have a trip OD. If you do just us that.

Answer 6

you seem to think of that one is greater significant than the different, or that a technique or the different you cant do one without doing the different. nasa is often funded with the help of public money, the place because of the fact the automakers are often funded from inner maximum money. you desire greater effective gas economic device? tell the government to enable the automakers do their jobs, and stop including regulations merely because of the fact they might. the government says the automakers ought to build automobiles that get 35mpg with the help of a definite date, yet then the government turns around and says that the engines that could desire to enable the automakers try this could desire to fulfill excessively stringent emission standards, which in turn hurts gas economic device. then the government gadgets a clean nicely-known for defense regulations, which provides weigh which hurts gas economic device. get congress to supply up making regulations that are contradictory in nature, and enable the automakers artwork.

Answer 7

MMMMM, let me see now. Yes, if you get a extremely long tape measure to locate miles driven, divide into gallons of gas used, you should be right on........or, you can keep track of your miles driven for a safe distance, and divide your gallons by you're "exact" mileage, like 14.2 gallons divided by the exact miles: example, 165.9 miles......That ole' buddy is your exact mileage for that vehicle driven the way you drove, with that amount of gas. Good Luck !!

Answer 8

no there is no other way to tell for certain you should have got the MPG fixed when you where having the changes