How Are You Tracking MPG?

Hey guys,

So I've been reading the MPG members have been getting, usually ranging around 16-21, and I'm wondering how you guys are tracking this? I been trying to track mines because it seems like I go to the gas station too much (probably feels this way cause of the damn prices here on the islands). What I have tried is fill up my tank (21.1g) and then reset the trip meter. I then drive until about quarter tank left (assuming I used around 15g at that point) and calculate from what my trip meter reads. I know this way of doing it will result in fluctuating numbers so I'm hoping the calculated 15mpg is much lower than the actual number. Anyone want to shed light on a better way for me to calculate?

 

Top it off, reset trip meter. drive a week or untill its time to refuel, top it off again and record how much gas you used to refill. then divide how many miles on your trip by how many gallons it took to top it off.
then reset trip before you leave gas staion and do it all over again

Say you topped it off, drove 300 miles, then refueled and it took 18 gallons to top off again. 300/18=16.66

 

Damnit why didn't that cross my mind? I been looking through threads and the answer was obvious

Thanks a lot, now I can sleep easy with the hope of better mpg

 

No problem
I just put gas in mine for the first time. Curious to see what mine will be like.

 

Nice! Congrats on the purchase!

 

And they say the educational system in America has gone down hill.

 

Yeah, fill up, reset trip, drive til it's time for gas again, multiply my miles by 1.075 to compensate for the 7.5% difference in the circumference of my tires compared to stock (285s v 245s)..You should do this unless youve had your speedometer recalibrated. Then divide by however many gallons it takes to fill back up. For example 300 miles x 1.075 means I actually traveled 322.5 miles divided by, lets say 16 gallons used means I got 20.16 mpg. Don't use the gas gauge as a reference, it's horribly innacurate.

 

Number of miles driven divided by the number of gallons used is the only way to do it accurately, as the others have said.

I use an iPhone app to enter the data while I'm at the gas station, and also use a spreadsheet on my computer to track mpg, maintenance, mods, etc.

 

Also, if you want more information than just mileage there is a website called Fuelly. You input the numbers from each fill up and it keeps track of them. Shows you how much money you have spent on fuel, percentage of city vs highway driving, etc. There is a link in my signature block that I have been using for my truck. Check it out if you feel so inclined.

 

ultragauge. mine isnt accurate though i never calibrated it for the larger tires...

 

265/70/16s so no error correction used by me. X number of gallons to refill divided into whatever trip says then reset trip. Just signed up on Fuelly. Even tho the speedo is 3 mph off from what my GPS says, the mileage markers on the frwy avg out to be dead on with the trip/odo over 10-15 miles of random checking. Strange but whatever. Usually avg 20-23 mpg depending on how much city vs.frwy, how much AC was used, how loaded the truck was but mostly what speed and driving habits were.

 

I used to use Fuelly but now I use an android app called aCar.

 

fuelly.com works even better than a spreadsheet for me (I'll either forget or just not enter the data at home). I add the data before I leave the gas station at every fill-up, then if you *do* want to use that data in spreadsheet form, you can export it from the site.





Cheers,
Marc

 

I've been using a free Android app called FuelLog. Tracks other stuff too.

 

+1 on Fuelly.com. I like that you can just text their number with your odometer reading or the number of miles on you trip odometer (depending how you set up your vehicle profile on the site), the per gallon price, and the number of gallons you put in and it'll text you back with the MPGs. It then saves that info to your vehicle profile so you can export it later like b0ules mentioned ^. They've also got a mobile website for smartphone users that makes it pretty easy to enter your fuel-ups.

Click on one of the fuelly badges (like in mine, Ben83, or b0ules' signature) and you can check out what it looks like.

 

Gas Cubby or whatever it's called for iPhone. You can track all sorts of parameters you input, but I like it best for keeping track of my monthly gas costs and mpg. I used to input tire pressures as well on my Jeep (displayed individual tire pressures on overhead) as well and location of gas and type of gas (87/93 etc).

I keep it simply now with the app and only input mileage, gallons, cost per gallon, brand and octane of gas. The app keeps track of average MPG and MPG per tank. Also, just a note if you do use this, you have to input 2 full fills before it begins to display your mpg as you can also input partial fills.

 

fuelly.com sounds neat but i can't sign up because of them doggone "captcha" stuff. it is so hard to tell what letters they are...

 

I use fuelly to keep track of my averages and the Android Application "Torque" to watch my instaneous MPG.

 

Those are annoying. There's a "refresh" button on the captcha thing. Just hit it until you get one you can read.

 

i use FuleLog on my S3, I have the paid version and love it. It has charts and stuff