paulk11087

expand the gasoline and so it improved the fuel economy in all cars. in the summer with my old honda CRV i'd get around approx 275 miles on a full tank and in the winter i'd get 250 miles at most on a full tank. it has something to do with that from what i hear.

Stl4

Generally speaking YES and runs better too (confused thought colder was better for turbo).

addìct

yes, definately worse mileage in cold weather.

Pelican Pete

Fluids can be pressurized. But not compressed. So the density of the liquid does not change with the temperature.
Gases can be compressed, so the air is denser at lower temperatures. That's why people often report better performance in colder weather.

Or maybe we're just all flooring the gas to take advantage and have fun in the colder weather, and that's why the mpg suffers...
Whereas in the warmer weather, we expect the performance to be down and don't want to abuse the turbo as much.

-- P

Tanner

Been graphing out my mileage ever since day one and there is a definite pattern over the months.

But then the other consideration is that with the colder temps, happier turbo and heavier foot on the throttle

addìct

Increase temps, you'll see an increase in volume. That would subsequently lead to a lower density in a warmer temp. I had a physics problem like this last year, but sold back my damn book!

Don't know why you're talking about pressurizing and compressing liquids, that's a separate topic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is basic thermodynamics.

How this effects mileage? I could take some guesses, but would be difficult to test with accuracy.

Pelican Pete

I had forgotten about that whole density thing. However I doubt that 20 or 30 degrees would have much effect on the volume of gasoline to the point where that factor alone would affect the mpg.

I still stand by my theory that the driver's behavior affects MPG more than anything else.

-- P.