just wanted to say HI! new to subaru! i picked up a 2011 wrx rally blue sedan in october. so far so good!
Congrats! I took delivery on a red 2011 sedan a week ago and am also new to Subaru and this site. I'd love to know what kind of mileage you've been seeing over the last few months. 250 miles in and mine appears to be about 17 average thus far.
i really like the Red! when i got the car it was one of two that where blue in the state the other two where black and white. the guy at white bear subaru wouldnt let me drive ether one (white/black) so i went to the brooklyn park dealer the next day and got my car didnt even have to ask to test drive it! any how i am geting 19/20 mpg's befor it got could i was getting 22. yours seams low, you are folowing the 1000mile brake in right?(stay under 4000rpm)
Uh, yah... under 4000. Other than a couple of sideways parking lot visits I've been pretty good about it. The problem is that this thing isn't even going and it's at 4000 RPM. Combine that with the fact that I had a 2008 Civic Si Sedan before this that redlined at 8200 combined with my taking it that high quite often and it's pretty tough to stay under 4000 even just rolling around town. Doing my best I also did not get a chance to test drive one but I had read so many reviews it wasn't an issue. I went through Morrie's in Minnetonka and while they had one in black it was already spoken for so I couldn't drive it. They had to trade an STI they had to a dealer out of state to get mine. In all honesty I really wanted a hatch (any color but blue oddly enough) but the trade in value of my car was dropping like a lead weight so I just pulled the trigger on the sedan. Very happy thus far. Thanks for the mileage info.
http://www.wrxtuners.com/forums/f51/_the_-wrx-modification-guide-complete-4007/ Scroll down to "soft break in" you guys might find it interesting
yah i wanted a hatch too but the truck i was getting rid of i wanted gone befor i put it into a tree! HA HA and finding a hatch was like pulling my teeth out(just not happening)
That is interesting! good thing i floored it a few times before i had been told about the "brake in".
Based on this I've done everything right... I'm like some kind of engine break-in savant! Actually, I came across similar things when I got my last car which was also new. It does beg the question though, if this train of thought is correct where does the whole "keep it under 4000 RPM's for the first 1000 miles" come from?
Housewives and Old Senile Men, and the gossip table in High School. People that don't know about cars can make up some great 'information.' For break in, you want to vary your RPMs, but the piston rings should be happily seated and sealed by the 500 mile mark. Probably alot sooner. But whatever. You want to vary your RPMs alot. Don't coast and don't use cruise control. And stay out of cruising gears if you have a long rural commute to work. You want to apply pressure in both directions, from throttle and non-throttle. Leave it in gear going down hills and down off ramps, rev it up to 6k and get into boost getting up hills and onramps.
Ive always broken my motorcycles in the way I would ride them, not too hard, not too soft, and no extended constant rpm, every one of my bikes have been "factory freaks" (much faster than the same model)
Now that I think about it I don't recall anyone at the dealership saying to keep it under 4000 RPM's for 1000 miles.
Also, I forgot to ask: Are you basing your mileage off the little calculator on the dash or are you doing the math yourself when you fill up? My last fill-up calculation resulted in 17.8 MPG, my dash is currently reading 15.3 MPG... over half a tank to go so it will be a few days before I can check to see how accurate it is. I've never wanted to burn through a tank of 93 octane so quickly!
Couple of things to remember. Break-in is not about the miles, it is about the TIME. I can let a car sit and idle for days and it will never run up .1 mile on the odo, but the motor is working. The other thing to keep in mind is that Subaru will not send out a completely 100% fresh motor. They all get run to make sure that the simplest of things are ok before the car leaves the factory. And again, that is more about time on the motor than the miles. I would say that once you have 250-300 miles on it, drive it like you plan on driving your car with a little couple of extra pulls here and there. Another thing to look for, is if the rings are not sealing properly, you will use oil. Russ
My dash calculator has been right on for the most part since I've owned my 09. I'm averaging around 20 with a ton of city driving and very little highway.
I just used to reset my "A Trip" every time i filled up and my "B Trip" every oil change. This way my MPG's had two different settings... it was nice... until i went E85, and now i get 27MPG on the dash but 17MPG in real life.
i have been doing it myself. the deal on the dash seems to be wrong by 1-1.5 mpg's, some times high some times low.
Liability? :dunno: Maybe to decrease the likelihood of taking back a "lemon" due to user stupidity? It probably also accounts for "break in" of other components like brake pads/rotors and such. That said, I've always driven my new motors moderately for the first 500 or so miles with extra oil changes.
Hmmm, this worries me. After my first fill-up I calculated the mileage and it came out to 17.8 which is pretty much what I got in my Civic around town and I can live with (it did get 31 highway though!). The highest I've seen so far on the dash read is 15.3 MPG. Guess I'll have to wait until this tank is gone to get a more accurate picture.
The dash calc is based on injector duty cycle and your odometer. There isn't an accurate measurement of fuel in tank. Calculation goes as follows. injector pulse duration (% of max duration) * injector max flow per minute. The calculation is likely made hundreds of times per minute. So you would divide that equation by the number of calculations made per hour, then add up the totals for the hour of operation. If you warm your car up in the morning for 15 minutes, your injector duty cycle is likely hovering around 5%, I'm going to make a guess at the flow rate of your injectors at 560cc/min. And an assumption of 60 samples per minute. I'm going to ignore the fact that the car will idle high until the operating temperature is reached. So, it'll be a steady 5% duty cycle for 15 minutes at 560cc/min. 5% of 560cc/min = 28cc/min@5%duty 15 * 28cc = 420cc of fuel. 420cc of fuel is approximately 0.1 gallons. If you warm your car up twice in a day, that's 0.2 gallons of gas used where mileage is not calculated. If you can go 5 days without filling up the tank, that's an entire gallon of gas that is not used to accrue mileage. That's 1/16th of a tank of gas that you aren't using to calculate mileage Let me do a little averaging now. Assuming you get 17mpg of fuel economy per gallon of gas calculated using your mileage driven in a 16 gallon tank... 16 * 17 = 272 miles per tank of gas If you fired up your car and immediately drove to and from work, with no warm up, you'd get approximately 272 miles on your tank. And that is assuming you don't accelerate for long periods and you cruise in your highest gear and keep your injector duty cycle around 5% at all times. But you idle every morning and every afternoon for 15 minutes. That's a gallon of gas each week that isn't being used to accrue mileage. but it is being burned. If you normally get 17mpg, then 17miles of gas has been used, so we'll subtract 17 from 272. 255 miles on a tank 255miles / 16gallons = 15.9mpg. What the computer sees here is that for every minute of operation at 5% duty cycle, the car is using 28cc of gas. If one minute passes, and you haven't moved your car an inch, you have added a minute of ZERO miles per gallon to your overall MPG average. The computer calculates that accordingly. And it doesn't forget that information after a while, it averages it in with the rest of normal operation. This is why your MPG meter on your dash isn't very accurate. The less time spent standing still in your car, the better your MPG is going to be. People that have heavily rural routes to work, or lots of open highway time are going to average better because they aren't sitting still. Same with people that don't warm up their car as long in the morning. You will likely notice your MPG rating will be better in the summer months when you don't have to warm up the car for as long as you do during the winter months.
Uh, wow, my head hurts a little now but great info all the same! Where were you when they were writing the owners manual? This tank (2011 WRX) holds 16 gallons? I last filled up on "E" and got just under 14 gallons into it? Does this mean I've got 2 gallons left when I hit "E"? That's a nice piece of info to know. I do condo/loft leasing in DT Mpls which requires lot of city driving in my car and hence a lot of start-ups everyday with no warm-up. This has always pushed my mileage down and is just something I've had to deal with as I have an affection for performance oriented cars. The good news... the gas burned at work is a tax right off .
In the past the Impreza models had a 16.9gal tank. Not sure what it is in the newer ones. Typically when the light comes on, you have 3-4 gallons left in the tank. You can ask the boys at MTKA Subaru Service to verify that, but I know that in my car it is nearly 4 gallons when the light comes on.
Hey did you try resetting the Trip so your MPG resets? Because if you haven't done that yet then your MPG is averaged over everything you done so far. As i stated above, try resetting your Trip A or Trip B and then look at your MPG to get a good idea of what your car is doing.
Sorry this kind of turned into a gas mileage thread... Anyway, I just filled up (on my 3rd tank now!) and my self calculated mileage was 14.8... are you F%$#ing kidding me? It was all city driving but there was really not much spirited driving on this tank so I'm not sure what's going on? I will say that's the last time I calculate the mileage when my wife is in the car! "I thought you said this car would get 18 - 25?" she started saying... ooops. To recap: Fill-up #1 = 17.8 MPG Fill-up #2 = 14.8 MPG Hope it gets better.
I could swear my MPG goes down if the car is sitting too long. I think the warm up period is factored in on the GRs. My gauge is extremely accurate. Within a 1-2/10 THs of a MPG when I use a calculator by hand. Another note, 60mph is the best speed for good gas mileage. Temperature does matter. 60 degrees and 60 mph on a long drive 75+ miles has gotten me to 31.2 mpg on my 08 WRX. I've also gotten 30.x mpg at 60mph in winter weather. The cut off point is somewhere after 65mph. Then the MPGs go down. I just went up to Wisconsin this weekend. Taking the back roads now instead of the highway. Shorter and quicker. 60 mph and I got 27+ mpg with some in town driving (9 degrees and less).
Ive noticed a drop in MPGs in the winter, but I believe everyone does. As far as I know my tank is 16.9 gallons. I've never pushed it to the point where the gas light comes on, so I couldnt tell you how much gas my car takes once the light comes on.
My dash indicator was reading 15.3 MPG when I last filled up so it was actually pretty accurate. After reading my manual (cover to cover of course) I can confirm that the 2011 does in fact have a 16.9 gallon tank and per the manual when the needle hits E it has around 2.6 left in the tank. When I filled up yesterday the light was on but it was a bit above E, the tank took 13.9 gallons so there were 3 left in the tank... good to know I'm headed to Duluth this weekend and it will be nice to see what this thing gets on the highway. Anything over 25 MPG and I'll be happy!
It DOES make a difference where you're getting gas too. I've seen higher MPG's off of BP gas compared to other places. Always the worst if I get stuck with a Holiday, but even then I only put in a few gallons if I have to, just to get me to a better gas station.
