2018 HyCam amateur review and ongoing blog

This has been the warmest December I can remember. This might be a record tank for this time of year (not an absolute record of course, just for mid winter).

56.0 MPG displayed
569.5 miles tank
57.6 MPG long term average
25,114 OD (just had the last free service)

$24.68
10.734 gallons

53.06 MPG calculated

 

My state just added a $100 Hybrid Tax and evidently a $200 EV tax. Didn't need to pay the first 2 years of ownership but they got me this last renewal. Can't say I'm happy about it.

 

55.7 MPG displayed
580 miles
57.5 MPG long term average
25,694 OD

$25.02
10.977 gal

52.84 MPG calculated

An excellent result for this time of year, thanks mostly to unseasonably warm temps.

 

53.3 mpg displayed tank
528 miles
57.2 mpg long term average
26,222 od

$22.53
10.434 gal

50.6 mpg calculated

Weather has been from 25 degrees to 75 degrees but mostly cold. Coldest weather this winter but still over 50 mpg calculated!

 

My car has been driving me nuts!! We live on a bit of a rough road and the car has always rattled a bit when driving on our road but on all other roads the car had been quiet. I figured the noise was more than likely the result of some loose personal item like an ice scraper, not noise from the car itself.

A few days ago the rattle increased in both volume and occurrence. The darn thing made noise all the time so I took all the stuff that could have been a possible source and the car still sounded like it was falling apart. The car itself was making the noise!

In an effort to track down the source of the cacophony I rolled down each window to see if the pitch would change. Rolling the windows down made no change however rolling the passenger side window back up reduced the sound to roughly the former tolerable level.

 

Noise while moving. Small bumps cause the noises.The window mechanism appears to be the cause of the worst of it.

 

Update:

The rattle noise went away, then came back. I was all set to make an appointment with the dealer when a lightbulb went off. Turns out the source of the noise was just the buckle for the seat belt for the front passenger. The noise is gone now and I like my car again.

 

54.4 MPG displayed
547.3 miles
57 MPG long term
26,769 OD

10.71 gallons
$22.69

51.1 MPG calculated

The car has not been below 50 MPG this winter! This is especially interesting because the car gets terrible mileage on the short new round trip to take my son to school.

I credit selective use of heat and tire pressure. I try not to warm up the car but I'm not going to freeze the kid so the car gets a warm up when he is in the car, or when it is really cold, or when the windshield needs to be warm to melt ice. The heated seats are really nice in the cold. Never had them before. Will never be without them going forward.

 

So the seatbelts being twisted was the source of the worst of the noise but somewhere in the back seat area something is still making too much noise. I put my wife back there in an effort to determine the source and wouldn't you know it, the car was all but silent the whole time she was back there.

 

Thanks!

 

The current tank is hovering around 60 MPG displayed (which should translate to about 57 MPG calculated) thanks to some generally warmer weather. So it looks like this will have been the first winter that never went below 50 MPG (calculated) for a tank. We can thank a mild winter for that.

 

Y'all need to know that I drive really slow to achieve these numbers.

Example:

The highway at our subdivision has a speed limit of 70 MPH until the top of the first hill. Only if I'm running very late do I ever hit 70 MPH, maybe twice a month. Most days since the limit goes down to 55 MPH anyhow I go up the hill at 50-55 MPH. Some days if I leave really early and have extra time I might go up the hill at 40-45 MPH. There is little traffic out here when I go to work so it is fairly safe for me to do this.