2 lane road, reduced to one lane for construction. Guy with a sign on each end stopping traffic so each direction can travel the stretch. About 1 mile of one lane. You get the picture. I drove this road yesterday and lucked out, got thru without having to stop. Today I was the first vehicle stopped. I knew it would be a long wait, so I shut the truck off. About 4 minutes in the guy holding the stop sign walks up to my truck and motions for me to roll the window down. He asks if the truck shuts itself off or did I shut it off. I say, well I knew it would be a long wait, so I shut it off. He proceeds to inform me that I'm wasting gas. Umm, no. The truck is off, Im not wasting any gas. It uses more gas to start it than to keep it running he tells me. I say, well I've been sitting here over 4 minutes so far and haven't used any gas, and no, it won't use more gas to restart it when I can go. Don't you get it he says! It's fuel injection. The electronics use more gas to restart it. You're wasting gas shutting it off...... I just rolled my dark tinted window back up and turned up the radio as he continued to rant about all the gas I was wasting. 7+ minute total wait
There are so many Einsteins living in this country. I heard the exact same thing from a tow truck driver once.
My car's fuel consumption at 7000 rpm wide open throttle is ~3 gph. Idle is 0.25, or 12 times less. If it's dumping maximum fuel for the full starting procedure, until it settles at idle, let's say that takes 3 seconds, that's 36 seconds of idle time to match the fuel consumption. It simply CANNOT use more fuel than that. The fuel system can't deliver any more. Most likely it's using a lot less, but that's the absolute limit.
face plant! My response would have been slightly more satirical. Maybe something like, I don't recall you at the gas pump when I purchased this tank of gas. So I don't think you have any say in how is use, or don't use this gas! Or, Would you like to see my logs on my gas SAVINGS? sheessh!
Yeah, but how 'bout all the fuel you'll burn later due to having to recharge the battery after it starts the engine? Sign man surely must've included that fuel too in his careful calculations. However ... How come a guy with so much technical expertise stoops to working as a sign man?
I'm sure certain Honda Fit drivers here would be getting 30-40 mpg instead of 50-60 if it were true that restarts used more than several minutes of engine idle time.
"I just rolled my dark tinted window back up and turned up the radio as he continued to rant about all the gasI was wasting." Ha ha. Should've said (in your best pee wee Herman voice) -- I can see you're busy,.. Let me let you let me go.
My SuperMID gives me near instantaneous feedback (via changes in fuel injector pulsewidth) on the effects of various electrical loads on my engine's fuel consumption. When I start a warm engine, the pulse width goes back to normal in less than 15 seconds. It also shows the fuel consumption effects of lights, fans, stereo system, a/c, etc.
On the Bright Side Perhaps he was concerned about fuel consumption- conservation-efficiency-energy independence for USA-no more "oil wars" for us-USA On the Not so Bright Side Perhaps he is an "anti-hypermiler" who has "learned online" that dangerous wrongheaded hyper milers are being taught all sorts of wrong info-such as shut your motor off at long stops - Step-best guess-what was he 1) guy interested in fuel efficiency who was just wrong? 2)Ignorant busybody trying to straighten out a wrongheaded hyper miler?-wrong and a busybody Since he went out of his way to "correct" you-guessing he was of the ignorant busybody variety. Oh well Charlie
