Recent content by Light_Mania

With mixed highway/city driving, and really being conscious of lights, braking and coasting, I can get a real 20 mpg in the summer with my '06 V6. At constant 65 mph on the highway, in the summer, with no wind influence, it will do almost 21 mpg. As for my trip computer, it is consistently 10%...

Let us know how it turns out, i.e. which bulbs you used in which locations and if they are bright enough (especially for map and license plate lights). I replaced the overhead light bulbs with 1 watt high power leds in each position, and it is definitely brighter than the original on about...

I put an aftermarket chip from a well regarded tuner in my 1990 911 and dynoed it before and after. It shifted the torque curve a little bit but there was no peak hp improvement. There wasn't a driveability improvement that I could discern either, so I'm no fan of these chips. There have been...

A better test for the improvement a diversity antenna system is likely to offer would be performed in an urban environment. My understanding is that diversity antennas are intended to reduce the "picket fence" effect of radio reception where multipath effects (signals reflected from buildings)...

The civilian signal is now very precise and provides absolute location data within a few meters. The intentional injection of error stopped many years ago. The bottom line is that speed determination via GPS is exceedingly accurate if enough satellites in the right geometry are in view. Whether...

Actually a 5W-20 at 0 deg C is usually thinner or of lower viscosity than a 5W-30 at the same temperature - that has to do with the allowed tolerances of the measurement. At operating temperature, a 20 weight oil will provide less wear than a 30 weight oil because it results in less friction -...

Its not science, either.

An understanding of the physics of intake air flow, and the relationship between an air filter and a throttle in a gasoline engine would lead one to understand that air filter restriction does not have an effect on gasoline mileage, as counter-intuitive that might seem at first blush. Air filter...

According to the guys on BITOG, Castrol does produce a Group IV fully synthetic oil. But, it isn't available everywhere. It has to be the "Made in Germany" labeled Castrol synthetic. I've seen this oil in 5W-30 at Autozone, but I use Mobil 1 5W-20 myself now.

While these may or may not ignite the A-F mixture more efficiently, they throw enough technically incorrect bull out that I find their pitch highly suspect.

Your dog would have to make a real effort to get his tongue all the way to the back of the outlet to get to the +12v contact. Even then, it wouldn't hurt the dog, the current path would be entirely through the tongue and not damaging.

The V6 offers plenty of power at my altitude. My V6 4runner will accelerate faster than my 1974 Porsche 914, which was considered reasonably peppy in its day. Sure the V8 will give you more, it just depends on your "needs".

Using Mobil 1 5W-30 EP in my 2006 V6 4.0, I never burned enough oil to need even one quart added between miles 4,000 and 14,000. I was quite amazed.

The octane/fuel economy equation is further complicated because the component added to premium fuels to boost the octane usually has a lower energy density than the base fuel, therefore requiring a greater volume of higher octane fuel to generate the same heat as 87 octane.

Because of the high compression ratio, the V6 (and probably the V8) will run a little bit more efficiently and develop a little bit more power on gasoline of a higher octane than 87. Whether or not it is enough to offset the 10 or 20 cents/gallon premium over 87 octane is not so easy to answer...