full or low gas
 

do cars accelerate faster on a full tank of gas or low?

feels like my car accelerates faster on full gas, but a friend told me low gas runs faster cuz it weights less

RE: full or low gas
 

it will accelerate faster with less gas, less weight. however if you bring gasmilage into the equasion you get better milage off the top half of the tank.

RE: full or low gas
 

no not true... you should get better milage with under the 1/2 mark than you would above the half mark.....

same thing less weight how ever much it is......... its the same concept.
only reason you think you get more milage is the gas gauge needle.... every notice how it takes for ever to fall down to 3/4 but then after that it takes a nose dive.LOL thats just the odd shape of the gas tank. they are not perfectly square or even close to it for that matter.LOL

go by how much gas you put in your tank next time your empty put 5gallons in and see how high it takes the gauge needle then take it to the full mark by watching the needle and pumping gas... then watch how much more you put in the tank before the pump clicks off...

RE: full or low gas
 

oh, so basically.. low gas tank gives you faster acceleration plus gas mileage?

even though feels like my car is more quiet and rev's a bit less with a full tank of gas when accelerating :P

RE: full or low gas
 

its all weight.. less weight the faster you can accelerate. tho dont think its gonna be really noticable... thats more less in your head...
what i do in my car is just drive it from full tank to almost empty.

RE: full or low gas
 

That is not correct, there are so many other factors to take into consideration I'm surprised at what I'm reading.
First off, 1 gallon of gas weighs 6 pounds, times 6 gallons (half a tank worth) is 36 pounds.
The difference is absolutely minimal, yes it's there but minimal
http://www.rahul.net/dennisp/boxster...er-tests.shtml
That test showed a .11 - .13 second increase in a 0 - 60, yes it's there but would you really feel that?

Also, people never take into consideration different forces that act on your car continuously
Every time you go on a bumpy road the weight of your car changes, due to the forces of gravity pulling your car down, and your car's weight loss as the floor drops below it (or going downhill you get assistance with gravity)
Also, Each time you accelerate and things get pushed backwards in your car, that's added weight since accel + mass = a force, in which case you have those things weighing you back a slight bit
Wind itself will be much stronger than losing 36 pounds etc.

Basically, yeah it may help you in acceleration (but only on a straight, with little weight etc), but even the amount is so low, so...yeah lol basically what addiction said

I heard, though, that you do get better gas fillups on only going down to half tanks

RE: full or low gas
 

Keeping the gas lowis better all around because you're making the car lighter. The only disadvantage is you have to buy small amounts of gas butmore frequently which gives less opportunity to shop for price.

RE: full or low gas
 

force= mass x acceleration. not acceleration+mass. however the whole gas needle thing makes sence. i guess all cars are that way. its not just hondas. my cadillac has an 18 gal. tank and digital gauges, and it wont change from F until you've used about 3 gallons. which isnt hard, about 55miles.

RE: full or low gas
 

well ya theres all kinda of factors that effect milage. but they have been talked about ALOT.LOL
little things like a small stereo can also drop your milage... i lost about 3-4mpg when i put my small 600watt amplifier in my old 94civic. due to the alternator being engaged more which puts a draw on the motor... same with AC, ac puts a draw on the motor and on the alternator which would also drop milage even more... driving ruffly with the wind early in the morning so no ac best i got was like 38mpg, but on the way home it was later and hoter out it droped to about 32mpg with the ac and louder stereo.and some head winds ;)