Cold making my Audi (95 90q) very fuel thirsty

[Joel A. Frahm]

I make a long road trip for Christmas every year, and even in the days
before RFG we noticed a large drop in MPG as temeratures got colder.  In
the below zero cold it was very easy to see the drop in mileage.
Generally we were driving closed-loop fuel injected cars of one sort or
another.  I suppose it was a combination of increased air resistance,
increased electrical load, and I suppose the engine might be operating
in a less than ideal enviornment.  Maybe something like poor fuel
vaporisation is the big problem.

RFG does cause a drop in mileage, but I believe it is around 5%.  If you
take 10% of your gas and replace it with a fuel that has half the energy,
you lose 5% of your total energy per unit volume.

-Joel.
--
Joel Frahm <frahm at jila.colorado.edu>
University of Colorado, JILA