[s-cars] trip computer issue & oil additive...

[mlp qwest]

Clayton, I have not had the infamous Audi trip computer in my car since I
trade my 1991 200TQ with the 3B engine in for my 93 UrS4 which did not come
with the computers, BUT... as I recall:

1.  You probably had just reset your trip computer mileage function maybe?

2.  As I recall the gas mileage feature worked on an average taken over
time.  When you reset the trip computer you can get some really big early
numbers when the car is just "coasting" along.  Until you've run up some
miles, the feature really works work like those "gas economy" gauges that
you see in some SAAB's and other cars.  If you've seen those, they are a
needle or simple LED bar graph that sweeps back & forth along a line that
runs from green (good mileage) to amber to red (poor mileage.)  I believe
those "instantaneous" gas mileage gauges are nothing more than simple engine
manifold vacuum / pressure meters.  I always thought it was kind of chicken
crap for SAAB to put one in their turbos, but refuse to provide any gauge
calibration to even hint at how much boost one's SAAB could/would push.

3.  Maybe some other list gauge maven will know how or where the trip
computer gets its information for "gas consumed."  I don't know that I ever
cross check the trip computer's reported gas mileage against actual odometer
miles divided by fillups.  Might be interesting to check sometime however to
see how accurately the TC's gauge is over a full tank of gas or two.

4.  I believe list opinions on the worth of oil additives, particularly if
you are using a synthetic already, vary quite a bit.  In my opinion, for
what little it's worth, the most important thing is that oil, what ever
flavor you like to use, be kept clean.  From what little I understand about
it, oil molecules don't "break" unless & until you actually cause a chemical
reaction, i.e. induce combustion of the oil itself.  So, oil doesn't "wear
out" it gets dirty as a result of the pick up and accumulation of combustion
by products and, god for bid, little bits of metal from tiny failure of
lubrication or disintegrating pistons, bearings etc.  Keep the contaminants
(abrasive stuff) out, and oil lubricity lasts a long, long time.

I don't know how an additive can do much about dirty stuff that's already in
the oil.  If you really think you want an additive, the BG products seems to
have either (a) a good reputation with some of the shops I have dealt with;
(b) a particularly good marketing &/or incentive program for the shops I've
dealt with or (c) both a and b.  I think oil & its additives are a little
bit like the Iraqi populations relations with Saddam, my guess is we will
find that they will be either swearing by him, or swearing at him  :-)
BG's pretty proud of their little cans of additive... I can't figure out if
it's because its such good stuff, or the sales incentive program is so
expensive to run.

My guess, figuring out the thread you may have started by asking about oil
&/or the oil additive game will cost you more than an hours worth of sleep

HTH

mike

~-----Original Message-----
~From: On Behalf Of Clayton Howes
~
~All of a sudden, I look down at my trip computer and it is reading and
~average 46mpg.  ....   I let off the gas to see what
~happens, and it jumps to over 70mpg, THANK YOU Audi gods!!!

~Second question:
...

~ Does anyone have any suggestions
~in terms of putting something in my synthic oil to add to the life of my
~engine?
~
~
~CT  "great, now I get to lose and hour's worth of sleep"  Howes
~