MAX Update No. 68: Idle Speculation

Reader Contribution by Staff
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The honey bear is back. 

One advantage of hybrids over ICE cars (that’s Internal Combustion Engine, if you’re new here) is they don’t have to idle while waiting for the light to change. That’s no small advantage with normal cars. For example, according to my ScanGauge II (about which I’ll write more some day), my ’96 six cylinder minivan burns 0.43 gallons per hour at idle (with an occasional bump to 0.44), or in other words, about a gallon every 2 hours and 19 minutes.

Unfortunately, I can’t plug my ScanGauge into MAX, because MAX doesn’t have an OBD II port. That’s the little on-board diagnostic (hence OBD) socket under your steering wheel, if you have a mid-’90s or newer car. The OBD protocol is a way to get electronic information from your car’s fuel injection computer to the mechanic who is wondering why it’s running funny, information that includes how much fuel the engine is burning. The ScanGauge II translates that info into plain English, and puts it where you can read it, on the screen of a little box that sits on top your dash.

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