Finishing Up Second Tank of the Great Duct Tape Experiment

Driving home yesterday the fuel gauge needle lined up with the "1/4 tank" line. I checked, and had gone 354 miles. On the first duct tape tank, I had gone about 362 miles and was giddy with excitement. Seeing on how I was less than enthusiastic about the half-tank distance, I am not getting my hopes up.

This morning I arrive at the office and the odometer reads 404 miles. The low fuel light hasn't lit up yet, so that's pretty nice. Looking back at the data, my average mileage when the low fuel light waits at least this long to light up is a shade over 39 miles per gallon.

If this holds to be true, I'll have started a streak of two consecutive tanks with mileage over 39 mpg. This has actually happened only twice in the last three years, in April/May of this year when I had three tanks in a row (40.01, 39.38, 39.85), and in July 2009 (39.31, 39.91).

So I will be cautiously satisfied that if history proves to be right, I'll have started a streak of good mileage that normally doesn't happen.

We'll learn more in the upcoming weeks to draw a conclusion that this is just a statistical anomaly or a true, however slight, way to improve fuel economy on a 2005 Corolla CE.