First things first, I'm not in school anymore so this "daily commute" is not going to be in effect again until end of August.
My 99 is still running the old F23, so it says 5W-30 on my oil cap. I ran that for a while, switched to 10W-40 and the engine liked it. I didn't see a major change in MPG, but the engine ran much smoother and burned a lot less oil. I will PROBABLY switch to 5W-20 on my next change, because I do a lot of these short trips and getting it up to temp (40 weight), then off, then restart in 20 minutes where the oil is probably still very thick but not circulating well...probably not good. We'll see what happens. Won't be running M1 for sure - dad's paying and he will definitely say no Tire pressures won't go up much more than 40PSI, front suspension clunk is bad already and have yet to find the source.
I generally don't do warmup - I get in the car, first thing is to start it. Then seat belt, do a mental check to see if I have everything I need, then I'm off. That's the whole 30 seconds most of the time...the 2 minute days are "oh dang I forgot my chem book." I can back into my driveway but it would take a bit of gas too...it's a tight fit because of other cars street parking (next door neighbor is not so nice, so we let the neighbors street park with their front end blocking 1/4 of our driveway). The driveway is sloped and so is the road til the first stop - coasting will be no problem.
For the first stop, I can't control my accel as much as I like because it's a blind turn onto a busy street...if I'm not pulling out briskly, more than likely I'm going to get T-boned or make somebody do a panic stop. I do gentle accel afterwards when I see there's no cars around, will try to back down on the RPM's a little bit. I will probably not be trying FAS this early in the drive because I don't like doing cold start on the engine multiple times (afraid of accelerated wear).
There are no alternate routes. My subdivision is kind of a mess because there is a freeway running not far from it, and it's also built on hills. The streets I drive on is basically the only route I can take. When I went to high school still, we had alternate routes and I would switch between them from day to day, just to get variation...but no such luck anymore
My injectors open up around 1400-1500 (can feel it). I only get down to that region when I'm right in front of the sign, so FAS would be pointless here.
Accel easy-moderate to 35, come to a light within .2 miles (very gentle down slope). Wait for right turn (generally on red with 1-2 cars in front of me). Accel moderate up to 35, come to a light within .2 miles and it's generally red (gentle down slope). Accel lightly up to 20, another light within .15 miles, generally red (flat).
This region, FAS may be a possibility, but there is a lot of engine braking here I didn't mention as well. So we'll see what happens...I'll pay closer attention next time I drive this route. Also, even though these lights are smart lights, there's always cars in the other directions too so it's basically a set timing. The way it's timed is that if I catch the first light green, the next light will be red (has never failed). If I catch the first light red and turn on red, I catch the next two green. No real timing ability here because it's blind up to the first light...just luck.
After this, accel moderate to 40, 4th gear engine brake, downhill for about .4 miles, light generally red (moderate to steep downhill). Let it roll downhill very very light accel in 1st to about 5MPH (a light again in probably 100 feet...stupid)...catch the green
Again no alternates here, this street cuts through a hospital and a condominium complex, I only meet other streets that aren't dead ends when I get to the light. I could FAS but since it's all downhill and also has a sweeping turn, I'm a bit afraid of losing control (brake losing power assist, steering not so bad).
Catch the green, moderate accel up to 45-50, generally pass by two green lights (sometimes red of course...slight downhill). That's about ~.6-.7 miles before I come to a right turn, generally red with ~2-4 cars in front of me.
Most likely lots of room for improvement here - will try it. Can't use the cars as rabbits, this is a very busy road and if I go slower, there will just be other cars that cut in front of me. Either way there will be cars in front but at least there is an FAS alternative.
The rest of the trip is pretty much dumb luck, the lights have no rhyme or rhythm, so I guess I'll take that day to day and use more conservative accel.
Tire pressures won't go up much more than 40PSI, front suspension clunk is bad already and have yet to find the source.
