I recently bought a Bluetooth OBDII reader and Torque Pro which runs on my Android. It's amazing how much data you can display and log while you drive (for example: GPS position, engine load, intake air temp, throttle position, timing advance, coolant temp, fuel flow rate, and instant/trip/average MPG). Not to mention you can read/reset codes (although I haven't had any to try it out). For about $30 I'm seriously impressed.

However, I've noticed that the MPG seems to be about 10% pessimistic on Torque (although I've only done a few short trips so far). Since we don't have a MAF sensor, the app can't calculate volumetric efficiency, which is needed to correctly determine MPG. There's a place to put a VE estimate (defaults to 85%).

My question is: has anyone else used Torque and gotten accurate MPG readings, and if so, what settings did you use?

 

Pessimistic compared to what? The MID was always 5+% off compared to actual miles/gallon in my car.

 

I use the fuelly app.

 

Yes, so far all I have been able to do is compare to the MID on relatively short trips. I filled up yesterday and will compare fuel econ the old fashioned way, which will hopefully be more accurate.

Regarding Fuelly, I plan to sign up as well and I think it's a great way of tracking your MPG long term. But with Torque I can get 1 second (or less) intervals of fuel consumption and any other measurements the ECU provides. I love playing with data, and I can't help but think I'll be able to do some cool things after collecting enough of it. Like compare different routes to work, or find the ideal point to start coasting up to a stop sign, or ideal rate of acceleration, or effect of coolant temp to decide if a block heater is worth buying, or the hit from air conditioning, etc. Also you can tell Torque the current price of fuel and it will estimate how much you spent in gas for any given trip (useful for business expense reporting, for example). I've just started playing around with it, but the sheer amount of data available makes me think some cool stuff must be possible.

 

Understood, those apps are very common in the diesel world.

I track similar data in my truck via a "tuner" but I have never used it for MPG.