Previously: Electrical 7: Headlights
When we last saw the Imperial it was running great on a short test drive. It was now time for a serious drive!
I started out slowly, driving around the block while watching the gauges and paying close attention to any possible signs of problems. So far everything was going great…
Next step was to drive some back roads. Still the same, everything was working great. OK, time to live dangerously, so I headed for the Interstate.
This time the Imperial pulled onto the Interstate with plenty of smooth power – no signs of hesitation or loss of power. This car likes the Interstate. I ended up putting 70 miles on the car today, mostly cruising at 65-75 mph keeping up with traffic.
The car rides smoothly and tracks straight. It is fairly quite, with most of the noise coming from wind. This was expected, as it needs new door gaskets and window gaskets. New gaskets will be installed after bodywork is done and it is painted.
Even better, the gas gauge works! It started on full, and then went down at what looked like a reasonable rate. On the way back home the gauge was showing just under 3/4 of a tank when I stopped for gas. Filling the tank took 8 gallons. With a 23 gallon tank, just under 3/4 of a tank should be 7 gallons if the tank and gauge worked perfectly. Considering that a fillup may fill the tank over its rated capacity, this is a near perfect result. I still want to check calibration at a half tank and quarter tank, but things are looking good!
Even better – gas mileage was 11.1 mpg! After a 1,000 mile break in period I will probably be getting around 12 mpg on the highway. While horrible by any sane standard this is still good gas mileage for this kind of car.
The test drive wasn’t perfect. The alternator may not be charging correctly; I need to look into that. The temperature gauge is still reading warm, not hot, but warm. This also needs more research.
Today was much better than being towed!
Next: Doing the (mini) Splits