Moving Your Car to Colorado

[md21722]

Higher altitudes = less air = less power in cars without turbochargers or without superchargers

If you have a turbocharger or supercharger then you will not see the effects of altitude as much.

Those of you with turbos/supers that may have "tuned" or "chipped" your car at low altitude need to be careful in higher altitudes. If the tuning involved increasing boost, its a lot easier to burn up the turbo/super because it is working harder to produce the same level of boost at 5000-11000 ft than it was at lower elevations.

[bluescreen73]

Originally Posted by khronus79

Just google "altitude effects on horsepower", there are even formulas that would let you know how much HP you loose at a certain elevation and atmospheric pressure, there are separate formulas for NA(naturally aspirated) engines and FI(turbo, supercharged) engines, and yes FI engines suffer less HP loss than NA engines at higher elevations.

Here's a quote from a car forum found on google:

Precisely. Fuel injected cars have a device called a MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) Sensor. It gives the car's computer an instant reading of air density. The computer then adjusts the fuel/air mixture accordingly.

The MAP sensor failed in my last car and the computer either went full-rich or full-lean and by the time I got the car to the shop, the bad mixture burned the center electrode off one of my spark plugs.

[The Homogenizer]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

Body rust from salted roads is another matter...

The rust is from not washing the car. That is due to laziness. Sand blasted finish and windows from sanded roads is another matter And fender benders from slippery roads...

Originally Posted by ThaiLagoon1

I've been in Colorado for almost 2 months and I did bring my 98 isuzu rodeo with me. Back in new york I was used to filling up my tank with 87 octane, while here in Colorado in the Littleton/Highlands Ranch area there is only 85 octane. I had a full tank of 87 octane and my car ran pretty sluggish as if it' s using more power to get up to normal speed. Once it was down to half a tank, I decided to top up with the 87 octane at conoco station. I noticed i was only getting 11 mpgs, when I should be getting at least 15 mpg from my rodeo. I had my rodeo checked out and tuned up before moving to colorado. I also bought 4 new tires and increased tire pressure to 36 psi from a suggested 26psi. I was also told to run my tank to empty then at the next fill up (last week) to put bg44k into my gas tank. I wonder if it could it be the altitude and different octane gas thats caused this issue? Has anyone has issies like this when bringing your auto to Colorado from out of state?

As others appear to be suggesting: the altitude isn't causing this problem. The altitude will cause a loss of power because the thinner air makes the engine perform like a smaller one at a lower altitude. But you should be getting the same fuel economy unless of course you're making up for the power loss by pushing the car harder.

Are you coming from flat land to hilly land?

[ThaiLagoon1]

Originally Posted by The Homogenizer

The rust is from not washing the car. That is due to laziness. Sand blasted finish and windows from sanded roads is another matter And fender benders from slippery roads...



As others appear to be suggesting: the altitude isn't causing this problem. The altitude will cause a loss of power because the thinner air makes the engine perform like a smaller one at a lower altitude. But you should be getting the same fuel economy unless of course you're making up for the power loss by pushing the car harder.

Are you coming from flat land to hilly land?

Moved from New york city to highlands ranch

[The Homogenizer]

Originally Posted by ThaiLagoon1

Moved from New york city to highlands ranch

I don't know a thing about either place. If your vehicle is working harder, then you'll use more fuel. If the strain is similar, then you have something wrong.