28 mpg?

[Yury]

Hi,

Just want to verify something quickly

Winter gas, no highway at all. Quite a few short trips (when the cold temp light only goes off only when the trip is almost over).

Getting 28 mpg. Sounds about normal to you, right?

PS When I do get to drive on the higtway, goes up to 33mpg on winter gas.

[jpmck03]

Hi,

Just want to verify something quickly

Winter gas, no highway at all. Quite a few short trips (when the cold temp light only goes off only when the trip is almost over).

Getting 28 mpg. Sounds about normal to you, right?

PS When I do get to drive on the higtway, goes up to 33mpg on winter gas.

When I was in upstate New York I got about 28-29 mpg in the winter... Not the greatest, but still way better than my last car!

[Altitude]

Hi,

Just want to verify something quickly

Winter gas, no highway at all. Quite a few short trips (when the cold temp light only goes off only when the trip is almost over).

Getting 28 mpg. Sounds about normal to you, right?

PS When I do get to drive on the higtway, goes up to 33mpg on winter gas.

In line with what I get during the winter.

[Yury]

ok thanks all.

my current cycle is pretty brutal. I am working from home and most drives are like 5 minutes. i basically run the engine cold most of the time.

[mryaris]

I guess it depends on how you drive as well. I get 36-38MPG with the snow tires on and 40-42MPG with the regular Goodyears.

The absolute worst mileage I've gotten in the Yaris is 32MPG and that was the first tank when it was new & shiny two years ago (~43K miles on the clock now). I drive it leisurely.....usually shift @ 2500 RPM and stick to the speed limit. My commute is 90% highway, so if yours is mostly city driving then it makes sense that your mileage would be low, but personally I would be upset if I got anything less than 30MPG!

[Yury]

Driving style-not pushing it by any means.
It's not 'mostly' city, it 100% city with a cold engine most of the time. Can't think of a worst use mileage wise.

Before I started working from home, it used to be mostly highway. On winter gas going ~70 mph on the highway I got 33 consistently. However, the highway had slow traffic on occasion, so it's hard to compare.

When I started off with this car, it was pretty bad. I ran a few tanks of the injector cleaner, kept up the tire pressure, cleaned the throttle body and maf. Throttle body job increased the mileage to what it is now.
The car is low mileage and in seemingly great shape, so I can't think of anything else I can service...If anybody has any ideas, I'd appreciate it.

[jpmck03]

ok thanks all.

my current cycle is pretty brutal. I am working from home and most drives are like 5 minutes. i basically run the engine cold most of the time.

That's pretty brutal, but 28 mpg isn't too bad considering. When I was in the Army it was a nine mile commute into work by 6:30 for PT. :thumbdown: Took about 45 minutes with a lot of it just stopped in traffic waiting to get into the gate. :barf: I was pretty surprised that I did that well on fuel!

[Altitude]

ok thanks all.

my current cycle is pretty brutal. I am working from home and most drives are like 5 minutes. i basically run the engine cold most of the time.

Pretty much my situation exactly. Work from home, mostly short trips. 33-36MPG's during summer, 28-32 during winter.

[Yury]

Poured in half a tank today, did the math. 24 mpg...yikes, that's terrible.
Something is not right.

[Idahotom]

I was getting mid 40's all summer, and then winter hit right about the same time my favorite gas station starting sell ethanol blended gas:iono: Since then my last tank came in at 38.6 MPG.

Mine is stripped of extra weight, 45 lbs of air in the tires, and I drive careful but nothing extreme. I'm always suprised to see other's getting the lower numbers, and have to think that barring mechanical issues it must be driver technique? No offense meant, maybe I'm just lucky and "got a good one"?

On a related note, I ALWAYS get better mileage in my light sport plane then others, and I mean like a full gallon an hour less fuel burn (3.2 GPH V 4.5). I think ANY engine pays big dividends in lesser fuel burns with what seems like minor backing off on the throttle with minimal speed difference. I have noticed that when I jump out of the Yaris and into my day job vehicle (42,000 lb. boom truck) I drive them both EXACTLY THE SAME, as weird as that sounds. And no, I have no idea if I get better milelage then other boom truck drivers, but I sure hope so.

[Altitude]

I'm always suprised to see other's getting the lower numbers, and have to think that barring mechanical issues it must be driver technique?

Vehicle mods that add weight, driving technique, climate, terrain, regional ethanol levels etc. all these things can improve or harm MPG's. And, if you live where I do, that big-ass hill I have to climb every time I leave the house (over half mile of 10% grade.)

[fnkngrv]

28-32 is what I am used to seeing in Northern Maine during the winter. I let the car run about 2 min at most after initial starting. I did have some confusing situations last winter where I was actually only getting around 24-26mpg for several tanks. Took it to the stealership and they could not figure out why. I have seen no influence either way being boosted so far this winter compared to NA mpg performance over the first few years of having the car. I can tell you that this car does not like to idle without sucking down fuel. Comparing mpg really needs to be done with others in your areas. You cannot get accurate impressions from people around the country (ies) because of environmental variables. For example I ALWAYS get better mileage north of Virginia than I did south of the state. Barometric pressure, humidity, altitude, etc all need to be taken into account not to mention the quality of the provider and the fuel you purchase from them.

[Yury]

Well, I hope that's one of those one off kind of things. Maybe abnormally high amount of ethanol.

Reminds me, I got an off tank or two with my Prelude this summer. I was getting 27 like clockwork, but all of a sudden it'd be 22-24 and next tank back to 27.

[thebarber]

Even 24 MPG doesn't sound TOO off when you're doing all short city trips in the winter

[Yury]

I'd still prefer better. I used to get this kind of mileage from a 2005 vibe, which is about 20% heavier. Admittedly, it was with mixed driving though.
I will see about what else can be tuned up. I have a new air filter, the tb is clean. The car is very low mileage, but it has been consistently subjected to a brutal city cycle for the last couple of years or more. Throttle body was definitely dirty before I cleaned it up this fall. Presumably it was like this for a while, maybe spark plugs got fouled up. Will replace and see.

[SAV912]

Consider a block heater. If your thermostat isn't even opening for a majority of your trips, that really is about as brutal and inefficient an enviornment as you can run an engine in.

Maybe run thinner synthetic oil, and consider a transmission flush and replace, or changing to Redline MTL if you have a manual box. Spark plugs and throttle bodies aren't something you normally would clean/replace inside the first 75K miles, but I guess it can't hurt. Also, it sounds like a myth but also consider where you purchase your gas. For a while I was buying the cheapest stuff I could find which was usually Kroger or what not. As Kroger gas got more in line with Shell and Texaco even with the 3c discount, I ran a few tanks of Shell gasoline through and noticed that I was getting 50-75 more miles a tank under the same conditions.

-C

[Yury]

good advice, thanks.

TB was indeed dirty and I got a good mileage improvement after cleaning it. Unusual, I know. That's why I wan't to try new spark plugs...who knows.

My gas comes from a reputable station that I have been using with my other car with good results.

[Yury]

I just thought of something. Maybe the key problem is not the duration of the trips per se, but the overall amount of driving. I just realized that I barely consume a tank a month. Maybe I am getting a bit of condensation due to ethanol in the fuel. Not enough to cause any other issues, but enough to make the engine inefficient.
I should probably try stabilizing the fuel and see.

[Altitude]

^^ Keep us posted on that. I don't fill up very often either so if fuel stabilizer helps I might give it a shot.

[Still Learning]

I thought ethanol helped with condensation problems.

[Yury]

^^ Keep us posted on that. I don't fill up very often either so if fuel stabilizer helps I might give it a shot.

Will do. Already put some stabil in. It will be a couple of weeks to see the effect though :)

still learning-no, ethanol makes it worse. It's a big issue with boating. Ethanol cleans, but it comes with many side effects like moisture attraction and mpg decrease.

[thebarber]

You nly need stabilizer when you leave the gas sit for a season

IMO your crap mileage is due to short trips and the auto tranny. If the fluids in the engine and transmission aren't getting up to temperature, in the course of your trips its really nobwonder you get 24 or 28mpg

[Yury]

I dunno....if the gas sits there for a month effectively I wouldn't be surprised if the gas has a bit moisture in it already. I always kind of felt that it starts burning more towards the next fill up, i.e. when the gas was there longest.
During storage you worry about enough water to corrode your tank and fuel lines, which is supposedly quite a bit more (I store my prelude for 4-5 months for example, so that's 4-5 times more than my monthly accumulation in Yaris...presuming it's linear).
That's a theory anyway, I will see if it's true.

Auto in Yaris seems only marginally less effective, so perhaps it's not big factor. Short trips is a factor and I am not expecting too great a mileage. But 24 feels just too low, esp. after a half a tank of 28 with no significant difference in use. Consistent 28 would be fine..

[thebarber]

*shrug*

[Edwin5000]

Yury, the short trips are killing you. Or at least killing your fuel economy. 24-28 mpg under those conditions is to be expected. The good news : you're using a lot less gas than most of us. But your Yaris will thank you if you take it out for a 100 km highway cruise once in a while.

[Yury]

^ perhaps, but I have a feeling there's something else at play here too. Like I mentioned, my TB had carbon deposits and that's on a car that hasn't hit 20.000 miles yet.
I know for a fact that it's been in this 'short trip' mode for over 2 years, so these are very hard miles probably calling for much more maintenance.

I have new spark plugs sitting on my desk waiting to be installed. Will see what happens after that and what condition the original plugs are in.

[enviri]

the short trips definately kill you, and might also be why you're getting deposits in your tb. let your car warm up! let it stand for a min at least. Its like your body when you're cold, you're shivering, having your body burn a little more to keep warm.

Also with low miles, and not letting your car stretch its legs, your engine might not have broken in yet.

(theory) The oil might also be thicker than normal when colder, making your car work harder since it hasnt warmed up and loosened up a little.

atm i get 26-33mpg on winter gas, and I floor it to keep with the 90+mph traffic.

[SpaceShot]

Unfortunately I think the cold and very short trips are both hitting your Mpg pretty hard. My 3 door Hb certainly does much better on my long commute than in town on the weekends.

1. Try to combine at least 2 stops in any trip out from the house and go to the one that is furthest away first, then make your way back home. (more time for engine to get warm)

2. Consider a grille block for either the grille above or below the bumper. (not both) Your area might be cold enough that you could leave it on half the year. I have a Scanguage, to monitor temperature and Mpg, and the grille block does shorten the warm-up time without raising the running temperature any noticeable amount.

3. Even though you won't need it for freeze protection an after market plug-in block heater might be worth trying. If you drive that infrequently, an hours worth of electricity to pre-warm the engine coolant might jump your Mpg up closer to the EPA rating.

[Yury]

put in new plugs.
this is what the old ones look like:

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp335/YurySk/Misc/photobucket-1618-1325700645957.jpg

http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp335/YurySk/Misc/photobucket-3036-1325700548578.jpg

[daf62757]

Hi,

Just want to verify something quickly

Winter gas, no highway at all. Quite a few short trips (when the cold temp light only goes off only when the trip is almost over).

Getting 28 mpg. Sounds about normal to you, right?

PS When I do get to drive on the higtway, goes up to 33mpg on winter gas.

I have noticed my winter mileage dropping. I still get 31 MPG in the city, but my highway mileage has dropped from 37-39 to around 31. Nothing really accurate to measure, just general measurements when I get gas at the pump.

This is lowest its been since I have had my Yaris. I am curious if they are using 15% ethanol and not reporting it. That would account for a slight decrease in mileage.

Any thoughts?