Got an Ecometer by AutoMeter last week

[2009Toyotoad]

Based on another thread on the subject I bought one from Amazon.com. I've been using for a week now and I've learned some interesting tidbits.

For starters, no matter how many times I've tried I'm not as good of a "smart" foot as cruise control. I've even gone so far as to shift in 5th gear at 30 mph and the car never stalls or over accelerates using the resume function on the cruise control.

My earlier estimates of MPG were off. I thought I was getting between 40 and 41 mpg when the mpg actually reported by the meter on full tank of fuel scored a 43.7.I later re-verified the mpg with some good old math. My thought is that my driving habits are changing based on the driver response to the information displayed on the gage.

Now on my second tank of fuel with the meter, I'm trying to see how much improvement I can get by reducing my average commute speed from 68 mph to 55 mph. This is getting interesting

[Hershey]

Is fun to compete with the feet on the pedal . Ours is set at 94 and reads about 1 m.p.g. lower than the calculated gas mileage . Will reset it at 95 for the next fill . The ECO is reading 40.9 m.p.g. at the moment , so could be closer to 42 with the 4 speed auto of the '08 sedan . Here's a photo of the reading , http://www.yarisworld.com/forums/sho...?t=38&page=105 . Enjoy your E.M. and keep us updated .

[cali yaris]

Please support a YarisWorld vendor when purchasing products.

[Revsson]

hmmm...now who could that be?

Oh yeah Now I remember.

[bentjazz]

Due to a recommendation from a fellow YarisWorlder, I bought my Ecometer from MicroImage. They had the cheapest price I could find. Nobody could beat them on price.

I'm getting pretty bummed seeing these mpg readings from everyone else. I'm getting 36-37, and am keeping my tires at around 42psi. Why can't I get the fuel efficiency you guys are getting? I still haven't got my first oil change, and am a bit over 3,000 miles. Will get one soon....

[cali yaris]

@ revsson: lol

@ bentjazz: I keep reading that your mileage goes up as the car breaks in, I think you are just getting there.

[sickpuppy1]

Bentjazz, Dont expect to get optimum mileage till around 10k miles or so. You doing fine on a new car...

[hackenfort]

Originally Posted by bentjazz

Due to a recommendation from a fellow YarisWorlder, I bought my Ecometer from MicroImage. They had the cheapest price I could find. Nobody could beat them on price.

I'm getting pretty bummed seeing these mpg readings from everyone else. I'm getting 36-37, and am keeping my tires at around 42psi. Why can't I get the fuel efficiency you guys are getting? I still haven't got my first oil change, and am a bit over 3,000 miles. Will get one soon....

I wouldn't get bummed, my MPG varies from 36-42 depending on where I'm driving. I have the ultraguage, which is helpful, I notice the mpg really take a hit with any hills and even a strong breese, also it drops fast with speeds above 55. If I drive around town, to and from work, it's always 41-42, last week I took a 250 mile trip with my daughter, droped to 37, driving 70-75.

Overall I just love the mpg, my last car was a saab 93, I would get 18 around town and 32 on the highway, just most of my driving is around town, so the Yaris is great for me.

Best of luck

Kevin

[2009Toyotoad]

Originally Posted by bentjazz

Due to a recommendation from a fellow YarisWorlder, I bought my Ecometer from MicroImage. They had the cheapest price I could find. Nobody could beat them on price.

I'm getting pretty bummed seeing these mpg readings from everyone else. I'm getting 36-37, and am keeping my tires at around 42psi. Will get one soon....

One thing to note my commute is 95% or better non-stop highway miles. So its expected that my mpg would be higher than the EPA.

I've got a cross country, 4,500+ mile extended vacation in the middle of next month. So it should be interesting to see the numbers.

The only thing I plan to change is to switch to extended range oil, before I leave. For oil changes I'd rather DIY, I've had too many over fillings in the past at the oil change place.

The service station and I regularly disagree about the correct oil level, and they seem to lazy to take the time to do it right, even though they admit that overfilling puts too much pressure on the seals.

[bentjazz]

Thanks for the morale boost, guys and gals.

[Hershey]

What do any of you have your ECO-METER set at ? Ours is set at 94 for the '08 sedan with automatic . The ECO reads about 1 m.p.g. less than the calculated mileage . This way we know it's actualy doing better than the ECO overall gas mileage . Filled the car earlier and it got 40.77 m.p.g. , while the ECO read 40.6 . Curious if others are set at same or varies from YARIS to YARIS . Thanks .

[R2D2]

Mine is set at 98%-usually reads within .4 mpg or so at this setting.

[why?]

Originally Posted by bentjazz

Due to a recommendation from a fellow YarisWorlder, I bought my Ecometer from MicroImage. They had the cheapest price I could find. Nobody could beat them on price.

I'm getting pretty bummed seeing these mpg readings from everyone else. I'm getting 36-37, and am keeping my tires at around 42psi. Why can't I get the fuel efficiency you guys are getting? I still haven't got my first oil change, and am a bit over 3,000 miles. Will get one soon....

don't get bummed, most of the mileages these guys are posting are in super ideal conditions, driving in ways that most people would think were dangerous.

It takes practice to get really good gas mileage, you are headed in the right direction.

[2009Toyotoad]

Originally Posted by Hershey

What do any of you have your ECO-METER set at ? Ours is set at 94 for the '08 sedan with automatic . The ECO reads about 1 m.p.g. less than the calculated mileage . This way we know it's actualy doing better than the ECO overall gas mileage . Filled the car earlier and it got 40.77 m.p.g. , while the ECO read 40.6 . Curious if others are set at same or varies from YARIS to YARIS . Thanks .

I have not adjusted EFF because it was my first tank and the manual calc was "dead-on" with rounding. I should fill -up of Wednesday morning with my third tank of fuel. I'm pretty sure I will be adjusting EFF after a few more tanks of fuel. As I indicated in my earlier post I adjusted my max driving speed to 55 mph with this fill-up which has led to a jump so far from 43.7 to 46.5 as of this morning.

Next, is the switch to 0w-30 Amsoil signiture series oil and one of there 15,000 mile oil filters, in a couple of weeks. I'm trying to space out the changes to figure out which changes yield the the biggest MPG gains.

I was originally going to wait until fall to replace tires, but when I checked mine with a quarter yesterday, they were more worm than expected. I'm going to have Goodyear check them after work tonight. I'm hoping my measurements were off and I'm got more than 4/32nds.

If they are due for a change I'm not going with GY Eagle LS again. 33k miles is way to quick to use up a set of tires.

edit....

Tire man reports 4/32nds left side 3/32nds right side. My OEM tires are toast. He wants $668+ to replace them with Asurrance fuel Max tires. This seems like highway robbery for 185 60 15 tires. Individual tire are just under $140. with $32 for something call TPMS reseal.

[Hershey]

5w-20 has been approved for the YARIS . I think 0w-20 as well .

[2009Toyotoad]

Originally Posted by Hershey

5w-20 has been approved for the YARIS . I think 0w-20 as well .

I looked at that TSB in another thread but I didn't see the 1NZ-FE engine listed, but I'd be curious if you have the TSB which includes the Yaris engine.

edit:
Darn, I'm eating a little crow at the moment. I went back and double check the TSB and the entire "NZ" series is approved. I was looking for "1NZ". my mistake. and your correct both 5w-20 and 0w-20 are approved.

[2009Toyotoad]

Fueled up this morning with 9.584 gallons 87 octane @ $4.259 / gallon. If I've done the math right for 423.2 miles puts MPG @ 44.1569. I noted the Eco Meter calculated 46.6 so there is quite a bit of varience. It worth noting that Highway speeds were kept at 55 mph or less over the 423.2 miles and highway miles account for approx 90% of the miles.

Its interesting to note that my first full tank using the Eco meter was 328.6 miles on 7.526 gallons 87 octane @4.229/gallon which calculated to 43.66 MPG and the Eco metter recorded 43.7. My highway speeds varied for 60 mph to 68+ mph.

While two tanks of fuel results aren't enough to support any conclusion or for that matter a trend, I will continue to monitor my results for the next couple of fill-ups. It is strange that the manually calculated was only .5 mpg while the decrease in speeds.

My speculation is that drag is not as signicant of a factor on today's car shapes as it was in the 1970's Reducing speed resulted in a 1.1% improvement in MPG.
Again this is not a conclusion but rather speculation based purely on the numbers,

[BEEF]

one thing that could be affecting the meter reading is how you are filling your tank. if you don't fill up the same way or use the same pump every time, you can get variance.

I always fill it up to the first click. even this has some variance in it as sometimes the gas foams more than others.

I would say you could average out 3 tanks and what the ecometer does over those 3 tanks and do a comparison with that.

I will say that the difference is about a half gallon so I wouldn't think that the variance I am talking about would have been that much but it is still a factor to consider.

I personally have a scangauge and an ultragauge. I keep one in each car.