50 mpg or bust.

[ecoterror]

Bit of background, I'm a huge mpg freak, my past cars that I use to eco-mod have been an 81 rabbit, and more recently a 91 jetta. The Rabbit got high 40s, it was as much as the ineffecient thing could muster up, but the 91 Jetta was my prize. Through a huge number of exterior mods and lightening the car I got 57mpg average. Eventually I decided my old VW, with every hole and opening either welded, covered, or duct taped, looks a bit to hoopty for me to continue in it, even though ive never spent 300$ on a better car ever.
Enter my 2008 Yaris S 5mt in 8t0 blazing blue pearl!
This car is a hard one to do correctly, I had to balance building the car to my idea of a efficient car, while maintaining the "new" look. I am a master tech at a toyota dealership in ohio, and one September day a man had his car towed in for a bad clutch. He ended up trading it in, where it sat for 3 months, till one day I shipped my jetta off to a junkyard and bought the yaris for the sum total of 4k out the door.
Right off the bat, I threw it on my rack, installed a new waterpump, clutch, and two front wheel bearings, all common problems with the yaris we see in ohio. in addition I threw on 4 corner brake job, spark plugs, and a new air filter.
Then I could start on the interior, if you could call it that, the trash was up to the windows and the dog hair was an inch deep, gross. So I did what any eco modder does when confronted with an interior...
Throw that crap in the garbage. Every bit of trim and plastic behind the front seat was removed, and put into my attic. the difference was massive, the car responded better, mpg shot up 3mpg or so, and it handled incredible. Although now it was NOISY. Too much for my long road trips. So I took a box of the tacoma recall undercoating and did the entire rear of the car, which helped a ton and only added 2lbs of weight. It was still to loud for me, so i had to think outside the box. For instance, did anybody here know that part number PT580-35050-SB for a 07 tacoma will fit perfectly with NO trimming, In the rear of the hatch? I tucked it under the edge of the carpet and my car was honestly more silent than it was factory with only a 15lb sacrifice. Needless to say I was pleased.

Well thats part 1, let me know what you think, if you have any questions let me know! Ive had the car for a year so im going to have a couple post on the modifications to the car to get me where i am now.