Fuel Efficiency and the Yaris - Page 6 - Toyota Yaris Forums

Naya · 03-23-2009, 09:54 AM

Hello,

I'm kinda new to this whole car thing, so forgive me if any of my questions seem a little noobish.

I have a 2007 Yaris with about 30,000km on it. I've taken it for all it's scheduled oil changes and haven't had any issues until recently.

I noticed my fuel economy getting worse and worse over time. At first I just attributed it to the cold winter (it gets pretty frosty in Ottawa) but even now that it's coming to spring, it's getting worse. When I was doing mostly highway driving I was getting about 400km to a tank (this was up until Janurary). I am now getting about 350km to a tank, running it almost to dry. Most of my commute now is city driving, not going above 85km/h.

I took it to my local dealership and they said nothing was wrong. Most of these issues seem to have started happening after my last oil change, but that might just be a coincidence. I also noticed that when the engine is cold, the transmission is really sticky. If not warmed up for at least 15 minutes, it will sit at about 4000rpm doing 80km/h and refuses to shift until brought up to 90km/h (4500rpm).

Sorry if it seems like I'm just spewing out information, but I really have no idea what would and wouldn't be relevant. I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some ideas. My dealership has been no help at all.

BailOut · 03-23-2009, 10:27 AM

Hello Naya,

The high RPM/no Drive gear change is normal while warming up. It is the same for all owners that have the automatic transmission (AT).

As for your drop in mileage I an going to ask you a seemingly stupid question:

Are you sure you have the shifter in the D position rather than the 3 position when you drive off?

Many AT owners get confused by the D placement and drive around in 3rd all the time, causing a huge hit to their fuel efficiency.

firemachine69 · 03-23-2009, 11:30 AM

It's normal. Had my Yaris for over a year, and even with some insane hypermiling, never broke 35mpg (about 98% city driving, very short trips).

Naya · 03-23-2009, 01:48 PM

Hi Bailout,

Thanks for the quick reply! It's not a stupid question at all (since I have made that mistake once before). I always use D and not 3.

Just as an example of the change in fuel economy, in the first year I had the car I was doing city driving (the same as I am doing now) and was getting 600-700km per tank (run almost completely dry). My fuel economy was insanely good. I don't expect it to ever get that good again, since I don't know what I did to luck out on that, but as it stands I'm getting about the same fuel economy as my friend who has a Dodge Avenger R/T. He's really getting a kick out of that.

Oh and FireMachine, I just found a quick calculator online and I'm currently getting about 26mpg.

rningonfumes · 03-23-2009, 01:54 PM

Naya,

When you say you're doing mostly city driving now, is it very very short? You take a mileage hit when you do very short stops while the engine is not warmed up.

BailOut · 03-23-2009, 02:21 PM

Naya,

This is not an easy question to answer sometimes, but have you changed your driving style over the lest few months? Been stressed out? Been working long hours? Been more angry? Any driving that is more aggressive than your previous style will cause MPG hits, and to achieve MPG as low as you are reporting points to heavy throttle usage.

supmet · 03-23-2009, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naya

in the first year I had the car I was doing city driving (the same as I am doing now) and was getting 600-700km per tank (run almost completely dry).

I am now getting about 350km to a tank

I just found a quick calculator online and I'm currently getting about 26mpg.

I'm no hypermiling expert, but I'm pretty sure driving habits alone will never account for a 50% reduction/ 100% increase in FE. That is, unless you went from using EVERY hypermiler trick in the book, to ricky racer/constant wide open throttle over night, without knowing.

Something is wrong with your car.. Have you changed the air filter? What's your tire pressure?

Yaris Hilton · 03-26-2009, 07:16 AM

I agree, while driving technique is hugely important, something has to have happened to that car to make the mileage drop by half with the same driver.

Have you had the OBD-II system checked for error codes?

Naya · 03-27-2009, 09:37 AM

Thanks for all the replies guys.

"When you say you're doing mostly city driving now, is it very very short?" - Yup. Usually about 3km there, another 3km back at the end of the day

"Have you changed your driving style over the lest few months?" - Not that I can think of. I actually make a game of it to see how high I can get the milage, so I'm very concious of how hard I accelerate and try to avoid braking as much as possible.

"Have you changed the air filter? What's your tire pressure?" - Haven't checked the air filter, but I did check the tire pressure and it seems to be fine. I'll check the air filter tonight.

"Have you had the OBD-II system checked for error codes?" - Not even sure what that is :)

When I brought it to the dealership they said they hooked up a computer to look at my fuel economy then took it out to an 80km/h road. I'm not sure of all the circumstances under which they drove it but they said that it was getting 27mpg and that was just fine.

BailOut · 03-27-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naya

"When you say you're doing mostly city driving now, is it very very short?" - Yup. Usually about 3km there, another 3km back at the end of the day

Short trips like that will totally kill your FE as the engine never warms up and runs rich the entire time. This doesn't explain why your FE dropped, though. Was your commute (or any other usual driving) a longer distance before?

On a different note, with a commute that short have you considered bicycling it rather than driving it?

Naya · 03-27-2009, 01:23 PM

Now that it's finally warming up I'm looking at switching to a bicycle :) Canadian winters are a little frigid which is why I was taking the car in the first place. Now that the temp is finally above 0 I'll be switching to bike, and my other half will be taking the car back.

The reason I'm trying to see what to do about the milage is I was a bit worried because his trip is about 35km each way all highway. (To answer the question before anyone asks it, we had 2 cars, one of them got totaled, and a friend from work was able to drive him each day so I got the car.) With the milage as bad as it has been lately that would kill us on gas. I'll see how it does on highway starting next week.

BailOut · 05-14-2009, 02:50 PM

Holy cow! Great job, voodoo22! That's a new world record for the gasoline Yaris!

mchllp925 · 05-14-2009, 06:41 PM

Well, since I hit 15,000 kms, my FE has vastly improved.
Since April 2008, I was gettin maybe 260 kms for 30 litres(or so) of fuel.
Now, I might actually get close to, or over, 250 kms for a 1/2 tank.

I haven't changed my driving habits much.

Is there some truth to what my dealership says, that around this mileage the FE will improve?

Just my 2 cents worth.
P.S. Congrats on your MPG voodoo22
Darrin

marcus · 06-04-2009, 12:48 PM

i hope i do better this year..the most i did was 695km on a 36 liter..90% hwy

BailOut · 06-16-2009, 10:17 AM

voodoo22! That is awesome, and it is a new world record for single tank MPG with the 1.5L Yaris! A combination of self discipline, technique, planning and a fair amount of luck combined to create a magical tank. I love it when a plan comes together!

You've set the bar way up there, my friend.

My own FE experience has been much different lately. I haven't been driving much, maybe once or twice per week. I bicycle to/from a carpool, I've been using public transportation to get to/from my company's data center colocation in Sacramento, I've been bicycling the grocery run and almost all my errands, telecommuting one day per week, etc. When I do drive it's usually to haul mountain bikes over the mountain for a commute on our organized ride day (which will change if Nashbar ever gets around to sending me my bicycle lights as I'll be able to trailer my MTB to the carpool with the road bicycle and return home late at night with it) or to take my Little Brother out for an activity.

My Little and I are scheduled to go for a MTB ride on a beginner trail this Saturday and I plan to get to and from his house on the north side of town, get us both to and from the trail area, to lunch and then back to his house only using public transportation and pedal power.

I'll be making another Sacramento run later this week. I already have my Greyhound tickets and exact change for city bus/rail fares ready.

However, my Yaris is still being driven a bit as I've been able to get my wife to use it for her needs in lieu of her Tacoma some days. While this saves a ton of gasoline she doesn't hypermile at all so my last tank was a paradox. It lasted a whopping 22 days but came out at just 45 MPG. This is the kind of scenario where simple mileage tracking doesn't accurately reflect the actual fuel usage and savings.

Woody_Woodchuck · 06-17-2009, 07:28 AM

56 mpg is fantastic, congratulations! Seems to me you will be the first to break the 650 mile tank or 60 mpg tank barrier also!!!

I’m still fighting to match your 50+ mpg tank streak. Don’t worry, my evil plan is to not match it but SMASH it altogether. A tank over 55 mpg for me is going to take some drastic hypermiling techniques and lots of lucky commutes. Not impossible but very unlikely with my terrain and commute traffic. Heck, last night on the way home traffic was so heavy I had to drive the speed limit and could not get any coasting in for the first 20 miles. Managed to just break 50 mpg for the 30 miles, average is around 54 mpg.

Keep up the great work and keep raising the bar higher.

On a side note: Getting the average numbers for speed versus impg is going to take a while. There are only a couple flat sections on my commute and with the recent traffic I will not be able to get any standard down. I’ll get them, just going to take a while is all.

daf62757 · 06-17-2009, 08:33 AM

I just wish my Yaris had a larger gas tank. 15 gallons would have made a tremendous difference. 11 gallons isn't really large enough. 20 gallons would have made it have a tremendous range!

STANGER45 · 06-27-2009, 01:23 PM

I just wish there was that one magical thing I could add to my Yaris that would get it to 50mpg~!

Http://sniperfp10.googlepages.com

03-23-2009, 10:27 AM	#92
BailOut Steals terrorist's lunch View User's Garage Drives: 2007 Yaris Liftback Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Reno, Nevada, USA Posts: 1,299	Hello Naya, The high RPM/no Drive gear change is normal while warming up. It is the same for all owners that have the automatic transmission (AT). As for your drop in mileage I an going to ask you a seemingly stupid question: Are you sure you have the shifter in the D position rather than the 3 position when you drive off? Many AT owners get confused by the D placement and drive around in 3rd all the time, causing a huge hit to their fuel efficiency. __________________ - Brian Share the Road I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference. Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.

03-23-2009, 01:48 PM	#94
Naya Drives: 2007 Toyota Yaris Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada Posts: 4	Hi Bailout, Thanks for the quick reply! It's not a stupid question at all (since I have made that mistake once before). I always use D and not 3. Just as an example of the change in fuel economy, in the first year I had the car I was doing city driving (the same as I am doing now) and was getting 600-700km per tank (run almost completely dry). My fuel economy was insanely good. I don't expect it to ever get that good again, since I don't know what I did to luck out on that, but as it stands I'm getting about the same fuel economy as my friend who has a Dodge Avenger R/T. He's really getting a kick out of that. Oh and FireMachine, I just found a quick calculator online and I'm currently getting about 26mpg. Last edited by Naya; 03-23-2009 at 01:58 PM.

03-23-2009, 01:54 PM	#95
rningonfumes Drives: Yaris Sedan 5MT Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: SoCal Posts: 865	Naya, When you say you're doing mostly city driving now, is it very very short? You take a mileage hit when you do very short stops while the engine is not warmed up. __________________

03-23-2009, 02:21 PM	#96
BailOut Steals terrorist's lunch View User's Garage Drives: 2007 Yaris Liftback Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Reno, Nevada, USA Posts: 1,299	Naya, This is not an easy question to answer sometimes, but have you changed your driving style over the lest few months? Been stressed out? Been working long hours? Been more angry? Any driving that is more aggressive than your previous style will cause MPG hits, and to achieve MPG as low as you are reporting points to heavy throttle usage. __________________ - Brian Share the Road I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference. Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.

05-14-2009, 02:50 PM	#102
BailOut Steals terrorist's lunch View User's Garage Drives: 2007 Yaris Liftback Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Reno, Nevada, USA Posts: 1,299	Holy cow! Great job, voodoo22! That's a new world record for the gasoline Yaris! __________________ - Brian Share the Road I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference. Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.

03-23-2009, 09:54 AM	#91
Naya Drives: 2007 Toyota Yaris Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada Posts: 4	Hello, I'm kinda new to this whole car thing, so forgive me if any of my questions seem a little noobish. I have a 2007 Yaris with about 30,000km on it. I've taken it for all it's scheduled oil changes and haven't had any issues until recently. I noticed my fuel economy getting worse and worse over time. At first I just attributed it to the cold winter (it gets pretty frosty in Ottawa) but even now that it's coming to spring, it's getting worse. When I was doing mostly highway driving I was getting about 400km to a tank (this was up until Janurary). I am now getting about 350km to a tank, running it almost to dry. Most of my commute now is city driving, not going above 85km/h. I took it to my local dealership and they said nothing was wrong. Most of these issues seem to have started happening after my last oil change, but that might just be a coincidence. I also noticed that when the engine is cold, the transmission is really sticky. If not warmed up for at least 15 minutes, it will sit at about 4000rpm doing 80km/h and refuses to shift until brought up to 90km/h (4500rpm). Sorry if it seems like I'm just spewing out information, but I really have no idea what would and wouldn't be relevant. I'm hoping someone might be able to give me some ideas. My dealership has been no help at all.

03-23-2009, 11:30 AM	#93
firemachine69 School'er of hard knocks Drives: Silver Yaris 4dr. HB Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Sudbury, On Posts: 556	It's normal. Had my Yaris for over a year, and even with some insane hypermiling, never broke 35mpg (about 98% city driving, very short trips).

03-26-2009, 07:16 AM	#98
Yaris Hilton Half a Bubble Off Plumb Drives: 2009 Yaris Sedan Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Bristol, Tennessee, USA Posts: 1,593	I agree, while driving technique is hugely important, something has to have happened to that car to make the mileage drop by half with the same driver. Have you had the OBD-II system checked for error codes?

03-27-2009, 09:37 AM	#99
Naya Drives: 2007 Toyota Yaris Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada Posts: 4	Thanks for all the replies guys. "When you say you're doing mostly city driving now, is it very very short?" - Yup. Usually about 3km there, another 3km back at the end of the day "Have you changed your driving style over the lest few months?" - Not that I can think of. I actually make a game of it to see how high I can get the milage, so I'm very concious of how hard I accelerate and try to avoid braking as much as possible. "Have you changed the air filter? What's your tire pressure?" - Haven't checked the air filter, but I did check the tire pressure and it seems to be fine. I'll check the air filter tonight. "Have you had the OBD-II system checked for error codes?" - Not even sure what that is :) When I brought it to the dealership they said they hooked up a computer to look at my fuel economy then took it out to an 80km/h road. I'm not sure of all the circumstances under which they drove it but they said that it was getting 27mpg and that was just fine.

03-27-2009, 01:23 PM	#101
Naya Drives: 2007 Toyota Yaris Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Ottawa, ON, Canada Posts: 4	Now that it's finally warming up I'm looking at switching to a bicycle :) Canadian winters are a little frigid which is why I was taking the car in the first place. Now that the temp is finally above 0 I'll be switching to bike, and my other half will be taking the car back. The reason I'm trying to see what to do about the milage is I was a bit worried because his trip is about 35km each way all highway. (To answer the question before anyone asks it, we had 2 cars, one of them got totaled, and a friend from work was able to drive him each day so I got the car.) With the milage as bad as it has been lately that would kill us on gas. I'll see how it does on highway starting next week.

05-14-2009, 06:41 PM	#103
mchllp925 Darrin View User's Garage Drives: 2008 yaris le h/b Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: winnipeg, MB Posts: 33	Well, since I hit 15,000 kms, my FE has vastly improved. Since April 2008, I was gettin maybe 260 kms for 30 litres(or so) of fuel. Now, I might actually get close to, or over, 250 kms for a 1/2 tank. I haven't changed my driving habits much. Is there some truth to what my dealership says, that around this mileage the FE will improve? Just my 2 cents worth. P.S. Congrats on your MPG voodoo22 Darrin

06-04-2009, 12:48 PM	#104
marcus toyota View User's Garage Drives: 2007 Yaris RS Blazed Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: toronto, canada Posts: 3,637	i hope i do better this year..the most i did was 695km on a 36 liter..90% hwy

06-16-2009, 10:17 AM	#105
BailOut Steals terrorist's lunch View User's Garage Drives: 2007 Yaris Liftback Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Reno, Nevada, USA Posts: 1,299	voodoo22! That is awesome, and it is a new world record for single tank MPG with the 1.5L Yaris! A combination of self discipline, technique, planning and a fair amount of luck combined to create a magical tank. I love it when a plan comes together! You've set the bar way up there, my friend. My own FE experience has been much different lately. I haven't been driving much, maybe once or twice per week. I bicycle to/from a carpool, I've been using public transportation to get to/from my company's data center colocation in Sacramento, I've been bicycling the grocery run and almost all my errands, telecommuting one day per week, etc. When I do drive it's usually to haul mountain bikes over the mountain for a commute on our organized ride day (which will change if Nashbar ever gets around to sending me my bicycle lights as I'll be able to trailer my MTB to the carpool with the road bicycle and return home late at night with it) or to take my Little Brother out for an activity. My Little and I are scheduled to go for a MTB ride on a beginner trail this Saturday and I plan to get to and from his house on the north side of town, get us both to and from the trail area, to lunch and then back to his house only using public transportation and pedal power. I'll be making another Sacramento run later this week. I already have my Greyhound tickets and exact change for city bus/rail fares ready. However, my Yaris is still being driven a bit as I've been able to get my wife to use it for her needs in lieu of her Tacoma some days. While this saves a ton of gasoline she doesn't hypermile at all so my last tank was a paradox. It lasted a whopping 22 days but came out at just 45 MPG. This is the kind of scenario where simple mileage tracking doesn't accurately reflect the actual fuel usage and savings. __________________ - Brian Share the Road I often carry 2 carpool passengers and mountain bikes or snowboards/skis over a 4,500 foot elevation difference. Click the graphic above to see my detailed mileage logs.

06-17-2009, 07:28 AM	#106
Woody_Woodchuck Drives: 2008 Yaris LB 5M Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Wake Forest, NC Posts: 64	56 mpg is fantastic, congratulations! Seems to me you will be the first to break the 650 mile tank or 60 mpg tank barrier also!!! I’m still fighting to match your 50+ mpg tank streak. Don’t worry, my evil plan is to not match it but SMASH it altogether. A tank over 55 mpg for me is going to take some drastic hypermiling techniques and lots of lucky commutes. Not impossible but very unlikely with my terrain and commute traffic. Heck, last night on the way home traffic was so heavy I had to drive the speed limit and could not get any coasting in for the first 20 miles. Managed to just break 50 mpg for the 30 miles, average is around 54 mpg. Keep up the great work and keep raising the bar higher. On a side note: Getting the average numbers for speed versus impg is going to take a while. There are only a couple flat sections on my commute and with the recent traffic I will not be able to get any standard down. I’ll get them, just going to take a while is all. __________________ Lifetime log

06-17-2009, 08:33 AM	#107
daf62757 Nothing beats a Toyota! View User's Garage Drives: 2013 Yaris 5 dr liftback Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana Posts: 564	I just wish my Yaris had a larger gas tank. 15 gallons would have made a tremendous difference. 11 gallons isn't really large enough. 20 gallons would have made it have a tremendous range! __________________ Big Dave Indianapolis, IN Synthetic Oil....its in my car.....for at least 10,000 miles!

06-27-2009, 01:23 PM	#108
STANGER45 Drives: YARIS Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: CHANHASSEN MN Posts: 7	I just wish there was that one magical thing I could add to my Yaris that would get it to 50mpg~! Http://sniperfp10.googlepages.com

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