Running my car cheaper

tcawley29

Hi guys,
Student driving a 2006 D-4d corolla hatchback here. Just wondering what is the average mpg ye are getting with this car. I'm usually getting around 47/48 mpg with reasonable driving yet if i go painfully slow like an old man i can get 64 mpg. My car is a 5 speed manual. Just wondering what can I do to improve my mpg. Also if it would help my mpg would it be worth my while installing a 6 speed manual gearbox instead, and what would that cost? (not likely that I will be let do that to the car but its a possibility). I have tried getting my diesel at different places but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I usually fill the car when it gets to half a tank because i heard that helps some way. I also do about 450-500km every week.
Please help as I have to make my money last until the end of the summer and have no job.
Thanks
Tommy

Mar4ix

nice mpg you have there, wouldnt bother about 6 speed gearbox, as it is expensive job for student, unless youll get it very cheap, and will fit yourself. a lot affects mpg driving stile and speed on motorways. there in internet a lot guides for economical driving stiles.

tcawley29

Mar4ix wrote: »

nice mpg you have there, wouldnt bother about 6 speed gearbox, as it is expensive job for student, unless youll get it very cheap, and will fit yourself. a lot affects mpg driving stile and speed on motorways. there in internet a lot guides for economical driving stiles.

Was kind of thinking that about the gearbox. I'm no mechanic but I wouldn't be afraid to attempt the job anyways. However since the car has very low mileage (55000km) I think I'll give it a miss. The clutch was replaced at 45000km so that should go another while anyways (clutch burned out by previous owner, 80 year old farmer pulling trailors).
Was hoping it could get a little better on the mpg side but somehow I'd doubt it.
Thanks
Tommy

Henry Ford III

You are already getting decent economy I reckon.The only scope to make your money go further is to limit mileage.

woody33

Keep your tyre pressure at least at the recommended, maybe a little (3 or 4 ?) PSI over. Drive like an old man....I mean like a really chilled dude.

tcawley29

Henry Ford III wrote: »

You are already getting decent economy I reckon.The only scope to make your money go further is to limit mileage.

looks like my money is gonna have to last so. I have to do the amount of mileage I do every week. Was just being hopefull. Can anyone explain how my mother and fathers corollas are so much better though. I drove my dads 2008 saloon 1.4 D-4D on country roads and was getting about 60mpg. I also drove my mothers 2010 corolla saloon on country roads and got about 65mpg.

tcawley29

woody33 wrote: »

Keep your tyre pressure at least at the recommended, maybe a little (3 or 4 ?) PSI over. Drive like an old man....I mean like a really chilled dude.

Any serious risks my doing this? increased tire wear also? I would love it if I could drive like that but its just too boring for the 30/40 minute drive every day and when you're tired after college you just want to go that bit faster to get home.

Mar4ix

dont forget about good service , quality oil and filters, also manufacturer recomended mileage service, in time/mileage changed gearbox oil,coolant,thermostat,break fluid,etc. Get a good manual,and folow it. And good driving techniques will rise your mpg.

breadmonster

Add on of those hydrogen Injection kits something like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0mfnRW8LO8

tcawley29

Mar4ix wrote: »

dont forget about good service , quality oil and filters, also manufacturer recomended mileage service, in time/mileage changed gearbox oil,coolant,thermostat,break fluid,etc. Get a good manual,and folow it. And good driving techniques will rise your mpg.

I will be doing the oil and air filter in 5000km myself. Castrol 5w-30 fully synthetic oil. Whats a good brand of air filter. Coolant is good for about 100k km or else 10 years as far as i know. i presume the gearbox oil was changed when the new clutch was fitted 10000km ago so thats fine yet. break fluid looks good, everything else looks good too. Car is washed and waxed every week so you can tell its looked after. Yes i agree with the good driving thing. High speeds definately decrease my mpg.
Thanks for all ye're help. Much appreciated.
Tommy

tcawley29

breadmonster wrote: »

Add on of those hydrogen Injection kits

1. whats that
2. how does it work
3. what does it do
4. how much will it cost
5. will it decrease my car's life

thanks

breadmonster

tcawley29 wrote: »

1. whats that
2. how does it work
3. what does it do
4. how much will it cost
5. will it decrease my car's life

Something like this without the switch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0mfnRW8LO8 ive only seen it done on an avensis. Its a jamjar with a tube coming out of it. he said anyways it was definatly making a difference. no idea if it could be doing any damage to the car. Only a suggestion..

teR_

Remove the engine and buy a few slaves

tcawley29

breadmonster wrote: »

Something like this without the switch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0mfnRW8LO8 ive only seen it done on an avensis. Its a jamjar with a tube coming out of it. he said anyways it was definatly making a difference. no idea if it could be doing any damage to the car. Only a suggestion..

sounds like it might be worth looking into. thanks

tcawley29

teR_ wrote: »

Remove the engine and buy a few slaves

whoah, whoah, whoah we're in the 21st century here :P

Del2005

tcawley29 wrote: »

Just wondering what can I do to improve my mpg.

Short shift

Make sure tyre pressures are correct, don't over inflate this will increase tyre wear and affect handling. Look into replacing tyres with low rolling resistance ones also, cheaper and easier than replacing a gear box.

Take all unnecessary stuff out of the car. Only have yourself, spare wheel and supplied tools.


Google hypermiling

Chimaera

tcawley29 wrote: »

breadmonster wrote: »

Something like this without the switch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0mfnRW8LO8 ive only seen it done on an avensis. Its a jamjar with a tube coming out of it. he said anyways it was definatly making a difference. no idea if it could be doing any damage to the car. Only a suggestion..

sounds like it might be worth looking into. thanks

Don't bother. It's snakeoil!

macgabhs

You're already getting roughly 5l/100km driving normally and 4l/100km driving like an old man its unlikely that any changes to your car will improve on these figures to make any kind of major difference. Especially if you spend any money in trying to get an improvement that my friend would almost certainly be a false economy!

Atlantic Dawn

Drive the car around 95kph on motorways, this should be best mpg speed combination. I think you are pretty much getting the correct mpg from the car as it was from new. You could go to the extreme and remove the spare wheel, back and passenger seats, might give an extra 3mpg.

Jesus Shaves

Take out the spare wheel, replace with canister of compressed air.

Idbatterim

If you are really stuck, you could sell it and replace with a 1k ish bangernomics car until situation changes. other than that nothing you can do to considerably increase mpg, once you follow advice thats been given... correct tyre pressure, engine properly serviced etc, you could increase mpg by removing tyre, maybe rear seats if they arent used, but increases in mpg would be negligible... i assume your already avoiding harsh acceleration, braking, reading the road ahead, coasting upto lights etc?

Blue850

I easily overtake about 5 - 10 cars everyday and usually at least two cars at a time. Sure ya have to drop back to either 3rd or 4th (depends on current speed) but you'll have no bother finding the power when its needed.

Just saw your post on another diesel thread, change your driving style. bet you weren't hammering Mammy or Daddy's car on the country roads when getting 60 mpg;)

biko

It's all about driving style, but you will piss off others with slow acceleration and long braking in the city.
As said, google hypermiling.

ottostreet

You're driving a Corolla and doing plenty of MPG. Live a little OP!

tcawley29

Blue850 wrote: »

Just saw your post on another diesel thread, change your driving style. bet you weren't hammering Mammy or Daddy's car on the country roads when getting 60 mpg;)

I wouldn't bet on that if I were you

tcawley29

biko wrote: »

It's all about driving style, but you will piss off others with slow acceleration and long braking in the city.
As said, google hypermiling.

I've googled it and it turns out I already do that. Tried a new style aswell where I coast as much as possible as opposed to using the brakes and my mpg is not at around 50-55mpg depending on the road

tcawley29

Also I've done 11k km since the last full service and noticed there that I have burned around 1 litre of oil. Is this the normal rate?

Jesus Shaves

tcawley29 wrote: »

Also I've done 11k km since the last full service and noticed there that I have burned around 1 litre of oil. Is this the normal rate?

Did you over fill the engine with oil?

tcawley29

darokane wrote: »

Did you over fill the engine with oil?

nope last service was done by main dealer who i bought the car off nearly 6 months ago. prehaps they used cheap oil or something like that. either was i used 5w-30 fully synthetic castrol oil this time im due another oil and filter service at around 15-20k km anyways whice shouldn't take all that long to rack up anyways :P

Mar4ix

tcawley29 wrote: »

nope last service was done by main dealer who i bought the car off nearly 6 months ago. prehaps they used cheap oil or something like that. either was i used 5w-30 fully synthetic castrol oil this time im due another oil and filter service at around 15-20k km anyways whice shouldn't take all that long to rack up anyways :P

nope, suggest you change oil now.... max 15k km. i use to change oil in cars every 10 k km.

tcawley29

Mar4ix wrote: »

nope, suggest you change oil now.... max 15k km. i use to change oil in cars every 10 k km.

thats what i thought by my dad (always right in his own opinion) went ahead and topped up with new oil so I'll keep it running for somewhere between 15 to 20k km.

Chimaera

Modern cars tend to run longer intervals between services. I go with whatever the manufacturer specifies. They tend to know their machines best

Mar4ix

oil loss could be over sticky oil rings on cylinders(oil not changed in time), and some oil passes oil ring to burning chamber on higher revs., also turbo charger might leaking, check intercooler (if car have), is there any oil. if is, than turbo charger leaking. check airfilter, is any oil stains on it, or oil leaking somewhere from engine.
my friend has vw passat 1.9 tdi, 08, with 200 k km on clocks, in 11 k kms (changing oil tomorrow or after tomorrow) ... never put oil in engine since last service, he said, it is a bit lower that it was after service, but still within limits.
so you need to think where and why oil disappears.

Chimaera

You'll always lose a small amount of oil past the seals on the turbo, plus the crankcase vent routes back into the air intake so a small amount of oil will be lost there too.

1 litre in 11000 km isn't startlingly high, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Just be sure to keep checking regularly. If you start seeing puddles under the car, or you're topping up a lot every time you check the oil, then get worried about it.

massey168

tcawley29 wrote: »

I'm usually getting around 47/48 mpg with reasonable driving yet if i go painfully slow like an old man i can get 64 mpg. My car is a 5 speed manual. Just wondering what can I do to improve my mpg.

Your right foot determines your mpg more than anything else. Try to drive smoother and keep the rpm's in and around 2k-2.5k. Anything above 2.5k drinks diesel, so does racing away at lights, juctions and around back roads etc. The lower the rpm, the less fuel the engine is using. Double the rpm at junctions and such like, uses double the fuel.
Take a chill pill and cruise it while listening to some chilled out sounds.
Think more like Bob Marley, and less like Jedward.

650Ginge

How can a student need to do 500 k a week?

Change your driving style it is the easiest and cheapest way to get better mpg. So seem to know how to donor and get better mpg anyways.

johnos1984

Chimaera wrote: »

Modern cars tend to run longer intervals between services. I go with whatever the manufacturer specifies. They tend to know their machines best

They long service intervals tend to benefit fleet owners with fewer and cheaper services.......it doesn't mean it'll help the car last longer though as the second user often starts to foot the bills for lack of maintenance

tuxy

tcawley29 wrote: »

I've googled it and it turns out I already do that. Tried a new style aswell where I coast as much as possible as opposed to using the brakes and my mpg is not at around 50-55mpg depending on the road

Coasting should reduce MPG in a modern fuel injected car. Leaving the car in gear while slowing down will mean the cars momentum can help turn the engine over. The computer will notice this and reduce the amount of fuel injected.
Coasting will take more fuel as the engine will have to keep itself turning over with no help.

Jimdagym

650Ginge wrote: »

How can a student need to do 500 k a week?

Eh, lives 50k from college??

heate

This is mad. Fit a six speed gearbox? Nuts
Drive more economically as mentioned look up hypermiling.
As for HHO what a crock of sh1t don't even bother.
If your doing 400-500k's a week and getting 5l/100km your fuel bill is what €25 ish euro?
You can't really beat that.

massey168

tuxy wrote: »

Coasting should reduce MPG in a modern fuel injected car. Leaving the car in gear while slowing down will mean the cars momentum can help turn the engine over. The computer will notice this and reduce the amount of fuel injected.
Coasting will take more fuel as the engine will have to keep itself turning over with no help.

Computer says no.

Chimaera

Chimaera wrote: »

Modern cars tend to run longer intervals between services. I go with whatever the manufacturer specifies. They tend to know their machines best

johnos1984 wrote: »

They long service intervals tend to benefit fleet owners with fewer and cheaper services.......it doesn't mean it'll help the car last longer though as the second user often starts to foot the bills for lack of maintenance

Manufacturers service intervals are nothing short of looney on many cars. Some of the oil change intervals on diesel stuff is quite optimistic, as John says the person who shells out for the car new won't be the person caught with a big repair bill down the line in many cases.

How many BMW turbo failures could have been prevented with more regular oil changes?

There are countless cases of manufacturers getting it wrong, very long service intervals are beginning to look like one of those cases.

mickdw

Here is your solution.
Get a large petrol car for one week.
Return to your corolla after and realise that it is currently pretty much running on the smell of an oil rag. If you are not happy with that MPG, I suggest that maybe you cant afford to run any car.

johnos1984

mickdw wrote: »

Here is your solution.
Get a large petrol car for one week.
Return to your corolla after and realise that it is currently pretty much running on the smell of an oil rag. If you are not happy with that MPG, I suggest that maybe you cant afford to run any car.

+1

I've gone from a Passat that never returned less than 45mpg regardless of my driving to a Mazda 323f which returned 33mpg over the course of 311 miles last week.

I filled up yesterday and covered a further 220 miles and the needle is dropping like a stone again

kearney13

Toyota d4d really means dying for diesel

massey168

OSI wrote: »

What he's saying is correct. Leaving the car in gear when rolling off accelerator is more fuel efficient than rolling out of gear.

Check the fuel computer and rpm. Rpm is related to fuel consumption. Computer and rpm says no. An engine cannot run on less fuel than the idle rpm. Coasting is idle rpm. In gear, higher rpm, demands higher fuel levels. Just as reving the engine above idle rpm while standing idle. The excess kenitic energy your talking about is not transfered back, it is lost through the gear box, and slows the car down, while the rpm is forced to run higher. In hybrid cars a special convertor is used to harness this excess kinetic energy to generate electricty to charge the batteries.

Chimaera

massey168 wrote: »

Check the fuel computer and rpm. Rpm is related to fuel consumption. Computer and rpm says no. An engine cannot run on less fuel than the idle rpm. Coasting is idle rpm. In gear, higher rpm, demands higher fuel levels. Just as reving the engine above idle rpm while standing idle. The excess kenitic energy your talking about is not transfered back, it is lost through the gear box, and slows the car down, while the rpm is forced to run higher. In hybrid cars a special convertor is used to harness this excess kinetic energy to generate electricty to charge the batteries.

When the car is rolling in gear with no accelerator input, the inertia of the car is enough to keep the engine turning over without the need for any fuel input. Basically, the wheels are driving the engine, rather than the engine driving the wheels. Once the engine is turning, all the ancillaries will work too, so the battery will charge, the PAS will work, etc.

massey168

OSI wrote: »

I do check the computer. And you know what it says when I take my foot off the accelerator and let it roll in gear. 0l/100km. :eek: If I stick it in neutral, it'll say ~1.0l/h

Cars have for a while now been designed to shut off fuel supply to the engine when coasting in gear. The movement of the car in gear is enough to keep the engine turning over without fuel. Press the accelerator and it starts using fuel again.

EDIT: Extra Info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy-maximizing_behaviors#Coasting_or_gliding

But the point your missing is that you can coast far longer and further out of gear than you ever will in gear.

Chimaera

RoverJames wrote: »

Manufacturers service intervals are nothing short of looney on many cars. Some of the oil change intervals on diesel stuff is quite optimistic, as John says the person who shells out for the car new won't be the person caught with a big repair bill down the line in many cases.

How many BMW turbo failures could have been prevented with more regular oil changes?

There are countless cases of manufacturers getting it wrong, very long service intervals are beginning to look like one of those cases.

Got any actual evidence for any of this or is it more of the 'wisdom' that changing oil every 10000 km is best and using any of that fancy synthetic stuff is over the top? I went in to a motor factors before to get oil for my TDI and got blank stares when I asked for a synthetic oil for it. They couldn't comprehend that I'd want an oil actually recommended for turbocharged cars.

There is a shocking amount of poor maintenance performed in this country which is probably far more to blame for faults than anything the manufacturer specifies.

massey168

OSI wrote: »

Well I don't make a habit of coasting down the length of the M3 so that's rarely an issue. Most people will only coast on their way up to a junction or traffic lights. You still haven't acknowledged the point that coasting in gear uses no fuel and is more efficient than coasting in neutral.

The road number is irelevant to the principle.
Coasting in gear does use fuel, an engine cannot continue firing without fuel being supplied and burned, wiki is not an accurate source.
On the right stretch of road you can coast in idle at an engine rpm of 900 for several km's
Compare that with driving the same stretch at a conservative average engine rpm of 2000, (over double the fuel useage) with the odd short coast in gear when coming up behind a slower moving car.
I coast in gear all time, nothing wrong with coasting in gear, but it is only one of many other techniques you need to use in combination with others depending on the situation.

johnos1984

massey168 wrote: »

I'm not really bothered about where you choose to drive or how.
It does use fuel, an engine cannot fire without fuel, wiki is not an accurate source.

:rolleyes:
In that case I couldn't be bothered explaining it to you