How Good Is Your Corolla On Gas?

Took a trip to Hopewell Junction, NY to see my aunt. My trip read 66.1 when I left my house and read 223.0 when I arrived in NY. I hit some traffic on I-84 West so the drive took me 2 hours and 54 minutes to travel 156.9 miles so I averaged 54.1 MPH, and my gauge reads over half a tank left.

W00t!

Good chance this tank lasts me 400 miles.

Did you have a good tailwind? Was it mostly downhill?

I had some nice tailwinds and some big hills that I just coasted down in gear for like 3 - 4 miles without my foot on the gas pedal.

I have started shifting to neutral and using gravity on the little hills I go over -maybe it will help??

Took a trip to Hopewell Junction, NY to see my aunt. My trip read 66.1 when I left my house and read 223.0 when I arrived in NY. I hit some traffic on I-84 West so the drive took me 2 hours and 54 minutes to travel 156.9 miles so I averaged 54.1 MPH, and my gauge reads over half a tank left.

W00t!

Good chance this tank lasts me 400 miles.

Did you have a good tailwind? Was it mostly downhill?

I had some nice tailwinds and some big hills that I just coasted down in gear for like 3 - 4 miles without my foot on the gas pedal.

I have started shifting to neutral and using gravity on the little hills I go over -maybe it will help??

Coasting in gear while your foot is off the gas pedal uses less gas than shifting to neutral and coasting.

Neutral is bad because what happens if you have to make an emergency maneuver? You'll have to get back into gear and by the time it takes to do that it might be too late.

Took a trip to Hopewell Junction, NY to see my aunt. My trip read 66.1 when I left my house and read 223.0 when I arrived in NY. I hit some traffic on I-84 West so the drive took me 2 hours and 54 minutes to travel 156.9 miles so I averaged 54.1 MPH, and my gauge reads over half a tank left.

W00t!

Good chance this tank lasts me 400 miles.

Did you have a good tailwind? Was it mostly downhill?

I had some nice tailwinds and some big hills that I just coasted down in gear for like 3 - 4 miles without my foot on the gas pedal.

I have started shifting to neutral and using gravity on the little hills I go over -maybe it will help??

Coasting in gear while your foot is off the gas pedal uses less gas than shifting to neutral and coasting.

Neutral is bad because what happens if you have to make an emergency maneuver? You'll have to get back into gear and by the time it takes to do that it might be too late.

How can you coast in gear, doesn't the transmission slow you down??

 

When in neutral, the engine is at idle - seems like less gas is burning then.

Emergency maneuvers are - turn left, turn right, (swerve), or stop (use the brakes). Doesn't have anything to do with the engine. If you stop real short when in drive, the car will probably stall. In neutral it does not.

Took a trip to Hopewell Junction, NY to see my aunt. My trip read 66.1 when I left my house and read 223.0 when I arrived in NY. I hit some traffic on I-84 West so the drive took me 2 hours and 54 minutes to travel 156.9 miles so I averaged 54.1 MPH, and my gauge reads over half a tank left.

W00t!

Good chance this tank lasts me 400 miles.

Did you have a good tailwind? Was it mostly downhill?

I had some nice tailwinds and some big hills that I just coasted down in gear for like 3 - 4 miles without my foot on the gas pedal.

I have started shifting to neutral and using gravity on the little hills I go over -maybe it will help??

Coasting in gear while your foot is off the gas pedal uses less gas than shifting to neutral and coasting.

Neutral is bad because what happens if you have to make an emergency maneuver? You'll have to get back into gear and by the time it takes to do that it might be too late.

How can you coast in gear, doesn't the transmission slow you down??

 

When in neutral, the engine is at idle - seems like less gas is burning then.

Emergency maneuvers are - turn left, turn right, (swerve), or stop (use the brakes). Doesn't have anything to do with the engine. If you stop real short when in drive, the car will probably stall. In neutral it does not.

 

If you have to accelerate out of the way for some reason you'll NEED to be IN GEAR. Events which require emergency maneuvers such as quick acceleration most likely cause the driver to panic a little. That little panic while trying to get back into gear could mean the time difference of moving out of the way or getting smashed.

If I am going fast enough down a hill I'll sustain my speed in gear for quite a while. Most modern engines use practically little to no fuel and may even shut off the injectors when the gas pedal is not depressed.

I’ll test this theory once I get a new car with OBD II and I’ll get a ScanGauge so I’ll see my instantaneous MPG while driving.

during engine braking the injectors shutoff. idling regardless of vehicle speed the injectors are firing.

Don't the injectors have to continue working, in order for the engine to keep running??

Is it like shutting off the fuel when the injectors are off?

WOW!

Gallons used: 10.132

Miles driven: 380.4

Miles per gallon: 37.5

Highest yet!

Not bad at all. Sure you weren't running downhill

 

Actually I was climbing a couple hills.

when you're coasting down (engine braking) the injectors are closed since theres no air going to the engine, it becomes a vacuum pump. its literally the friction and vacuum slowing the car. since the engine is still spinning at an operational speed all of your accessories are turning at normal speeds and all of the relays are closed because the car is on. its almost like the engine turns itself off.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't injectors supply the fuel to the engine? If so, once they shut off, the engine will as well. You can't run an engine on pure air.

you're not running the engine at all! you're using the engine as a brake to slow the car down, if the engine were running it would be adding to the cars speed.

 

I could be wrong, but I think the engine is always running, even while decellerating. I think you acellerate when you have enough gas and air mixed together to overcome the vehicles weight and the resistance to motion. I don't think the injectors turn off until the engine is actually turned off. I think the breaking force of the engine is the compression resistance when there is less combustion due to less gas and air mixture (not totally shut off) when you let off on the gas pedal.

 

 

I don't think the injectors turn off until the engine is actually turned off.

You are free to think what you want, but the truth is gas is not delivered to engine during decelerations, a way to save some gas. Easy to see if one monitors O2 sensor with OBD2 scanner.

Depends on the situation - if you use engine braking down a hill and you come up short on the bottom vs coasting in nuetral and maybe making it up a good portion of the next hill - that's getting dicey there.

Think of it this way - most cars roughly burn about a pint to a quart a gas every 15 minutes of idling, about a half gallon to a gallon per hour. Calculating how and when to coast down a bunch of hills or engine braking to save a little bit of gas seems too much trouble to really worry about - at least in more traffic congested areas. I could see this only paying off in some quieter towns and areas where you have more time to plan ahead.

I don't have a bunch of hills in my area, just a couple that I can coast down. I thought if I coasted down them everyday, I might show a long-term gas improvement, versus keeping it in gear as I go down the hills.

 

 

I have always shifted into neutral and coasted down hills on side roads and highways (long long downhills)ever since I started driving (this car) little more than three years ago. I also neutral and coast while on off-ramps. When I need to get into gear, I rev up to 2K or 2.5K depending on speed and shift to 5th.

Is that because you consider it fun, or because you think it helps get better gas mileage??

 

 

When my 05 LE was 2 weeks old, I got as far as 650 miles on one tank.

Of course, those days are over...

In Vegas, with 95% city driving, trips shorter than 20 miles, I average about 26 mpg. Highway still good with about 38-40 mpg.

No one gets good city gas mileage in Vegas.

Except the people driving Hybrids.

When my 05 LE was 2 weeks old, I got as far as 650 miles on one tank.

Of course, those days are over...

In Vegas, with 95% city driving, trips shorter than 20 miles, I average about 26 mpg. Highway still good with about 38-40 mpg.

No one gets good city gas mileage in Vegas.

Except the people driving Hybrids.

I have driven in Vegas and there are too many stop lights there

 

 

Gallons Used: 10.782Miles Driven: 308.4

 

MPG: 28.6

All city, typically 6 mile drives, 9 stop lights. Not bad.

I have yet to do any freeway driving, but I'm expecting it to get up to 40 MPG.

I'm also going to get gas from a different location next time. I just learned today that the gas from the gas station I normally go to is "like water." I'll fill up at Chevron just to see if it makes any difference.

It probably won't reach 40 MPG but it can get better than 30MPG.

Highway mileage would be much better.

The gas will be more expensive, although it should slightly improve the running performance.