How Good Is Your Corolla On Gas?

I have a 1992 that I am driving now that went from about 29/30 after a good tune-up to about 25, now that the transmission is slipping. I drive mostly around town on short trips and I know I have a heavy foot and am rough on the car. I coud do better if I drove more highway and did more coasting and less braking. I drive like a rabbit and am glad that the price of gas is coming down. I plan on selling the car, so if interested, e-mail me.

340.7 miles on 9.585 gallons of gas, hell yeah!

35.5 MPG!

1.4% greater than EPA!

Almost 13 years old.

1993 Geo Prizm LSi 5 Speed manual. Still can rev to redline; shifts like a knife through butter.

my last two tankfuls :

29 MPG - no highway, but some two-lane at 55. mostly short trips below freezing. No regard for milage if the car was up to temp.

39 MPG - 100% two lane, mostly at 55. all miles came from one one trip, very hilly (287 from 220 to 6) with some in town driving in the middle and a little freeway at 70 at the end. I tried to keep milage in my mind as I was driving, no unncessary acceleration up hillsides in 3rd (well, I tried not to at least )

Driving conditions play a tremendous role. 29 MPG is probably the worst tank I've gotten during 'normal' driving. Only tank that was worst was when I taught my wife to drive standard, we spent a couple hours at stop-and-go under 40MPH.

That's interesting... winter gas... I think they made the switch in the Chicago area almost a month ago. I noticed a small decrease in mpg.

How's this for mileage for a 2000 LE... going home from a road trip to Philly... 40.7 mpg....

God I love coasting down the mountains.

I usually get about 30mpg, not bad. 50/50 city/highway.

my 93 prizm LSI automatic gets about 26mpg with a light foot around town. 20mpg if i'm in a real hurry

i've tweeked things a bit an run 89 octane now, its only $1 more per fill up as i never seem to put in more than 10 gallons of gas.

331.1 miles on 10.109 gallons of 93 octane (1993 Geo Prizm LSi manual recommends 91 for the 1.8 7A-FE, but most gas stations only have 87, 89, and 93, so I don’t feel like mixing, and 87/89 are less than 91 obviously, so I am left with 93). That gives me 32.8 MPG.

My dad has been putting in 91/93 for 12 years before he gave me the car, and YES that is what it says in the manual (let me know if you want a picture). He told me once that he tried putting in 87, but the engine knocked.

This tank lasted me from 11/23/05 to 12/18/05 or 25 days. I went 100 MPH on the highway for about five seconds when no one was around, and shifted just before redline a couple of times. Boy does she like to rev high.

This car is still performing very well considering its age.

woah, i never knew it needed 91! thats crazy. my engine has been run on 87 (7afe prizm lsi) its whole life as far as i know. are you sure its not a typo? there were several other errors in the manual.

it never knocked on 87 octane with stock timing, there was inaudible kock at 15-16 btdc with 87, switched to 89 and it runs fine and has more zip. im going on a road trip, i'll try 93 along the way. i really think that this has to be a typo.

can someone with 1993-1994 a 7afe (1.8L) corolla check the manual for this info?

http://www.supload.com/free/Manual.jpg/view/

That's what it says in my manual.

yes, i know. i have a manual as well :-p i just wonder if it that wasnt a typo since the 94 celica st runs 87 octane. there were other errors and typos in the 93 manual. the pics of the 1.6 and 1.8 engine bays were swapped for example.

Why would it be a typo? The Prizm has been running awesome for almost 13 years. I can't see how it could be wrong. Maybe if my car was acting a little weird with 93 as it states "if you're using 91 or higher unleaded gas and you still get heavy knocking, your engine needs service."

Economically my car has performed very well:

http://www.supload.com/free/Economy.jpg/view/

Yeah it's not as apparent in the beginning because my trips were only 5 miles long (back and forth) from High School. In the winter time the car barely had a chance to warm up.

I moved into college 8/28/05 and as you can see there's a big improvement because it's all highway driving, and secondly the trips are 30 miles each way so the car is warmed up. The outside temperature and travel distance have a huge impact on fuel economy.

Yeah, I guess some people are running on 87 octane in their 1993 Geo Prizm LSi’s. I am not doing anything wrong by obeying the manual except some might argue that I am just throwing money down the drain by putting premium fuel in an "econobox."

Yeah, well I don't drive that much to begin with so the long term effects on the money savings wouldn't be that much.

Let's see, I've spent $678.76 on fuel in the last 545 days, all premium.

Average gas price: $2.34

Gallons purchased: 288.866

Now let's say that 87 octane is on average 10% less than premium.

$2.34(0.10) = 0.234, $2.34 - 0.234 = $2.106

$2.106 x 288.866 gallons used = $608.35

$678.76 - $608.35 = $70.41 theoretically lost over a period of 545 days.

It's not that bad . . . yeah I know a penny saved is a penny earned, yadda, yadda, yadda, I wonder how long I'll keep this car anyways. Not saying it's a bad vehicle though.

I am probably missing “the point” though.

so how does my car, identical to yours, run 87 octane with out heavy knocking, CEL light, or drivability problems? i doubt its been pulling that much timing. like i said, i'll try 93 on my road trip once i empty this 3/4 tank of 89. if it makes an appreciabl difference i'll keep running it.

AH HA! i remember now! under the hood there were 2 different base timings listed. i'll take a pictured when i get back from xmas. one was 15 and the other 10. i'll bet that at the time the manuals were printed the engine had a more agressive tune and needed 91 octane. then marketing veteo'd that descision and said "no, no one wants to have to fill an econobox commuter car with premium!" and had the timing relaxed to 10btdc to allow lower octane at the cost of some power which they probably figured would never be missed by the target buyer. i mean if you were in the market for a commuter car would you buy one that took 87 or one that took 93?

of course this is all just speculation, but i doubt that the 7afe with the head and pistons designed like they are, 9.5:1 compression, and 10 degrees btdc ignition timing would need 93 octane to function properly. if you look at the piston and head its all very compact and theres really nowhere but in the combustion dish in the piston for any detonation to occur. the pistons practically fit into the head's shape. ive read its a non interference engine but after looking at the head and pistons i just can not beleive that at all. theres some pretty decent valve releifs and the pistons look to have a pretty tall deck height.

btw, i got 35mpg approx from chicago to knoxville going at speeds between 75 and 85 with some time spent at 90, im sure if i drove 70 the whole way i could have gotten nearer 40, before i hit the hills and mountains was getting 37ish but climbing up those 4% grades sort of killed the mileage. honestly i was surprised at this mileage, i was expecting about 33-34 since the epa est is 32mpg. i guess the little things here and there that ive done really have made a difference, that advanced timing made passing a little easier and also the car seemed to handle the steep inclines with less effort than i expected.

note, i run shell ultimate 93 octane since i was climbing hills and putting the engine under very high load and i did not want any detonation. on the flats there was no difference in performance between 89 octane and 93 octane. i think under normal driving i'll stick with 89 octane, maybe i'll figure out what kind of signal the knock sensor outputs and make a box with a light that blinks when it hears knock.

You get 0 miles per gallon when sitting in traffic.

Louisville Slugger & Bitter:

The 91 octane that the manual refers to is probably measured on the Research Octane Number (RON) scale, as used in Japan and Europe. There is also another scale called the Motor Octane Number, that gives lower numbers than RON for exactly the same gas. Gas pumps in North America quote the octane level as the average of RON and MON.

So in North America, 87 is about equal to 91 RON, 89 ~ 93 RON, 91 ~ 95 RON, 93 ~ 97 RON

Here is a webpage if you would like to know more:

http://www.btinternet.com/~madmole/Reference/RONMONPON.html

I was getting 29-31 mpg in my 01 Corolla LE (4 spd) from when I got it (Sep 05) until Nov. Since then, it's been at 24-26mpg (except once right before thanksgiving, when I did get 28mpg.) There have been no changes in driving habits or usage.

(It gets down to 30-40F starting in Nov.)

I rarely idle the car to warm it up in the cold; no more than a minute if I need to clean the windows, otherwise I'm usually out of the driveway rather quickly.

I've been using Speedway 87 octane most of the time. Gas mileage seemed slightly higher when I filled up at Giant Eagle's GetGo station, and the 28mpg in late November coincides with a fillup at a local gas station.

I am located in Ohio.

Anyone have any suggestions? Could changing the gas stations I fill up at help?

winter grade gas will usually give lower mpg. also, longer times to warmup and higher idle rpms lower the mileage in the winter. wait until spring (or summer) to see your mpg jump back up

Guest AllTrac'er

I have a '91 corolla alltrac 4 speed auto.....best tank I got was 27.7mpg and that's with 238000 on the odo. It's still a great engine....body isn't the best any more.....