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2009 Corolla Le - Very Poor Gas Milage And Suspension

By Guest vitomacdoc, November 14, 2009 in Toyota Corolla (2009 until 2018-19 “TNGA”)



Guest vitomacdoc

Hello,

 

I own a 2009 Corolla LE with 7000 miles, purchased new September 08. I live in Massachusetts.

Problem is mileage very poor and suspension very twitchy and soft. Engine is 1.8 liter.

 

Ever since new, it has never achieved the stated gas mileage of 27/35. It usually gets 23 MPG city, lowest was 18. The best highway I ever received was 27. I drive normally, do not race anyone at stop lights. I often read of great gas mileage, up to 43 MPG, etc. When I fill the tank, I divide the total miles traveled (trip odo) by the gals of gas.

 

When complaining to the dealer it first was "your car is new, engine not broken in, mileage will get better", fair enough.

Then it was, "Its winter, gas additives kill mileage". After winter, they re-flashed the computer, still bad mileage and dealer won't do anything else.

I keep track of mileage, fill up at several corporate stations, check tires often ( has low pressure light)

 

One thing I noticed is the car always seems to be pulling ahead, even when coasting. I could take foot off brake and go 5 MPH up a slight hill without touching the accelerator. I have to constantly keep foot on the brake.

I also noticed the RPMs do not come down when coasting. If I am at 65 MPH and take my foot off the accelerator, the RPMs stay above 2200, around 40 MPH they stay around 1600.

 

Is this RPM issue normal? Shouldn't the RPMs come down right away when coasting? They do in my other cars. The RPMs only come down when low speed or full stop.

Usually RPMS at 900 - 1200 constantly. What should I tell my dealer to look at next?

 

Other issue is suspension very soft, slight winds at highway speeds and coming off a curved ramp cause the Corolla to lean from side to side noticeably. The steering is also very touchy. Any slight moves and the Corolla shoots to another direction.

I just had my tires rotated last month, so maybe that is causing the twitchy steering, but I don't think the Corolla should have this much body roll at 7K.

 

Thank you

friendly_jacek

When you coast in high gear with converter locked, RPM should not go down. Low speed in lower gear with unlocked converter, yes, RPM will go down.

Are you saying it idles at 900-1200 with hot engine?

Also, how long are your trips?

Guest vitomacdoc

Yes, idles at 900 frequently up to 1200.

Trips are generally 10-25 minutes each.

When you coast in high gear with converter locked, RPM should not go down. Low speed in lower gear with unlocked converter, yes, RPM will go down.

 

Are you saying it idles at 900-1200 with hot engine?

Also, how long are your trips?

Guest ice.izm.inc

Guest ice.izm.inc

I dont want to hurt your feelings but this is as bluntly as i will put it.

1) The 03-08 model Corollas are both FASTER and LIGHTER than the bulky , heavy 10thgens...yes even the stickshift model is slower.

2) Their is NOTHING wrong with your suspension. I would only recommend a wheel alignment and ugrading to TEIN lowering springs and tokico struts. This will improve handling, give you a stiffer suspension and reduce body roll tremendously! The car will get pushed around less on those windy days but will hug the corners way better and give you that extra confidence bendin corners.

3) your dealer is right. You can never achieve the EPA estmated mpg for ANY vehicle.As a matter of fact if u visit the prius website even complain about mpg. Also 27 hwy seems very acceptable to me. There is nothing you can do about this either. Simply dont be a 'lead foot' city driving. Every car wastes more gas during winter months and its true about the additives in gas. Nothing you can do.

4) i also noticed its hard to maintain a smooth cruise at 60...it seems as if its pushing to get to 65. I also noticed a jerky shift but corollas are known to do this. Its just the variable valve timing.

5)"One thing I noticed is the car always seems to be pulling ahead, even when coasting. I could take foot off brake and go 5 MPH up a slight hill without touching the accelerator. I have to constantly keep foot on the brake."

^^This is normal also. Try goin to a SLIGHT hill / incline and let your car sit without touchin the brakes. Does it roll backwards? probly not. If so what happens when you jerk the steering wheel but dont accelerate? it pulls up a lil right? It should.

NOTHING IS WRONG WITH YOUR CAR. DONT WORRY. Maybe before doing your suspension mods you should really consider trading in your 09 LE for a 08 LE . I know it sounds silly but test drive the 08 and you will see what i mean. The only reason i wanted a 09 was because it had audio controls on the steering wheel but im def glad i didnt.

I dont want to hurt your feelings but this is as bluntly as i will put it.

 

1) The 03-08 model Corollas are both FASTER and LIGHTER than the bulky , heavy 10thgens...yes even the stickshift model is slower.

2) Their is NOTHING wrong with your suspension. I would only recommend a wheel alignment and ugrading to TEIN lowering springs and tokico struts. This will improve handling, give you a stiffer suspension and reduce body roll tremendously! The car will get pushed around less on those windy days but will hug the corners way better and give you that extra confidence bendin corners.

3) your dealer is right. You can never achieve the EPA estmated mpg for ANY vehicle.As a matter of fact if u visit the prius website even complain about mpg. Also 27 hwy seems very acceptable to me. There is nothing you can do about this either. Simply dont be a 'lead foot' city driving. Every car wastes more gas during winter months and its true about the additives in gas. Nothing you can do.

4) i also noticed its hard to maintain a smooth cruise at 60...it seems as if its pushing to get to 65. I also noticed a jerky shift but corollas are known to do this. Its just the variable valve timing.

5)"One thing I noticed is the car always seems to be pulling ahead, even when coasting. I could take foot off brake and go 5 MPH up a slight hill without touching the accelerator. I have to constantly keep foot on the brake."

^^This is normal also. Try goin to a SLIGHT hill / incline and let your car sit without touchin the brakes. Does it roll backwards? probly not. If so what happens when you jerk the steering wheel but dont accelerate? it pulls up a lil right? It should.

NOTHING IS WRONG WITH YOUR CAR. DONT WORRY. Maybe before doing your suspension mods you should really consider trading in your 09 LE for a 08 LE . I know it sounds silly but test drive the 08 and you will see what i mean. The only reason i wanted a 09 was because it had audio controls on the steering wheel but im def glad i didnt.

 

I agree fully.

Had a choice between a new 08 and a new 09. Selected the 08 for several reasons:

1. Not so gadgety

2. Better gas economy. I get 27 city and close to 40 hwy

3. Rubber rub strips on sides, not optional

4. The gen 9 had 5 years to be debugged before the 08 arrived

5. Great incentives to purchase the 08

Here are some ideas that will help address you concern about the gas mileage and the handling of your Corolla.

Gas mileage:

Use synthetic motor oil: It helps reduce the drive train frictional losses and the amount of power consumed to push the oil through the engine. If Toyota offers a choice of SAE Grades that can be used in your car, the one with the lower numbers will help you MPG the most.

Make sure your tires are properly inflated, when they are cold, i.e. been sitting all night. A portable air pump helps accomplish this. Tires gain about 4 PSI as they warm up from driving, so it can throw off your pressure check and inflation efforts. Make sure you are using a high quality, accurate tire gauge as well.

Buy a cleanable / reusable Toyota TRD low restriction air filter and associated maintenance kit from the parts department at your Toyota Dealer, it will help increase the engine torque, allowing you to stay in a higher gear in any given situation and therefore get better mileage. Using it will not jeopardize your warranty. They are not cheap, but gasoline and disposable air filters are not cheap either.

Wax the car and use Rainex on the outside of the windows. This will help reduce the aerodynamic drag on the car, especially in cold weather when the air is denser.

Make sure you are not carrying un-needed weight in the car, like heavy tool boxes or sport equipment, etc.

Handling:

From what I have seen, Toyota selects the original equipment tires that are delivered on the car base on three criteria, low cost, low weight and low rolling resistance. Low cost requires no explanation. The last two are an attempt to get slightly higher EPA Mileage results.

In fairness to Toyota, all the car manufacturers seem to have to play this game to varying degrees to sell cars. At any rate, there are tires that can be purchased which will improve the stability and handling of your car, as compared to the typical OEM supplied tires. The Tire Rack is an on line retailer of tires which has an outstanding web site which provides all kinds of survey data and test data regard tires of every imaginable type. They also have very good shopping tools which will recommend a number of tires, for your car, that will fit your driving needs, and desires based on an on line questionnaire that you fill out. They let you determine the priorities among things like ride, handling and tread wear, as well as the climate conditions, etc. The site does not require that you buy anything from them, in order to use all of their decision tools and information. I use their site to learn about different tire models and decide what I want and then got buy them from a local retailer.

But, one thing to be aware of is that by replacing the OEM tires with something that may handle or ride better, you may adversely impact the gas mileage a little bit. Take note of the tire weight for your size tire in their specification section for each tire model. Try to stay away from the heaviest tires, because they will impact you city mileage due to having more inertia to overcome when accelerating.

The Tire rack web site is as follows:

http://www.tirerack.com/

My Michelins were installed at 7K miles to replace the horrible Integrity OEM tires.

Much better handling and comfort. Didn't note a decrease in mileage of any extent.

Junk those tires ASAP in my opinion.

Massachusetts is pretty cold in the winter, a 10 to 25 minute drive hardly seems like enough time to get it fully warmed so your naturally going to suffer mileage in the winter, though it should be better when the warmer months come. If you're setting your tire pressures to what it says on your door jam, usually 30 psi, try pumping them up to 35 or 36 psi cold. My 08 specifies 30 and that's way too low. Not only does your mileage suffer but the tires wear pematurely on the sides. Make sure your air filter is clean. Toyota air filters are way more efficient than after markets and tend to fill up faster with dirt so your engine will suck in more gas than air.

when I first got the car, I too noticed the steering was not stable, hare trigger type of steering,

I believe it is normal for the corolla, it is after all , an econobox, it has rather poor handling on

windy hwys. So, I think , what you describe is within normal.

friendly_jacek

Yes, idles at 900 frequently up to 1200.

 

Trips are generally 10-25 minutes each.

When you coast in high gear with converter locked, RPM should not go down. Low speed in lower gear with unlocked converter, yes, RPM will go down.

Are you saying it idles at 900-1200 with hot engine?

Also, how long are your trips?

Sorry for the late reply, but as mentioned above, MPG would be expected to stay low with such short trips.

I also agree with madar's recommendations, even though air filter impact on MPG is marginal at best.

One more thing, 900-1200 (or even 2000) RPM idle is normal on cold engine.

According to the attached article, the NHTSA is going to study complaints about the 2009 and 2010 Corolla / Matrix electronic power steering to determine if a recall is appropriate. You may get some real satisfaction to your "suspension" concern yet.

http://www.autoweek.com/article/20100218/CARNEWS/100219905

Guest burly

Hello,

 

 

I own a 2009 Corolla LE with 7000 miles, purchased new September 08. I live in Massachusetts.

Problem is mileage very poor and suspension very twitchy and soft. Engine is 1.8 liter.

 

Ever since new, it has never achieved the stated gas mileage of 27/35. It usually gets 23 MPG city, lowest was 18. The best highway I ever received was 27. I drive normally, do not race anyone at stop lights. I often read of great gas mileage, up to 43 MPG, etc. When I fill the tank, I divide the total miles traveled (trip odo) by the gals of gas.

 

When complaining to the dealer it first was "your car is new, engine not broken in, mileage will get better", fair enough.

Then it was, "Its winter, gas additives kill mileage". After winter, they re-flashed the computer, still bad mileage and dealer won't do anything else.

I keep track of mileage, fill up at several corporate stations, check tires often ( has low pressure light)

 

One thing I noticed is the car always seems to be pulling ahead, even when coasting. I could take foot off brake and go 5 MPH up a slight hill without touching the accelerator. I have to constantly keep foot on the brake.

I also noticed the RPMs do not come down when coasting. If I am at 65 MPH and take my foot off the accelerator, the RPMs stay above 2200, around 40 MPH they stay around 1600.

 

Is this RPM issue normal? Shouldn't the RPMs come down right away when coasting? They do in my other cars. The RPMs only come down when low speed or full stop.

Usually RPMS at 900 - 1200 constantly. What should I tell my dealer to look at next?

 

Other issue is suspension very soft, slight winds at highway speeds and coming off a curved ramp cause the Corolla to lean from side to side noticeably. The steering is also very touchy. Any slight moves and the Corolla shoots to another direction.

I just had my tires rotated last month, so maybe that is causing the twitchy steering, but I don't think the Corolla should have this much body roll at 7K.

 

Thank you

I'm not sure why everyone is just dismissing the '09 as a heavy, underpowered beast that gets poor fuel economy compared to the the previous generation. I have 19K mi on my 2009 Corolla LE w/ Auto and I average 33-36MPG per tank year round here in Virginia. On the first tank alone I got 36MPG. On pure highway trips I regularly break 40MPG. In fact, in the spring/fall when I don't have to run the A/C I've had several full tank trips of 44-48MPG. The worst tank I've had thus far was 29mpg which was a bunch of short (<10mi) trips in the cold (15-30F). I would say I have a 60/40 split of highway/city driving and an enthusiast driving style (not a Prius driver or a Cannonball Run). I haven't owned a previous generation Corolla so I can't speak to whether the 2009 is noticeably slower or less efficient. I can say that I've been happy with the power levels of the Corolla, although sometimes I need to pre-select the proper gear with the automatic to prevent hitting a power dead spot under certain conditions.

The RPM/pulling you talk about sounds similar to my experience with my vehicle, but I can't compare the 'severity' of the surges between cars. Maybe yours is pulling significantly worse than mine does.

As for the mileage, I suspect you are getting dinged a bit by the short trips. In the warmer months, my car seems to hit operating temperature by the time I get out of my neighborhood (~2mi @ 25-35mph). In the winter months, it takes a few miles more. If you are mostly on the 10mi trip side, I could see 23-26mpg, especially in the cold. But if you are closer to 25mi per trip, especially if you have fairly little stop and go, I would expect 27mpg+. My daily commute is either 17mi each way or 30mi each way for comparison and fully 95% of the miles on my car are from commuting.

As others have suggested, some things you should check are:

  • the air filter (I ran the factory installed one until 18K and then switched to a K&N just for the convenience of not replacing it as often)
  • the tire pressure (I run 32 PSI cold temp front/rear on the factory OEM tires)
  • oil (the car will take 0W-20 or 5W-20.I Use 0W-20 for the best fuel economy)
  • accessory load (if you are running both defrosters a lot that eats up some gas)
  • driving style (not just acceleration, but stop & go, long idling periods, remote start)

Do you Ever get it out on the highway for a good 20-30mi fairly constant speed drive at 55-65+mph? Many cars adapt their fuel trimming based on a sliding window of the past driving conditions.

It's possible you have something wrong with the car like a faulty O2 or MAF sensor, etc.

As far as the suspension, again, it's hard to say if yours is worse than mine, but overall the LE is fairly floaty and has a decent amount of bodyroll. It was tuned more for soaking up potholes and long highway stretches, not canyon carving. I do find that as long as I "setttle" the suspension before entering a turn, I can still carry speed well in excess of the speed limit with plenty of confidence.



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