20 Mpg In Town

Where do you live? Is it a cold climate? Maybe the car doesn't get enough time to fully warm itself to give good mileage in the city. If you only drive a few miles from startup to destination, that could be your problem. If you are in a cold climate location, are you letting the car run before you get in and drive? Not sure what you mean by alienated. If it's the cheap E10 gasohol mix you're using, try a gas that has no ethanol. You get 40 mpg on the highway so it's hard to really fault the car.

Thanks for responding,

I live in Bloomington, IN, its cold in the winter, and most of the time I let it warm up. I don’t warm it up in the summer at all. I guess I do make a lot of short strips because I only live about 1 mile from work and most of the trips around town aren’t must more than 5 miles. Alienated is a miss spelled word, I meant to say I had a wheel alignment plus 4 new tires. I’m using the lowest grade Marathon gasoline, 87 octane, but I’m not sure if it has ethanol in it or not I will have to look into that. (But after looking around on the web it looks like all gas as at least 10% ethanol in it.) Yes it does get great mileage on the highway but I have only made 1 trip in the 1.5 years. I see comments where peoples Corollas are getting 30mpg in town, so that makes me wonder why I can’t even come close to that.

I read that changing the spark plugs to E3, adding a short ram air intake system and changing the oil to a synthetic, like Royal Purple would increase my mileage, what do you think about that?

I live in Bloomington, IN, its cold in the winter, and most of the time I let it warm up. I don’t warm it up in the summer at all. I guess I do make a lot of short strips because I only live about 1 mile from work and most of the trips around town aren’t must more than 5 miles.

Here you go, with such use and especially warming up before driving 1-5 miles in cold weather definitively results in low MPG. Totally normal. If I had 1 mile to work I would walk. BTW, I wish I would get 41 MPG on Hwy.

This or similar question shows up very regularly. Do we need a FAQ?

Warming it up results in ZERO miles per gallon. If you want to get better mileage, stop wasting gas.

And since start and go traffic means constantly accelerating and braking (converting the energy used to accelerate into brake heat), the weight of the car and contents is more of a factor in city than on the freeway.

Thanks for responding,

 

I live in Bloomington, IN, its cold in the winter, and most of the time I let it warm up. I don’t warm it up in the summer at all. I guess I do make a lot of short strips because I only live about 1 mile from work and most of the trips around town aren’t must more than 5 miles. Alienated is a miss spelled word, I meant to say I had a wheel alignment plus 4 new tires. I’m using the lowest grade Marathon gasoline, 87 octane, but I’m not sure if it has ethanol in it or not I will have to look into that. (But after looking around on the web it looks like all gas as at least 10% ethanol in it.) Yes it does get great mileage on the highway but I have only made 1 trip in the 1.5 years. I see comments where peoples Corollas are getting 30mpg in town, so that makes me wonder why I can’t even come close to that.

I read that changing the spark plugs to E3, adding a short ram air intake system and changing the oil to a synthetic, like Royal Purple would increase my mileage, what do you think about that?

I can't really see where changing things will benefit you with short distance cold weather driving and be cost effective. You might want to change to a synthetic oil just because of the harsh conditions you're driving your car under. Not bringing it up to operating temperature will certainly cause sludge buildup in your engine as the combustion by-products don't get a chance to burn off and contaminate your oil, or just change your oil more often.

For your next oil change, try Castrol EDGE 5w-30. This is a synthetic oil with low kinematic viscosities for an SAE 5w-30 grade oil. It should help your mileage as much or more than any other SAE 5w-30 oil due to these low viscosities. I am using it in my 2008 Corolla with automatic transmission and it runs very well with this oil for cold weather and short trips. It is averaging about 26 MPG under these conditions, with Castrol EDGE 5w-30.

I also use the standard Toyota oil filter for the car. From what I have read on the web, they allow for very good oil flow.

I have the same problem with a 2000 corolla which is my secondary car with only 65,000 miles on it. It's a 4sp automatic and to be honest the car performs excellent and since it's lighter than the new corollas (weighs 1010kg). It's got ok acceleration, pulls 8.5s 0-60 or flat 8s with a bit of rollout. I have taken great care of this car always dealership oil changes every 3000 miles and just changed the brakes, Battery, air filter, synthetic transmission fluid, and the tires with Michelin harmonies. But one disappointing thing about it is it's gas mileage, I get 25mpg no matter how or where I drive it. I live in a cold place too and I have tried acetone fuel injector cleaners with no improvement. It's also always been filled with shell 87 octane gas all it's life. This is bad because my 240hp turbo crossover is getting 22mpg in exactlly the same routes I'm taking with the corolla. I dunno how to solve this problem the dealership says the car is fine and other people tell me it's normal for a 10 year old car. If I fix it to get 30mpg+ I will drive it more often.

Here are some ideas that will help get the best gas mileage out of your car.

· 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 your car uses SAE Grade 5w-30, use Castrol EDGE 5w-30. If your car uses SAE Grade 5w-20, use Pennzoil Platinum 5w-20. Both of these oils have very low kinematic viscosities for their respective SAE grades, which will help your engine deliver better MPG. Use the standard Toyota oil filter for your car. They have very low resistance to oil flow. Better oil flow yields better engine and MPG performance. Change the oil and filter at least every 6 months or 5000 miles.

· Pour a can of STP fuel injector cleaner in the gas tank every time your change the oil, this will help prevent the fuel injectors from becoming clogged.

· 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. When replacing your tires be conscious of the weight of the different tire models. Avoid the heaviest tires, because they offer more inertia to overcome when accelerating.</SPAN>

· Use 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. If your Toyota Dealer does not carry a cleanable / reusable low restriction air filter and associated maintenance kit for your model car, get one from K&N Filters through your local auto parts store. Clean and re-oil the filter at least twice per year, more if in a dusty environment.<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"></SPAN>

· Wax the car and use Rainex on the outside of the windows every six months. This will help reduce the aerodynamic drag on the car, especially in cold weather when the air is denser.<BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"><BR style="mso-special-character: line-break"></SPAN>

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

· Accelerate as gently as possible, especially prior to the engine warming up.

Try turning off the OD while in town and only using it on level highway driving. I have a Matrix with the same corolla engine (196k) and I was getting, at most, 19 mpg in town with lots of hills and stop and go... very disappointing. Still experimenting but after turning off the OD for one tank of gas it's up to almost 25 MPG on the same roads. My theory is that the car upshifts too soon with an underpowered engine requiring the pedal to be pushed down more. PFI uses more gas with the heavier pedal. without overdrive my pedal is barely moved in most cases and, even though the RPMs are up a little more, it's in the peak HP range so it need less gas to stay at the speed. This is why some trucks with V8s get almost the same MPG as  their V6 versions... a vehicle with too small of an engine is always "towing" something because it is too heavy for the engine. turning off the OD is like the  towing mode in some trucks. keeps it in the sweet spot of the HP and tourque and converts all of it's gas to the tires better. anyway, that is my theory.

Use low rolling resistance tires. The Harmony won't aid gas milage.

Don't get me wrong, Michelin tires are the best as far as ride and longevity. I run them and love them. I am sure Michelin makes a tire for best gas mileage but it will get less miles on wear out. Check the TireRack web site. They give ratings, results of tire testing and owner ratings. They quote cost, shipping and have approved installers.

That said, the low rolling resistance tires will only improve gas mileage 1-2 mpg. One more bit of fact. If you drive less than 8000 miles per year and follow guidelines at about five to six years, one should buy new tires due to sidewall exposure. Sun and ozone exposure cause cracking of the sidewalls. The very thought of a blowout at speed is enough to cause me to buy new tires, e.g. your wife or daughter driving.

This is probably TMI. Best regards,    Dick