another yaris noob
 

i've always been interested in fuel economy and decided to purchase the new toyota yaris last november after getting less than stellar economy with my 96 plymouth breeze.
the yaris is a great little car, i have no complaints so far.

check out my gaslog, i've been keeping records of mileage almost since the car was new and i spent some time today converting litres and kilometres into u.s miles and gallons.

I love your avatar! BTW, the breeze really sucks, mwahaha, I hate that car.

Got any pictures of the car? What's the color?

(i'm an illustrator, so i illustrated my avatar)

mine is silver, the lighter silver that is available in canada. it was the only colour available at the time. i haven't really taken any pictures of it, but tomorrow, i will post some.

yeah, the breeze was not a great vehicle, it was a cheap used ride at the time i bought it and i shouldn't complain- it had a lot of miles on it when i got rid of it.

Oooh, you're an illustrator. I'm starting to like these new yarii guys, :)

Welcome schmeep! Excellent to see another Canuckistani on board again (we lost a good one a while back).

Breeze to Yaris. Nice move.

Are you ScanGauge equipped?

The yaris owners are taking over!

no, no scan gauge, i just keep track of mileage the old way. btw, how much doesn a scan gauge cost?

I think they're $160-ish US for the 2nd version. The original ones can be had on eBay for closer to 100 (last I checked - they may be less, now that the new version is out).

You'll find most folks here highly recommend having one. Instant feedback is what will enable you to take your FE to the next level. Just depends how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.

https://scangauge.com

Indeed, get one before anything else, you'll thank yourself!

yeah, they seem like a great idea, i know that i don't always have the best driving habits (for fe anyway) and that might smarten me up.

are they accurate?

They're very accurate! There is a bit of adjustment but you just need to compare the SG tank versus the pump and input the change.

My SG1 was within a couple of percent of the mark at fill-up time, right out of the box. I just recently started using the correction factor to get it dialed in as close as possible.

They're also useful for showing you all kinds of info you can't get through your gauge cluster.

Welcome Schmeep - and keep working on that MPG because if you check out my gas log my mpg is climbing faster and I am running in a 2006 xB!

damn straight.

how about two really bad photos of my yaris?
well too bad, here they are anyway:
https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...314c4c08d5.jpg
https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...f352b2dc2b.jpg

Looks a lot nicer than in the damn comercials! Looks ready for a grill block too, :p

can you put a grill block on the inside of the bumper?

Yes. But to be clear, it's not a radiator block you're after, but a way to prevent excess airflow from entering the engine compartment in the first place. So you'd want to block the rear of the grille.

is that easy to do? i'm not the handiest of fellers, but i can usually fumble my way around some DIY projects.

I would love to see some suggestions on this. :) I am currently on my best tank yet, hoping to come in at 41+. The new Yarii have been my inspiration.

nice, the only time i approached numbers like that (41+) was on a long trip, but most of my driving is short trips, so that is probably why.

On the subject of grill blocks:

https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=701
https://www.crxmpg.com/grillblock.html

And some info'mation on drag:

https://www.tfd.chalmers.se/%7Elelo/r...on-to-drag.pdf

With the yaris it seems you could get a very slick thing going with a piece of coroplast mounted up there smooth with the rest of the body and painted to match (or just solid black).

i just took a look at the grill and radiator, and i noticed that inside, the grill is blocked except for around the radiator. the block isn't flush with the grill but straight up and down around the radiator.

so this would be a grill block, already there?

Picture time!

An illustration would suffice.

You're just begging him to work on stuff for you, aren't you?

lol, how about an illustrated photo? i couldn't get a decent photo, my camera is crud and there is very little space under uncle yaris's hood.
the yellow blobs represent the two grills on the front, the green lines represent the radiator, and the pink lines represent the block around the radiator
it isn't flush with the grill, so there is probably 6 inches of space in front of the radiator/block that tapers up to the top of the radiator.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...c30f504d5b.jpg

You start blocking the grill in the summer time and you will loose AC and the fan will run a lot more and you will end up overheating the engine. It usually runs around 182-186 F with traffic and the fan kick in at 195-205 F - you get less engine wear at the lower temperature according to Miro at Synlube - I asked if higher temp is better and he said that they richen the mixture to help cool the engine when it gets too hot - plus the fan draws a lot of battery power when it kicks in. I would leave it alone until you get it broken in more and the temps gets cooler - winter time is when you really need it to make more heat for the cabin heater. You would think they could color match the hubcaps a little better for the car - that's why I painted mine white.

better mpg
 

Ya gotta back off on the gas way sooner before you start hitting the brakes - every time you use brakes you throw away gas.

i've started to do that now, so we will see if any improvement results, thanks for the tip.

This picture: https://xs205.xs.to/xs205/06343/ECT.jpg

Tells a different story about engine temperatures and fuel trim correction values.

Maybe a little hyperbole, JanGeo? I haven't heard any reports of overheating from anyone here running blocks.

Obviously, it goes without saying: caveat experimentor. Any change to the cooling system needs to be monitored.

Cooling & A/C systems are designed to operate in worst-case conditions - e.g. idling, in Death Valley in July - and they contribute to inefficiency as a result when not operating in those conditions.

The appearance of active grilles on production cars is proof of that.

If you block agressively, then YOU have to be the active element in the system (ie. open things up if it gets hot).

Here is the best front end shot I got so far. Ignore the second set of 30 day plates :) The pic is huge.

https://i66.typepad.com/mpg_digest/yaris/IMG_3114.jpg

yeah, that shows it really well. thanks ketel0ne

I still say block it!

Can it be blocked in a similar fashion to how the cutouts where the fog lights would go are? Or does it need to make the front end flat?

Yup. As a VERY conservative start, I'd at least block the area that's not directly in front a radiator. But the block, if not done in front of the grille, would have to go directly up against its "back" on the inside. But that'll just trap bugs 'n' stuff, won't it?

Any air you can keep from going through the grille and ultimately exiting under the car is better off going over/around the outside.

Just as a reality / perspective check: I measured just under a 3% increase in FE by agressively blocking my grille openings (which has a MUCH larger stock open area and smaller radiator= more room for improvement, than the Yaris).

i wonder if maybe completely blocking the bottom one, but keeping the top one open might be an improvement

i would rather be conservative with a block, rather than worry about overheating the engine.

when i say "blocking the bottom one", i mean the bottom grill :)