T180 Mpg In Colder Countries

[OldSkoO1]

I know some of you are from colder countries on average like sweeden and finland.

I think someone posted a temp of -18 recently.

The last week or 2 in the UK has been cold, down to -11 and most days below freezing. Over these two weeks my MPG took a bit of a hit. It was reading around 36mpg on my daily commute.

I never really get 45mpg in the colder months on my daily commute to work because the first 1/4 of my journey is town/city driving which isn't good for economy when the engine is cold. Then a bit of extra-urban / A roads which are quite hilly then another small city stretch and i achieve around 43mpg if i drive normally or 40mpg if i floor it a lot.

Well after the really cold few weeks i'm back up to 43mpg from 36mpg. So i was wonder how much colder weather affected your fuel consumption; esp. at -18.

Warm summer days are even better with me seeing between 46mpg and 53mpg on the same commute.

[doogal]

i am astounded you get such good mpg from your t180

mine went down to 30.5mpg over the cold snap and thats not accelerating hard. infact bareley accelerating at all and selecting neutral to coast up to junctions

on a very steady run just managed 36mpg not going over 70

:censor:

also i drive an 08 plate hilux 3.0d4d 170hp approx and i get 29mpg with tools in back

[T Sport 1978]

i am astounded you get such good mpg from your t180

mine went down to 30.5mpg over the cold snap and thats not accelerating hard. infact bareley accelerating at all and selecting neutral to coast up to junctions

on a very steady run just managed 36mpg not going over 70

:censor:

also i drive an 08 plate hilux 3.0d4d 170hp approx and i get 29mpg with tools in back

Coasting in neutral actually uses more fuel than if you roll in gear, in neutral your engine still need to pump fuel for tick over whereas in gear (and moving) your car uses next to nothing.

During the cold snaps i returned 31mpg, no complaint as i know that i did alot of crappy short journeys over the period plus on top of the cold.

[OldSkoO1]

People often say this, i dont think i drive perfectly for economy but i and another guy on this forum drove for economy to prove all these non believers wrong.

There were quite a few poor mpg t180 threads from time to time.

Both of us put our skills to the test to see what we could get day in day out. We both photographed the mileage and MPG readings. I got 54mpg combined over my daily commute / tank. He got something incredible like 57-60mpg but if i remember right he drives as part of his job, possibly emergency response etc.

So the economy is there in the t180 but 54mpg combined for my journeys took A LOT of effort thats for sure.

On my normal route its the same driving style, 38mpg in cold weather, 42mpg in avg. weather, around 45mpg in good weather. Take OFF 3mpg each one for a lot of foot down activity.

I've never had below 35mpg and that only happened thrashing it in freezing conditions.

MPG is VERY sensitive to the roads you drive on. Forgetting temp,

- Stop start = 10-15mpg

- Slow moving up and down between 20mph and 30mph = 32mpg-36mpg

- A road steady 35-55mph 65-80mpg

- m-way 70+ = 40-43mpg

Then there other things that heavily affect mpg

- acceleration 10-70mph = 7-23mpg (you can't not accelerate! )

- uphill after cruising, 23-35mpg

- LOTS of <30mph / stop start / roundabout / junction roads kill mpg dead; taking lots of a-road miles to balance it out

- Even worse is town driving on a cold engine; uses even more fuel whilst warming up

then smaller things

- excess weight

- under inflated tyres

- winter

- dirty cars, mud flaps, more drag

- this gets obsessive now for little gain

So if you aren't doing enough a-road miles which typically has less stop start and more continuous driving your mpg won't get better than mid 30's.

Even if you have lots of a-roads in your journey, think about hills, roundabouts (lots of 10>70mph acceleration spots) or junctions take the shine off.

Agreed the t180 is not 150bhp VAG that will get you 45-55 all day long but if the roads you drive aren't hilly with loads of traffic or junctions you should see at least 40mpg. Even that VAG won't do much better than 38mpg in town and its not as powerful, only 2.0ltr compared to 2.2 in the toyota and the toyota is a bit cleaner, less smokey, more refined much less particle emissions but you pay the price with about 5mpg. Theoretically once the taxing groups start to take into account these greener improvements which was planned for, you will recoupe the potential hit in mpg with these cheaper running costs... hoping nothing goes wrong of course! :)

Some improvement tips are:

- Come off the accelerator much earlier, therefore brake less

- Try to maintain a steady speed, e.g. don't speed up brake with the traffic, then speed up again... for good safety too maintain bigger gaps that will help you choose a steady speed

- Don't baby the throttle, accelerate up to your speed with half or 3/4 throttle, get there quite quickly and stick at your speed.

- Babying it just means your injecting more fuel than cruising speed over a longer time compared to loads injected in a burst and then more chance to cruise at a set speed which uses the least fuel of all the journey.

- Try to use the torque band to signal your change ups in gears e.g. between 1.8 and 2.6k rpm - this is when your engine is its most effecient with the air/fuel mixture.

- An alternative view is to change to 2nd at 20, 3rd at 30, 4th at 40 etc.

- Use the momentum to your advantage, come off the throttle on down slopes etc BUT NEVER come off the throttle to just slow down by even 4mph only to squeeze more throttle to get back up to speed.

- An extreme technique is to blip the throttle continuously, on, off, on off all the time just pressing enough fuel into the engine to maintain the speed, basically halving the time fuel is injected. This will get you into the 50's but it will also required a hell of an effort.

- Try to keep moving in town traffic, read the road ahead, its also a safety feature, by reading the road ahead you tend to stay back and crawl at slow speeds rather than breaking at the last minute to a stop then using loads of fuel to get moving again. Going steady but slow still requires a lot of fuel but still less than stop / start. Having said that there is no point in holding back, going slow only to have to stop if its really a jam or even traffic lights. You may aswell just come off the accelerator to a halt.

Having said all this, if your not putting in the steady a-road miles you wont be seeing 40+.

[GreyRacer]

Very comprehensive post OldSkoO1.

I'm also taking a bit of a hit in MPG these days, or at least my wife is. On her daily commute of 6 miles the engine is not even fully warmed up and still injecting extra fuel. She's lucky if she is getting 30 in the T180.

I'm using my Celica TS and getting more than 30.

[OldSkoO1]

Cheers

I waffle but at least i got everything relevant down in some form of order.

I'm not obsessed with economy, i just like measuring things and understand how things work inside/out.

[oozat]

Very comprehensive post OldSkoO1.

I'm also taking a bit of a hit in MPG these days, or at least my wife is. On her daily commute of 6 miles the engine is not even fully warmed up and still injecting extra fuel. She's lucky if she is getting 30 in the T180.

I'm using my Celica TS and getting more than 30.

I've just added a reply to another thread re the recent remap

http://toyotaownersclub.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=91984

Even using the techniques described so comprehensively by OldSkoO1 I can't get over 42mpg. My town driving isn't quite as bad as some others though!

[boozehound]

mind you, i got 27mpg on my t180 the other day, i was rippin it abit tho and i set the counter from when i just got in the car so its from cold like, but obv i dont rip it when the engine is still cold, wait till it warms up abit

[hertsnminds]

You don't mention what electrics are on/off. In the winter you are more likely to be driving with lights on, use the wipers and screen wash more and have the heater/climate control fan blowing harder. I know that for about the first 10 mins of any journey in temperatures less than 5 deg C the car idles at about 800 revs then with the first notch of heater fan it idles at around 1,100 revs then once the car has become a bit warmer and the fan slows down it goes back to an idle speed of 800 revs.

Another issue may be how much humidity is in the air, it is possible to have cold dry air and cold damp air and the different types will have an effect on the fuel burning in the engine.

[Rick D4D]

We have had the T180 2 weeks now, the car has done 15k and I have found that going to work and back with an average spped of 22mph we are getting 37.6mpg.

Is this good or bad?

[OldSkoO1]

Yea not bad

An avg. speed of 22 may indicate a bit of town or <40mph driving / traffic driving, you can't expect much from the t180 with this type of driving, or most diesels esp. higher powered ones.

I dont know how far it is but 37 sounds ok. It will be lower in this colder weather anyway. That should be around 42 in the summer.

[Rick D4D]

Yea not bad

An avg. speed of 22 may indicate a bit of town or <40mph driving / traffic driving, you can't expect much from the t180 with this type of driving, or most diesels esp. higher powered ones.

I dont know how far it is but 37 sounds ok. It will be lower in this colder weather anyway. That should be around 42 in the summer.

yes this was driving to nottingham from mansfield approx 15 miles each way but would say no more than 50mph if your lucky

[OldSkoO1]

bmw's twin turbo 335d which is a piece of engineering genius is nearly 300bhp stock, diesel 3ltr. It is indecently quick yet will return 40+mpg on a run, yet in town this plumets down into the 20's in town/traffic.

Combined it will do about 36-38 which is v.impressive but you can see the range, 20's in town, 40+ on a run.

Small / low powered / light diesels up to 1.9ltr don't suffer as dramatic difference in town v extra urban economy.