What Gear To Use

[smyffalis]

hey everyone. i own a '05 (feb) yaris colour collection which i bought off my auntie pretty cheap. im only 19 and its my first car! had it about 6 months now and its great. the build quality is really good, my brother owns an 06 corolla 1.6 and it doesnt feel just as tight as my car, then again hes got 20k more miles on his. its a rocket ship though to me!

but the thing is im really into the fuel efficiency of my car.

what it is im looking to know, is it safe to sit at 30mph in 5th gear?

ive just been watchin the rev counter and it sits about 1100rpm. however, i asked my bro about it and he said it wrecked the engine so i stopped doing it. is it safe, or will it wreck my engine?

thanks

[z-tune-z2]

I do the same in my T Sport, shift in to 5th at around 30, sometimes a little below. It always idles above 1,000. I've never heard of this being bad though. If it is, please can someone reply asap! :P

[Cyker]

As long as the engine can handle it I don't think it is an issue - I used to do the same thing in mine :) (Although I'm no mechanic and don't claim to actually know, only what I've read! ;))

That said, I've also been told that running the engine at ~2000rpm (Well, depends on the car, but generally...) is more fuel efficient than trying to run at the lowest revs possible as that's around where you have peak engine efficiency.

At the moment I'm picking my gear based on accelerator pressure, and 4th seems to be the best one for that on my Yaris D4D for cruising at 30.

Actually, if you have a petrol Yaris, you deffo have an mpg gauge so the easiest thing to do is switch it on and see which gear gives the best mpg at 30 :)

I need to save up to buy a scan gauge II before I can do the same in my one 'tho :(

[smyffalis]

beast. my mum took my car to work sadly so ive been waiting all day to test the theory out. ill give it a blast tomorrow morning on the way to the offies for st paddies :D. ill tell you the results

[r114gta]

It'll be fine if it's a long flat road, any slight uphill gradient and it begins to die and then you use more fuel as you give it more throttle to compensate.

Put the MPG guage onto the real time readout and check the difference.

I only do it in our 1 litre if it is a very long, flat 30mph road and it does give you a few more MPG on the readout.

[Richard Davies]

I've gone up to 5th at a steady 30 a few times, & it seems to be OK on a flat road.

[S.Kayani]

always drive round in 5th :P lol

makes up for the heavy foot that i got lol

[Raeman]

I did quite a bit of town driving today and had the car in 5th and at 30mph for ages...... MPG gauge was at 42.9 for most of this time. :D

I was happy with that!!

[smyffalis]

good stuff. i went to put petrol in my car and its all uphill from my petrol station. its exactly 2 miles from my house so i used 5th gear, some of its a 40 zone and it only used up a mile and a bits worth of petrol, when it would use up 2 miles!

still at 41.4mpg in the car though cause of some heavy traffic though :(

[gar]

hey everyone. i own a '05 (feb) yaris colour collection which i bought off my auntie pretty cheap. im only 19 and its my first car! had it about 6 months now and its great. the build quality is really good, my brother owns an 06 corolla 1.6 and it doesnt feel just as tight as my car, then again hes got 20k more miles on his. its a rocket ship though to me!

but the thing is im really into the fuel efficiency of my car.

what it is im looking to know, is it safe to sit at 30mph in 5th gear?

ive just been watchin the rev counter and it sits about 1100rpm. however, i asked my bro about it and he said it wrecked the engine so i stopped doing it. is it safe, or will it wreck my engine?

thanks

Your Bro is talking out of his pooper! dont worry, as long as the engine isn't struggling with hills, etc, you are fine in 5th gear.

Also, you could try block changing, ie, going from 2nd to 4th, or sim. I often go 1st, 3rd, 5th, missing 2nd and 4th completely. As an ADI, take it from me, it's fine.

[crazyman50000]

Yaris boxes can go 1st --> 5th but it's probably not clever

Rape the little !Removed! up to 30 in first, drop it straight to 5th.

2nd is notchy at high revs, 3rd feels a bit notchy, 4th seems to be fine.

Oh and I cruise at 30 ALL the time.

If it's a 1.3 you can rocket up to 70 in 3rd, engine makes this lovely wooshing noise.

With cold tyres you can wheelspin in second if you catch the revs right.

Brilliant little car, if I don't get into uni this / next year though Ill be swapping it for a 1.9tdi Ibiza SE.

[smyffalis]

Your Bro is talking out of his pooper!

same old for him then hahaha

aye i get 30 out of 1st, 2nd to about 50 before it hits red n moans.

skipping from 2nd to 4th gear doesnt feel nice, you some G's pushin you back and then you put it into 4th and theres no kick haha. 3rd to 5th sounds like a plan though!

ill even give 1>3>5 a go :D sounds like a nice 1st gear rake

cheers for all the replys btw!

[r114gta]

If it's a 1.3 you can rocket up to 70 in 3rd, engine makes this lovely wooshing noise.

Is that it?

Had 80 in 3rd in our 1.0 litre up a steep hill, still not on the limiter.

[r114gta]

good stuff. i went to put petrol in my car and its all uphill from my petrol station. its exactly 2 miles from my house so i used 5th gear, some of its a 40 zone and it only used up a mile and a bits worth of petrol, when it would use up 2 miles!

still at 41.4mpg in the car though cause of some heavy traffic though

If it's all down hill from your house you wont hardly use any fuel if you're on overrun most of the way.

aye i get 30 out of 1st, 2nd to about 50 before it hits red n moans.

That's the reason you're not getting better economy.....

[smyffalis]

That's the reason you're not getting better economy.....

haha well, just once or twice for the raking of it. worked out my 'true' mpg to be about 48-49mpg. took a note of much i spent on petrol, so the counter isnt entirely accurate ;)

[r114gta]

That's the reason you're not getting better economy.....

haha well, just once or twice for the raking of it. worked out my 'true' mpg to be about 48-49mpg. took a note of much i spent on petrol, so the counter isnt entirely accurate ;)

The counter is an average.

If you are consistantly doing 48 MPG, over time it will increase to reflect this.

[smyffalis]

If you are consistantly doing 48 MPG, over time it will increase to reflect this.

no way, you being serious? woah!

you should win a nobel prize for that gem of wisdom

[s m smith]

If it's a 1.3 you can rocket up to 70 in 3rd, engine makes this lovely wooshing noise.

Is that it?

Had 80 in 3rd in our 1.0 litre up a steep hill, still not on the limiter.

nice one, remind me never to buy a car of you ????????????

[r114gta]

nice one, remind me never to buy a car of you ????????????

20k miles, regulary serviced, blowing away the cobwebs does it good.

Much more responsive and economical than it was at 10k a year ago when bought from an old lady.

[Blue84]

I do 30mph in 4th, it can do 5th but I find it prefers to be in 4th.

I used to drive mine gently but it does respond to being pushed a bit - especially when it gets to around the 4k rev mark.

That said, I don't red line it or anything..I'm just not shy with it - average consumption is around 41mpg but I do have a very combined drive to and from work - part sitting in traffic, part 30 mph, then busy dual carriageway with plenty of getting annoyed with middle lane hoggers and then back down to 30mph near home.

[eiriksmil]

I tried 5th at 30 mph this morning, didn't feel right to me.

By the way, about how fast are you going at 4k rpm in 5th gear?

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

I've got a one liter which I bought in Southampton and drove back to Oxford and it went like the clappers! Hence my alias.

I'm a young driver like yourself (21 in May) and my little red Yaris is my second car. I did have a 96 Honda Civic but wrote it off in February in all the ice and snow that we had. It was a little big and not as easy to control as my Yaris.

I've completed a Pass Plus and was learning how to become an IAM for a while (could no longer afford fuel for runs so gave up a while ago... Should really start it again...) Anyway, it all depends on what you're after really. IAM teaches you to make good progress and always remain in control of the car and various other things. Thus you're forever changing gear on bends and whatever else have you.

If you're looking for driving enjoyment then you may wish to use lower gears at high speeds to give you more power, control, oomph if you will. Or if you're looking for exceedingly good fuel consumption you would be able to drive at 20-30mph in 5th gear no problem. How you drive and which gear is up to you.

Depending on how I feel I go for either. Sometimes I like to feel the car really pushing me along and go for high revs, while at others I'm perfectly happy pottering along at 30 in 5th.

Its up to you mate. The nice thing about a Yaris is that it is happy with whatever you choose to do and will let you do it. Toyota and Honda, can't be beaten in my opinion!

[Raeman]

I tried 5th at 30 mph this morning, didn't feel right to me.

By the way, about how fast are you going at 4k rpm in 5th gear?

If i remember correctly, 4k in 5th is about 85mph in my 1.3.....I could be wrong tho, not been on the m/way for a while!!

[oldun]

Why is it so important to do 310 mph in third at an engine speed of 45000 rpm?

It all sounds terribly juvenile to me.

Still it's a very good reason for not buying a second hand car.

[Cherry Red Pocket Rocket]

If you're attentive and do a thorough search you can buy a second hand car thats been taken care of at a bargain price. Both my cars are second hand, decent motors. I would never buy new personally.