Quote:
Originally Posted by Toby
Good work Bluejoey. I had good results from an upper grille block. Even in the summer, it didn't seem to affect the operating temperature at all. Is your car equipped with power steering?
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Thanks Toby! Congrats also on your numbers. You're past Prius territory with 50 mpg + tanks in your Tercel. I have not tried the upper grille block, but am considering it. I might start with duct tape or some kind of plastic wrap. I do have power steering in my Tercel, but don't know how to remove it. For now, I figure I can look for simple mods as well as behind the wheel improvement. I'm about at the end of my first tank now, though, and 9 gallons after ~425 miles is a little past 45 mpg, so I'm quite thrilled. I think the single most significant factor was just sticking to 55 mph on the highway. I can do 100 highway miles at this speed and see less fuel needle movement than I do after 50 miles in the city, which suggests I'd probably pass 50 mpg if I did a tank exclusively on the highway. It's ridiculously exciting, especially since the best mileage I ever got on my previous car (a Ford Taurus) was 34 mpg with extreme highway hypermiling (45-55 mph).