'09 Toyota Yaris Mods

[WilliamYH09]

I recently started my planned eco mods for my '09 Toyota Yaris thanks to the inspiration from this website.

Here are a couple of "before" pictures taken shortly after I bought the car:





In the past week I added:

• Coroplast upper grille block
• Coroplast fog light covers
• Pizza pan wheel covers

A few "after" pictures:







All pieces were painted semi-gloss black (engine enamel). The upper grille block is secured with zip ties. The fog light covers are secured with silicone.

To attach the pizza pans, I drilled and tapped the steel wheels and secured the pizza pans with 6mm x 1.0 thread bolt, lock washer, and fender washer. Since there was a little space between the pizza pan and the part of the wheel that I drilled, I simply super glued a nut on the back side of the pan at each hole.

The pizza pans are very secure, and I have no worries of them coming off. The only issue I've had so far is one of them making a noise where the edge of the pan meets the wheel. I'll probably get some rubber vacuum hose, slice it open, and glue it around the edge of each pan.

In addition to these mods, I also changed my oil to synthetic, cleaned the air filter (previous owner installed a K&N), and installed a lightweight crank pulley.

I have not done any ABA testing on any of these mods, but the last 2 days (70 miles each day), I have been getting 5 mpg more than what I was getting before the mods. Before mods = 39 mpg average. After mods = 44 mpg average. Take these numbers with a grain of salt, because I have not done any testing. It is just based on my ScanGauge readings for a couple of days of driving.

Future mods that I hope to be adding during the next few weeks (or months):

• Wiper wind deflector
• Belly pan and/or front air dam with side skirts
• Rear wheel skirts
• Passenger mirror delete (will use convex or wide rear view mirror and possibly blind spot mirror on inside of door)
• Wheel wind deflectors (maybe)

p.s. This vehicle is used for pizza delivery 90% of miles driven (usually).

[Jyden]

The 09 Yares is a very good candidate for making serious mpg. Just keep it coming

[WilliamYH09]

Home Depot lawn edging air dam and coroplast side skirts are done. Side skirts turned out great (hard to see it in the pic because of sunlight angle and shadows). Lawn edging air dam turned out decent other than a couple of dimples where I bolted it on. Coroplast would probably turn out smoother, but I tend to scrape the front a good bit, so I figured the lawn edging would be better for that.





Maybe I should paint the lawn edging the same black as the coroplast. Hm...

To attach the air dam and side skirts, I screwed angle brackets to the bottom edge and bolted the lawn edging and coroplast to the angle brackets.

Next I'm thinking about deleting the passenger side mirror and installing a wiper wind deflector. I've definitely been bitten by the eco-mod bug.

Also, I can't decide whether or not I like the solid black wheel covers. I've been considering painting "rims" on them. What do you think?

[Daox]

Nice mods! You've certainly been bitten haha. Keep it up.

[Vman455]

I vote for keeping the black wheel covers. I think they look great with the black airdam and grill block.

[igo]

Looks like you have done a good job with your mods! I like the black disks. I just put some disks on and have been thinking about painting mine white to match the body color.

One Idea I have is to use pipe insulators for a lower grill block. That way you can quickly add or remove them based on the kind of driving you are doing.

Here is example of that mod on a prius:

[tvbd56]

Originally Posted by WilliamYH09

Also, I can't decide whether or not I like the solid black wheel covers. I've been considering painting "rims" on them. What do you think?

When I put mine on, I was thinking of doing some sort of swirl paint job, a half and half, or like the sticker on the hood of this car http://netstorage.discovery.com/feed..._Highspeed.jpg

[WilliamYH09]

Deleted rear wiper and motor and plugged the hole today. Don't know if it will help my gas mileage, but I never used it and reduced a little weight.



Here is a better shot of my coroplast side skirts. I think I'll keep the wheel covers solid black.



I like the pipe insulation grille block idea. Easy install and remove. My water temperature hasn't gone above 185 F so far, so I may block a little of the lower grille until the heat of the South arrives.

Side note: I was running a couple of errands today and getting 47 mpg for the trip. Either I'm getting much better at hypermiling or these mods are helping. Maybe both.

[MetroMPG]

Nice going!

My neighbour has the same car, but 4-door.

It's crying out for a mini-Kammback! That would be another few percent right there. Harder to make, though.

[Istas]

Good job on the mods, they look great! You're lucky to have started with steel rims.