2002 Corolla - Officially getting 50+ mpg daily!
 

I have a 2002 Corolla S (Manual Transmission), with near 170k miles on it. I got my Scan Gauge a couple weeks ago, and I'm surprised how good gas mileage I'm getting. I've been hyper-miling without the help of a gauge for awhile now, but this really helps me stay on top of it, for sure.

I averaged 44mpg on this mountainous, sloppy drive from Littleton, CO to Glenwood Springs, CO, with a kayak strapped on top of my roof. I did it by staying in 4th gear, and cruise control set to 60mph. The only ecomod of note was that I had a cockpit cover for the kayak.

After that I've taken it upon myself to completely clean out the car, take off the roof rack when not in use, and I deleted the mud flaps. In the process I also found that I can fit my shorter playboat (kayak) in my car; it just takes a little coaxing. So I'll be doing that from now on, and I'll only need the roof rack when other people are with me, or when I take my creek boat.

So these past few days, I've noticed my commute to and from work has averaged over 50mpg! At the end of my trip home today, my gauge read 56.4 mpg for the trip. I haven't done any significant mods to my car, but I have gradually improved my hypermiling since I got the gauge, and I think I've pretty much peaked. Having this gauge has also really helped relieve stress, because it's a constant motivator to drive efficiently, and I don't find myself speeding up unnecessarily just so I don't get cut off and things like that; I just don't care what the drivers around me do. I also don't have to drive obnoxiously slow or anything just to be efficient. I've really got my daily commute down pat, and it makes me happy.

With that said, I am a bit more motivated to do some actual ecomods to the car now. My car accumulated junk over the past couple years and I finally cleaned it out, in the name of fuel efficiency. It's trunk and backseat, even the glovebox are 100% free of unneeded stuff. I've survived a couple years without turning on my A/C, so I think I will have a shop delete that for me, if the price is right. I've also turned off my car prematurely and rolled around in parking lots without power-steering and I think it's feasible to delete that as well (thankfully, I can probably do this myself, unlike the A/C).

I'm pretty handy with fiberglass, so this summer when I can work outdoors, I will most likely begin with some subtle aerodynamic mods.

Anywho, forgive the rambling. I hope my scan gauge isn't broken, because its display is really bringing a smile to my face. :D

Very nice mileage in a corolla! Congrats.

I recommend not taking out the A/C. Its nice to have when you do need it and it really only hurts a TINY fraction of your mileage by being there and not being used. I still have mine in my Paseo.

Alright, I'll move that to the bottom of my to-do list. Due to the compression and stuff, I'd have to have a shop do it, so it'd be kind of costly, anyway.

It's easy to survive without it in Colorado, but if I had a bunch of people in the car, it'd be nice to have handy.

I should mention that I don't roll my windows down at highspeeds or anything. I know that would hurt more than the A/C at times.

What Daox said. You're doing great, considering no EOC is involved.

50mpg is amazing for a stock corolla. Awesome!

I'd give it a few tanks to establish a calibration factor. It might be off by a bit, even if you did tell it your engine size and everything. However, if the SG reports you're getting >50mpg, then you're doing something right!

It's good to hear you're having success with driving style alone. You should look in to a few mods that would complement your driving style, like a grille block and a kill switch.

Thank you, I took this advice heartily, and I've been calibrating, as you recommended, and the way that other people recommended here. Whether necessary or not, I adjusted the percentage half-way with each fill-up. So if I filled up 10.5 gallons, and the gauge thought 9.7 gallons, I would adjust the gauge on fillup to 10.1 gallons. I kept doing that, and after the first time or two, I got accurate, and my last couple fillups haven't needed adjustment at all.

I've also put on a grill-block, and took off my rear-view mirrors, (which I then covered with fiberglass). It looks kind of shoddy, but I suppose it helps, somewhat. I take off my roof-rack routinely, when not in use and just put it in my trunk. Now that it's summer, I use it enough that I at least want it in the car.

I also ordered a detachable side-view mirror that's normally used for boating, I guess, but figured it'd work for my car, where it's legally required (I am going on a road trip and one of the states I'll be passing through requires this driver's side mirror).

With that said, I got 56mpg on the way home from work yesterday. Getting over 50mpg both ways isn't always possible though. (Now that my gauge is calibrated), but I'm still doing good. I'd say on average, I break 50 on the way home, and get in the high 40s on the way there.

I haven't tried to average out my MPG everywhere else though. I do try to watch my MPG, but kayaking brings me all sorts of places, some close and some far, on the weekend.

I'm just happy that my work commute is being optimized, fuel-wise. That's really where most of my driving is, anyway.

I hate to bring up a dead thread but there is a bit of misinformation in this thread or one extraordinary corolla! First off scan tools can not be trusted. fill your tank, refill, keep records, and do the math! I personally have a 2002 corolla le auto with 100k and friends coworker has a 2002 corolla s 5 speed just like in the original post. His best so far was 42mpg and averages high 30's. At best my car averages 34-38mpg on full tanks during long trips. 30-32 at the lowest. I also have a scan tool but I never paid much attention to it, later I found out it was far off.

When the car was lowered with the largest tires that would fit, I saw 26-32mpg. Having an injen cold air intake with aftermarket exhaust, cat and mid pipe resonator, surprisingly, did not seem to affect mpg at all while lowered with large high quality rims and tires.

I returned the car to stock and performed the following maintenance items: front and back o2 sensors, new oem cat, new pcv, cleaned throttle body and maf sensor, new plugs, new filter, all fluids exchanged, kyb gr2 shocks all around and lastly new tires on old rims. All of that merely bumped my mpg from 34 to 38 on long distances and a about the same around town. Reattaching the intake and exhaust yielded no change in mpg. Bolting up a straight pipe has yielded 39mpg on one tank so far. During all this my scan tool regularly reads in the low 40's. Scan tools are always inaccurate in my experience.

I've owned a mid 90's corolla before and had experience with a few other corollas and always experienced similar mpg's.

I wouldn't dismiss his claims simply because of your personal experiences. Many users on this website have seen >30% improvement just by changing their driving habits. Maybe he is just better at hypermiling than your friend?

Also, most of the modifications that you mentioned don't do anything to improve a car's mpg, and some of those modifications can actually hurt the mileage. For instance, even high-quality aftermarket rims can hurt the mileage because they are (typically) designed to vent heat away from the brakes, and that can have a very negative impact on aerodynamics.

I'm not saying it's not possible but scan tools really can not be trusted to be accurate. Both my friend and I carefully watch our scan tools live readout and do everything possible for the best mpg. I'll even stay in the slow lane with cruise at 60mph for long stretches. He's a honda tech and I'm an amateur but our results have been pretty consistent.

I think the biggest disadvantage to larger rims is the increase rolling resistance. My high quality 17's, although light, are very wide. I think total unsprung weight is pounds less with stock rims/rubber also. This car is scary fast around corners when lowered with big tires!

EDIT: I also wanted to add that my corolla had 185/65-14 in it's stock configuration and then they were downgraded to 175/65-14's. No noticable effect on fuel efficiency but the car did feel less capable during cornering and acceleration.