Best mods for my Echo?

[puddleglum]

I recently bought a 2000 Toyota Echo for my winter commuter car and around town family car. It's a high mileage standard and unfortunately I missed a few body issues on the initial inspection so I've been spending more time fixing than driving so far. On the up side, I don't have to worry about making it ugly, already is . I really wanted car I could mod and hypermile without having to worry about it too much.
I'd like some feedback about what would be the best mods and driving techniques, best bang for my buck so to speak. I'll say a little about my commute and plans for use cause I think it affects my choices. Commute is 6.4km (4 mi)each way, all in town, takes 15-20 min. Max speed is 50-60kph with 14 potential stops. There is usually 1/2 - 1 km of dead slow traffic jam each way. If the weathers good I ride my bike so it will only get used in rain, snow or below freezing weather. I don't foresee having it out on the highway very often. My trips in town are 1 - 8 km and 20 min. or less.
I'm thinking right now I need to focus on trying to get it warm as fast as possible and get it running properly. I've got a obd2 adapter on order as I already know I need it. I have my scangauge in the other car and feel lost without it.
My plans so far is get a grill block and a front belly pan asap. Install the scanguage or use the Torque app. Find a way to add insulation under the hood. Anything else you guys can think of that would be a worthwile mod for a short tripper?
What about driving techniques? What would be best to focus on? I've been trying to coast as much as I can. I tried EOC a couple of times but I am concerned that I may kill the battery if I do that on a regular basis with a short commute in cold and soon to be dark weather. Would a kill switch still be worth installing? I haven't had a car with a standard for many years and I'm assuming/hoping that I can do more to maximize FE than I could with an auto.

[Frank Lee]

Mostly biking = good man. I bike commuted year-around in MN, I forget how many miles it was. But it was approximately as fast as driving there. The road salt is really tough on 'em so I use disposable crappy old free mountain bikes when the roads are salty.

I'd review the mods list.

It's an awful short run time- many cold starts. Baaaaaad. Might not even want to do much engine-off when it's too cold since there won't be much heat or defrost available to begin with, and running the engine too cold isn't good either- for wear and for condensation building up in the crankcase. Also you are concerned about battery capacity with increased winter demands and engine-off. Maybe a battery tender plugged in at home could take care of any charging deficit.

So make sure it has a good block heater and engine blanket and grille block, and use them. A timer might be a good convenience for the heater at home in the morning. Metro did a wonderful experiment on block heater warm-up times; I usually shoot for between one and two hours, less than one not quite enough but better than nothing and more than two mostly heating the great outdoors and wasting electricity. Perhaps an insulated grille block would help even more to retain heat between work arrival and lunch or departure. Even so, NO IDLING except maybe when it's -30F.

Winter cold = higher rolling and aero resistances. In the city you may not be getting enough speed for aero to matter much. Stay on top of keeping the tires (over)inflated to your desired pressure, which I would suggest to be somewhere between 40 and 50 psi. Brush that foot of snow off too.

Run the thin winter oil.

You didn't say if it's garaged or not; garaging saves a lot of scraping and defrosting. Might want to put a safely positioned portable electric heater in the cab pointed at the windshield and on the same timer as the block heater, mainly for windshield defrosting. Kick the snow off your shoes before getting in and shake the floor mats out frequently- helps keep the humidity down and the windows clear. Crack the driver's window open a bit and direct your breath out that vs fogging up the windshield. Yes, that does make a difference when it's -40F.

[puddleglum]

Managed to get a start this week on a few winterizing mods for the new toy. Still been able to ride my bike mostly so haven't needed to drive it much yet. Most mornings are near freezing now so my biking days are numbered. My old joints don't like the cold much, haha.
Changed the oil to 0w20 for winter. installed my Scangauge from my other car and set it up with Torque and a vgate adapter instead. I plan to only be driving it when we travel as it is primarily my wife's car now. Tried the Torque app in this car first but was tired of it after the first day. I do way to many short trips.
Installed a full lower grill block for it. I will need to keep an eye on the engine temps if I do take it on the highway but for now it should be fine. I can always modify it to add more cooling if I need to.

Started on my belly pan. Added the foil to try and reflect some engine heat back up and I want to add some insulation as well under the engine.

There is currently a problem with a lean burn code that I'm trying to sort out, so I'm hesitant to install it yet in case I have to change an O2 sensor. It has no driveability problems so if I can't get it sorted without spending a bunch of money, I may just leave it and see how it goes. It's nice to get going on it though.

[puddleglum]

Got the belly pan installed last week. Added an inner liner of foil lined Styrofoam under the engine as well. Did a minor tune up (new plugs, pcv valve and swapped out the O2 sensor). Seems to run a little better now but still not sure if it fixed the lean burn code. Hasn't come back yet but haven't been on the highway either. Been thinking about ways to further insulate the engine. Turned cold this week so I've started driving it now. Had snow most of the weekend so winter's not far off. I built a little guard over the alternator pulley and threw a bat of insulation over the engine as a start but need to find something more permanent. Helps a little but engine still cools off way to fast on short stops. I'd like to get a reflective cover made for the underside of the hood.

[MobilOne]

Hi, what Frank said. I grew up in western Michigan. Nothing like MN, but cold to me. Having owned 4 Toyo's thru the years, I've noticed that they warm up to operating temp very quickly. If your Echo is not at oper temp in a few blocks, 1 mile plus or minus, then replace your thermostat.

As Frank said, aero won't do much at your speeds. But, low speed stop and go is where weight reduction makes a difference. So, you may want to ponder that a while. I'd suggest a warm air intake, but it is already running lean, so not till that is fixed.
No mud flaps or mud guards, they just grab the frozen slush.
Your biggest gains look to be coming from timing the lights as well as you can, in heat retention, and in weight reduction.

Best of luck. Let us know what you do and how it turns out.

Good luck.

[MobilOne]

Hi again, another thought. With respect to engine temp, I believe that your car has an electric radiator fan. You may want to put an LED in parallel with the fan motor to see how much your fan runs. That would provide good feedback on how much grill blocking you want to do.

[puddleglum]

Made a little more progress. Here's how the belly pan turned out. Not really fancy but no one sees it anyway. I do wish that it didn't add to the road noise but there are always trade offs.


the fiberglass batt is actually helping a bit but I'm hoping my new hood liner does a better job. Fastened some rivnuts into the hood for attachment and added a few bits of insulation in the voids.

Installed my new bubble foil reflective liner.

Hopefully it helps. Still have the lean burn problem to sort out. Not sure if that is really going to hurt my mileage too much.

[Baltothewolf]

If you are getting a lean code, your car is running rich. When it says 'lean' it means the ECU has maxed out the negative fuel trim. Possible issues would be injector stuck open, fuel pressure high for some reason, bad ECU, lots of possibilities.

[puddleglum]

Originally Posted by Baltothewolf

If you are getting a lean code, your car is running rich. When it says 'lean' it means the ECU has maxed out the negative fuel trim. Possible issues would be injector stuck open, fuel pressure high for some reason, bad ECU, lots of possibilities.

Thanks,I appreciate that you are trying to be helpful, but I don't think your explanation is correct. I've been doing a lot of reading on this myself. Your right that there can be multiple causes (dirty or stuck injectors, fuel pressure low, bad sensors, vacuum leak, etc) but a lean code doesn't mean the engine is "running rich", although it could if a faulty sensor is causing the code. It means it's running lean, just like the code says, or at least the ECU thinks it is. The ECU sees a lean mixture and adds more fuel to try and richen the mixture (positive fuel trim)to get it back in range. If positive(not negative) FT gets above the preset level it sets the P0171 lean code. If I have a bad sensor it could indeed be rich, but if it's a fuel problem or something else mechanical, it may be lean.

[puddleglum]

Quick update, I hope to get some more pictures but can't seem to get any nice weather. I completed my winter mods before the really cold weather hit. I'm sure they help but not as much as I hoped. In addition to the insulated hood liner and belly pan, I wrapped most of the engine bay with the bubble foil I used on the hood and then laid fiberglass over the engine. I've got the grill entirely blocked now. Changed the transmission fluid to GM Syncromesh as well which has improved shifting. I've been able to plug in at work as well as home so that has helped and I'm thankful for that. When it's warm, 0/-10c, it works pretty good. It warms up enough to open the thermostat before I get to work, I even have a little heat and Scangauge is showing decent mileage. In the rare occasion it runs for more than 10-15 min. I have good heat. We had a couple of weeks though of -20's and wind chills in the -30's c. There was just no way I could get it to warm up and mileage took a big hit. Guess I need a bigger block heater, or a warmer climate