My new econobox! (2000 Kia Sephia 1.8I4 16V DOHC 5 Speed)
 

I just bought a 2000 Kia Sephia 1.8I4 16V DOHC 5 Speed.
http://i.imgur.com/EJcAWUW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ReYXk4o.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/fMYM3Ag.jpg


I just bought the car for $500. I plan to use this car to commute to work and drive coworkers home. Maximum MPG with minimal cost. I am going to be using a OBDII Bluetooth dongle + Torque on my phone.

This car has all the **fancy** options Kia offered in 2000 such as Air conditioning and power steering / windows / locks.


So far I took off the factory spoiler
http://i.imgur.com/g7lb1TJ.jpg

Dissembled and cleaned the interior.
http://i.imgur.com/oAXsQcA.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/IBVk9sQ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/hWVdlW6.jpg

I found a plastic salad bowl under the passenger seat with $68 in change so I bought Seat covers an oil filter oil and new spark plugs. Still in the mail no pictures yet.

The carpet and many trim pieces didn't make it back in.
http://i.imgur.com/pqMYtTs.jpg

Now the radio is hooked up to have power regardless of key position for EOC.
http://i.imgur.com/MkPVX4c.jpg

New over-sized battery. No pic sorry. I will eventually do an alternator delete and just put it on a trickle charger overnight.
http://i.imgur.com/CbUNrhP.jpg

Some future Ideas:
The Passenger side mirror is going to come off.

I want to make some kind of grill block for the lower bumper thing. That is where the air goes into the AC condenser and then into the radiator but summer is coming and I don't want to overheat. But I did get a new radiator because the old one was leaking.
http://i.imgur.com/1g71vRL.jpg

HAI with the grill block might be too hot for winter. but for sure in the to-do list to try.
http://i.imgur.com/POxYEkC.jpg

Underbody block because the rear bumper is a wind catcher for sure.
http://i.imgur.com/LlD71NY.jpg

All in all its a decent car for the price paid just needs a tune up and a few cheap/ easy mods and hopefully I can pull 40MPG out of this car.

Nice find, great work, and I love the $68 rebate!

...and your $68 rebate also saved you about five pounds.

Beater econoboxes are fun.

Get a kill switch in that thing too.

Looking forward to your mileage reports!

EDIT: I'm not entirely sure I would have ditched that rear spoiler (for MPG). It may have been helping... but it would be pretty difficult to prove either way.

Yeah a kill switch is a must.

The spoiler was cracked and broken so my first instinct was to ditch it.
Would you think it would help or hurt MPG?

Are you able to tell from pictures? Here's a few.
http://www.99parkandsell.com/images/..._P35531267.JPG

http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/...D029C42D90C0B0

http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_..._large.jpg?v=0

It was pretty cool finding that money in the car. free seat covers / oil change and spark plugs.

If you forced me to bet, I'd say it that spoiler is a help.

The car has a pretty short rear decklid. The spoiler's added height may help with flow reattachment.

Also, from what I've read & seen, a rounded trailing edge at the back of the decklid isn't good for aero. The spoiler fixes that problem too.

That said, the difficulty is in proving it (may not be a big enough change to detect in on-road testing). But if it were my car, I think I would leave it on.

It's a tough call for an amateur like myself!

Maybe I can find another one in a junkyard. The one that came with the car is messed up bad. After I get the radiator oil and spark plugs in the mail I will be able to put it on the road and get some real MPG numbers .
its rated for
Combined: 22 MPG
City: 20 MPG
Highway: 26 MPG.

Maybe a few mods and a easy driving style with EOC will get me to hopefully 40MPG.
Now im off to read up about a kill switch.

Howcome such poor mileage from EPA?

I have no idea. Torque shows about 33mpg on my first half tank. No real hyper-miller techniques. no EOC or timing lights just following traffic. I think because the A/C takes much power to run. Fuelly says 29.9 MPG with 8 Cars 121 Fuel-Ups over 34,774 Miles

A full alternator delete is something I'd probably not be so confident to do. Anyway, if you'd go for it, I assume you'd also consider to use LED lights all-around to decrease its electrical load...

Ok I have had this car for a while now and I burned off the first 3/4th of gas that I got with the car and got about 33MPG.

I honestly used no hypermiling tactics at all. I drove with traffic, although I do have to say I am a bit biased because I still can't keep hitting the gas towards a red light.And I keep the speed limit.

Now I have changed the oil, oil filter, changed the spark plugs, sea-foam in the vacuum lines and about an ounce in the gas tank, removed the air intake hoses / HAI, removed the passenger side mirror, antenna removal, new PCV valve and started EOC trying my best to DWL and without brakes.

Now I driven 496 miles I burned 12.46 gallons out of 13.2 and got 39.8MPG

This week I will work on a grill block and a kill switch because it is annoying having my OBD2 sensor lose power and have to reconnect to my phone via Bluetooth + torque.
Sometimes it doesn't reconnect automatically and it is annoying. Now I understand why you guys have the scan-gauge.

Driving is fun again. This is so addicting. Any suggestions or comments appreciated.

maechunbu (Kia Sephia) | Fuelly

I also have a little 1.5watt solar panel on the dash. not sure if it actually does anything for MPG but its worth noting.

How's it going now? 33 to ~40 MPG is a nice bump. There's more where that came from.

I broke 41mpg.
I cut the belt to the A/C and powersteering.
I got a LED hooked up to the electric fan so I can watch when it turns on.
I went out and bought a scangauge but it doesn't always work when I constantly cut the engine off.
I have mastered my route now.
Next step is aero mods.
Work is just so busy I never have any daylight after work.

maechunbu (Kia Sephia) | Fuelly

Congrats.

Re: the ScanGauge - do you have a kill switch in there yet, or are you still using the key? (My Firefly/Metro's OBD-II protocol caused a big pause in data acquisition by the SG every time it rebooted when stopping the engine with the key; the kill switch fixed that problem.)

Do you have the SG "Fuel Type" setting on Hybrid? (You should - it prevents the unit from immediately going to sleep when the engine stops.)

Yes I have hooked up a kill switch to the ignition coil fuse. I try to EOC every time I can.

I set it on hybrid and messed with all the settings.
On gas mode and kill the engine the scangauge will turn off and not restart when the engine does.
On hybrid mode the screen will freeze at the point when I cut the engine and restart when I bumpstart.
Some times it will read 9999 but my speed gauge doesnt change.

You think 50MPG is possible with aeromods?

That's odd with the ScanGauge. Maybe it doesn't like something about the car's OBD-II protocol.

50 mpg would be easily possible without aeromods where & how I usually drive.

Hey! Easily 10% improvement with that sticker!
Thanks MetroMPG!
http://i.imgur.com/LNYBAJZ.jpg

Ha - nice!

I covered my car with EM decals ... Now I have to empty the fuel tank periodically or it overflows.

What's up with the crazy dents on the A-pillar, over the door?

Someone tried to break into the car with a screwdriver trying to pry it open from the top of the door. :rolleyes:

I finally get a day off to mess around with the car and its over 90*F 80% Humidity. No shade in sight at the house. I go to the park and pop the hood find a nice spot under some trees. I walk the dog for a few minutes and have a cool drink and a few puffs on my vape and the police show up and tell me to leave :( no working on cars allowed. Well damn guess ill have to do it tonight. Its just too hot to do it.

Im going to hookup a multimeter upto the battery as a poor mans voltmeter.
Wire up the radiator fan to a switch.
Wire up new speakers.
Make a less aggressive HAI. Its running too hot!

One can guess they're in bed with a towing company :turtle:

http://i.imgur.com/QsezYIh.jpg

This is what she looks like today.

http://i.imgur.com/L2AGePj.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Q0Gn6gC.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/VHf1CGU.jpg

Made a front lower grill block / front air dam with a sheet of foam board, duct tape and spray paint.

And I see your 90 day average has clicked above 40 mpg. Nice.

YEAH!! that's awesome! 40MPG ! wooo!

Got some free materials from a storage locker! Racecar Parts!

http://i.imgur.com/YRHmMYA.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/suVZ7oV.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Cu4G7HX.jpg

What do you think is the best thing to do with this?
Its like very thin steel and very lightweight.

Rear wheel skirts... decal side out. :D

I broke 43mpg!! Wooo!

It seems like every picture of your car has different colored wheels.

lol Yeah I try to have fun with it! See the duct tape racing stripes on the hood? And the emblem is red now too!

Awesome I missed the emblem and stripes.

I got 45.65 MPG on my last tank!

494.2 Miles on 10.825 Gallons!!

Woo!!!

Very nice, congrats. :thumbup:

I'm number 6 on the top 10 gasoline cars over EPA! Woooo!

Nice!

Haha,I love this car it's so Eco-Modder.

I totally wanna buy a beater car and just go crazy with it,like you've done.
Veddy nice.

Good job. So when are you going to do a kammback?

Thanks for the support and kind words.

I am going to attack all of the simple aero mods first like hubcaps and rear wheel skirt and under belly panel, then I will do a Kammback and maybe even a boat tail.

Lots of inspiration from the ford probe Sven7. I have been reading the thread and taking notes!

Hubcaps are next, going to put them on this evening. It's kinda tricky because I have alloy Rims not steel that take hubcaps so I might have to go over kill with zipties to get them to stay on.
And I'm going to paint the roof white to see if I can lower the temp inside the car.

I went to the muffler shop this morning and got a new flex plate and a hanger so she doesn't sound like crap any more.

Very quiet... almost toooo quiet. ;)

That's good. BTW maybe you could consider to get some light-color seat covers (or just to leave some random white fabric over the seats when they're not in use) to also decrease the heat trapping inside the car.

That's a good idea. Well I never got around to painting the roof white but I did make some hubcaps out of some signs and zipties, and my favorite black spraypaint!

http://i.imgur.com/WsfcjiU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/jGHFePQ.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/OJcSCWR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/QMa9318.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/46gHk1h.jpg

Y'all get to see her here after a full detail, AKA a spray off with a hose.