new with 09 vibe base model
 

I travel 200 kms a day and I get 7 L/100kms, around 33 mpg. I maintain highway speed if followed otherwise may slow to by 10%. I live in a area of only 2 lane highways.

Not a modder yet...., but have installed a blockheater to become a three season user.

I am looking for technology that will help me monitor the engine, etc. I am hoping to find something cheap that will monitor open / closed loop function on the fly.

Brian

Welcome, Brian -

You'll want to get something like a ScanGauge or UltraGauge. They've got the digital gauges to monitor engine sensors, and fuel economy readouts that will help with your driving.

Manual or automatic?

A 3-season block heater is a great idea - and it qualifies you as a modder! :) Though it actually has a proportionately smaller effect the longer your trip length, compared to someone doing short runs. (I'd still use one though.)

I'd also look into a grille block and removing your roof racks if you have any.

What part of NS are you in? I've had a few extended stays in Lunenburg, and sailed around there & Cape Breton.

I am kicking those options as well a product from Garmin, I need something to show and be very good at logging engine data. I was thinking about tuner items but my research indicates that will not provide much value IMO for a variety of reasons.

I have MT, and I recently discovered that my vehicle has DFCO, so I have to discover techniques in which I can make it work for me beyond the simple neutral coasting.

The reality is that my heater will support my early morning start requirements when going to work or responding to calls as a volunteer fire fighter. I am discovering that the 400 watt unit might be limited in capability. More to follow…

As a generally manufactured car it is pretty good economy wise and it seems that I have been successful thus far beating the EPA I have tracked my success on other internet resources and will slowly transfer them over to this one.

My mission is to stretch a tank of fuel as far as I can while maintaining highway speeds. My urban driving is approximately 10% distance and 20% time.

There are certain mods and techniques that I will not been attempting but I certainly enjoy reading about them and the outcomes. I am working on ideas about the grille block and roof racks.

The goal for the grill block is to make it as obscure as possible…

The roof racks are OEM therefore I have to invest into components that reseal the roof line when they are removed. From what I understand it will cost 150 dollars to do that which is approximately 3 tanks of fuel.

I live in Bridgewater (only 10 minutes from Lunenburg) and travel to Halifax daily one of the hilliest single lane highways left in the province, hence the intent to maintain speed while on the highway between 90 and 100 Kph depending on traffic.

I intend to contribute more, fuel economy was easy for me in the past with at 93 ford tempo base 5 speed which was replaced by a 2001 accent base with 5 speed which gave up when the engine started to show signs of failure. Last year.

The current car I have owned since new but only started to drive it fulltime last year.

The ScanGauge/Ultragauge don't log data (that you can output).

DFCO can be helpful when you need to slow down faster (or maintain speed on a descent) than can be done coasting in neutral. But neutral coasting as a general habit is far more effective.

I take it you don't kill the engine while moving (EOC - engine off coasting). That would be the most effective of the 3, but obviously riskier.

Re: roof racks...

No DIY solution available?

I know the highway. I generally took the scenic (Lighthouse) route for a good chunk of my occasional drives to Halifax. But I wasn't commuting.

I started to experment with EOC this week... My car has electric steering which make live much easier. I know alot of people are concerned with reserve vacuum for the brakes but I have found that I have enough for at least two applications and that is if I lift completely off the brakes each time.

I al looking for a means of cutting off the fuel to the engine without turning the key... so far I am aware that the fuel management system is supplied but a fuse that is separate from the ECU.

I am thinking about installing two momentary switches. one normally closed to that will interrupt the power to the FMS and a normally open that will supply current to the starting circuit if required.

Just Google'd the 2009 Vibe. Looks like the roof rack isn't the type where you can take off the "horizontals" leave the pieces that run parallel with the side of the car. But it looks like you could pull off the racks and reuse the seals if you cut a flat piece of aluminum the same shape as the bottom of the rack mount. Of course this might not be the most attractive option but would cost much less than $150 if you have the tools to do the job. Then there is also RTV and body plugs that could be used in the bolt holes as well...

All depends if you want it to look good while keeping water out, plenty of other cheap options that would keep water out but won't be very pretty...

Welcome to the site!

I used to have a 2003 Matrix, (aka previous generation Vibe). It was a great car. Over its life it averaged 36 mpg over 68,000 miles with very mild ecodriving techniques and very minimal modifications.

Here is my garage entry that lists (with links!) my mods, and you can see my fuel log as well:
Details: Daox's Matrix - 2003 Toyota Matrix Fuel Economy - EcoModder.com

Well here I am with my own OBD interface OBDlink MX, laptop (ScanXL pro software) and android device (Torque Pro) I have managed to collect some information regarding several topics, hence why it is here.... my own blog I guess.

Initially I got greedy and forced the laptop to intepret ever possible PID and CA
LC which made my scanxl unresponsive on my car. I lost all of my data that I collected for a cold soak warmup idle of my car. Would have been great ,-10c weather last night.

Try two.. my truck.

I reconfigured the software to scan all available PID and fuel flow calc, my computer faired much better and was able to record data at a rate 1.5 seconds per scan.

Those of you who are interested in seeing the data collected it is available via email. I did manage to determine a few facts from my experment. I do not idle my vehicles to warm them up...

It took nearly 11 minutes and 2.1 liters of fuel to get my truck into closed loop mode at 69 deg C and another 7 minutes and another 1 L to get to full temp of 95. at about 4 dollars every morning

great info, for those of you that have friends who idle their trucks. Not to worry the energy was not totally wasted, I had a fire call about 15 minutes after I completed the experiment.

The blockheater for the truck is under the xmas tree, it will be installed by the weekend, then I will repeat the process and redo the one for the car which already has the blockheater install.

I have been using my Torque software on my cellphone and it seems to be OK for realtime feedback but the logging does not impress me. I do realize that my samsung S is too small and I might have to consider a larger andriod device. what I do like about this setup is that I can log position along with engine data.

I hope to get that all sorted out before my commuting starts in the new year.


I will be back....

I use Torque Pro too, I use it on my old smartphone (Motorola photon), but I'd love to get a 10" tablet and mount it in the dash.

I was looking at a 7 or 8 inch samsung note today...

Idle warmup done today from cold soak for my Vibe.

It was -1 degree C and the coolant was at -6 when I started. It took over 20 minutes to warmup to 180 degree F but the engine did eventually flatline at 185 degree F. It looks like it only takes 20 seconds to get into closed loop mode, which is great. I burned just over .3 L during the test and my car hot idles at 0.526 LPH or 0.139 GPH.

These numbers tell me that the blockheater may not provide the value that I was hoping for in the car in my driveway. The truck in the other hand will fair better.

Those tests are next.