Vibe mods: One man's quest to better 40mpg.

[Weather Spotter]

Welcome to EM!

From my testing an upper grill block get me .78 mpg from the aerodynamic improvemt. The faster warm up times are harder to measure but it does make a noticeable difference.

You can also pm me and I can send you a template of my grill block.

If you do a bit of searching on matrix mods you will find I have done testing for almost all of my mods and have posted both the raw data and my conclusions.

I would also look at doing the pizza pan hub caps. I did it with alumin pans and a 5 bolt pattern on my winter tires and it looked faily sharp.

Also go look through our wiki, there are lots of good mod ideas and good data to show how much mpg gain each mod does.

Even with the 2zzfe engine in it you should be able to get about 45 mpg without a boat tail .

[fchen7]

Weather spotter ...

45mpg on a vibe gt ... that's a Toyota Prius territory ...

thanks for the tips; .78mpg difference is better then nothing. I will try that.

i am new and can't PM anyone here yet. Email is fchen7 at gmail..

wait a sec, your have a matrix ... mine is a 2003 vibe gt ... if you have a template for my car, i would appreciate it ... i am just more worried about the bracket to hold it in place, but i worry about it later.. thanks again.

[Weather Spotter]

If you have the vibe then my template will not work, my bad, that is one of the minor trim differences between our cars.

45 mpg is possible. That is what I got before the tail.

It's all in how you drive.

Get a scan gauge or similar and make getting higher mpg a game. You can get 40 mpg just be driving tweaks. 45 with a few mods and 50+ with a full boat tail.

What part of the good old USA do you live in?

[fchen7]

Weather Spotter,

I am in good old sin city Las Vegas Nevada. The vibe gt is still in LA, i havent move the car here yet. I just bought it weeks ago and had long road trip to Oregon and back to LA. Not great in gas, i get between 28 to 32mpg between fillups. And gas in CA for premium is more than $4.50... ouch

[gone-ot]

fchen7 -- Q: is your Vibe GT the 2ZZ-FE engine with the supercharger?

[Tango Charlie]

Originally Posted by fchen7

.... thanks for the reply and the offer for tracing upper and lower block grill.

Did you install the hitch receiver yourself ? is the best place to go the "U-Haul" ? How much did that cost ?

Did you ever get the fog light aero cover to work ??

The tracing is on its way to you now.

I did install the receiver myself. I bought it off of eBay. Can't remember how much it was, sorry.

See page 17 for the fog light covers. I ended up not using the bullet proof lexan. I got some thinner stuff from Lowes and just screwed it into the plastic bumper. No heat forming required.

[abobalik]

I just got caught up going through the 20 pages in this thread. My wife has a 2006 Vibe, although her's has the grey plastic around the bottom instead of the body color. She is reluctant to let me make aeromods to it though. I'm also in northern Indiana...Angola to be exact. I think I'm going to work on an upper grill block, but it will have to be a little different as the grills on the 06 are not recessed as the 04 is. Wheel covers are a possibility too, as soon as I get a new set of tires.

[Tango Charlie]

Welcome to EM, abobalik! Dang, I can't believe there's 20 pages in this thread!
The Vibe should get you some good results. Auto transmission, I presume?

My wife is driving the Vibe now. She promises to keep track of her FE, so it will be interesting to see how she does. I set the bar at a decent 38ish on the lifetime. If I woulda tried harder, I'm sure it could have been over 40. It's a lot of fun telling people you get 40 mpg in a Vibe.

fchen7, thanks for the $; you really didn't have to- but thanks!

[bandit86]

Old thread rehash, I just brought home my 03 Vibe tonight....

[Stubby79]

Originally Posted by bandit86

Old thread rehash, I just brought home my 03 Vibe tonight....

Congo-rats!

I wouldn't mind driving one of those.

Time to go read the other 20 pages...