toxshox

Great job! Sounds like you are getting the hang of it. I have some more tricks up my sleeve that I will be posting in the coming days.

From what I understand the heat won't do anything but increase your fuel efficiency of the engine. The downside is that you will have to turn on the A/C to keep yourself from overheating and that will give you the FE decrease. Admittedly I do use the A/C from time to time, mostly at highway speeds. Some people will remove the A/C system altogether for a 50lb+ weight savings and less strain on the engine. I call them crazy. ;)

I have done the research and have chosen the SSR Type C wheels designed for the Toyota Prius. The 16X7.5 wheels weight in at 11.5lbs while the stock xA wheels weight 16.7 lbs. Currently I am looking at getting Mooneyes racing hubcaps for my stock wheels. http://www.mooneyesusa.com/moon-disc...rom-p-474.html
These should help the wind go smoothly around my wheel and theoretically should give me almost 1mpg.

I'm sure you will be able to get up there. Did you get a Scangauge II yet?

toxshox

Acetone....it seems that this question always comes up in the power forums but always has it's skeptics. When I had a mod'd WRX my buddy told me to use it and that he used it in his WRX all the time. Seemed to me he always had issues with needing to fix the tuning on his ECU when it came time to race. He replaced all the fuel lines with E-85 compatible lines before he ran it. Don't know if he ever had issues down the line but it sure didn't seem to help him get much power. I personally don't use it and advise against it. I've heard too many horror stories and no real evidence that it works...same with mothballs. IMHO stay away from fuel additives and work on Aero mods and driving techniques as they show real mpg improvements without possible engine damage.

PS. I have never heard of a hypermiler saying it helped with fuel mileage.

harshalsk

Hi toxshox

Nice to hear from you again! With hypermiling stuff I have started shutting down my engine almost every time I am at a red light. If the light is not going to be more than few seconds then at least I put my car (automatic) in neutral. Wherever I have a downhill I put it in the neutral and let it coast.

I haven't bought the ScanGauge II yet but soon I will. Happy to know about that moon hub caps but those seems expensive. But let me know if those really help you. I am sure you can recover that money in few weeks down the line.

I have also ordered a bumper sticker which says "Research Vehicle, Please Pass" just to keep me safe from crazy tailgaters and gun carrying Dallas citizens. I will post the photos once I put it on.

Since you mentioned the heat (105 degrees) helped improve the efficiency does that mean that if we also manipulate the CAI to have sort of Warm air from back of the radiator will help to improve the mpgs in cold/normal weather? Is there such an easy mod for it?

PadillaXA, I wish you all the luck for mpg improvements and Congrats on your present success. So do you change oil yourself since you seem to have moved to 0W-30 ?

toxshox

Sounds like you have made some great improvements on your driving style. I passed a place in town (Portland, OR) that specializes in hubcaps, who knew? http://www.hubcaphq.com John Yourston is the owner and he has the Moon Eyes Racing Disc hubcaps for $25 each. He let me test fit one on my xA and it looked pretty good.

That is an awesome idea. I need one of those. Where did you get it?

Glad you asked. Yes a warm air intake is exactly what ppl are doing to make their mpg soar. I believe it works in this manner. Warmer air is less dense than cold air, so a cold air intake for performance reasons will let more oxygen into the engine and the ECU will increase the fuel to create an even burn in the cylinder which creates more power but also reduces fuel economy. So with a warm air intake, routed just behind the radiator, you should see a higher fuel economy with less power. I admit I want more power, but for fuel economy reasons this is one instance where lower power equals higher fuel efficiency. I have yet to do this mod and it is actually scheduled to be done next week.
I wish you both luck in finding the sweet spot in your fuel economy testing. So few ppl are serious about fuel economy yet it is the hardest goal to achieve. I prefer a challenge. It is really easy to make horsepower but try to make better mpg.

harshalsk

Hi toxshox,

I was looking for hypermiling bumper stickers online. Apparently Zazzle.com has a good collection. Then I found on hypermiling.com that they had these specific stickers which said "Research Vehicle, Please pass". I like this better and not very rude either.

I tried custom label section of Zazzle.com and it was expensive with shipping. Then I found http://www.buildasign.com/ and they had a custom ones for $2.99. I ordered one.

Also I found this on eBay this one
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Hypermiler-Sticker-Window-Bumper-Laptop-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQitemZ250649316878QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Similar decals can be made at buildasign.com for even cheaper. I like the one on eBay.

WAI:
I would love to see the results you get on your warm air intake and what option you have chosen. I was wondering if just a Y split on current CAI hose can gain best of both worlds when it is pointing to fender and behind the radiator. What Say?

Those hubcaps really look cool on your car. Only thing I wonder do you need to remove those every time when you fill the air in the tires? That could be inconvenience.

Since your car looks even nicer I would recommend you a trick I learned from Family Handyman magazine that one can use magnetic vent covers (those you get 3 for $4 at Lowe's/HD) and cut them to the size of your bumper sticker. So that your paint never gets damaged and you can remove the sticker whenever you want.

If everybody can start doing hypermiling we will save lots of lots of fuel.
I need to look for a good deal on Scangauge 2. I found some iPhone apps for the same. I also found Symbian OS app with bluetooth connectivity to OBDII which does same job as Scan gaugeII

harshalsk

Can you ask John if he knows anybody in the Dallas area if he can recommend? I might start calling some hub places around here meanwhile and see if that helps.

thanks

toxshox

@ harshalsk - I sure will. In the mean time his website is (hubcaphq.com) and I believe he fills orders from all over the country. Johns number is 503.258.0287 if you would like to see if he can cut you a deal.

Additionally I have started my own thread on my xA hypermiling improvements. If you want to follow that one it is here:
https://www.scionlife.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=191926

toxshox

I thought I would share this youtube video from the ecomodder website. It basically covers everything I was saying but it might help to hear someone else explain hypermiling tips in a different way. http://youtu.be/TrwUMBXkNmI

-Landon

harshalsk

toxshox, Thanks for the details. I did see the other thread and those photos are nice. I was wondering of sealing those grils and gaps between headlights as well.

I will follow the other thread and as well as keep updaing my progress on this thread.

Thanks

toxshox

Thanks harshalsk! I'm posting some pics of the seals around the headlights on the other thread so check that too.

I also found this to be some great reading if you are interested.
http://www.recumbents.com/car_aerodynamics/

harshalsk

I want to know couple of things regarding this way of driving I am adapting and especially when my automatic transmission car is involved.
1. How much strain it will add on my transmission when putting car into neutral and back while stopping at lights? One of my friend is a rough driver and he seem to had issues with his auto transmission when he tried putting car in neutral at lights. He had to pay $800 to get it fixed. But this might not be the case with me.

2. Does these braces make any sense?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/H-Bra...Q5fAccessories

Also does the front struts bar helps?

toxshox

I am not an expert on transmissions, but from what I understand about automatic transmissions is that you will not have any unnecessary wear on it by shifting to neutral and back to drive while stopped and with the engine at an idle. The problems start when you rev the engine and then drop it into gear or move to neutral and back at high speed. I used to rev the big V8 in my old Oldsmobile and drop it into gear so the wheels would spin longer when I was a kid. The transmission was a heavy duty one but it eventually gave up from the abuse. My bad.

The ebay brace is a front brace that looks similar to the Cusco one but the one in the picture does not look like it will be very rigid compared to the Tanabe one. The description sounds like it is talking about the Tanabe one so something is fishy. Be wary. The Tanabe ones are between $100 to $200 each and weigh about 4 to 5 lbs max and have a brushed metal serial number plate riveted onto it. The Megan and Cusco ones are listed between 20 and 35 lbs for shipping. I personally recommend only the Tanabe one because of the superior design, lower weight and because it allows the stock braces to be used for even more rigidity.

This is the Tanabe front frame brace.


This is how I installed it.


I installed the strut bar brace hours after receiving my xA and didn't notice much of a difference in handling until I installed the front frame brace. The rear frame brace gave me the largest increase in handling, I think, because the largest flexing was happening in the rear near the beam suspension. If you go with the rear frame brace just beware that it is somewhat of a pain to install because you have to drop the rear beam down releasing the pressure on the springs and pulling out the bolts that are at the hinge point of the rear beam.

This is looking toward the front of the car from the rear and shows both braces installed. It was snowy and muddy when I went to inspect the tightness of the bolts on the braces so it is dirty...ack.


You can see that the only stock brace is that little black bar and the red frame brace connects the suspension points to the main floor pan area for less twisting in the rear frame area.


Close up of stock brace. Both Tanabe braces let you chose to use or not use the stock brace at the same time as the Tanabe brace. The rear brace weighs about 4 to 5 lbs too. Super light and extremely rigid design.


Another view looking toward the rear now.


This is a close up of the bolt that I replaced with a longer one so the brace can fit. The proper bolts are supplied. I used loctite on all of the bolts because I didn't want them to ever back out on their own. Every oil change I check tightness and have yet to have one be loose.