2000 Echo better gas mileage?

[fire_fly]

I've heard of people getting 45+ mpg, am I doing something wrong? I drive mostly highway miles and I get anywhere from 34mpg to 37mpg. Does this seem low? When keep the revs lower, I tend to get closer to 37. It's a manual and I shift to 2nd at 10mph, 3rd at 20mph, 4th at 30mph, and 5th at about 45. I usually have my tires inflated to 32-35 psi, but recently bumped them up to 40psi when I noticed it said on the tires the max recommended was 44psi. Any ideas?

[denman]

The firmer tires will help your fuel mileage. I gained some too when I took off my power steering belt but that's hard to quantify with the warmer spring temperatures around the same time. A new air cleaner will help if it's overdue, lightening the trunk junk, and switching off the engine for stops over 30 seconds. Lots you can do to help yourself, and our Echos are pretty good even if you do nothing to help, ... I'm running around 50 mi/gal (Imp) with no extreme measures , ...

[mr9865]

try finding non ethanol gas, gets me about 4mpg better than that 10% crap I have a 2001 and get about 33 city and 43 hwy with an auto. with the 10% blend I got 29 city 38 hwy.

[fire_fly]

Originally Posted by mr9865

try finding non ethanol gas, gets me about 4mpg better than that 10% crap I have a 2001 and get about 33 city and 43 hwy with an auto. with the 10% blend I got 29 city 38 hwy.

Thanks for the tip! How would I go about finding which stations are non-ethanol?

[fire_fly]

Originally Posted by denman

The firmer tires will help your fuel mileage. I gained some too when I took off my power steering belt but that's hard to quantify with the warmer spring temperatures around the same time. A new air cleaner will help if it's overdue, lightening the trunk junk, and switching off the engine for stops over 30 seconds. Lots you can do to help yourself, and our Echos are pretty good even if you do nothing to help, ... I'm running around 50 mi/gal (Imp) with no extreme measures , ...

Interesting, I'd love to get anywhere close to 50mpg! What is (Imp) btw? I'll have to check out my air filter...

[denman]

Imp=Imperial , ... the gal (Imp) is considerably larger than the gal (US), so mpg figures reported by Canadian members look REAL good. I don't have the size ratio handy but Google knows it. We could maybe settle on liters/100km, but I'm too old for that to have a gut-level meaning to it. My synthetic lubes no doubt help a tiny bit esp in winter. I've looked at the hyper-mileage methods, and while many are impracticable and often annoying to other drivers, there are some we can use. They usually have rock-hard tire pressures, shut off engines constantly, even on down-grades. Still worth a look. , ...

[EchoThat]

I increased my 2002 automatic Echo from 35 to a little over 40 mpg in the city.

The keys for me were frequent coasting in gear, keeping the windows rolled up as much as possible (It's starting to get hot, 91 degrees a few days ago in early May, so this strategy has come to an end.), putting on my seatbelt and getting settled in the car before cranking it to reduce idle time, keeping my speed to only a bit over 40 miles per hour most of the time, parking head out in parking spots to reduce time spent backing up, tire pressure up to 40 psi, oil checked everyday and topped off as needed, and changed airfilter.

Not a lot of extra work. It's just paying attention. With that extra 5 miles per gallon that I am getting now, that could be as much as 2500 over a year. (Ten gallons per week x five miles per gallon x 50 weeks...)

[fire_fly]

Originally Posted by EchoThat

I increased my 2002 automatic Echo from 35 to a little over 40 mpg in the city.

The keys for me were frequent coasting in gear, keeping the windows rolled up as much as possible (It's starting to get hot, 91 degrees a few days ago in early May, so this strategy has come to an end.), putting on my seatbelt and getting settled in the car before cranking it to reduce idle time, keeping my speed to only a bit over 40 miles per hour most of the time, parking head out in parking spots to reduce time spent backing up, tire pressure up to 40 psi, oil checked everyday and topped off as needed, and changed airfilter.

Not a lot of extra work. It's just paying attention. With that extra 5 miles per gallon that I am getting now, that could be as much as 2500 over a year. (Ten gallons per week x five miles per gallon x 50 weeks...)

Thanks for all these good ideas! I'm kind of amazed that just those small things can add up to a 12% increase in mileage! The one thing that I notice that really effects it is pretty much never really reving the engine up much. I've noticed when I leave it in each gear for that last second or two to get the good acceleration regularly, the mileage dips almost five miles per gallon. When I was intentionally reving it up a little bit more to see what effect it would have, I got only 32.5 mpg, which is just terrible for this car. Thanks again for the tips.

[oakshaun]

Originally Posted by fire_fly

I've heard of people getting 45+ mpg, am I doing something wrong? I drive mostly highway miles and I get anywhere from 34mpg to 37mpg. Does this seem low? When keep the revs lower, I tend to get closer to 37. It's a manual and I shift to 2nd at 10mph, 3rd at 20mph, 4th at 30mph, and 5th at about 45. I usually have my tires inflated to 32-35 psi, but recently bumped them up to 40psi when I noticed it said on the tires the max recommended was 44psi. Any ideas?

how fast are you going down the highway. i've done several studies at 2000 rpms and 80 mph. the results are such.
98 toyota camry 2.2 auto
2000 rpm (56 mph)- 35.7 mpg
80 mph (2900 rpm)- 29.5 mpg

97 accord 2.2 auto
2000 rpm (49mph)- 33mpg
80 mph (3300) rpm- 27 mpg

89 toyota camry 2.0 manual
2000 rpm (53 mph) - 38.1 mpg
80 mph (3050) rpm- 30.2 mpg
i haven't had the echo long enough to do the studies yet and i don't have a tach so i'm thinking i'll just do 55-80 because i'm busier than i used to be can't drive over an hour for a 40 minute drive everyday now. i'm out of college right now i go back in two weeks will do my studies then

but anyways i've only filled up once but forgot to reset the trip right away but my estimated mixed city and highway is 40.2 but i've also been teaching my wife how to drive a stick so. and it's been really hot so those windows had to come down. point is i expect it to get alot better
soon

[ericlp]

I've been getting 42-44. But I live in a place that hardly have stop signs or street lights. So the only time you see those are in town.

I just recently whacked off my PS belt. And changed out the alternator belt because it was making noise. (loose). Figured if I had to unbolt it ... Might as well throw a new drive belt on it. I have not had it off long enough. But I hope to see 45-46 MPG!

The trick is (no jack rabbit starts)... Keep it above 40 - 42 so the car doesn't have to down shift. Keep your foot on the pedal (steady) so you gotta keep a lot of space between you and the car in front of you. Also if you see people stopping or a stop sign / light....Pretend your brake pads are made out of GOLD! Every time you touch them they eat up MPG. Lastly, Don't go over 55, and try not to use AC too much.

[ECHOKnight2000]

When I go to school its all hwy or 95% of it. So i get 48mpg sometimes in the summer of course. Its about a 35 mile drive. Keep your speed consistent as much as possible.

[FromBMWtoEcho]

First do a tune up. ( Filters, oil, transmission oil, spark plugs....)

Second, I think you need to work on your shift technique. I think you are shift at way to low of a speed. You are lugging the engine to get up to speed which equals the car using more gas. Drive to what feels right to the engine not what you think will give you better mileage.

Third, I have my tires at 34 psi and I pull off 5.5L/100km.

I keep religious records of my gas mileage so I am going to run a few tanks of 91 octane to see if I can pull of higher mileage. Normally I would not try high octane in an econobox but throughout the Echo manual it states that the stats were reached by using 91 octane.

[Damage82]

Stupid question... but are you calculating in us or canadian gallons. US MPG my wife's echo gets around 33 and with canadian or UK gallons it is in the 40mpg range.

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[JCofA]

42 city US gallon. Ac on power steering belt in place no after market add ons. No hyper miling Tire psi 40 lb. 5 speed manual. Great car.