Vipercar93

If you swap to a V8, in those driving conditions you will be lucky to see 16-18mpg I bet. It's not the car that is giving you bad MPG. I admit guys I am a bit jelious, always wanted a car with all the frills, at least when I am toting around the family

=( Some of those drivers... =(

I won't go without a set of winters again. I tried it a couple years in the SRT, won't go back. I have a set of Nankang SV2 snows. Not sure how they stack up against the better brands, but I like them.

LOL

Who's gonna be more excited again?!

Ok Liner... the tune is the reason the car warms up quicker. =) Fuelly has some tips to save fuel that might help a little. Here

Looking good! Still has the flower =) Your daughter is going to be chuffed to bits!

They might have thought it would have made it back? Guy was lucky he didn't get speared!

You going senile already?! In the trucks stateside they would run a transmission oil temp gauge, normally about the same temps as engine temps. If you tried to pull something and forget to put the truck into 'pulling mode' you could overheat the transmission in no time as you downshift and upshift just cruising

Cold start inefficiencies is nothing new. A carbed engine need a choke to get started, just like my bike did, and my snowmobile, and my lawnmower...weedwacker... ok you get the point. It has nothing to do with warming them up quicker, it's the only way to get them to start since you are combating against extra friction fuel condensation. This article helps with why gasoline cars need more fuel on start-up. Diesels are not affected by this as much and usually will not see as large of a MPG drop during warm-up. Partially because the engines chamber temps tend to be a bit cooler unless you start looking at some of the hopped up diesels. The reason why modern engines warm up quicker is the engines nowadays have a higher specific output (HP per cyl), use lighter alloys that transfer heat better and use lighter weight oils that warm up quicker than they did 30 years ago. Aluminium is a great thermal conductor, where cast iron is not. To answer your question about idling. IMO give it 30 seconds to get the top end of the engine lubing up and drive it lightly until the temp gauge reads 'normal'. It's not for fuel consumption, but engine wear, as much as 90% of engine wear will occur during warm-up and cool-down due to different metals heating and cooling. Different metals react differently to the same temperatures. The only thing you can do to help fuel economy during warm-ups is to warm up as quick as possible, without damaging the engine. When you figure something out that achieves both at the same time, let me know =)

Link This is part of the reason. Partly as well is the transmission requires hydraulic pressures to shift, and when to shift. I don't know too much about them, never had one apart. I would suspect that some new cars use a servo to shift and algorithms in a PCM to decide shifts instead of hydraulic pressures, but donno, only ever really worked on manuals.

That's just evil!

Haha one of my local papers in the USA had someone write in about moving a deer crossing sign too.

LOL I bet someone out there actually buys it because it's a 'Pacman burger'!

No idea TBH, each ECU is different. Here's a link for some basics on fuel trims and how it fits into the O2. http://stealth316.co...i_fuel_trim.pdf I'm making this more complicated than it needs to be, but there's only one way to learn =)

Yes it's saying that it's adding 3.1% fuel in the short term, but overall the PCM is taking away 10% fuel. To be honest I would let the computer tell you if they are bad, I wouldn't know where you would get the info offhand and it would just cost you more money to get a datalogger. Here is a rough guide, most O2's operate roughly the same. "Testing O2 sensors that are installed The engine must first be fully warm. If you have a defective thermostat, this test may not be possible due to a minimum temperature required for closed loop operation. Attach the positive lead of a high impedence DC voltmeter to the Oxygen sensor output wire. This wire should remain attached to the computer. You will have to back probe the connection or use a jumper wire to get access. The negative lead should be attached to a good clean ground on the engine block or accessory bracket. Cheap voltmeters will not give accurate results because they load down the circuit and absorb the voltage that they are attempting to measure. A acceptable value is 1,000,000 ohms/volt or more on the DC voltage. Most (if not all) digital voltmeters meet this need. Few (if any) non-powered analog (needle style) voltmeters do. Check the specs for your meter to find out. Set your meter to look for 1 volt DC. Many late model cars use a heated O2 sensor. These have either two or three wires instead of one. Heated sensors will have 12 volts on one lead, ground on the other, and the sensor signal on the third. If you have two or three wires, use a 15 or higher volt scale on the meter until you know which is the sensor output wire. When you turn the key on, do not start the engine. You should see a change in voltage on the meter in most late model cars. If not, check your connections. Next, check your leads to make sure you won't wrap up any wires in the belts, etc. then start the engine. You should run the engine above 2000 rpm for two minutes to warm the O2 sensor and try to get into closed loop. Closed loop operation is indicated by the sensor showing several cross counts per second. It may help to rev the engine between idle and about 3000 rpm several times. The computer recognizes the sensor as hot and active once there are several cross counts. You are looking for voltage to go above and below 0.45 volts. If you see less than 0.2 and more than 0.7 volts and the value changes rapidly, you are through, your sensor is good. If not, is it steady high (> 0.45) near 0.45 or steady low (< 0.45). If the voltage is near the middle, you may not be hot yet. Run the engine above 2000 rpm again. If the reading is steady low, add richness by partially closing the choke or adding some propane through the air intake. Be very careful if you work with any extra gasoline, you can easily be burned or have an explosion. If the voltage now rises above 0.7 to 0.9, and you can change it at will by changing the extra fuel, the O2 sensor is usually good. If the voltage is steady high, create a vacuum leak. Try pulling the PCV valve out of it's hose and letting air enter. You can also use the power brake vacuum supply hose. If this drives the voltage to 0.2 to 0.3 or less and you can control it at will by opening and closing the vacuum leak, the sensor is usually good. If you are not able to make a change either way, stop the engine, unhook the sensor wire from the computer harness, and reattach your voltmeter to the sensor output wire. Repeat the rich and lean steps. If you can't get the sensor voltage to change, and you have a good sensor and ground connection, try heating it once more. Repeat the rich and lean steps. If still no voltage or fixed voltage, you have a bad sensor. If you are not getting a voltage and the car has been running rich lately, the sensor may be carbon fouled. It is sometimes possible to clean a sensor in the car. Do this by unplugging the sensor harness, warming up the engine, and creating a lean condition at about 2000 rpm for 1 or 2 minutes. Create a big enough vacuum leak so that the engine begins to slow down. The extra heat will clean it off if possible. If not, it was dead anyway, no loss. In either case, fix the cause of the rich mixture and retest. If you don't, the new sensor will fail." Link You don't need to use a multimeter, just use your scan-tool and watch the voltage, if it changes rapidly as described then it's healthy.

Haha Here you go, got you all colours of the rainbow. 200mph tape anyone?! =) http://www.racerstape.com/rtp.html

Yep, That's how the ECU uses the O2 sensor to adjust fuel. If the voltage isn't at the point the ECU wants it will add or subtract fuel relative to air volume, in other words Changes the AFR (Air Fuel Ratio) so the voltage is in the pre-defined range the ECU wants. The range changes depending if your are in closed loop or open loop operation. It's not as simple as looking at the voltage and saying 'it's good'. The ECU will intentionally fluctuate your AFR to see if the O2 is operating correctly. What can happen is the O2 will become dirty, and while being able to provide voltages within the range the ECU wants, it will 'lag' and will not have the response rate needed to keep the engine operating efficiently. What can happen too is a lower total output voltage. The ECU usually has pre-set parameters for how bad is 'too bad' and the dummy lights will turn on when these conditions are triggered. Link about Lambda Sensors In your case you will have to find out what Toyota deems the acceptable range and response rate and then datalog the sensor output voltage and see where you fall into the range that Toyota set. I suspect that while the sensor is still 'acceptable' you are losing a bit of efficiency. I doubt it would be too much though, otherwise you would have an error coming from the ECU.

What did he think he was flying?! A Cessna?

I wish things were that cheap now Sagitar. Most of the garages I have seen nowadays are way to small to do any type of work in them. Be interesting to see a pit like that, take it they sumped it out when they wanted to use it?! =)

I could get used to that =)

He was lucky if it was just that!

Depends on how much you want to spend =) For these guys without a doubt. The one I had gave me different spindles (can't remember what they did, maybe ride height), adjustable wishbones, adjustable toe, different air pressures (through using foam inserts on the tyre), different coloured springs and different 'valving' for the shocks as well as different arbs. Was surprised how much of a difference changing the parts out actually made! You could go from full understeer to spinning out every time you tried to turn too hard and everything in between. =) Link

Now it all makes sense! LOL

Hehe just had a read through that =) I would not have known that most places don't really look at the full geometry without coming on here and to the now defunct Milton Keynes site =(