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I actually take a look at these MPG threads and snigger to myself the way people get very upset about their MPG The car is a mass produced product, made all the same, to fine tolerances. THE most important factor in getting better MPG is the driver and the quality of the fuel The way people get all heated over "My car is only doing X miles per gallon and yours is doing Z" or the other hilarious thread is "The range shows XYZ miles but that can't be right coz it does ABC to the gallon bla bla bla" I have a tip for anybody worried about range or if you are getting only 60 to the gallon when Joe Boggs gets 65................ Just fill the ruddy thing up when the car gets down to quarter of a tank, fill it, don't put £3 of fuel in and not see the range move There, fixed it for everyone, your welcome

Just a quick run over the oil change on the 21 plate Yaris. Because of very low mileage and buying it second hand, I decided to replenish the oil and change the filter. I’ve got a pit but ramps are just as good on a nice day. Bottom cover off allows a visual inspection of the lower engine. Nice and bone dry under there; It had started to discolour but as expected, no debris; Genuine filter of course. Part No shown and I always use a filter socket for removal and hand to tighten. Beautiful engineering with a spill preventing spout; Genuine filter pre greased; As with most Japanese engines, a one litre oil bottle screws directly into the oil filler; Double check there is absolutely no dust in the oil jug; I got my hands on 3X5 litres of 0W/8 oil off eBay from somebody who clearly doesn’t know how much it cost. £34 each - I’ll take all 3 thanks; I wouldn’t advise the normal vigorous engine clean but it got a quick do to cover another 12 months. SDS oil data. I don’t fill right up to the top mark but stop short by about 6mm to allow for fuel dilution.

Naturally, I'd second everything Tony has said above. Just in case you weren't aware, the Auris HSD auto, like all Toyota HSDs, isn't a 'traditonal' CVT with coned pulleys and a belt. Internally, it is completely different, there are no friction surfaces to wear out, or belts of any kind. Mechanically, it is closer to a differential than a normal CVT. Failure to change the oil won't end with catastrophic failure, it'll just wear everything out a little faster, which generally means it will eventually aquire a slight whine (at very high miles, ~ 200,000+) like a worn diff. The mechanics of the transmission are extremely reliable. There are no adjustments to be made or filters to change in this transmission. But it is generally agreed that it is worth changing the oil (normal Toyota WS ATF), via a regular fill and drain plug. It drives like a regular CVT, but Toyota call it an eCVT, or a Power Split Device. This link is for the the Prius gen 2 transmission explanation. Yours is very similar indeed, but the next generation. This earlier transmission is a bit easier to see what's what, as it's not been reduced in size, as your one has.

Obsidian blue looks fantastic in the sun.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Yes, the Auto CVT. I've been on a few uphills, but nothing very steep yet, but so far it was fine. Motorway driving is also fine. Once you are at your set speed, it's fine. However, when getting into the motorway from the slip road and also over taking, you just have to remember that it's going nowhere fast. But to be honest, that suits me fine. Like every car I've had. I pick my moment carefully to over take, so that I don't get in anyone's way, who has a much faster car than mine . Not sure if it's just me. But when I abide by the law and stick to 70mph, just about EVERY other vehicle is bombing passed and are clearly speeding and never a cop in sight to get these people !!

There was a tip on here quite recently. As soon as you go to Ready mode switch off the Aircon. I have started to do this, right hand button on the control panel. I can then get the car out and manoeuvre on the on battery. Even managed about 100 yards with ICE cutting in as I started up a short slope. All the other factors mentioned above may still cause the ICE to run but that tip certainly works too.

I'll go along with 450 - 500 miles. I've just topped up, £1.89.9 per litre! 376 miles completed, 110 to go (it said), and the brim to brim calculated was 68.3 mpg. The car was telling me 70.4 mpg. I still think these here hybrids are brilliant!

Why, when we have to pay the maker to have the car painted do we then have to pay the dealer to put the protective layer on? 😄

Good job done ✅

The stopping power of the brakes isn't in question - I think all owners will agree if you brake hard it will stop so fast it's actually a bit painful! The problem is more the car not always doing what you want or expect. I've always been a bit wary of things that abstract out controls and put layers between the control and the driver, as it takes away feedback from the driver, and it's certainly something I've noticed with things like power steering and now the brake-by-wire. 95% of the time it's fine; Feels good, brakes how it should, regen and friction brakes blended in seamlessly. But occasionally it doesn't and I'll find the pedal is giving me a lot of resistance, providing feedback that I'm braking strongly, when I'm actually not - I've been caught out twice by it and both times was only saved by the auto brake system (Which is why I don't want to turn it off despite it displaying false alerts most of the time and occasionally trying to make other people rear-end me ). Now I've learned not to trust the brake pedal force feedback (Esp. since I've discovered it is completely artificial) and to just keep pushing if the car isn't slowing as much as I'd thought it would, rather than waiting for the brake force to build as the car slows down like I'd normally do, because it doesn't in this car!

You can get the aircon o-rings separately. They're usually orange or green as opposed to black. Ask them for some more specifics as they should have used a UV dye to identify the leak area. If the pipe has a fracture or crack it will need replacing but that shouldn't really happen. However, as Derek has mentioned above, for the seals to be changed you need to collect the refrigerant prior to opening the pipe connection. Personally i would go to an aircon specialist as opposed to toyota for this

What has failed the high pressure pipe itself or just a "o" ring type gasked. Maybe gasket is not sold separete. In any case aircon needs depressurising by a specilast with the kit to capture any gas in the system then strip repair and test system can hold pressure then if its ok repressurise system. By law you have tobe able to collect this gas from your system and not vent it into the atmosphere. Hope this helps.

Yep, and scratches and stonechips!

Oh that's good to know... I had noticed that occasionally it seems to run the engine but still only use MG2 to drive the car instead of the ICE and was wondering why!

I once had a Fiesta that was a similar colour. I agree that it looks fantastic when it is clean but it is fantastically hard to keep clean, it shows the dirt much too easily.

This for the engine can be as you describe but can also be exactly opposite. I always wait 1-2 minute before driving off and in winter up to 3-4 minutes The engine is running but if you drive low speeds it will not propel the car and the car still will be moved on mg2 alone because the ice will be in warm up stages and only if you demand extra power will take over. Sometimes in certain conditions the car can enter into a “play mode” - constantly switching between mg2 and ice on and off. It is similar to what some may had experienced in older type automatic transmissions when the car can’t decide which gear to stay in and it’s switching between two gears ( 2-3, 3-2 for example). Very unusual and jerky behaviour. There were even members complaining about that previously. It’s normal but rare to happen and can be a strange thing to many Toyota hybrid owners. 👍 How to deal in that situation, simple, just floor it 😂👌🏁

I would love to have my car lifted an inch - It would make it more like a Mk1/Mk2 in that I could get in the car easier instead of more or less falling into it Would also help my paranoia when going over some of the particularly excessive speed cushions!

My Mk4 definitely only reads the signs; It couldn't achieve this level of wrongness if it had any kind of GPS or other external database/signal support! Case in pint: Today it thought a (20) zone was a (120) zone!!

Totally agree! This is the first car to have a major mpg improvement - Even diesels can't get 70+mpg this effortlessly. I'm on track for 84mpg on this tank, although I am trying to deliberately. Normally I'm low-mid 70's but having a lot more fun driving it

Checked mine again, no rust. Gave them a toot of Dynax just in case.

Thanks guys you’re comments are much appreciated ! chris

3M double sided tape pad, job done.

What are your concerns about a 'normal' car? Do you live in the countryside and need off road ability? Any car you buy will always be a compromise on something. You just need to decide what your priorities are. As others have mentioned, the Corolla Trek might be a good option. It is a bit of a halfway between a normal estate car and a crossover.

I'm a firm believer in doing things once properly. It isn't worth the time of a poor crimp eventually working loose and having to do it again anyway. Even at minimum wage, if you save yourself an hour over the tool's lifetime, you've paid for the tool.

Thanks Ernie, I had a quick look this morning but couldn't spot anything, I'll have a closer look later and see if can find anything 👍

Had that once, alarm, lights on, and no reason. I didn't find any insects but the was the most likely reason.

Exactly

A metallic paint is used to provide what is known as ‘flip flop’ effects where the paint appears bright when viewed straight on but is darker with a shallower viewing angle. The designers of cars use this effect to enhance appearance around things like swage lines etc. For most ‘metallic’ paint this is achieved using aluminium flake pigments and the preference in Europe for many years has been for fine metallic effect i.e. using silver dollar type flakes which give a subtle effect. What some of the posts on here seem to be requesting are ‘metallic’ effects more like a glitter effect which only come with larger particle size flakes. I’m sorry but if you choose a grey colour like Manhattan grey don’t expect it to look any better than a grey primer.

Yeah it's ~5-10L smaller than previous Yaris fuel tanks. The 'guess-o-meter', as EV people call it, normally shows ~500 miles on a full tank for me, from normal use. I'm on an economy run on this tank and it's currently showing 280 miles remaining (270 covered!)

Hi Flash, would it be possible to also get this update to 850. Picking up a 65 Aygo X-Clusiv tomorrow and thanks to this thread I checked the firmware when test driving, it was 830 (I think). Would love it to be up to date!

Looks exactly the same as any other Corolla. Nothing unusual here. Nice and clean new cars 👍 Enjoy your cars and don’t stress unnecessary, until a real problem happens.

I reverse out of my driveway and the engine always kicks in before I pull forwards onto the road. Hybrid control just doing its stuff. Not worried.

After standing overnight sometimes I can get to the bottom of the road before the engine starts & sometimes the engine starts immediately in my garage. I just leave it to get on with what it wants to do.

On a 1 year old car I would be suspicious of this, especially if other owners don’t report it. To narrow down the diagnosis: it happens turning in either direction or just one? Moving forward and or reversing? Car cold (off the driveway) or warm (parking after a 30min drive)? Judder on full lock is a known issue on my other car, it’s the wide tyres skipping as they roll (called reverse Ackerman effect). Reduced when I changed tyres from old hard ones to new softer ones. Not known on my old RAV though.

Really depends on a lot of variables Bob. Things like outside temperature, settings in vehicle such as aircon, heating, heated seats, etc and the charge left in the 12v battery and how long the vehicle has been sitting and what the recent journeys have been like, etc Mine often starts first thing on electric and quickly switches to engine and then back to electric. And often starts on engine and quickly switches to electric. Don't think there's anything to worry about 👍

Finally. One thing I wasn’t expecting, it has black headlining. I thought it was black only on GR Sport & Excel.

Not on this Rav, but on other cars I've had an initial clunk noise if car parked on full lock on the drive, but only in first setting off. It was never reproduced once under way. Brief Internet research at the time suggested it was unhealthy to leave the steering column/rack on full lock when stationary, but I can't recall exactly why. Your initial phrasing suggests that this knocking is recurrent/noticed in regular driving on tight turns, so perhaps not but could this apply to what you're noticing?

I regularly have to use full, both directions, locks on the car and have not heard noises. I know the sound and I’ve experienced it on other cars. Sounds like a trip to the dealer.

I wasn't aware of that option. I'll look tomorrow. Many thanks.

Is it set to 'total tank average' rather than 'trip average'? If you've had the car long enough I can imagine that 'total tank average' doesn't change very much.

That's not 33 mpg it's nearly 43 mpg (UK gallons). That doesn't sound too bad. What were the weather conditions? Was it flat or hilly? What are the tyre pressures? The hybrid system can't work miracles. Moving over a tonne of metal at 70 mph requires energy and that means burning fuel. At motorway speeds the hybrid system just can't do a great deal to help the ICE. It doesn't have the power to meaningfully assist. I'd still expect over 50 mpg from a 1.8 HB (on the few occasions where I've gone that speed over that distance I do) but it wouldn't take much to drop it further. There's also the possibility that the dash is over reporting (although it tends to under report for most of us).

That's rather low but it will also depend on how you were driving. If you had your foot to the floor and driving at high speeds then this could be why it's so low. Most of my journeys are round town and this tank of fuel i'm getting 62.5mpg. On a long journey i would expect to get over 70mpg with my driving style.

Could well be 🙂

That's what I thought but, you know 😐

Reflection from the trees 👍

For a regime where you charge every couple of days, no bad thing in winter, it is well worthwhile wiring the charging cable to the battery and having the plug easily accessible. For an engine bay battery, ensure the socket is weatherproof.

I will rather get a fully spec Corolla anything that is the design trim and above rather than a base model Lexus that doesn’t even have a auto dimm rear view mirror. The only problem I see with grey Corolla is the colour itself with enough or not metallic bits inside this particular colour makes the car almost impossible to see it when driving in urban environment . The colour camouflages with the concrete colour of the roads, viaducts, bridges and all of that and very difficult to see a car is coming behind or from a side , only recognised by the drl or headlights if they are on. A note to all owners of that colour, you need to be aware of that and remember someone might not see you are coming and cut you off badly.

Oh and I forgot to add: The hybrid aspect of the Corolla complicates things further. The car can choose to improve ICE efficiency by having the electric motor do some of the work. This can result in lower RPMs for the same road speed. Perhaps more bizarrely the car can do the opposite. It can put additional load on the ICE by getting it to charge the battery. This might seem silly but the additional load might allow the ECU to operate the ICE more efficiently. In this mode you're burning more petrol than you need to keep the vehicle moving but you're getting more energy out of the fuel you burn - the surplus energy is stored in the battery to be used later. It all comes down to the same thing: RPMs are hard to predict and hard to understand with a CVT and even more so with a hybrid. There's an argument to be made that Toyota shouldn't have bothered with a rev counter because it doesn't tell the driver anything useful and the driver has no control over them either.

We have never had the Echo as an official import in Europe (Toyota Owners Club is UK based). The Yaris, on which the Echo is based, hasn't been a common target for cat theft here.