Toyota Carina E - Lean Burn Driving Technique

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Sun 18 Mar 2012 21:48
Toyota Carina E - Lean Burn Driving Technique - dsuk81

My Toyota Carina E has the 1.8 7AFE engine.

The eco dashboard light doesnt work, probably just a bulb, but dont fancy removing dash for the sake of bulb.

Anyway i believe there is a speicifc technique to getting the best MPG out of lean burn engines.

I vaguely remember reading somewhere something like high revs, minimum throttle opening...

Is it best to keep the car in a lower gear than might normally be advised to keep the throttle opening as small as possible.

Any advice?

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Sun 18 Mar 2012 22:01
Toyota Carina E - Lean Burn Driving Technique - unthrottled

Is it best to keep the car in a lower gear than might normally be advised to keep the throttle opening as small as possible.

No. It's a question of vacuum. If you're driving at a constant speed, the throttle will be almost in the same position, whether you're in 3rd or 4th gear. But you will pull more vacuum in 3rd than 4th.

Obviously the lean burn only works at low/medium manbifold pressures . However, I'd still be inclined to use the highest gear possible because this minimises mechanical losses (which are greater than pumping losses) in order to get best efficiency-even if this pushes you into stoichiometric operation.

They're very good engines-hang onto it as long as you can!

Edited by unthrottled on 18/03/2012 at 22:01

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Mon 19 Mar 2012 18:17
Toyota Carina E - Lean Burn Driving Technique - brignac

As someone who had this engine in the later Avensis for 10 years, I would disagree with the above.

It was the most fuel efficient if kept around 2700rpm.

This means staying in third gear in a 30mph area and often in fourth when doing a steady 45-50.

If you drive at 2,000 rpm your fuel consumption will fall substantially. Try it and see...

And yes it is a great engine - ours did 180,000 with virtually no problems and was still going perfectly when we sold it

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