01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

lol thanks! Nothing else is going into this thing! I catch myself browsing cool parts and such - but I'm stopping myself. If anything a few cheap things. My next one is a sub, most likely an Infinity Basslink and I'm done, maintenance being the exception. No more mods. I'll go nuts in a while when I score an LS430/GS350 maybe an SUV. I'm not sure what will be next for me.

Yep, too late for this car unfortunately. It's the inner fender that keeps peeking thru. Never replaced the whole thing properly as I wasn't able to source the proper piece...
It was done properly given the circumstances. Any rust is a sign of it being far-gone, especially this side. To be honest, it could be much worse. A neighbor has an 00 and his is a rust bucket.

[IMG][/IMG]

What I ended up doing this summer was putting acid all over this car to 'kill' the process as best as it could and painted over it [not on the outside, part you can see].
The bubbles kept coming thru under the fresh paint. I'll re-do it next year. Sand it right down, hit it with that acid and give it a quick rattle can to mask it as best as possible.

My underbody is uber-clean though, been rustproofed all it's life

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I saw my car recently getting an oil change (by the new owner at the place i went to) and the guy has already put
5k on it. I honestly miss my es300, I've strongly considered getting another haha. Yours is still in great shape though, you don't realize how much you like it until its not in the driveway anymore.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Next area to tackle is my MPG's. My car is **** when it comes to getting bang or your buck in terms of MPG. Just take a look thru my fuelly page (in signature)... getting average of 17 mpg is garbage and the fact that my all time best was 19.8 something was up.

Just had my buddy scan it, he'll look into potential causes as there is no faults in the car [scanner reads what all sensors are doing, not just a basic code scanner].

My coworkers gets 600k kms on the regular in his 98 and came just short of 1000k km's on a tank of premium doing a long highway run. WTF!

This drives me nuts, I'm tired of getting excited when i 'near' a 400 mile tank... that's a joke.

The kicker? I got 200mi. to a tank last week. and so far I'm at this for the week;
[IMG][/IMG]

Updates to follow when I figure this out....


I almost rather not put money into the little things anymore and just deal with one catastrophic failure during a vehicles lifetime. But no, I've had that once already [trans] and all the little stuff. It's getting very ****ing annoying TBH
I'm seriously coming to the end of my leash.

Also, just noticed my new (used) trans is sweating already, even though it has new gaskets everywhere. UGH

hypervish

Yeah, that is horrible mpg. Let us know what you find out.

vintagelex

With the horrible mpg, if everything checks out good mechanically, it might just be a simple leak in a fuel line somewhere. I would put it on jackstands or even better on a lift, and have someone run the engine while you look at all the fuel lines, especially where they join together, to see if you don't have a slow leak.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

The system is gravy. Had a new fuel filter put in 2yrs ago. A "good" Mann unit.

brucelee1

iTrader: (2)

Yes, that is way low.
Unless you are on it all the time or just in the city, there is clearly an issue.

Good luck.

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Still not much change in MPG. Read up on some bulletins, going to try;
swapping A/F ratio sensors from bank to bank, change the thermostat for a new unit.

In the mean time I winterized it;





1 3/4" pipe insulation in the upper & lower grills 'spread' out over them for heat retention [this is a city car basically], and unbolted the tops of fender and inserted the 1 1/4" pipe insulation in the tops to form as gasket on between hood & engine bay since A LOT of heat escapes it currently and always has.

Wrapped the battery in insulation, and going to remove hod insulation and re-layer new one on top as i can see my OEM insulation is somewhat deteriorated.

So far; 1.5 - 2 mins of idling [two days back to back same ~ -25c] would already warm up the motor to just under the last tick in the heat gauge, and within 1 minute of driving heating in the cabin kicks in. Before, 5 mins, and a couple of mins of drive time.

Best part, this was all under 20$ and maybe 1hr of working time mostly spent on figuring out how to place what & where, as well as being in the -25c cold.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Never heard of anyone insulating their engine bay, is that a Canadian thing? I would think that it could harm your engine by overheating the cooling system. That gauge in the cluster is not very accurate, you have to look at the OBD2 readout.

imherenow

thats kinda interesting thing to do..kinda neat ..also i see that the coolant level low. I don't see the red coolant. or maybe its a different coolant colour?

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Not at all. It's a cold weather/MPG thing. For me it's "new" since it used to be garaged, now booted outside since there's a CT200h in its place.

Basically, this isn't a new thing, in Europe, even with 'mild' winters my father used to cover up his engine bay with cardboard once he was done driving it. To conserve heat for as long as possible.

My initial idea was to actually retrofit the Prius "thermos", basically, the coolant overflow/coolant tank [all in one] that is insulated and keeps the coolant warm, for many hours, and even then it only dips down a few degrees. Really cool system, however, I couldn't be bothered on this old ES... too much work; http://priuschat.com/threads/2006-pr...ng-off.133489/

This got the ball rolling [much like watching one youtube video -> next] Thought about a 'different' heat retention. Recalled in the summer that the sides of my hood give off a lot of heat - no wonder the ES cools right down once I finish driving!

Here's what sparked the grill cover-up; http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3687

More reading about winter/keeping engine temp longer for 'normal' cars [aka, non-prius]. Some neat tips, and data by the hardcore MPG'ers; http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...omy-11448.html

And yes, overheating would seem to be a concern - but not really. A lot of these 50 MPG hybrid guys run these grill blocks year round with no adverse affects. And with the under belly still exposed, the cold will find a way in - I'm simple 'conserving' the heat that is being generated to give me the head start if you will, the next time I'm starting the car, after say, 2hrs of driving.
http://priuschat.com/threads/fuel-mi....134881/page-3

Like I said, I noticed a difference almost immediately. Same thing today, was even colder than yesterday. A 2.5 min idle, and a short 1 min long drive led to a much quicker than [previous] normal warm up.

I don't have the last link, but some people run actual pieces of cardboard year round on top of the motors, basically a slice in between the engine bay & hood - that's too much, I have to re-insulate mine and I'll be more than good.

I've never thought I'd get into what some of the 'eco modders' do, but that forum is an awesome resource, and never in a million years would I see myself implementing a grill block on a vehicle lol

It was 'cold'. iPhone camera, and my coolant is more pink than red.

speedkar9

Rather unconventional, but have you ever heard of a block heater?

Just kidding

01LEXPL

iTrader: (10)

Considered it, however this motor is just not 'good' for one of those, you can find them on ebay, and the heater is so small, it would have to run all night to get any heat. Another option was to get a coolant heater where you can wire it in-line with the lower rad hoses, but that can get messy and again, not very effective.

This method, albeit the cheapest, would probably yield 'most' good on the ES that is parked outside in the winter. [it was -39c tonight with the windchill, and well over -30c] right now.

The converse argument for block heaters is the hydro costs... what's the point of savings a couple of bucks on the gas consumption, if it will cost you 100$ more at the end of the winter on your hydro?

I was going to re-do the insulation under the hood, but not about to venture that far in -35c... my hands will fall off!

285exp

Since it sounds like your driving is mostly city, I doubt there's very much wrong with the car, your drop in mileage is probably due to the cold. You're letting it idle for several minutes before you start driving, all the while you're getting zero mpg and very little heat is being generated by an engine running extra rich. You'd be better off letting it idle just a few seconds to get the oil flowing and then drive gently until the coolant temp comes off the peg, the engine will develop a lot more heat under load than at high idle.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

It's 5 degrees FAHRENHEIT and I think it's freezing. Can't even imagine what -40C is like.
How does your car even start?

On a different note, is the CT200h your personal car? What do you think of it? And does it have a temperature control for its batteries?