Improving gas mileage using the Fuelly phone app

I started off using an iPhone app in 2014 named GassCubby, but then it was converted over to an app named Fuelly.

I wanted to find out what kind of gas milage I was getting on a 2000 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 and if I was able to improve it with specific maintenance things or just the way I drove.

You start logging in your gas fill-ups and you will generate various data points. This is the main screen which shows Ave MPG (Miles per gallon), last MPG, Best MPG, percentage of City/Highway driving, total cost, total fuel-ups/gallons, service cost.

This is a chart of the last 3 years for Fuel Efficiency. Some of the spike ups are from road trips where I got good gas milage on the highway. But a few of the spikes are from data transfer issues when going from Gas Cubby to Fuelly.

Price per gallon since ~2014 w/an anomaly spike low... The small spike ups are real, when I was on a few road trips in the middle of nowhere, the gas stations would charge a premium compared to a decent sized town...

Total fuel-up costs

Vehicle stats

The menu page within the app. You can add multiple vehicles

You can log all of your services in the app including the costs. Oil changes, air filter change, radiator fluid, tire rotation, brake fluid, spark plug, etc...

So the question is.......do you really need this app? I would say in general, no.... unless you really want to know how much gas mileage your getting on a particular vehicle.

And, can it help improve your gas milage? For me, yes as I did monitor my milage after performing specific maintenance items and driving habits which I will summarize. (So you really do not need the app as this applies to all drivers and all vehicles)

I found that the key to better gas milage was a few things:

• Make sure you check your tire pressure about once every 2 months. (That is only 6 times a year, you can do it) I see quite a few people rolling around on what looks like low tire pressure. You car will not coast efficiently and your tire wear will be uneven. I put a little more air in the front tire as the engine weight is over those tires.
  

• The amount of distance that I coasted before a stop sign. If there was no one behind me and the light is red, I took my foot off of the gas earlier and coasted a bit more.

• Taking off slower than normal from a stop. My truck is a manual and I'll shift it at 2.5k rpms to get the best gas milage. This was not tested by me and looking for results, but by other Tacoma users on a forum. A few had a scan gauge installed which logs gas consumption and engine data. They pretty much summarized that shifting around the 2.5k rpms had the best gas milage. The same action applies to everyone though, if your aggressive with the gas pedal, you'll get worse gas milage.

• As far as maintenance items, the only significant difference that I noticed was when I changed oil to full synthetic. It costs more, but I think you'll get the money back in gas savings. You may even have less wear and tear on your engine as it will run smoother.

I changed my air filter to a higher flow one and did not notice any difference with mileage. I'd say that you just need to remove it and blow it out with an air compressor once in a while. (Remember going down the street and that landscaper was blowing all of the crap towards the middle of the street as you drove though? Well all of that dust is in your air filter...)

Changing spark plugs with OEM did not show any significant difference. Maybe changing the wires along with the plugs would have bumped up the mileage a little...?

Hope you all get better gas milage going forward and save a few bucks over the year!