Totally confused.com...............

[dcdick]

What next from this engine ???

Just needed to pop down to local Tesco to pick some stuff up.

It's about 2 miles & the "down" run is basically a gentle decline/flat with a short (50 m) steeper down gradient near the end. Apart from 1/2 mile or so the rest is 30mph zone.

As it was ( & still is) a hot day here in NE England so I thought I would try to use my best "eco" driving style & see what I could get out of it , car in eco mode, aircon on for first mile or so till interior cooled down a bit.

89.1 mpg on the dash read out in the Tesco car park !!!

After returning home with the shopping mpg had fallen to 62.4 mpg :D

So this engine is certainly capable of ex mpg when driven carefully & the conditions suit the way it is set up...................

Could it be that all that is needed is a "remap/upgrade" of the ECU ??

Does anybody know the differences in settings for different countries or is it just the one "fail safe" setting ??

D

Patiently waiting now for a 1.4 SE TSI, DSG in a rather fetching dark grey (Urano I believe is the VAG description)

[maisbitt]

Some of the ECU tuning box companies claim to be able to run your car better than with factory settings set by VW for economy and power, because they have a regionally appropriate map for your engine that makes all the difference compared to a global generic map. Could well be just marketing hype, perhaps there are potential longevity issues with these settings and that is why VW steer clear of them, who's to know?

My dad's MK5 GT 170TDI PD (which was replaced by the MK7 GTD on Monday) had been running a tuning box from "TDI-tuning.co.uk" for about 2 years and although it doesn't make a huge difference on economy for long journeys (like Southampton to Newcastle), on his commute (16 miles, it makes a big difference. He put that box on at about 80k miles and did another 35k miles with it on. When we took it off to get the car in for p/x, the start-up seemed smoother back on stock ECU control, but running seemed the same (smoothness).

[Brycie]

Sorry to butt in on this thread again, but would a tuning box/chip not affect your manufacturer's warranty? I think JimC64 had his remap done at Audi specifically to keep to the terms of his warranty..... just a thought.

[maisbitt]

Sorry to butt in on this thread again, but would a tuning box/chip not affect your manufacturer's warranty? I think JimC64 had his remap done at Audi specifically to keep to the terms of his warranty..... just a thought.

It would affect your warranty unless you had one of those bypassing boxes that unplug, leaving no memory in the ECU. I was just saying what I did to highlight the fact that some ECU/tuning box companies claim there is more than one universal setting (regional variations) as per DCDick's enquiry. I wouldn't advocate the use of them, especially whilst under warranty, but in my dad's case his car has come to no harm through using one.

[dcdick]

In the "old" days the "tuning box" gadgets usually just overrode the safety settings for fuelling allowing the engine to work harder.

Things have moved on a huge amount since those days with very sophisticated mapping alternatives available now but the warranty issue must be taken into account.

VW does have a tuning program that will "tune up" your car that also includes suspension/brake improvements where necessary while maintaining your warranty entitlement. But there then follows hassle with insurance companies especially with leased cars.

Could well be more cost effective to buy the next model up.

Maybe the current set up of ECU's is indeed the best all round option seeing as VW's pet term "driving style is out of our control" is probably the reason for the factory settings............. lowest common denominator ?

D

Patiently waiting now for a 1.4 SE TSI, DSG in a rather fetching dark grey (Urano I believe is the VAG description)