Remapping.
Posted: October 11th, 2021, 10:06 am
One of the options open now we have a modern turbo diesel is the opportunities for cheap tuning.
Now obviously if I'd wanted a fast car, I wouldn't have gone for a 1.6D Estate, butthe choice was prettly limited between lockdowns for 3-5 year old cars in our price bracket, and it was intended as a stopgap for the 400 mile weekly round trip up the M5. The claimed 64 mpg is a pipe dream, MrsF generally got 49 average at 75 mph on the late night return trip. Dropping nearer to 60mph improves mpg, which just confirms that it is wind mainly resistance that govern mpg on the motorway.
However, 12 months later and keeping it seems sensible, and the main trip now is along the A5 and up via Chester to see mum, and this is where the 1.6 really irritates.......
The gearing is 'wrong' for UK A roads, drop under 55mph, or hit an incline, and it wants you to change down, the end result being that with all the lorries/tractors etc you spend most of the time in 5th, or often 4th gear.
I went for an 'economy remap' from a local place, £250 no VAT as they had just started up. I figure they're all pretty much the same as each other, and all claim similar performance gains. 110bHp up to 140, 200 lbft up to 240, and a barely credible 20% fuel efficiency gain.
Initial runs were all aournd town, so the first thing I noticed was a bit more urge at very low revs, handy around town, but obviously you still need to get the turbo spooling above tickover. The second thing was how much more the car 'ran on' when coasting - you could lift off much earlier approaching roundabouts. It also seemed happier in 4th in 30 limits, similarly 5th is now fine at 40mph or so. Previously dropping a couple of mph required a change down.
The main driver (ho ho) for this was economy, and tbh round town it depends more on how many red lights I hit, and as I never really bother to check urban mpg as most of the mileage is elsewhere, I didn't have a proper comparator. However after each trip the mpg since startup is briefly displayed, and it has mainly been 40+, which is probably slightly more than previously where I notice a bunch of 30-somethings.
So, on to the A roads. Yesterday was the first trip to see mum since the remap, and previously with the mix of 40 miles of A road and then 60 miles of dual carr/mway to Oldham it did about 51. Yesterday the improvement was there, but not much, it managed 54 with MrsF driving. However she did keep her tendency to drive in a gear lower than I would, whilst I sit there adding to the dentist's pension pot, and did like the extra 'oomph' off roundabouts.
On the way back I drove, ignoring MrsF's glances as she thought the car was 'labouring.' I managed 54mpg for the trip, however when we hit Oswestry I reset the mpg meter for the last 20 miles. Oswestry is a regular stop on the way back (they have a 'holiday' Morissons [1]) and this bit of the run is a mix of dual and single carr, nearly all NSL, but often slower trafic so up and down the gears. It normally returns 51-53 mpg, except a rare time late one evening when quite, and I accelerated like Miss Daisy was in the back, cruised it all at 58mph, and got nearly 60 mpg. This time I drove normally with the traffic, hitting 70 (ish) on the dual carr, overtaking where feasible, and accelerating normally. Mpg for this stretch was 58, which is a good 10% above previous figures.
The tuners claim that being able to hold a higher gear means bettter mpg, and given this admittedly small sample, I'm inclined to agree. More trips in the next few weeks will reveal all
Paul
[1] Holiday supermarkets - like a standard English one, except laid out differently and the signs are in a foreign language
Now obviously if I'd wanted a fast car, I wouldn't have gone for a 1.6D Estate, butthe choice was prettly limited between lockdowns for 3-5 year old cars in our price bracket, and it was intended as a stopgap for the 400 mile weekly round trip up the M5. The claimed 64 mpg is a pipe dream, MrsF generally got 49 average at 75 mph on the late night return trip. Dropping nearer to 60mph improves mpg, which just confirms that it is wind mainly resistance that govern mpg on the motorway.
However, 12 months later and keeping it seems sensible, and the main trip now is along the A5 and up via Chester to see mum, and this is where the 1.6 really irritates.......
The gearing is 'wrong' for UK A roads, drop under 55mph, or hit an incline, and it wants you to change down, the end result being that with all the lorries/tractors etc you spend most of the time in 5th, or often 4th gear.
I went for an 'economy remap' from a local place, £250 no VAT as they had just started up. I figure they're all pretty much the same as each other, and all claim similar performance gains. 110bHp up to 140, 200 lbft up to 240, and a barely credible 20% fuel efficiency gain.
Initial runs were all aournd town, so the first thing I noticed was a bit more urge at very low revs, handy around town, but obviously you still need to get the turbo spooling above tickover. The second thing was how much more the car 'ran on' when coasting - you could lift off much earlier approaching roundabouts. It also seemed happier in 4th in 30 limits, similarly 5th is now fine at 40mph or so. Previously dropping a couple of mph required a change down.
The main driver (ho ho) for this was economy, and tbh round town it depends more on how many red lights I hit, and as I never really bother to check urban mpg as most of the mileage is elsewhere, I didn't have a proper comparator. However after each trip the mpg since startup is briefly displayed, and it has mainly been 40+, which is probably slightly more than previously where I notice a bunch of 30-somethings.
So, on to the A roads. Yesterday was the first trip to see mum since the remap, and previously with the mix of 40 miles of A road and then 60 miles of dual carr/mway to Oldham it did about 51. Yesterday the improvement was there, but not much, it managed 54 with MrsF driving. However she did keep her tendency to drive in a gear lower than I would, whilst I sit there adding to the dentist's pension pot, and did like the extra 'oomph' off roundabouts.
On the way back I drove, ignoring MrsF's glances as she thought the car was 'labouring.' I managed 54mpg for the trip, however when we hit Oswestry I reset the mpg meter for the last 20 miles. Oswestry is a regular stop on the way back (they have a 'holiday' Morissons [1]) and this bit of the run is a mix of dual and single carr, nearly all NSL, but often slower trafic so up and down the gears. It normally returns 51-53 mpg, except a rare time late one evening when quite, and I accelerated like Miss Daisy was in the back, cruised it all at 58mph, and got nearly 60 mpg. This time I drove normally with the traffic, hitting 70 (ish) on the dual carr, overtaking where feasible, and accelerating normally. Mpg for this stretch was 58, which is a good 10% above previous figures.
The tuners claim that being able to hold a higher gear means bettter mpg, and given this admittedly small sample, I'm inclined to agree. More trips in the next few weeks will reveal all
Paul
[1] Holiday supermarkets - like a standard English one, except laid out differently and the signs are in a foreign language