hey,

im new to driving a diesel and wanna know roughly the time to change gear when going round town etc, as on the motorway i get really good mpg (60+) but when off them i get quite a bit less and am getting to about 420miles to a tank (till the light comes on), i was expecting more... what am i doing wrong? or is this normal?

just so you know im changing gear about 2k-2.5k and like to have the rev at about 1.5-2.5k at constant speeds..

cheers

That's almost exactly the way I drive the diesel, apart from when giving it beans, when I will keep the RPM between 2500 and 4500, generally.

In day to day driving I try to keep the RPM between 1600 and 2300 or 2500

You'll always get worse economy in town. Symptomatic of the stop/start & low speeds. In my local town if it's on the flat I generally change at 2k, and keep revs below 1.5k on cruising as the turbo is totally off-boost and the car still pulls ok. That's optimum economy mode.

acceleration uses more fuel, so town driving is always going to be quite a bit less in the mpg stakes.

edit: beaten too it!

Edited 7 May, 200917 yr by Confused_Cheese
devonutopia!

If you drive in town or on a relatively flat 30mph road, then put it into 6 the gear, take you feet off the pedals and it keeps going a steady 30 mph. Every gear increases by 5 mph, ie 3rd = 15, 4th = 20, 5th = 25.

Tip - use gears to slow down. When you see a red light coming up, ease off gas and allow gap to form between you and car in front. If you're lucky by the time you reach the queue the light will be green and you can simply keep going.

REMEMBER: IN GEAR COASTING USES ZERO FUEL

just put something easy listening on the radio, works for me! lol

Also remember if you have to use the brakes you are wasting fuel... particularly useful on country road drives - if you know the road well enough or plan far enough ahead you generally never (or very rarely indeed) have to brake... therefore no kinetic energy that you put in to the car using your engine is wasted. And remember, energy used = fuel used.

use the torque to gain momentum without reving too high

I have to admit all this eco-talk can sometimes be absolute tosh and I just follow the 4.5k gear change tactic instead. Time and a place for that of course and it's usually approaching those circular signs with a black line through them.

the thing is i do all of these (engine braking etc), if the vrs has an average mpg of around 50-55, then why am i only getting 420 miles to a tank? used to have a little 1.2 corsa (same size fuel tank) and got 450 in it when its average mpg was alot lower

and when i fill up the 'miles to petrol station' says 550, not getting anywhere near that, and yeah i admit i do spank it round some a roads, but it shouldnt effect it that much.. or does the fuel light come on really early?

as it seems im driving it the right way, but getting 'bad' economy (compared to what i was led to believe..)

thanks for all the quick and good responces!

You're lucky to get 45mpg around town really. 40mpg is perhaps more likely. I only see nicely over 50mpg when either on steady 40mph sections or on NSL out of town.

you think i was just hoping for too much?! lol

end of the day its quite a bit better on average than the 1.2 corsa, but has alot more power and just better in every way, so im not gonna complain!

I've never seen over 50 mpg, and often see low 30's if that makes you feel any better......

when you fill up, the computer automatically thinks your going to be doing 50mpg, around town its just not going to happen, i average about 35-37mpg, most of thats fun driving as i live close to work, dont go on motorways a lot and dont really care about fueling up.

My mates civic vti cant keep up with me, when there singing at 8.5k rpm there probably doing 20mpg, so stop worrying and enjoy having a comfy, quiet, quick, economical lil car:)

I've never seen over 50 mpg, and often see low 30's if that makes you feel any better......

Your car isn't exactly normal though, is it.

had a look yesterday, and the long term average on my trip computer says something like 27mpg

On the really amazingly accurate trip computer I get 68mpg on my 12 mile daily commute into Manchester (downhill) and 48mpg on the way home (uphill). In reality for this trip it averages about 53mpg with absolutely no fun whatsoever.

Weekends or any other funtime you'd do well to get over say 42-44 but who cares? The absolutely useless mini I had before did about 24mpg long term so compared to what else you could get for this kind of performance at this price we're all quids in.

Edited 8 May, 200917 yr by Irvtheswerv
can't spell

hey,

im new to driving a diesel and wanna know roughly the time to change gear when going round town etc, as on the motorway i get really good mpg (60+) but when off them i get quite a bit less and am getting to about 420miles to a tank (till the light comes on), i was expecting more... what am i doing wrong? or is this normal?

just so you know im changing gear about 2k-2.5k and like to have the rev at about 1.5-2.5k at constant speeds..

cheers

That sounds fair enough.

Mine did 45-50 mpg on my mixed urban/motorway commute. Bad traffic would push it below 40, gently cruising could see 56-58.

Why worry? For the performance, you'll be getting good economy anyway.

Mr slippyfist, I think a remap might help you with your economy. Remaps are not just for extra power, they also improve mpg and make the engine run smoother and quieter. Most people on Briskoda are not really interested in how many miles we extrract from a gallon of diesel, moreover how much power we can boost the PD lump to.

As for changing gear at the right time, the wife has no idea which gear she is in " it goes in any gear" she says " there are too many to choose from"

I'm just wondering how long my DMF will last!

Toe and heel is your friend, i always toe and heel when downshifting as revs on the diesel seem to drop quickly when hitting the clutch so using the toe and heel meathod reduces clutch drag when slowing down.

Kev

All is revealed if you check youe average 'mph' . I get 57 mpg which is mixed driving but with an overall mph of '34' that is very good. If you can up your average speed you may get far better return, but on UK roads that is a cahllenge?

Toe and heel is your friend, i always toe and heel when downshifting as revs on the diesel seem to drop quickly when hitting the clutch so using the toe and heel meathod reduces clutch drag when slowing down.

Kev

Have you got universal joints in your ankle? The VRS pedals are staggered so I can't toe & heel or heel & toe.

In the vRS it's actually the other variant, toe and toe...

I brake with the left side of my foot then twist my foot slightly to tap the throttle with the right side of my foot.

Basically, imagine that there's a pedal between the brake and throttle and you're aiming for that, so you get the brake then just twist slightly to dab the throttle...

Hope that explains what i mean.

Kev

I can only acheive this on cars that have pedals that are level, just too awkward on the VRS for me old joints:)