Hi all,

I have just bought a 2007 Octavia vRS 2.0 tdi PD estate and am just getting 46mpg on my normal work run, circa 50 miles each way mainly motorway and dual carriage way driving, being very careful with the throttle, 70 mph. I have read that remapping / chipping can can be done to provide real increase in mpg as well as a small increase in power / torgue and making throttle response smoother. I'm not really looking for a power boost, I'm quite happy with the 170 bhp I get, it't just the fuel economy I want to improve. Does anyone have any experience of either the plug and play "economy" chips or the proper reprogramming that they could recount. One of the appeals of the plug and play economy chips is that some are recognised by insurance companies and won't effect premiums. The other question has to be, what effect will any programme changes have on the engine, my car has 55k miles on it.

As I said, any nuggets would be appreciated.

Cheers,

simmod00

Hi all,

I have just bought a 2007 Octavia vRS 2.0 tdi PD estate and am just getting 46mpg on my normal work run, circa 50 miles each way mainly motorway and dual carriage way driving, being very careful with the throttle, 70 mph. I have read that remapping / chipping can can be done to provide real increase in mpg as well as a small increase in power / torgue and making throttle response smoother. I'm not really looking for a power boost, I'm quite happy with the 170 bhp I get, it't just the fuel economy I want to improve. Does anyone have any experience of either the plug and play "economy" chips or the proper reprogramming that they could recount. One of the appeals of the plug and play economy chips is that some are recognised by insurance companies and won't effect premiums. The other question has to be, what effect will any programme changes have on the engine, my car has 55k miles on it.

As I said, any nuggets would be appreciated.

Cheers,

simmod00

Forget chips, get it remapped, if a good programmer gets there hands on it you will see an increase in mpg. But, the extra power approx' 200bhp from your engine will tempt you in to pushing the noisy pedal that little bit further thus cancelling out the extra fuel economy.

Conclusion, if you don't want the extra power, leave well enough alone.

Does anyone know how a remap effects economy above 60mph (ie 70 - 80mph motorway cruising speed). From what I have read the economy gains from a remap / chip seem to effect the acceleration, the ability to keep revs low and use less fuel. Does a remap mean that at normal cruising there is less fuel used?

Does anyone know how a remap effects economy above 60mph (ie 70 - 80mph motorway cruising speed). From what I have read the economy gains from a remap / chip seem to effect the acceleration, the ability to keep revs low and use less fuel. Does a remap mean that at normal cruising there is less fuel used?

I have a Shark Stage 1 remap on my 2.0 tdi (not a VRS) I drive 500 miles a week with a 60/40 mix of motorway and town driving. I have seen my mpg go up by an average of 5-6 mpg post map with my normal drive (50-70 miles per tank), averaged over 2000 miles with brim to brim filling.

Motorway cruising does use less fuel, but it is far to easy to see that average go down given the extra power under your right foot. If you do have your car remapped I would recommend Ben @ Shark Performance, i'm sure if you give him a ring he will answer all your questions.

Matt

Better MPG and improved performance?

Surely there must be a trade off otherwise why wouldn't they leave the factory this way?

Better MPG and improved performance?

Surely there must be a trade off otherwise why wouldn't they leave the factory this way?

.

If you drive it like you stole it and use every bit of performance it has, then no, the mpg will be worse and the extra power can damage your clutch, engine components and turbo etc which is all very expensive.

A sensible remap will still be within the cars performance limits without risking lots of damage to the engine. However, most of my driving is on the motorway or through town were I stick to the speed limit. The car has more torque lower down the rev range, so for town driving you don't need to use your right foot as much, so for stop start driving economy has improved. On the motorway you can get up to speed and maintain it at slightly lower revs again improving my overall fuel economy. The down side is there is an extra cost in insurance and could be more wear on the engine components and your right foot .

A remap isn't ideal for everyone, for me I had mulled it over for a good 6 months before getting it done. On a positive the car has the extra performance if I want or need to use it, and yes I wish it had come out of the factory like that because its a much better drive now.

Matt

Driving at 60-70 and being careful with it I have hit 52mpg in my PD vRS, remapped by Shark. The power is addictive though

Mines the pd 140, mapped to 170.

Used to do about 49mpg. Now on motorway does 54 - 55mpg that's with passengers.

This is also something that i have seriously considered, mainly for the extra economy but also because I miss the way the PD delivers the power, speaking to Ben @ Shark, the remap on a CR supposedly makes the power deliver closer to a PD than a CR.

The only thing that has stopped me doing it is the distance he is away from me and the STS unit is not suitable for the newer 'protected' CR ECU's.

It would take a hell of a lot of driving to save enough fuel to warrant having mine remapped. I'm not a perforamance driver, and was toying with the remap purely and simply for the fuel economy improvement.

+1

By my calculations, if you could managed an extra 5mpg (going from 45 - 50 mpg) and did 10K a year then at today's price of £6.30 per gallon (£1.40 ltr) you could potentially save £150 in fuel per year (this will obviously increase as fuel prices increase) but obviously the insurance premium (mine would be 10%) will take around £50 of that meaning on a £500 remap you would need to cover 50k just to 'break even' - the benefits however would be a better driving car. (you could also potentially reduce the remap price with a GB and freedom membership discount )

There is also the potential of further improvements in MPG with a DPF removal, but yet again it is doubtful that you will ever recoup the cost of it's removal - unless you needed a DPF replacement.

By my calculations, if you could managed an extra 5mpg (going from 45 - 50 mpg) and did 10K a year then at today's price of £6.30 per gallon (£1.40 ltr) you could potentially save £150 in fuel per year (this will obviously increase as fuel prices increase) but obviously the insurance premium (mine would be 10%) will take around £50 of that meaning on a £500 remap you would need to cover 50k just to 'break even' - the benefits however would be a better driving car. (you could also potentially reduce the remap price with a GB and freedom membership discount )There is also the potential of further improvements in MPG with a DPF removal, but yet again it is doubtful that you will ever recoup the cost of it's removal - unless you needed a DPF replacement.

It looks like there might just be a Shark Group Buy coming up too!