With fuel nearing the £1.50 per litre mark in most places....I was just wondering what everyone else does to get the best performance out of their Fabia Diesels?

I am currently driving a GL2 estate that I picked up in January, having put nearkly 8000 miles on it since then I have seen the fuel economy rise slowly...but this was only after I realsied I had to change my driving style, from my old 2.0 petrol Avensis, and that the gear change indicator was obviously set by someone with shares in a major oil producer.

Do you find a difference in buying vmax/ultimate etc?

What techniques have worked for you ie slipstreaming?

Is there anything I can do to the car that would help?

Correct tyre pressures make a huge difference.

Air Con on in lieu of windows down, when necessary.

You're obviously careful with the throttle already if you're looking for economy, but look to use the brake as little as possible too. The less speed you have to scrub off and the more you can anticipate what's going on ahead, the less energy you are wasting and the more £££ you will save. Forget slipstreaming - minimising stopping and starting will save you the most IMHO.

Got to agree on the tyre pressure issue, I was getting low MPG's a couple of months back and it was down to that.

You have a greenline so that will have narrower wheels/tyres anyway, for economy.

In my opinion fuels make no difference, well they haven't to me.

I'm just hoping it gets warmer soon and the MPG improves when we get rid of the winter diesel! :think:

Ignore the gear change indicator (like you said) in my 1.6 monte i only go in 4th at 30 if its slightly down hill as a slight hill in 4th gear at 30mph forces the engine to work harder and use more fuel. On big down hills i get to the speed i require and then engage neutral (naughty i know) dont stick your foot the the floor when accelerating (unless necessary) as MPG will drop significantly. Remove anything from the car you dont need and last but not least use cruise control if you have it available to yourself?

Zach

Anticipation is the best thing you can use, try to use the brakes as little as possible, energy spent heating up the brakes is energy wasted, try to maintain momentum through bends and roundabouts. I'm not sure about the cruise control though, electronics cannot anticipate the brow of a hill and lift off the throttle early to use the momentum gained to help on the downhill bit.

Ian

Slipstreaming ? What ? With the greatest of respect, if anyone decides to employ this dangerous tactic to save a £1 worth of fuel, then you shouldn't be in charge of a motor vehicle in the first place.

Best to leave the car at home, use public transport, then enjoy the car at the weekends.

Eco driving just causes everyone to dordle around staring at their MPG computers instead of looking where they're going.

Unless you're driving about 'boy racer' like, you should be applying the basics of the above anyway.

On big down hills i get to the speed i require and then engage neutral (naughty i know)

you do realise that uses more fuel in a modern car and is dangerous?

you do realise that uses more fuel in a modern car and is dangerous?

So many people DON'T know this, its untrue!

I'm still sceptical on this whole neutral thing. Someone explained it to me that in modern cars, when you lift off, the fuel supply is cut off. When in neutral, fuel is still being supplied to the engine to keep it ticking over, therefore using more fuel.

Personally I dont do the neutral thing, but each to their own.

I'm still sceptical on this whole neutral thing. Someone explained it to me that in modern cars, when you lift off, the fuel supply is cut off. When in neutral, fuel is still being supplied to the engine to keep it ticking over, therefore using more fuel.

Personally I dont do the neutral thing, but each to their own.

On the PD engine in my car you can hear the fuel kick back in as the car slows beyond a certain point. Probably because the PD rattles like a tractor when idling. When it regens the fuel cut off disengages and you can feel it run on more than when it normally cuts the fuel totally when moving in gear with no throttle.

Most people who cruise down hills in neutral probably never got past carburretor technology........have some sympathy

I dont get how neutral can use more fuel that being in gear as the revs will be lower therefore thers less fuel being combusted as the engine is turning less times than say in gear at 4000rpm where it will be combusting 4x more than idling at 1000rpm. Plus leaving it in gear will cause more strain on the engine due to the clutch being engaged so that means burning more fuel to keep the gears turning.

Stu, when you are off the throttle, the engine cuts off fuel, ie it's using none. Go to your instant mpg

Dial and you will see mpg go up and up then ---mpg. It's the inertia in the engine already that keeps it going, not 4 x the fuel. In neutral, the engine is being driven by burning fuel, not the inertia, hence greater fuel consumption in neutral?

That's how I understand it.

Modern ECUs cut the fuel off to the engine when you take your foot off the accelerator and the car is in gear. The inertia built up by the car is transmitted from the wheels and gearbox back to the engine turning the engine over.

If the car is in neutral and the ECU did not supply fuel to the engine the engine would stop just like turning the key off. Like turning the car on and sitting in the drive the car keeps running without any use of the accelerator..

I get low 60s on my 15mile commute to work by just driving in the torque band staying with 1600-2100 rpm,its effortless to keep up with traffic an using little throttle.If i can really be bothered to try i can achieve up to 73 mpg on the commute which is excellent on a cold remapped 1.9PD engine using winter diesel.

I think having plenty of torque and a big engine in a small car helps economy as there is no effort so providing its driven carefully you get same economy as smaller engines.

I did a 330mile drive last month down south and got 64mpg over the whole journey but i was trying to drive as eco as i could on the same journey heading back north i didn't bother trying to be eco yet still got a respectable 61mpg.

I've only had my Octavia Elegance 1.6 TDI CR for a week but I got 70.5mpg on a 150 mile run to Bournemouth from Essex. I drive reasonably eco but was doing up to 75 mph on the M25 and the A31 was a good eco speed around 60 but lots of roundabouts. On the way back it was raining and i had headlights, aircon and wipers on all the way, didn't try hard and got 62 mpg. I was quite pleased with that as I didn't really know how to drive the car and found the idling odd as well as the higher gearing.

NO 'Slipstreaming', as in sitting up a van or lorries chuff where you can not see their mirrors or they can see you.

but,

sit back in the 'eddy' is still 'slipstreaming',

(In a kayak this would be sitting facing up stream in a Stopper and staying put without paddling, once you have got into the returning wave)

If you are going up a road that is quiet and come behind a vehicle thats doing 60mph, (or as some do, sit waiting for a suitable vehicle to go out of a town into the National Speed Limit applies and hope he goes the speed you want)

try staying back from it untill you get in its tow.

That is quite far back, about the distance that if you were in traffic someone would jump in that space.

You see the dust or if lightly raining the exact place where the 'tow' is.

You do not need wipers on, but i am not saying drive there in the Rain, but it lets you easily see where the 'Sweet Spot' is.

Once sitting in the 'tow' you can lift your foot off the throttle most of the time.

Look at your computer, if you were driving along getting AVG 45 mpg @ 65mph & you get behind that wagon you might see it going pretty quickly up by 50%.

still 60-65 mph and the AVG can be up in the 60's.

You will notice that the wind break from the bigger vehicle even quite far back even reduces sidewinds as the road weaves.

Worth a try, 'whats the worst that can happen?', its Hypermiling!

If you want to go extreme, as well as all the economic driving, speed, gear changes etc

then dont carry any extra weight in the car, never carry more than half a tank of fuel, pump the tyres to the maximum recommended tyre pressure

within the safe limit.

All a bit much to save a few pence but plenty do drive that way.

george

I think the biggest fuel saver is anticipation.

If I can see a red light up ahead or stopped traffic I just let go of the throttle or change down a gear and let go if I want a bit more engine braking. You will see your trip MPG rising while doing this. Then I often find by the time I'm catching back up with the traffic as the lights they have change and starting to move and I can just keep going.

Also It can be more economical going up hill in a higher gear with your foot flat down then lift off near the top and coast (in gear!) down the other side.

Phil

NO 'Slipstreaming', as in sitting up a van or lorries chuff where you can not see their mirrors or they can see you.

but,

sit back in the 'eddy' is still 'slipstreaming',

(In a kayak this would be sitting facing up stream in a Stopper and staying put without paddling, once you have got into the returning wave)

If you are going up a road that is quiet and come behind a vehicle thats doing 60mph, (or as some do, sit waiting for a suitable vehicle to go out of a town into the National Speed Limit applies and hope he goes the speed you want)

try staying back from it untill you get in its tow.

That is quite far back, about the distance that if you were in traffic someone would jump in that space.

You see the dust or if lightly raining the exact place where the 'tow' is.

You do not need wipers on, but i am not saying drive there in the Rain, but it lets you easily see where the 'Sweet Spot' is.

Once sitting in the 'tow' you can lift your foot off the throttle most of the time.

Look at your computer, if you were driving along getting AVG 45 mpg @ 65mph & you get behind that wagon you might see it going pretty quickly up by 50%.

still 60-65 mph and the AVG can be up in the 60's.

You will notice that the wind break from the bigger vehicle even quite far back even reduces sidewinds as the road weaves.

Worth a try, 'whats the worst that can happen?', its Hypermiling!

If you want to go extreme, as well as all the economic driving, speed, gear changes etc

then dont carry any extra weight in the car, never carry more than half a tank of fuel, pump the tyres to the maximum recommended tyre pressure

within the safe limit.

All a bit much to save a few pence but plenty do drive that way.

george

In a former life, ( 1973 ) spent a seaon fitting F1 tyres.

Italian GP, lad from base was given a treat & sent out in a Luton Transit costcutter ( gutless ) engine. Maximum speed 40 mph!

We found out that by driving not much further than I am from this computer screen it would do 80, so we took pity, and turns, and did that all the way back. Slightly foolish, but we saved hours.

If you dropped back a yard it was like slamming on the brakes, and could take miles to regain the tow, depending on when the 'tow truck' discovered you were missing!

We knew every speck of dirt on the tail of the truck, because we could see nothing else. One consolation was if the truck braked hard, the closing speed would be minimal because you would hit it before it lost any real speed.

I think ( and hope ) I've become slightly more sensible since that escapade!

Anticipation is the best thing you can use, try to use the brakes as little as possible, energy spent heating up the brakes is energy wasted, try to maintain momentum through bends and roundabouts. I'm not sure about the cruise control though, electronics cannot anticipate the brow of a hill and lift off the throttle early to use the momentum gained to help on the downhill bit.

Ian

Modern ECUs cut the fuel off to the engine when you take your foot off the accelerator and the car is in gear. The inertia built up by the car is transmitted from the wheels and gearbox back to the engine turning the engine over.

If the car is in neutral and the ECU did not supply fuel to the engine the engine would stop just like turning the key off. Like turning the car on and sitting in the drive the car keeps running without any use of the accelerator..

I think the biggest fuel saver is anticipation.

If I can see a red light up ahead or stopped traffic I just let go of the throttle or change down a gear and let go if I want a bit more engine braking. You will see your trip MPG rising while doing this. Then I often find by the time I'm catching back up with the traffic as the lights they have change and starting to move and I can just keep going.

Also It can be more economical going up hill in a higher gear with your foot flat down then lift off near the top and coast (in gear!) down the other side.

Phil

as above.... simple rules... DON'T BRAKE! any braking you do wastes fuel you use to get up to speed.... you would be suprised how early you can back off approaching a roundabout and still carry decent speed... as long as you are off throttle and slowing down the ECU will cut fuel to the engine. also dont be afraid of hard acceleration, an engine is most efficient on full throttle.... this has been proved in many tests.

if you can follow this advice you will see fuel economy go up ... sometimes you can back off even twice as far from a roundabout than you think without holding up traffic.... same goes for country roads ect, no braking... town, no edging forward in traffic...

I can get 50+ mpg in my vRS if I use these methods (which I dont often! lol.. only on my way to work normally ) every time.. even seen near 60 mpg!

the aircon advice is good too... only time modern aircon systems use more fuel is when sitting in standing traffic, on the move its no difference... I never turn it off in my cars ever, thats the best way to keep it working properly.

These threads always seem to cycle through but all the advice is sound. When I work in Ammanford I can go from Pont Abraham roundabout to the shop and only use the brakes when I stop by the shop if there's no traffic and the lights are right. I carry as much speed as I can into a corner off throttle and take best lines I can to roll though the next corner as fast as I can. I've found the vRS is pretty good at it

NO 'Slipstreaming', as in sitting up a van or lorries chuff where you can not see their mirrors or they can see you.

but,

sit back in the 'eddy' is still 'slipstreaming',

(In a kayak this would be sitting facing up stream in a Stopper and staying put without paddling, once you have got into the returning wave)

If you are going up a road that is quiet and come behind a vehicle thats doing 60mph, (or as some do, sit waiting for a suitable vehicle to go out of a town into the National Speed Limit applies and hope he goes the speed you want)

try staying back from it untill you get in its tow.

That is quite far back, about the distance that if you were in traffic someone would jump in that space.

You see the dust or if lightly raining the exact place where the 'tow' is.

You do not need wipers on, but i am not saying drive there in the Rain, but it lets you easily see where the 'Sweet Spot' is.

Once sitting in the 'tow' you can lift your foot off the throttle most of the time.

Look at your computer, if you were driving along getting AVG 45 mpg @ 65mph & you get behind that wagon you might see it going pretty quickly up by 50%.

still 60-65 mph and the AVG can be up in the 60's.

You will notice that the wind break from the bigger vehicle even quite far back even reduces sidewinds as the road weaves.

Worth a try, 'whats the worst that can happen?', its Hypermiling!

If you want to go extreme, as well as all the economic driving, speed, gear changes etc

then dont carry any extra weight in the car, never carry more than half a tank of fuel, pump the tyres to the maximum recommended tyre pressure

within the safe limit.

All a bit much to save a few pence but plenty do drive that way.

george

I would suggest you are maybe still too close following the above slipstreaming 'eddy' advice on public roads, but this will depend on the speed you are going at. If you try the 'two second gap' rule, it will tell you so. eg. select a fixed point ahead of you that the vehicle in front passes and count '0' then '1' then '2', each a second apart. You should be just at the fixed point that you selected as you count '2'. That's you correct distance for the speed you're are driving at. But I suspect driving in the uneven or dirty (blustery airflow) air behind a vehicle will likely cause more friction and attempt to slow you more negating the slipstreaming effect and even costing more fuel. As a motorcyclist, you notice these things especially just how dirty the air is behind large vehicles. You have to be very close to get a good slipstream effect. Def not good on the road. As the others are saying, fuel get completely cut off when you are off the throttle in gear and driving in modern cars. It uses more fuel if you go into neutral and coast over any given distance as fuel is needed to be burned to keep the engine going.

Edited 8 June, 201214 yr by Estate Man

Well I do a lot of coasting especially on downhill roads, I know leaving it in 5 th and letting it roll has the same thing but engine braking in the diesel kicks in, I use better fuels i.e vpower diesel oh and im driving VW now and for some reason I'm getting better fuelly 74 mpg on a 11 mile run, at least 5-8 mpg better ? But never tailgate

I find in mine that if you get into 5th and hover around 38-42mph i am constantly over 100mpg often near 200mpg. Did a wee test sometime ago at that speed for 200 miles i had to do around the countryside in scotland. At the end of the journey the average mpg read 99.9mpg indicating over 100 was acheived, however we all know about the inaccurate computer so as i had topped off before i left, i re topped it and it gave me 84.3mpg as an accurate calculation

Not a practical way to drive but cheap. I used to be a member of hypermilers and they said that "due to cars using No fuel in gear on overrun, it is therefore most economical to drive this way:- speed limit 40mph hypothetically increase speed from 40-50mph gradually letting instant mpg reach no lower than 50mpg, once at 50mph come off the gas until it has slowed to 40mph then repeat, technically it takes almost same time/distance to do both speeding up and slowing down, theoretically acheiving 100mpg across board........ 50mpg quarter mile........ zero fuel quarter mile.

Have tried this but it aint easy on public roads but it does work well.

I find in mine that if you get into 5th and hover around 38-42mph i am constantly over 100mpg often near 200mpg. Did a wee test sometime ago at that speed for 200 miles i had to do around the countryside in scotland. At the end of the journey the average mpg read 99.9mpg indicating over 100 was acheived, however we all know about the inaccurate computer so as i had topped off before i left, i re topped it and it gave me 84.3mpg as an accurate calculation

Not a practical way to drive but cheap. I used to be a member of hypermilers and they said that "due to cars using No fuel in gear on overrun, it is therefore most economical to drive this way:- speed limit 40mph hypothetically increase speed from 40-50mph gradually letting instant mpg reach no lower than 50mpg, once at 50mph come off the gas until it has slowed to 40mph then repeat, technically it takes almost same time/distance to do both speeding up and slowing down, theoretically acheiving 100mpg across board........ 50mpg quarter mile........ zero fuel quarter mile.

Have tried this but it aint easy on public roads but it does work well.

I see you have a pd engine unfortunate the newer cr engine is not happy in 5 th at lower speeds

Thanks Estate Man but after over 35 years of riding and driving mopeds, small bikes, cars and vans, following and being followed i think i know the sweet spot and since a HGV or LGV will usually be below higher speeds on single carraigeways there is a pretty good idea the speed i am talking about.

As i mentioned as to the distance back,

its as far back and at a safe distance as there would be a chance of another vehicle slipping in between you and the vehicle you are following.

Certainly not advocating tailgating or driving at the distance that HGV's Slipstream at.

If it does not work for you then best not to do it, but as i said, its worth trying as it may be slightly further back than some already follow vehicles at, which is or may be in the disturbed airflow.

As i mentioned you know when you have it just right, there is actually 'Tow effect' and in slight drizzel you might not need your wipers.

george