hello

excuse me if this has already been done but im looking for some fuel saving tips for my octavia 1.8 tsi i have looked at re mapping and almost went ahead with it but i thought i would see what my local dealer thought of it he was dead against it as he reckoned that it would stain the engine !!!!

the other thing i looked at was an oil adative such as slik 50 but again skoda wont recommend it

your thoughts please

Make sure your tyre pressures are ok and change your driving technique!

For ultimate economy, avoid short trips, reduce your motorway cruise speed as slow as you can bear (although i'd recommend 55 mph as an absolute minimum on motorways), reduce the use of your brakes.....in other words anticipate the road ahead and coast to slow down rather than brake constantly. Coasting in gear uses no fuel at all.

Best fuel saving tip i can give is leave the car at home and walk or pushbike....

Now serious

Yes a remap will help your fuel economy depending greatly on your driving style and whether short or long journeys

Also do u plan to keep the car for a while as would take sometime to get back the £200+ remap fee

thanks for the advice i will check my tyres

i have been told i could get a saving of 9% on fuel with a remap !!

Edited 28 January, 201313 yr by zep108

Dont drive it??

I don't believe a remap will necessarily save you fuel. Others will tell you different. Most remaps seem to aim for higher performance, not fuel economy.

+1 on what Brook23 says. ultimately you'll save more driving smoothly than you'll get with a remap (plus it won't cost you anything to do).

You could enrol with the IAM, they'll teach you how to drive smoothly and safely. They charge £139 as a 1 off fee which includes everything up to and including your test .

That would be a better investment than a remap IMO

http://www.iam.org.uk/resolution

cheers

Ade

Lowered suspension and low-rolling-resistance tyres will help. But do the maths first, as they may cost more than you'll save.

Just to illustrate the point.

On my A road/Motorway commute to work (In my Fabia 1.9 TDI...the principle applies to the Octavia too), I drive carefully and can fairly easily get 65 MPG on this trip.

As an experiment the other night, I drove more energetically on my way home. 80 mph on the motorway, full throttle acceleration....late braking etc. I got 46 MPG! I don't consider that I drove really fast....I modelled my style on the pace white van's tend to do......so a lot of people probably drive like this as a matter of course.

That consumption is 41% worse than my average careful driving mpg!

Doing 20,000 miles a year, this would cost £600 a year more in fuel alone, not to mention increased tyre and brake useage etc.

Edited 28 January, 201313 yr by booke23

The Greenlines use lowered suspension and low rolling resistance tyres, but a retrofit might be too expensive to justify.

Empty the boot. Use a sat nav to plan journeys. Avoid rush hour traffic. Take an advanced driver course. Buy energy saver tyres when they need replacing. Slow down, use brakes and gas less.

Any more for any more? :-)

Edited 28 January, 201313 yr by FriendlyFire

My Dad taught me to drive by looking as far ahead as you can possibly see, look for gaps and ultimately try and drive without braking! Sounds dangerous but if you keep your distance, read the road it works well, if you see a red light, change down and reduce speed until it changes to green then keep moving, same at roundabouts, slow down on the gears and aim for a gap in traffic keep things rolling if you can, this works well when fuel saving.

The best way is to always try and keep moving and avoid using the brakes.

If you see a red light up ahead get of the accelerator as early as you can leaving it in gear and possibly even changing down a gear or 2 depending on your speed etc. This will cut the fuel into the engine and use no fuel whatsoever.

Think of the accelerator pedal as a tap and everytime you press it you are letting fuel flow out. Driving on a rural A road you can plan ahead and see corners etc and just ease off the throttle rather than braking.

Phil

I wander about fuel on my 1.8 TSI and have it the garage tomorrow just to have them check it out. I got a new air filter on Friday, checked my tyre pressures and drove it very smoothly over the weekend, not exceeding say 65 anywhere. I was caught in terrible traffic for about 2 hours yesterday but prior to that been on A roads and the M4 when I filled up this am after 125 miles my car took 19.2 litres so this worked out at 29.5 mpg. I have the older pre FL TSI and had hoped to see about about 33-34 mpg but alas no. If the garage don't find an issue I'll just put it down to the colder weather as this can have a big affect on mpg...

Think of the accelerator pedal as a tap and everytime you press it you are letting fuel flow out.

Phil

That's actually one of the best analogies I've come across - nice one Phil!

Hi Zep,

I'd concur with all that's been posted above about driving style and looking ahead being very effective to save fuel. A further illustration; when my wife drives a particular route which is a mix of very rural singletrack roads, fast rural A road and a little bit of urban right at the end, over a 26 mile trip she'll get about an indicated 50mpg. She doesn't belt along at all, but equally tends to brake late-ish into bends and junctions. If I drive that same route in the same car, I get around 58-60mpg indicated - and we get there in exactly the same time. (I'm no "advanced" driver either).

We had a Shark stage 1 map on a recent car, and the main effect was to make it more driveable on the fast rural roads around the north of Scotland. There was a beneficial effect in mpg of about 2mpg (on a car averaging 47.5mpg over a few years). If you're getting a remap purely for fuel saving, you'll need to have the car a while to balance the maths. However, there are the other benefits to a map....

Kind Regards

Ian

thanks for all your comments

You'll probably spend more on a remap than you'd ever save on fuel. Plus you'll probably just start to boot it everywhere

Maybe an IAM course would help more by teaching you to read the road better.

Otherwise you're really down to think like leaving for work earlier to avoid congestion, coasting (ignition on, in gear) and other hypermileing tips

Echo the braking and looking ahead. That's how I always drive and find my wife doesn't so I don't lend her my car very often

Cycle :-)

Have a full geometry check done on a Hunter rig?

Take the lead out of your right foot.

I commute 5 miles to work and have found that I can get the car display to read 55-60mpg each way - I do this by using cruise control where possible, changing up a gear where possible (So I'm not flogging the arse out of the engine) and learning to second guess what is happening in front - you get used to the traffic light patterns etc.

I also use the brakes as little as possible - it wastes momentum and means you'd need to accelerate (thus use more fuel) to get that momentum back.

I coast up to lights instead of braking at last second.

Remember that coasting in neutral needs more fuel than coasting in gear, because in neutral the car is using fuel in order to keep the engine ticking over, whereas when you are coasting in gear, the car is using it's own momentum from the wheels to drive the engine along (thus uses 0 fuel)

When coming to hills - accelerate BEFORE the hill (not whilst going up it) thus you don't need to keep accelerating while ascending. Then you can coast down the other side (as I describe above)

Driving at 56mph is "apparently" the most optimum speed for best efficiency.

Anymore for anymore?

+1 again on what booke23 and others above say. I can get as much as 34-35mpg on the trip computer (probably 10% less in real terms) by keeping a light foot even on the semi urban commute. Sit in a lot of traffic or get too enthusiastic and that'll plummet to the mid 20's.

Remember too that whereas a diesel will be economical at lowest rpm with a light load, a petrol is more economical spinning just above the start of peak torque. In town my 2.0TSI is often using less fuel at about 2200rpm in 3rd/4th than say at 1800rpm. The principle must be same for the1.8TSI even if the engine outputs and gearing are different.

That said, driving a TSI especially the 2.0/1.8's is never going to be 'economical' in comparison to the diesels or smaller TSI's. I guess the OP didn't buy it for outright economy.

Ford Focus 1.6TDCi

I know from experience it's possible door to door to better 60mpg. If youre serious about economy, then the only practical way is to change to a diesel. Remapping is pointless, I defy you to get a 9% improvement; you'll just howl with laughter and hoof it all the time. Even being sensible and going wild occasionally will destroy your fuel economy.

However, if anyone wants my 2.0TDI PD DSG, I'd happily swap for a 1.8TSI, I really, want one. (And don't have to drive far anymore )

thanks for the advice i will check my tyres

i have been told i could get a saving of 9% on fuel with a remap !!

I have remapped several cars and have yet to see any improvement in the mpg. Certainly to decrease though which is not too bad considering the extra power but definately no increase or certainly nothing significant to be noticed which would suggest that remapping to save money is pointless. Just use the few hundred quid remap cost and spend it on fuel.