280 Eco Mode

[Nick_H]

Haha, yes basically what Nick said... It's all about anticipation Phil and using enough gas to keep the car balanced but not using it unnecessarily. For example, looking right down the road and seeing lights, and anticipating they may turn red or if they are already red that they might turn green soon. Letting off the throttle on approach and rolling up allows you to keep the weight of the car moving until everyone starts rolling away (shifting 1.5 tonnes from a stand still is where most fuel goes). There's a lot more to it but once you've got the hang of it it's possible to make very swift progress and use surprisingly little fuel. If you haven't already, you might find your local advanced driving group of interest. Some are quite staid and full of dogmatic old timers, but many (most?) are very modern and progressive and all about fun driving. You'll learn an absolute load and will be amazed how much better a driver you become. You'll also save a lot of fuel haha...

 

You Class 1 RM ?

[Rainmaker]

You Class 1 RM ?

Only in bed Nick. I'm not that lucky unfortunately, but I do have an NVQ advanced and I'm hoping for Gold in my upcoming RoSPA/RoADAR test. I've been privileged to get a lot of one on one with some real Class 1s which taught me a lot, and I'm considering doing EMT training which includes ambulance response with exemptions, which would be interesting...

[Nick_H]

Only in bed Nick. I'm not that lucky unfortunately, but I do have an NVQ advanced and I'm hoping for Gold in my upcoming RoSPA/RoADAR test. I've been privileged to get a lot of one on one with some real Class 1s which taught me a lot, and I'm considering doing EMT training which includes ambulance response with exemptions, which would be interesting...

 

LOL !! Good answer ! My Dad taught me to drive. He was Class one and RoSPA Gold..... Like to think I picked some of it up .... Watching him like a hawk from as early as I remember.... He used to laugh saying I drove just like him :-) Good times ...

[philpix]

LOL !! Good answer ! My Dad taught me to drive. He was Class one and RoSPA Gold..... Like to think I picked some of it up .... Watching him like a hawk from as early as I remember.... He used to laugh saying I drove just like him :-) Good times ...

Good old George. Top man!

[philsmith]

 

 

Letting off the throttle on approach and rolling up allows you to keep the weight of the car moving until everyone starts rolling away (shifting 1.5 tonnes from a stand still is where most fuel goes).

 

Yes I do all that kind of stuff, I even hang back so I can give it more welly when it all moves on, oh!, I guess this is where the fuel goes 

[Nick_H]

Good old George. Top man!

 

 

Thanks Phil :-)

[philpix]

Good old George. Top man!

Always called Hepp at work Nick

[Nick_H]

Yeah some of the old times still refer to me by that moniker !

[Nazmi]

I am using eco mode mostly for the past week and i have improved 1L/100km on same driving conditions

 

15.6L/100km to 14.4L~14.6L/100km

 

car is still new 2400km total. i think will improve more after 10K km

[Brenticles]

45.5mpg average on the commute now.

This is even with a 2 mile detour to pick up a colleague.

 

 

Tricks I have found so far for increased mpg.

ACC set to distance of at least 3 out of 5 for normal driving. (It uses the brakes a lot less with this larger gap)

ACC set to it's minimum distance if you are sat behind a lorry on the slow (50-60mph) sections of the commute. This add's about 1-2mpg (MaxiDot) over having ACC set at distance 3.

Anticipation of the traffic in front, so you can disengage ACC and let Eco coast, bleeding off your speed, instead of ACC applying the brakes for you.

Pulse and glide, using Eco coast, on the busy A roads. Trying here to blip up to anywhere between 30-50mph (traffic dependant), so you coast up the the back of the queued traffic in front.

Generally keep a look out for any hills you can safely coast down, ie Motorway off-ramps etc.

 

 

The Racechip Ultimate seems to have increased my mpg by about 2-3.

This is an estimation based on Maxidot and @pump figures.

Edited 6 September, 2016 by Brenticles

[philsmith]

Well I had a trip up to Corby at the weekend, M25, M11, A14 had plenty of time so never went any faster than 75mph, most of the time more like 65mph in traffic.

Had plenty of time so never really floored it more than three or four times mainly out of the roundabouts on the A14.

Got 34.9mpg average, I think this is my best figure so far, have no idea how to drive to achieve 45mpg and hope I never do!

[Nick_H]

Yer rubbish Phil !

 

;-)

[Brenticles]

Got 34.9mpg average, I think this is my best figure so far, have no idea how to drive to achieve 45mpg and hope I never do!

 

Zen like calm, and a commute so consistently busy and boring that you might as well sit behind a lorry rather than join the concertina of Audi's in the fast lane.

The most exciting thing about these roads is to try and eke out more mpg 

 

 

My journey up to the Lakes on Friday will be a different matter though!

[YTT]

Coming in late to this topic, found it by accident whilst looking for something else! Anyway, for my tuppennysworth, something strikes me as odd with the fuel consumption figure on my 280 (that I've had just over a month). It seems very slow to get it's act together and give me a believable figure. Initially, I get a low number, say 22mpg and it takes a long while for that to creep up to the figure I usually end up at, around 30mpg. Now I accept that the consumption will be higher from a cold start, but I actually expect this effect to be less than other cars I've had, because Skoda make a big deal out of the fact that coolant is run around the exhaust manifold, which gets the engine up to temperature quicker. Which it does, typically within 3 miles for me, even at zero degrees outside. So I think it's reasonable to assume that any excess early consumption is done with fairly quickly, after which it should be reasonably consistent. But the consumption figure drags it's way up to 30mpg eventually, maybe taking 25 mins, then stays there.

 

At the end of my 6 mile journey from work to home, there's a bit of bypass just near my house where I typically give it some beans for the first bit, about 0.5 miles, then coast the rest of the way up to the roundabout (maybe another 0.5 miles). In my previous car, I could watch the consumption clock up during that coasting phase, 2-3mpg. On the Superb, it doesn't do anything like that.

 

So back to my original point. There's something odd about the way it measures consumption, maybe a stupidly long averaging time? Whatever the reason, I wouldn't believe the figure for at least 30 minutes after start!

Edited 19 December, 2017 by YTT

[Rainmaker]

12 hours ago, YTT said:

Now I accept that the consumption will be higher from a cold start, but I actually expect this effect to be less than other cars I've had, because Skoda make a big deal out of the fact that coolant is run around the exhaust manifold, which gets the engine up to temperature quicker. Which it does, typically within 3 miles for me, even at zero degrees outside. So I think it's reasonable to assume that any excess early consumption is done with fairly quickly, after which it should be reasonably consistent. But the consumption figure drags it's way up to 30mpg eventually, maybe taking 25 mins, then stays there.

 

That's a half decent necro, YTT.  I agree the averaging seems weird but it's always backed up by the brim to brim calculations in the end. You mentioned cold starts needing to warm the engine, but you forgot the cats. Modern cars will drastically over fuel for quite a long time after a cold start to get the catalytic converters up to operating temperature, at the expense of fuel consumption. That's quite independent of the engine temperature. Don't forget cats only work at a specified temp range, and even then only during a certain rev range (usually about 1,500rpm to 4,000 rpm). 

[Q102]

My 3.2 Boxster S averages 21mpg and that is given the beans when road conditions allow.

[YTT]

1 hour ago, Rainmaker said:

 

That's a half decent necro, YTT.  I agree the averaging seems weird but it's always backed up by the brim to brim calculations in the end. You mentioned cold starts needing to warm the engine, but you forgot the cats. Modern cars will drastically over fuel for quite a long time after a cold start to get the catalytic converters up to operating temperature, at the expense of fuel consumption. That's quite independent of the engine temperature. Don't forget cats only work at a specified temp range, and even then only during a certain rev range (usually about 1,500rpm to 4,000 rpm). 

 

Good point. It also occurred to me that given the time of year, there is also a high current consumption early in the drive as the seats, steering wheel are up to max! However, I still see the same effect on milder days, without all the heaters on. Furthermore, all my cars for as long as I can remember had cats, but they didn't exhibit the same characteristics. Their fuel consumption meters got up to speed fairly briskly. Although maybe the cooled exhaust manifold means it takes longer for the cat to heat up...

 

From http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/a10201136/why-volkswagen-uses-a-water-cooled-exhaust-manifold/:

 

"Plunging the hot exhaust passages through the cylinder head's coolant paths allows a cold engine to get up to operating temperature much more quickly, reducing wear and improving fuel economy. It also reduces exhaust temperatures, a task that's usually accomplished by running a richer (and thus less economical) air/fuel ratio."

[Rainmaker]

13 minutes ago, Q102 said:

My 3.2 Boxster S averages 21mpg and that is given the beans when road conditions allow.

 

A singing flat 6, RWD and manual transmission? That's a small price I'd happily pay.  

 

9 minutes ago, YTT said:

 

Good point. It also occurred to me that given the time of year, there is also a high current consumption early in the drive as the seats, steering wheel are up to max! However, I still see the same effect on milder days, without all the heaters on. Furthermore, all my cars for as long as I can remember had cats, but they didn't exhibit the same characteristics. Their fuel consumption meters got up to speed fairly briskly. Although maybe the cooled exhaust manifold means it takes longer for the cat to heat up...

 

From http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/a10201136/why-volkswagen-uses-a-water-cooled-exhaust-manifold/:

 

"Plunging the hot exhaust passages through the cylinder head's coolant paths allows a cold engine to get up to operating temperature much more quickly, reducing wear and improving fuel economy. It also reduces exhaust temperatures, a task that's usually accomplished by running a richer (and thus less economical) air/fuel ratio."

 

Yeah don't forget Euro emissions levels have dropped year on year too, so they need to be ever lower in the lab. That means engineering lots of different ways to get all the eco gubbins working ASAP, which won't apply to your older cars as the newer regs weren't in place when they were made. Give me an old fashioned NA 6+ cylinder engine any day.  

[ionelmc]

On 9/2/2016 at 12:33, Nazmi said:

15.6L/100km to 14.4L~14.6L/100km

 

car is still new 2400km total. i think will improve more after 10K km

Lets be realistic here. It does not improve. After 10k km you're not afraid to give it the beans anymore. It'll only get worse. Or better. Depends at which gauge you look at.

[Nazmi]

13 hours ago, ionelmc said:

Lets be realistic here. It does not improve. After 10k km you're not afraid to give it the beans anymore. It'll only get worse. Or better. Depends at which gauge you look at.

Same driving style now at over 25K on the clock I get 12.8L to 13.9L /100km but I don't use Eco mode anymore. Just drive mode or sometimes sport mode.

[nicknorman]

Mine is similarly uneconomical when setting off from cold. Don’t forget that when the water temperature gauge gets to the middle, it isn’t yet particularly warm and the oil temperature will probably still be off the scale ie below 50c, compared to its normal running temp of ~100c. Cold oil = more drag.

[old newbie2]

On 12/23/2017 at 13:47, nicknorman said:

Mine is similarly uneconomical when setting off from cold. Don’t forget that when the water temperature gauge gets to the middle, it isn’t yet particularly warm and the oil temperature will probably still be off the scale ie below 50c, compared to its normal running temp of ~100c. Cold oil = more drag.

I would have thought that the oil temperature would have reached normal temperature quite quickly. Our Golf R warms up both oil & water long before our other cars.

 

DC

 

[nicknorman]

On 25/12/2017 at 14:10, old newbie2 said:

I would have thought that the oil temperature would have reached normal temperature quite quickly. Our Golf R warms up both oil & water long before our other cars.

 

DC

 

Doesn’t seem to. The water gauge gets to the middle reasonably quickly but when it does, the oil is still reading - - - ie less than 50. It takes a lot longer for the oil to get up to its normal temperature of 95 - 105.

[cnc]

On ‎25‎/‎12‎/‎2017 at 14:10, old newbie2 said:

Our Golf R warms up both oil & water long before our other cars.

 

DC

 

A few weeks ago I took delivery of a new VW, it also heats up very quickly when it's cold. I've discovered it has a supplementary heater fitted (not like a Webasto which works when the vehicle is turned off) but as soon as you get in and turn on the ignition if it meets the right criteria (whatever that might be - I'm still searching) it gives warm air very quickly through the vents, and the engine coolant and oil temp raises very quickly. Maybe VW get this but not Skoda?.

Apologies for the very poor picture, I've just been out to the garage in the dark to take a quick picture, the screen is found by pressing the 'Menu' button on the climate panel, then the bottom right 'Settings' button and there it is.

 

 

[Ootohere]

?

Sorry what heats up quick, the Engine Coolant or the interior, or both and what about the Engine Oil, how many miles before it gets to an indicated 50*oC or even 80-90*oC if the ambient temp is around freezing.

?

What VW have you just got?