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My 170+tdi Yeti


bargee1759

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I feel a little guilty posting this as all I've done is taken the brilliant Yeti 170tdi (which has to be one of the most complete, allrounder, multi-talented & best packaged cars you can buy at any price), let all the braver blokes than me spend all their hard earned experimenting so I could just cherry pick their ideas to try & produce the ultimate Yeti FOR MY USE/TASTE. I highlight the last bit as everyone's needs & ideas are different. However, I hope some-one might find this useful.

My car is a 2012 '61' silver 170tdi Elegance that I've had since new, now has 83k on it & to say it's been brilliant is to understate to such an extent it's like saying that China has a fair sized population or the former USSR had a reasonable amount of land!

Most of my driving is fast 'A' roads & lanes for commuting & some motorway work at other times too. Options fitted from new; big speaker kit (because I like my tunes & do a fair milleage) silver paint (picked by SWMBO as I couldn't decide, but knew it had to be bright to suit the Yeti styling) 3 spoke wheel (much more tactile than the old 4 spoke item) off-road kit (nice to have?) heated screen (I live semi-rural & leave for work @5.30am) fold-flat front seat (got this thanks to Skoda uk before it was a uk option after stumbling across it in a euro brochure & well worth it as the Yeti's only small/short) & TPM as i opted for the bigger boot instead of a spare so not too many options, but for me they turned a brilliant car into a perfect 1 for my use & I suppose the acid test -I'd order exactly the same again.

Then, over time as normal the engineer in me wanted more efficiency/optimisation, the boy racer wanted POWER & the tight ***se wanted economy, so a remap was the answer!

Before that, the brakes were replaced. All standard sizes as it's a 170tdi so it already had front 312mm discs, but Brembo hardware fitted. Max discs up front but standard rear as Maxes not available for the rear for some reason? Pads are Brembo too, but having had a slow speed shunt a few years ago due to cold high performance pads not functioning well enough, coupled with the facts that I'm not that heavy on brakes & don't do track days, these are perfect. They work extremely well all the time, feel good under foot & I've never had any fade.

The remap is from 'more BHP' but installed by BVR in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent. It's never been on the rollers, but is supposed to be 205-210bhp / 420nm of torque. Performance wise, it'll leave a mk6 or mk7 GTD Golf no problem & will stay with a C250cdi Merc, although once 70ish(!) is reached, the inevitable aerodynamics start to disadvantage the Yeti, but I don't need any more! Oh, & if it's raining, ah, poor Merc, BYE! The torque is phenominal & addictive, yet despite this, economy is now 43.5 upwards every tank full with 50+ easily achieved on a run, although that's just changed for the better again, see below! That's also calculated economy brim to brim NOT off the MFD -that averages 49.5 most of the time. It lies! Mind you, the bigger the distance you drive in 1 go the more accurate it becomes.

During the 80k service, we found the 2 front struts were leaking & a rear spring had snapped right at the bottom. So it was suspension change time. I've never debated a mod so much before as, just like buying tyres, you're looking at around £500 & if you get it wrong, you can ruin the car! However, I did have Koni FSDs with Eibach sport springs on my Alfa 156 & they were fantastic. On that car the damping was much better than standard removing all floatiness, yet the ride was better than standard over bumps too. So that was the aim this time. Originally I didn't want to lower the car as although I don't really offroad the Yeti, it has that image & I like it. However, the fuel economy gains I saw with the Alfa were going to be a welcome, known side effect if I did. So after much research & debate & messages from other contributors on here, this time I've gone B6 with Eibach pros. I also fitted SKF TT top mounts too. So what's it like? Well if I was motorway driving all the time, I'd say it's maybe just slightly too firm, but certainly not uncomfortable, likewise slowly around town. It certainly doesn't amplify bumps & jarr over every pebble like SWMBO's A3 Sport. (That's really crap-it's like the tyres have 150psi in them & it doesn't even improve the road holding because the steering's numb & it skitters all over the place unless the road's like a snooker table. It finds bumps that are not even there!) However once the Yeti's above town speeds it's very good. Still firmly damped but absorbs bumps superbly. I know what Guy means about the Eibachs being matched to the B6s. I'd say when you really push it down lanes it's even better & smoother riding than the Alfa was. At about 95% that used to start to politely say 'enough thankyou', but although it's early days, the Yeti just seems to shout 'MORE, MORE, COME ON, IS THAT ALL YA GOT?' It absolutely fills you with confidence too due to the Yeti having good steering, so it's now a formidable cross country tool with the suspension & torque combination. Again, early days, but I reckon at 70mph it's now 3mpg better than before the suspension change. You can feel motorway acceleration has improved & correspondingly it doesn't slow down as quickly when you take your foot off the throttle either, so lower is definitely more aero-efficient. Mind you it has got slightly more of a nose down stance now so the lights needed adjusting as I couldn't see a damn thing last night even with the Xenons! Sorted now though. I don't think it looks too low either fortunately-I don't feel the need to be wearing a baseball cap backwards or lots of gold chains!

Edited by bargee1759
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