Just acquired my first Fabia Diesel. Had an Fabia hatchback Elegance with the 100bhp petrol before. Great performance.

This estate with the 1.9 TDI engine is puzzling me! When in fourth and fifth gear around the 20 mph mark, when I take my foot off the accelerator, I can drive for literally miles, including going up slight inclines. I can also achieve around 40 mph if I don't brake.

My dealer tells me that this is due to a powerful engine and I should not drive in high gears at this speed! Right now, I don't believe him. Anyone out there able to help me on this one. Oh, I do have cruise control and I can confirm that it was and is switched off in the city.

Yup, in 6th I can cruise around at about 30mph on flat ground without touching a pedal.

Not that I do, just that it can. Nothing wrong with it. Wont damage anything. But obviously you have a lot less control over the car if you're in 6th at 30mph which could be dangerous.

Anti-stall + bags of torque. As Mort says though, probably not the greatest of ideas if you are anywhere near other vehicles, as you won't be able to accelerate (unless you change down quick which is better for the car anyway )

It's a nicely balanced package for a motorway cruiser, that's for sure (although I'd go faster than 30 )

Thanks for speedy reply. I shall hang my head in shame when I next meet my dealer!!

TYpical diesel characteristic (due to governor I believe) - unlike petrol cars you can't trickle along at idle in gear & slow down with the brakes - the diesel will put more power out to try and keep at the same speed.... similarly it will happily run along at idle even up small hills.

TYpical diesel characteristic (due to governor I believe) - unlike petrol cars you can't trickle along at idle in gear & slow down with the brakes - the diesel will put more power out to try and keep at the same speed.... similarly it will happily run along at idle even up small hills.

thats what my petrol is like, nothing to do with system's acting to keep the car running just a well made toquey engine.

my octavia will happily drive round mulristorey car parks in first of its own accord on idle without me having to apply any throttle to coax it up the fairly steep slopes between levels.

The engine type doesn't really come into it for the anti-stall feature itself, although diesels are (usually) able to cope with this without the ECU increasing the fuelling as much.

Either way, it can be quite handy for those steep inclines in carparks (1st gear crawling) and traffic jams

The flip side of this though is that engine braking at low revs is practically non-existant which is a bit of a shock the first time I tried to use it to slow down!

Chris

Also if you tried to excellerate from 20mph in fourth or fifth you'll put an incredible amount of load on the engine which it just isn't designed for. :thumbdwn: Also you'll use a stupid amount of fuel....

My old Nova used to be able to crawl it 30mph in 5th on flat ground. Had a manual choke too which, could be used as a hand throttle :eek:

Very handy for setting off in proper snow as well. Stick it in second, no throttle and just slowly pull the clutch up, it'll set off nice and slow without any wheel spin.

My old Nova used to be able to crawl it 30mph in 5th on flat ground. Had a manual choke too which, could be used as a hand throttle :eek:

Had this in the metro, could get up to 30mph quite comfortably without touching the accelerator