Tips and Useful Information
Welcome to our Tips Page. From time to time, we will add useful information here. All sorts of subjects relating to engine remapping and motoring in general may be posted here.
Better MPG For Free. Part 1
Many of our customers come to us to remap their vehicles to achieve better fuel consumption. But here are a few tips to improve your mpg for free!
- Check you tyre pressures regularly – If your tyres are 10psi below what they should be, MPG could drop by 5%. e.g. 40MPG down to 38MPG. And your tyres will wear quickly and handling and cornering will be worse.
- Lose weight. On your car, that is. Don’t carry things in the boot that you don’t need. Consider keeping the fuel tank less than full if convenient (a full tank of fuel can weigh 6 stone or more)
- Get regularly serviced. Regular servicing can keep you car efficient as well as safe and reliable.
- Remove racks which aren’t being used. Air resistance becomes a massive force at speed. Anything that increases this, like a roof rack or box, will knock you fuel consumption right down.
- Air conditioning – Tricky! Below about 45mph, it is probably more efficient to switch your air-con off and open the windows, but at higher speeds, the negative effect of open windows has a bigger drag on the vehicle (especially if its an aerodynamic vehicle) so close the windows and use air-con instead. However, older vehicles with less efficient air-con, and/or less aerodynamic vehicles might be more efficient with air-con off and windows open, whatever the speed.
Why You Shouldn’t Remap Your Car!
We’ve been to a number of vehicles recently where we have advised the customer NOT to proceed with the remap on their car or van. So why would we do that? Why would we drive to a customer, spend some time with them and their vehicle, advise them NOT to go ahead with the remap and then come away without taking a penny from them?
Well, the whole point of remapping a vehicle is to make it more economical, to make it perform better, and to give a better driving experience altogether. To achieve this, it is important to ensure that the vehicle is operating correctly and with no faults in the first place.
Whilst we cannot necessarily identify all faults that may be present, we will always carry out a full fault code reading and will check the general running and service condition of the engine before remapping.
If a vehicle has a fault, a remap will often highlight the symptoms of that fault, so it is much better to get any faults rectified first and then get the vehicle remapped afterwards. We will avoid remapping a car which has a fault on it* as we do not believe that would be in the customer’s interest. We see the initial diagnosis as a crucial part of the whole remapping process.
*Of course, if the remap includes EGR or DPF solutions, these are faults which are dealt with within the remapping process.
Better MPG For Free. Part 2
Following on from the earlier part 1 post, here are a few more tips to improve your mpg for free!
- Anticipate the traffic flow ahead – slow down naturally before you need to break. Hold back so you can maintain a steady speed rather than accelerating and then breaking, both of which use more fuel.
- In stop start traffic queues, using the principle from above and a s an example, rather than surging forward at 10mph for 5 seconds and then stopping for 5 seconds, see if you can maintain a steady 5mph without having to stop so much.
- Shift up through the gears sooner, maintaining a lower engine speed. However, don’t change up so early that you need to apply nearly full accelerator to progress.
- Switch off the engine if you expect to be stopped for more than 20 seconds. Start/stop technology does this for you automatically, except it cannot anticipate how long you’re going to be stopped for which can be quite irritating!
- If you have cruise control, it can improve efficiency by maintaining a steady cruising speed. However, efficiency is lost when climbing steep hills as it tries to maintain the same speed.
How to keep your DPF clean and trouble free
Here are our 4 top tips…
1. DRIVE AT SPEED OCCASIONALLY
DPF regenerations can only happen when road speed, engine RPM and engine temperature are above a certain minimum. Without these conditions, DPF regeneration will not take place. If you do a lot of tow driving, try and mix in some faster and less congested roads to maximise the chance of a regeneration.
Check your owner’s manual or ask the dealer how fast you need to drive, for how long and at what RPM to allow a regeneration cycle to complete.
2. USE THE RIGHT ENGINE OIL
Try to use the oil recommended by the manufacturer. Always check what grade of oil is needed, (e.g. SAE 5W50, etc) and you should specifically use low SAPS oil which is low in Sulphated Ash. This is a by-product of diesel combustion can block the DPF.
3. CHECK YOUR EGR VALVE
The EGR valve is important for the correct operation of the DPF. They can become stuck and this can lead to problems with the DPF. Check it’s clean and opening and closing freely.
4. BUY THE RIGHT TYPE OF CAR
OK, you’ve got the car you’ve got but when you next change it, consider if you tend to do lots of short journeys or spend a lot of time on stop start driving. A diesel car might not be the best choice for you. If you’re concerned about getting good MPG then some of the modern direct injection petrol engines have drastically closed the fuel economy gap between petrol and diesel engines.
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