stapldm
Member Since: 11 Sep 2006
Location: Swine Town
Posts: 2330
  
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| Is Sport the new Economy? |
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No, we're not talking about those people who can earn more sat on a bench all day than I can earn in a year.
I'm talking Auto box fuel economy, so click back now if you don't care.
I was sat in some traffic in town last week, the usual crappy stop start stuff brought about by the councils insistence that all traffic lights should be timed to ensure there are never two consecutive green lights so they can prove that cars produce more emissions and therefore we should go by bus. Ahem, I digress.
It occurred to me as I once again gently pulled away from the lights that the engine was working quite hard in a rev range substantially lower than the 1900 highest torque sweet spot of the standard ECU map, and that it can't be doing wonders for fuel economy. I cleared my trip computer and after a couple of days of pure rush-hour town driving, it showed 24.5MPG. My only surprise was that it was this good (though I know the computer is optimistic).
I remembered that putting the Auto box in Sport mode would hold the lower gears for longer (as long as cruise not used), and wondered whether the higher resulting RPM would improve economy. Over the last two days I've been in Sport mode all the time. In similar traffic conditions, I'm now seeing 27.5MPG, and can see that the RPM stay centred around 2000 instead of spending half the time down at 1400.
Now, admittedly because I have my kids in the car I'm driving like mon orchid is under the accelerator pedal, but it appears to me that switching to Sports mode in town driving really makes a difference.
Has anyone else seen a similar effect? Dr. Ian Malcolm:
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Transgenic tomato anyone?
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 2nd Mar 2009 9:40 am |
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NoDo$h
Member Since: 02 May 2006
Location: Finding new and exciting ways to milk badgers.
Posts: 19689
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 seen similar when driving A and B roads at or below 55 mph I know it's not considered "kind" to say no these days, but no. Just no, ok? And if it's not ok, still no.
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| 2nd Mar 2009 9:54 am |
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lee157
Member Since: 01 Oct 2008
Location: in the middle
Posts: 557
 
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have often wondered this myself as the range dropped less in sport as apposed to normal, would make sense as the max torgue is about 1900RPM.
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| 2nd Mar 2009 12:59 pm |
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mikiemelhuish
Member Since: 02 Mar 2009
Location: devon
Posts: 12
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sounds like it works will give a try as you in the torque range all off the time
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| 3rd Mar 2009 7:34 am |
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stapldm
Member Since: 11 Sep 2006
Location: Swine Town
Posts: 2330
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Thanks ND, looks like it wasn't totally my imagination then
disco3Kenny, yes, that's correct. However your sig strip says you have a torque tune; I suspect that keeping it in Sports will do very little for your fuel economy; firstly 'cos the tune will improve the torque curve across a wider RPM range so you don't have to hover at 1900 to reap the benefits, and secondly you'll be trying to beat all the Audi TTs and Porsches at the lights 
I look forwards to hearing if you all get similar results; I've blown my weeks trial by having to do a left-foot-braked start at a busy roundabout yesterday, which immediately dropped my around town average back down to 25 from just under 28  Dr. Ian Malcolm:
"Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Transgenic tomato anyone?
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| 3rd Mar 2009 4:12 pm |
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Roel
Member Since: 16 Aug 2008
Location: home
Posts: 1215
 
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Not very scientific test for normal or sport mode.
Driving up and down between my Hotel (i.e. where I stay on the moment) and the drilling rig where I work. that is about 30 km round trip. yesterday normal mode I got 5.3 km/ltr today sport mode 4.8 km/ltr. It is a hilly area and have to drive through severall small villages with traffic.
I'll continue testing but currently it is 1:0 in favour off normal mode. Roel
1997 Camel Trophy Disco ex-P101JWK (traded it for a Britains 42101)
1984 90 TD5
2005 G4 Disco 3 BN55WPT
Also member of club MTR
and Club Faultmate
Interested in my 4x4 history see my website: www.mudmachine.webklik.nl
Sorry it's in Dutch and with google translator it gets funny.
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| 6th Mar 2009 3:45 am |
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Roel
Member Since: 16 Aug 2008
Location: home
Posts: 1215
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I drove back from southern Germany to The Netherlands in sports mode. 880 km one way.
On the way South I got 5.7 km/ltr in normal mode back up North I got 5.7 km/ltr in sport mode. 
On the way South I use BP/Aral ultimate. Going North Shell euro 95.
Going South is uphill, going North is downhill.
I think I was doing about the same speed, maybe going home a little faster.
Completely not scientific but Sport mode doesn't consume a lot more. It could be even a little better. Roel
1997 Camel Trophy Disco ex-P101JWK (traded it for a Britains 42101)
1984 90 TD5
2005 G4 Disco 3 BN55WPT
Also member of club MTR
and Club Faultmate
Interested in my 4x4 history see my website: www.mudmachine.webklik.nl
Sorry it's in Dutch and with google translator it gets funny.
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| 26th Apr 2009 3:07 pm |
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wvlenthe
Member Since: 07 Jan 2009
Location: Arnhem
Posts: 1967
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Roel,
I suppose it works different for diesel or petrol (LNG/LPG) engines?
Wiljo D3 V8 HSE Auto in Zermatt silver - driveway version gone but not forgotten, only the living room cupboard version remains
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| 26th Apr 2009 3:13 pm |
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Roel
Member Since: 16 Aug 2008
Location: home
Posts: 1215
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I don't know if it make a differents, before I tried forcing it to used 6th. I didn't see any benifit. I have a G4 with roofrack fitted so maybe 6th is really to big.
I don't think I saw it using 6th in sport mode or maybe only if I went down a mountain but not on a horizontal strecth.
And I don't believe it makes a difference if you're driving a constant speed in the same gear. It's just when the gearschange is the difference. Roel
1997 Camel Trophy Disco ex-P101JWK (traded it for a Britains 42101)
1984 90 TD5
2005 G4 Disco 3 BN55WPT
Also member of club MTR
and Club Faultmate
Interested in my 4x4 history see my website: www.mudmachine.webklik.nl
Sorry it's in Dutch and with google translator it gets funny.
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| 26th Apr 2009 3:33 pm |
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christoff
Member Since: 04 Jun 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 58
 
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Hi all,
I've been doing something similar and I'm convinced I get an improvement in MPG.
The majority of my driving is on A roads, 50-60MPH following traffic - so not much overtaking or foot to the floor action.
Once I reach 50MPH, I flick the box over to manual, change gear into 6th and then keep the gear lever over in Manual/ Sport. 50mph is the earliest that the box lets me change into 6th.
Keeping the box in Manual means the car resists automatically changing down until it really has to, and I can then "force" it back into 6th once back at 50MPH if I've had to briefly slow down for traffic.
My journey is fairly flat, so i dont put much load on the engine, and on my assumption that lower revs generally means lower fuel consumption, it seems to do the trick.
Christoff...
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| 30th Jul 2009 11:53 am |
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bigcarpchaser
Member Since: 13 Oct 2007
Location: Camberley
Posts: 2270
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Had 30k service a week ago, since then, mpg has dropped from 27.8 to 25.6.
Go figure! Welcome "Lola" 
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| 30th Jul 2009 10:11 pm |
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Roel
Member Since: 16 Aug 2008
Location: home
Posts: 1215
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I have another trick:
On my way to Croatia and back I was driving most on cruise controll at about 140 km/hr with a full roofrack.
I used less fuel then normally when driving for work to Southern Germany or Austria. So a fully loaded roofrack saves fuel. 
Or is it that my wife was sitting next to me? Roel
1997 Camel Trophy Disco ex-P101JWK (traded it for a Britains 42101)
1984 90 TD5
2005 G4 Disco 3 BN55WPT
Also member of club MTR
and Club Faultmate
Interested in my 4x4 history see my website: www.mudmachine.webklik.nl
Sorry it's in Dutch and with google translator it gets funny.
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| 4th Aug 2009 10:02 pm |
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fireheed
Member Since: 07 Dec 2009
Location: Aberdeenshire
Posts: 17
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I've noticed better fuel economy in stop start or twisty B roads using sport mode.
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| 5th Jan 2010 10:58 pm |
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heine
Member Since: 07 Feb 2007
Location: Midrand
Posts: 4054
 
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I have a scangauge fitted http://www.scangauge.com/ which allows you to measure things like engine load , economy etc. in real time.
I have noticed that both engine load and economy are worse at higher revs. Maybe a V8 is different to the diesel as I expect the diesel will be happier with the blower working at max efficiency ?
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| 6th Jan 2010 9:03 am |
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