I have never seen more then 28 out of my coupe

Which I dont think is bad

James - just a suggestion for you (although you may struggle to get this one past Alison.

Current mpg = 28. 55 miles per day = 2 gallons. Multiply by 5 days a week and 48 weeks per year = 480 gallons per year = £2,400 per annum.

Flowed head, plus 3-angle valve grind, plus fitting - circa £1,000. When I had mine fitted, my miles per tank went from 250 to about 300. You should get a bit less of a benefit (as you're already over 300 miles per tank) - lets assume 30 miles per tank, or about 1 gallon (at your new consumption).

So - if your fuel consumption is down by say 10%, so will your costs. So your fuel bill will be down by about £240 per annum - payback in 4 years

Damn - that's not very helpful is it? The extra 30 - 50bhp might help the cause, but I don't see it helping the financials.

What about an LPG conversion? Cost circa £2,000 (to do it properly) - saving about 40%, so around £1,000 per annum - 2 year payback.

Nigel is always trying to convince people to go for head work what he fails to admit is that it will *increase* fuel consumption because you will want to boot it more often

You can DIY LPG it for < £1000 and at 55 miles a day you should recoop (scuse the pun) within a year?

Scott

There's no way a standard Coupe would ever do 43 mpg, so the headwork MUST have made a decent amount of difference

Another suggestion - get your injectors ASNU cleaned, my mpg improved significantly after I did this (a nice side effect that I wasn't expecting). BTW, I just happen to have a set for sale if you need to send a spare set off to get cleaned

Of course, but having the restraint to exploit it is another thing

Another option: 'the Kingpleb equation'

Zantia TD £500
Extra years insurance £350
Chip Fat 55p a litre (straight in the tank)

Same as the DIY LPG but saves the miles on your coupe.

Hi Gents and thanks for all the ideas.

I know that way to Coventry - a corker of a route along the B4098 if its the one that goes through Nether Whitacre etc - love that road!

I'm going to Kings Norton everyday. Its a (fairly) good clear A-road run at the time I leave the house (6.45am) and I'm usually there by about 7.20-7.25. A good 35 mins most days.

No, I'm not unichipped but I'm using base boost only (Greddy switched off) and I'm driving like a grandad.

I suppose I could speak to GrahamL nicely and ask him if he can make me up a "tight-wad" chip. As long as I'm not using much boost and barely over half throttle I suppose it might be possible.

What do you think?

James

Whats the point of having a 250+bhp coupe and driving it like that



Sell and get yourself an oil burner

The beauty of a Unichip is that you could use it to over-ride a G-Tec to create a low-fuel, low-boost setup.

However, I have a feeling that the ECU base maps would try and compenate and the learning feature would richen it back up again.

I assume you're going either through Shenstone / Four Oaks or maybe Mile Oak and Chester Road. Either way, you're trundling at 40-50, with lots of stops and re-starts (roundabouts, traffic lights etc). Frankly, I'm amazed that you're getting 28mpg. For that kind of driving, you'd really struggle to get more than 40mpg out of a diseasel.

I recommend you just sell a couple more bits per month on ebay - that will cover the £3 per day or so that you would have saved with an oil-burner.

I'm now spending £5,000 a year on fuel (which seeing as it comes from net pay, is actually taking an £8,000 bite from my gross salary). However, my plan of attack was to push for a promotion and a wage rise, which I've now got, so I'm happy (for now )

Keep the Coupe - you'll slide into the mire of mediocrity if you get rid.

James have you considered the LPG route? Its more than do-able for £1000 DIY if you are the kind of person who does things properly (which you are)....

It would pay for itself in a year.

Scott

@ Bezzer - thats my thinking really. If I'm not using the coupe for what it can do then I might be better off with a TDi Golf or something (which is currently the car I'm currently browsing for on autotrader).

@ Nigel - my route is Bassetts Pole, Minworth, A38M, through the underpasses, past B'ham Uni and then through Bournville village. Yes, suppose I'm averaging 40 over the whole journey. Ebay is a bit lean at the moment and I'm struggling for time to make the part up that I do sell. However, I am pushing for a promotion so that would help a bit.

@ Scott - yes, I'd seriously be interested in the LPG route. Its just that I remember Kingpleb seemed to have few issues with his engine after the conversion afterwards - 2 melted pistons as I remember - which puts me off a bit.

I have some thinking to do I think...

James,

I've recently looked into the LPG route quite a bit and spoken to Kingpleb about his conversion (see my other thread). He doesn't think the LPG killed his engine, he thinks it was shoving in a big turbo and a gtech2 without having the fueling checked killed it.

Personally I agree with JohnS - that it will probably work at reasonable boost levels but for 300bhp you would need to switch back to petrol or change stuff.

PM me if you want to talk more about it.

Scott

I'm a twonk - I read your workplace as Kingstanding, not Kings Norton - doh!

Its the fact that you're not maintaining a steady speed thats keeping the consumption up. Acceleration uses much more fuel and braking wastes it.

I have a feeling that an LPG conversion (and a Unichip to run an alternative map) will be great for everyday use, then turn off the gas and run on proper petrol for when you want to give it some beans.

I'd love to consider it, but there are no LPG stations anywhere near where I live. James - you would be fine, there are loads in Birmingham.

Well, I've given it a good go and I think I'm still selling.

I can get nearly 32mpg if I drive like an utter grandand. No noticable acceleration, 60mph on dual carriageways and predicting junctions. With that I'm fairly pleased.

TBH I just feel like a change and I wouldn't mind driving a car I can actially DRIVE rather than pootling around like an old git. I've been looking at the Mk4 Golf GTTdi's - 150bhp and 236lb/ft of torque. I'm liking them a lot. Nicely stylable and tunable (easily to 190bhp) and an easy 50-55mpg.

It would halve my fuel bill saving me about £120 a month. Money I could well do with at the moment tbh.

I'm going to be posting up an ad in the next couple of days.

I'm not too sad you know, and quite excited about the Golf.

James

The MkIV Golf is nice I'll grant you that and a nice set of wheels and a Carratere Grill can improve its looks dramatically. It's not a great drivers car TBH, but a rechip will give good performance whilst still returning good MPG.

Be sure you check your GTTDI 150 is truely a TDI 150, as many owners change the badges on the back, or de-badge them. I can't remember exactly but I think a GTTDI is 115bhp, GTTDI is 130bhp and the GTTDI is 150bhp.

So you might be buying a 115bhp that already been mapped to 140bhp but it's badged as a 150bhp car.

If you wanna check, lift up the carpet in the boot and there should be a white sticker stuck to the floor with the Kw output of the car printed on it.

Thanks daithi28 - good advice there.

James

James,

Can you car share with anyone? I've just cut my fuel bill in half by doing this.

And don't forget - if you have a Mondeo you'll only drive like a grandad anyway!!

Scott

Shame that James...

I always liked your car/s and seeing you and Ally at the odd meet here and there...

Either way, good luck with it.

I like those golfs too - and with things as they are i think alot of people might be heading the same way...

Save for a clutch if you remap a VAG TDI!

Not necessarily.....I had a 1.9 A4 TDI (130) chipped to 197 BHP & 420nm torque - ran beautifully on standard clutch, car had done circa 40k miles prior to remap on original clutch.

Thanks gents.

Yes, times are tight and I'm really getting quite excited about a different car. I've had coops for more than 4 years now which is a record for me by miles!

I'll always love em but I really like the idea of a nice Golf.

James