[s-cars] Ideas to Increase mpg?

[Tom Green]

Ok, what did you do with the real Dave Kase?  He couldn't even spell  
Respectfully.  : )

I don't think you see much here on mpg because it's difficult to  
compare, so usually meaningless.    You have this S6 with little  
invested in it, so I can see it is tempting to think you
can essentially get a free vehicle by changing cars.  But, I think the  
reality is different if you move to an unknown.  The fuel savings is  
so dependent on the price.  If you are making
a purely economic decision, just ride the bus.

I think you can get to 25 mpg average for your commute since you can  
generally avoid stop and go driving.  I would start with the basic  
tune of the engine before I would spend
money on the ECU.  You can probably find some stock chips for little  
dough, but are they socketed? Are the TAP chips socketed in the ECU?   
Who is going to do this swap?  How
much?  It's going to take a lot of commute to pay for the swap so can  
you expect enough gain in mpg?

I would look elsewhere for the culprit that is stealing my mileage.   
If it is your right foot, at least you are getting something for your  
money.  Faulty temperature sensors, O2 sensors,
dirty injectors, dirty MAF and intake, leaking vacuum hoses, etc. rob  
the mileage with nothing in return, and these are areas you can attend  
to without paying labor costs.  There is also the added benefit in  
performance and longevity for the well tuned engine.  I admit that  
payback for a few parts can be lengthy at 5 mpg, but you have  
immediate benefits in the performance too.

Tom



> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:32:23 -0400
> From: "David Kase" <dkase at dorma-usa.com>
> Subject: [s-cars] Ideas to Increase mpg?
> To: <s-car-list at audifans.com>
> Message-ID:
> 	<058B1C4576896745AB96826AB59CFC380879A9 at rmdc2.usa.dgna.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I did a 7 month search in the archives and did not see a thread  
> related to fuel mileage.
>
> I am keeping my B5 S4 as a secondary car and am currently doing some  
> upgrades to it.  My recently purchased S6 is doing dd duty.  I have  
> a 60 mile round trip each day and at 20 mpg, I could stand better  
> fuel mileage.  I do 55 of the 60 miles on the open highway.
>
> I was thinking of selling the C4 and buying a TDI (saving ~$100/ 
> month) but I just don't think I will enjoying driving it everyday  
> (Probably a 99-02 Jetta).  I also am considering a 1.8T A4.  But, I  
> figure if I can get the mileage better in the S6 then I will just  
> keep it.  I'd love to get over 25 mpg but I don't know if it is even  
> possible.
>
> Step 1 - go from CRAP (TAP) ECU to stock.  Then what?
>
> No matter what I do I know I will be rolling on the power from time  
> to time.  It seems like you can never get that mileage back over a  
> tankful.
>
> Respectfully,
> Kase