Climbing Stradigy

Is there any stradigy for getting better mileage my daily mountainous commute. Its impossible to avoid hills on my commute. Thanks for the response.

Would it be better for example to speed up before getting on a hill? What do I do when I start on a hill?

Once you start climbing in the tallest gear, hold it at 2000 rpm, whatever speed that gets you to.

Try not to accelerate when going uphill. Use your cruise control to maintain speed. Even tiny movements of your right foot will cause big changes in fuel economy. When going downhill, keeping the trans in gear will cause ZERO fuel to be burned as long as the engine is turning above idle speed. If you shift into neutral, you will burn a tiny amount of fuel to maintain idle, but you will coast longer and may gain more speed, depending on the grade and length of the hill. Choose the coasting style that best suits your situation.

Lets not ignore the basics, maintaining the vehicle, good tire pressures, removing all excess weight, roof boxes etc.
Select the gear that you believe will get you to the top of the hill without changing gear. Maintain steady throttle, avoiding the temptation to press the accelertor harder. If speed/engine revs drop too low, change down. As you approach the crest of the hill, lift off slightly and allow the speed to drop off.
Once over the hill, you will probably be looking to regain speed using the best choice of gear with light throttle, considering the terrain etc.

x2 on using the cruise control up-hill, also, consider several ounces of Powerservice per tank. An increase in cetane by a couple numbers may help the injectors trim back a little, maybe...
Anyway, if you are driving up mountains daily, sounds like a good thing to bring up compression, your mpg isn't bad for a new TDI operating under those up-hill conditions. You are really fortunate to pull a load, daily, on your engine.

On the run before the hill I upclick the cruise, say like once every 5 seconds; on the hill I downclick like once every 8 seconds.

I also commute uphill in the morning. Only about 250 meters vertical. My strategy is to allow the car to go slower, sometimes considerably slower, on the steeper sections and then gradually accelerate to higher speeds on the close to level sections. This is similar to what others have said. I've increased fuel economy by about 5 to 10 percent in doing this of late. Unfortunately, I'm now into need for the snows being mounted & below freezing temps in the morning. so it may all be a wash.

Thanks so much for the responses, I am going to try to employ those techniques. I have also pumped my tires from 33 PSI to 40 PSI, that should also help my mileage.

As you get up the hill, keep a fixed pedal position (fixed load). Let speed bleed that way till the minimum speed your comfortable with is attained. Then roll into the pedal to maintain that minimum speed up the hill. Once you reach the top, shift in neutral and freewheel down if you know you're not going to exceed the maximum speed you're comfortable with, else leave it in top gear and coast down.

I thought leaving the car in gear down a hill uses less fuel than if I shifted into neutral?

It does as far as instantaneous consumption is concerned, but it's dragging you down. If you can use the momentum to coast for a longer time freewheeling, you're better off leaving it in neutral.

boutmuet said:

I thought leaving the car in gear down a hill uses less fuel than if I shifted into neutral?

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Depends if you are loosing momentum by leaving it in gear then it may be more efficient to put it in neutral and coast further faster maintaining more momentum and speed.

boutmuet said:

I thought leaving the car in gear down a hill uses less fuel than if I shifted into neutral?

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Depends how steep the hill is, and whether you need to brake.

Coasting in gear above 1000 RPM uses zero fuel, but slows the car down more due to engine braking.

Coasting in neutral uses the amount of fuel needed to spin the engine at idle (about 0.1 gal/hr), but the car will coast quite a bit farther and more efficiently than in gear, if it is a mild hill and you don't have to touch the brakes.

As a thought experiment, I believe that the very best terrain profile to drive a TDI over, for mileage purposes, would be steep uphills that can be climbed in 5th gear at 1750 RPM with nearly full throttle... followed by long mild downhills that can be coasted down in neutral at 50 mph or so. This would be torture for the engine (full load approaching lugging/turbo stall, followed immediately by idle with hot oil and hot turbo parts), but for any given speed would result in max fuel economy... in principle.

BTW I drive my Golf over an 1100' pass that requires third gear up and third gear down, with braking to boot (to avoid becoming canyon fill), and the load profile and 40-50 mph speeds are such that it still manages to average 50 mpg from one side of the hill to the other (per Scangauge).

I mostly reserve coasting in neutral for flat farm country where I can see stop signs a half-mile away and the engine isn't working too hard... and traffic is light.

FWIW, I coasted down a hill today in 5th @ 65 mph (& slightly climbing), both the boost and EGT gauges were bottomed out at their lowest reading. I wonder how fast I would have gone if in neutral?

TDI_Convert said:

FWIW, I coasted down a hill today in 5th @ 65 mph (& slightly climbing), both the boost and EGT gauges were bottomed out at their lowest reading. I wonder how fast I would have gone if in neutral?

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Too fast

Engine rpm when climbing a mountain depends on how steep the grade. If a gentle grade, then maybe 2000 rpm in 5th is okay. If steeper, then you should select a gear where you can maintain 2200 or 2400 or 2600 rpm. When crossing Colorado on I-70, some of the passes get very steep right before the summits, for instance near the Eisenhower Tunnel. Do not lug the engine in circumstances like that -- downshift and get the revs up.