What are the tricks for 50+mpg

I have been reading that there are driving techniques that improve milage. Are they just the obvious ones, slow acceleration, slow stopping, ...? Or, are there more SECRET ones?

Thanks
Dan

patience and bravery!

That bravery one strikes a chord with me. My commute includes two merges into single lane roads from a stop to about 45MPH. I'm thinking of changes my commute to see if can't navigate around those merges. Fuel economy aside I'm white knuckes trying to accelerate onto the raod while not really beinjg able to see (curve) the traffic already in the roadway.
Rob M

Always drive downhill with the wind to your back.

stayalert, will you be able to join us on Saturday? Don't be a stranger!

My comment about bravery was relating to being very brave when travelling at the required ~50MPH on our nation's interstates with the the crazed/homicical maniacs out there. Road rage is not a thing of the past.

the professional driver that established the highway cycle figures actually acheived 63 mpg, and it was adjusted 22% to allow for the "average" driver's expectations and is published as 49 mpg.

The urban cycle was adjusted by 10%.

Therefore the mileage figures should be published as 50 mpgUS Urban, and 63 mpgUS Highway. and not 45 / 49.

hth

Don't know if I can make Sat. As far as mileage goes.....I'm still burning throuigh the first tank that I'm tracking the mileage on 'cause I've only had the cara couple of weeks....Too bad I've got a roof rack and occasional canoe on top....2001 golf tdi..

First be sure to use a Jetta rather than a NB. I struggle with my NB to stay near 50 mpg. My wife's Jetta Wagon beat 50 mpg on its first long trip.

In _rough_ order from most important to least:

Proper maintenance : is everything working as designed ?
Cruising : stop and go will kill ya
Patience : keep it below 65mph
Correct shape : Golfs and Jettas are pretty aerodynamic. NBs are not. I'm guessing because they are tall and have flared fenders.
Lower rolling resistance : Inflate your tires within 5-7 psi of their max. Michelin Energy MXV4 Plus's use an extremely low rolling-resistance silica compound. Narrower and lighter wheels/tires are better, too.
High cetane fuel : better burning = more power
Full synthetic engine oil : less drivetrain loss
DRL disable : do you ALWAYS need your lights on ?

I'm sure there's more suggestions. These are just the ones I use, though I can't do much (now) about the shape of my NB

This belongs in the Fuel Economy forum. Moving it there.

Pump your tires way up take off the Mirrors and Antenna keep it at 55 coast when possible don't turn on the A/C

50+??? That's no problem, except maybe in winter.

I did ask Jon Bartlett a couple of weeks ago how he achieved such extraordinary mileage scores and he says he gets up to cruising speed as quik as possible and gets the car into 5th gear as soon as he can and I suspect he leaves it there 'til he finds the motor is lugging.

Jon is certainly recognized here as a B4 MPG leader. I don't think there is anything unique about his car. He has had 2 B4s and is able to achieve his lofty numbers on both cars.

We did look at his ECU with VAGCOM and his timing is upper center of the graph where most of the other cars we looked at that day were in the upper right corner of the timing graph.

We did notice one parameter that was different on his car. I don't recall exaclty what the field was but it looked at the %variation, IIRC, from cylinder to cylinder compared against the 3rd (??) injector. His variation was zeroes across the screen. We looked at a few other cars and the others all showed +/- variations in those same fields.

Pssst....if no one's watching, push

I set cruise at 70 mph from Lex, KY to Jax, FL and managed 57.8 mpg. My "lifetime" average over 8k miles is 56.9 mpg. Values are US.

Start with a 5-spd. Braking wastes fuel - 90% of braking results from poor planning. Restrain the urge to wind out to 3k+rpm before shifting.

Not much of that matters on highway runs: To get the big numbers max out tire pressure and run synthetic 5w-30 oil. Remember to remove heavy stuff you don't need from the car. Use cruise in gentle terrain but not necessarily on steep hills - let car slow a bit during a climb and speed up a bit upon descent

Quick off-topic comment: 3 SPA dual gauges! You like them? Easy to read?

No tricks, just drive as a pro would.

Anybody remember Jackie Stewart? Mr. Smoooooth. That's how you do it.

dieseldorf mentioned:

We did notice one parameter that was different on his car. I don't recall exaclty what the field was but it looked at the %variation, IIRC, from cylinder to cylinder compared against the 3rd (??) injector. His variation was zeroes across the screen. We looked at a few other cars and the others all showed +/- variations in those same fields.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I remember seeing that data block when I was looking at a few things on my car with a vag-com last week. Can anyone shed some light on the data block that dieseldorf mentions.

Originally posted by TDIBill:
Anybody remember Jackie Stewart? Mr. Smoooooth. That's how you do it.

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Exactly, remember the tennis ball in the bowl on the hood of a Taurus? Try Stewart style with a little short shift and downshifting only when necessary. With 3800 miles on the car now, it's hard to get less than 50 MPG, unless you are in a real hurry.

Originally posted by tomo366:
Pump your tires way up take off the Mirrors and Antenna keep it at 55 coast when possible don't turn on the A/C

Click to expand...

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Or let RC drive!

Check your injection timing, use 'green' tires pumped up to about 10% of the max figure stated on the tire.. Accel smoothly but not fast, shift up early, shift down later, go slow, go with the wind. Don't put things on the car that catch the wind.

I got a record worst MPG a month ago, going to the black hills. 39 MPG on a 550 mile jaunt. 3 bikes on the back of the car catching the wind, driving 70 MPH, into a 30 MPH head wind, and 3 people in the car.

2 days later, coming home, zero bikes on the car, 5 people in it, no real wind, and going 80 MPH I got 49.x MPG over a 510 mile jaunt. Typicaly at 65 MPH with low winds I get around 54-55 MPG on long trips. Never really had the time to go much slower than that for any lenght of time.. but i bet I could get over 60 MPG if I was on some kind of nerve medication/sedative..

I'm new to this board and new to TDI World. I bought my 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI 5sp last month. 1st tank, 43.7 mpg, 2nd tank 46.9 mpg, 3rd tank (this fill) 50.998 mpg!
This is combined hwy and suburban driving. Approx. 2/3 hwy and remainder other.
Conti Tires now @ 34psi. Will increase to 38psi prior to road trip tomorrow of approx. 500 miles.
Will post results after trip.
Love this car!

Your best bet it to fill it with Canadian gallons

I have acheived 78mpg [canadian gallon] Highway driving. I kept it in 5th gear as much as possible. And tried my best to keep engine rpm constant. This was in the 50-60mph range.I have heard a story way back to drive in your socks, to acheive better milage dont know if this works.