2022 preferred shift points, cruise and accel rpm windows? Effect on efficiency?

[taleAwaggin]

What are the tdiclub homies doing on rpms? I used to try to follow the dash cues and cruise inside the 1500-2000rpm window. The more I read up about these things here on tdiclub the higher I want to let it rev out.. I figure what is the point of saving one or two mpg, if it takes the engine and dpf out of their happy place. What are you all doing? Any tips or input appreciated by my wallet which pays $7 per gallon and $1000 per dpf.

 

[Lightflyer1]

As long as the regens are happening you should be good for emissions.

 

[taleAwaggin]

Well that wasn't my question but I have the dpf light lightin up my dash. I'm just curious where everybody drives these things in the rpms. I've started to try to keep it 500 to 1000 rpm higher than before. It doesnt seem to hurt fuel economy like I had assumed it would have.

 

[Mongler98]

RPMS have no or rather very little effect on MPG and specifically its better to have hotter engine runs than cooler by trying to baby the engine to have "better" mpg
its LOAD that determines the fuel input.
If you want to know in real time, get a scangauge II It will tell you in real time the GPH usage. typically idle is about 0.08 to 0.11 GPH with AC on and a load on the alternator.
at WOT you see about 30 to 35 GPH on newer TDI's with higher HP on a stock map and about 29 pegged on older engines.
rev the engine up in park or at the light with the clutch in and you wont see much more than 1.5 to 2 GPH. full rpms at highway speeds like 50 but just to keep the car moving forward vs a load will have similar results.
forget RPMS. its about the load and use.
For arguments sake, 3500 is a great place to shift but it depends on if your on a hill or whatever.
get a scangauge and stop guessing. it will pay for its self.

 

[Lightflyer1]

Well that wasn't my question but I have the dpf light lightin up my dash. I'm just curious where everybody drives these things in the rpms. I've started to try to keep it 500 to 1000 rpm higher than before. It doesnt seem to hurt fuel economy like I had assumed it would have.

If you have the dpf light coming on you are doing something wrong. In the 5 years I have owned mine I have never had the light come on. If you are driving in such a way that regens don't happen properly, then rpms and shifting and that stuff don't really matter.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

I can't speak for a dieselgate tune but my tuned 11, on the freeway, does best (lowest soot/less rich) in 5th gear 90% of the time. I've found 6th gear to be rarely used.

The hardest thing was to convert my wife's driving style to a more aggressive, higher rpm way of thinking... do 5th until you can hold a level/no incline with a steady (at least) 70mph . Get there like your pissed, no pussy footin:. YOUR TDI and emissions component's will thank you with a healthier life span.

Edit
Oh yeah, finish your regens if at all possible . The guys that used to spout "just ignore it and drive shut down whenever... it'll be fine " , well they seemed to die off on the forums, just like there DPF's.

DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!

 

[taleAwaggin]

If you have the dpf light coming on you are doing something wrong. In the 5 years I have owned mine I have never had the light come on. If you are driving in such a way that regens don't happen properly, then rpms and shifting and that stuff don't really matter.

Well. For the car's boring ass origin story, please see below:
I bought it sight unseen from cross country maybe a year back. I have driven 10 or 20% of the 90k miles. It goes maybe 50 or 60 miles round trip per day now in a warm climate. Periodic longer trips. I have no idea how many miles are on this dpf or any of the components. Light came on once maybe 3 weeks ago. I changed my shift points up 1k to 3k-3.5k recently and as of yesterday the light is gone. I don't know if its unrelated or what happened to get it to go out. Just fixed the P2015 issue too if that has any bearing. I have floored it from day one, just that for the first 11 out of the 12 months of ownership I tried to keep it down under 2k. Which I think was a newb mistake now that I have tried the alternative for a short time and the mpg is no worse! The car does Regen. I do wait and let it Regen out. It has the Dgate fix and compeltely factory on hardware and software and will stay that way. I don't think I have ever driven this thing without flooring it at least a few times. Its not a rare occurrence to have the skinny pedal hit the floor in a 120hp heavy car. I have a little mid engine sporty spice car a lot quicker and I still am able to floor it every damn drive in that thing also. Just a TDI newb trying to educate myself on what rpm range the cool cats are using these things at. All ears if we doing anything wrong. Exactly why I asked..

 

[taleAwaggin]

Ok Mongler I will try 3500 from today and see how that goes on the mpg.

I can't speak for a dieselgate tune but my tuned 11, on the freeway, does best (lowest soot/less rich) in 5th gear 90% of the time. I've found 6th gear to be rarely used.

The hardest thing was to convert my wife's driving style to a more aggressive, higher rpm way of thinking... do 5th until you can hold a level/no incline with a steady (at least) 70mph . Get there like your pissed, no pussy footin:. YOUR TDI and emissions component's will thank you with a healthier life span.

Edit
Oh yeah, finish your regens if at all possible . The guys that used to spout "just ignore it and drive shut down whenever... it'll be fine " , well they seemed to die off on the forums, just like there DPF's.

DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT!

Yeah Jello I had a hard time adjusting my brains to a more rpm aggresive style of driving also over the past few weeks. I know what you mean about your wife having to convert. I've been staying in 5th at highway speeds the past few weeks. For me I think part of the assumption that low rpm was more efficient came from the little dash shift suggestions. I was like "they must have done that for a good reason, probably efficiency" but nope. WRONG.

 

[Lightflyer1]

P2015 is the intake flap. Dieselgeek makes a fixture to fix this.

P2015 Manifold Fix for VW Common Rail TDI

So, you have a TDI with a P2015 error code and your friendly local VW or Audi dealer has quoted you over $900 to fix it? Well, you've come to the right place.

dieselgeek.com

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

Ok Mongler I will try 3500 from today and see how that goes on the mpg

Yeah Jello I had a hard time adjusting my brains to a more rpm aggresive style of driving also over the past few weeks. I've been staying in 5th at highway speeds the past few weeks.

For me I think part of the assumption that low rpm was more efficient, "they must have done that for a good reason, probably efficiency" but nope. WRONG.

My experiance shows the bogged engine loads the soot up @ prescribed RPM's. What do they (diesel hating U.S. EPA) care... the soot/ash is trapped by the expensive DPF (owners cost). The other emmisions are lowered with this imbalance, but only microscopically. Win/win for Johnny Fed. Their goal is to remove diesel. Great Supreme Court ruling regaurding EPA overeach this week. Wo Hooo!

 

[gearheadgrrrl]

Guys, your driving technique is perfect for the diesel engines of half a century ago- Those engines with no DPF or even a turbo has such narrow powerbands you wound them out 'til the governor said stop and a lugged Cummins would blow chunks or just plain blow up. Today high RPMs just wastes fuel on parasitic drag and you want to work the engine hard at lower revs to keep it hot to burn off the particulates before they plug the DPF. I've seen the fuel map for an ALH and a quick glance convinced me there was no reason to to cruise my TDI at 3000 RPM and waste fuel on parasitic drag when the engine had more than enough power to do the job at 2000 RPM. In the trucking industry there' companies like Ploger who run a whole fleet of Macks and Volvos with "down sped" 13 liter engines that cruise at 1000-1200 RPMs. They're getting 10 MPG while their competitors are getting 7 or 8, and unlike they're competitors there DPFs aren't plugging every month. Some of the smarter operators with Detroit Diesels are getting similar results with down sped diesels, and Cummins is working on a next gen 15 liter diesel that can shut off cylinders to conserve fuel and keep the exhaust hot for longer DPF life while part throttle cruising.

So go ahead and occasionally floor the throttle and wind out your TDI, no excuses needed and you're not going to hurt it. But to save fuel and DPFs, keep the revs down.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

Guys, your driving technique is perfect for the diesel engines of half a century ago-Those engines with no DPF or even a turbo has such narrow powerbands you wound them out 'til the governor said stop and a lugged Cummins would blow chunks or just plain blow up. Today high RPMs just wastes fuel

Wrong. These little 4`s are higher revving motors. Maybe not be a high revving Ferrari but going from 1500 to 2k+ is definitely a healthier striving style. As confirmed by many it will not hurt mpg and often improves it.

you want to work the engine hard at lower revs to keep it hot to burn off the particulates

Lugging the EPA tune is dumping excessive fuel on this engine and is by design done to bump DPF Temps in a "passive" regen, kind of what a gas catalytic converter does by reaction. Low rpm loading is even worse with the new EPA dieselgate inspired tines.

I've seen the fuel map for an ALH nd a quick glance convinced me there was no reason ... trucking companies like Ploger who run a whole fleet of Macks and Volvos...Some of the Detroit Diesels... and Cummins

BTW This is the mk7 particular forum

 

[taleAwaggin]

I don't remember posting this in the mk7 forum. What I meant by putting 2022 in the thread title was "Conidering the 2022 higher gas prices where should we be shifting." That kind of thing. I'm not sure if the thread was moved here because of that 2022 part.

What the past few weeks have resulted in makes me think Jellow is right on the money. I used to cruise in the cjaa in a 1400rpm to 1900 rpm window on the highway under light load cruise conditions. I have since switched to light load cruise 2000 - 2500, and my dash mileage has not gone down.

I have similarly increased my acceleration window 500 to 1000 rpm versus before the same as my cruise window. Previously I aimed for maybe 2500 max, versus now I regularly rev 3000-3500 maximum during acceleration. No noticeable reduction in mpg at all.. anyway I wish somebody told me to ignore the dash shift-o-suggest-o-meter thing from day1. And told me to IGNORE 6th gear while highway cruising.

I highly recommend any other TDI newbs out there try the same thing as this newb did and see for themselves. Of course your ****box may vary and all that.

 

[gearheadgrrrl]

Got plenty of long flat roads out here to test that theory, just set the cruise for a steady speed and shift the DSG's gears manually. Watching the current MPG or L/100Km display I see fuel consumption predictably rising with RPM.

 

[turbobrick240]

I used to shift between 2500-3000 rpm 90% of the time in my '11. But I also revved it to 4k+ rpm at least a couple times every day. I pretty much only used 6th gear on the highway at speeds over 60 mph. My car spent a lot of time right around 2k rpm.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

shift the DSG's gears manually.

Although ìt was never clarified between a manual or auto it
stands to reason we're talking 6m, maybe I'm wrong.

I don't remember posting this in the mk7 forum.
I used to cruise in the cjaa
And told me to IGNORE 6th gear while highway cruising.

So it's not a mk7? Is it the car mk6 cjaa? And 6th gear is nice but is really a bonus in most cases.

 

[adjat84th]

In a Honda hybrid forum from a past life...there were a few members that did some experiments with the best acceleration for MPG. They went out to an empty road and reset the MPG avg at the start of every attempt, and accelerated at different %'s of accelerator pedal up to a certain speed and drove for just one mile to record the readout. The conclusion was that medium load/acceleration provided the best results. Be interesting to see someone do a similar test in the MK7 TDI and compare...

 

[taleAwaggin]

Yes in my case 6m cjaa, but of course feel free to discuss other models in the thread. I also lived a past life in the gasoline world in which high throttle at low rpm served me well on efficiency. That seems to be a mistake with the TDI from what I have experienced with my car. I will continue accelerating at higher rpm and cruising at higher rpm from now on. I go to 6th around 75mph now.

It takes a ton of fuel savings to equal to one dpf.. It makes sense to drive in whatever manner keeps that thing happy. Even if it costs mileage. Which it seems in my case that it does not cost significant mileage. BTW this car also has over size tires, so that may play into the equation resulting in the car not doing as well lugging at high throttle and low rpm as other cars do.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

Yes in my case 6m cjaa.

I go to 6th around 75mph now.

It takes a ton of fuel savings to equal to one dpf.. It makes sense to drive in whatever manner keeps that thing happy.

BTW this car also has over size tires, so that may play into the equation resulting in the car not doing as well lugging at high throttle and low rpm as other cars do.

What size tires? Yes you seem to have added to an already present issue of lugging/high soot producing condition with tall tires/essentially lowering drive gear ratio.

Diesel can be counter intuitive to gasoline in many ways.

You may consider a quality non delete tune. The biggest plus I've found is reduced soot.

 

[taleAwaggin]

Nothing too crazy IIRC an inch or two more on tire circumference vs what it had.

 

[JELLOWSUBMARINE]

Nothing too crazy IIRC an inch or two more on tire circumference vs what it had.

1" and especially 2" can really have an extreem effect. What are your ACTUAL tire sizes?
It takes 3 tire sizes up to make just a 1.1" taller than stock tire.(255x50z17) and 5 tire sizes to make 2" (275x%0x17)

Tire Size Comparison

Tire size comparison the easy way. Use our tire size comparison calculator to compare diameter, width, sidewall, circumference and revolutions per mile.

tiresize.com

As this chart shows @70 mph your ACUALLY doing 75mph with 2" taller tires

 

[taleAwaggin]

When I got the car I think it had 225-45-17 and now it has 215-60-16. Calc says 1.19" increase. I will probably end up with 215-65-16 when the time comes for new tires. Yes I mentioned it specifically because I figured it could effect the ideal rpm range versus other people browsing through the thread trying to figure out how to shift their poopboxes.

Car is still doing really well on dash mpg with high rpm. Never would have thought so, but shows you what assumptions do.