35 mpg after malone stage 2 tune and p3373

[eeonmomberg]

2006 tdi bew
So i haven't seen any benefit besides power when I need it with my malone stage 2 tune, and from what I have been researching a faulty asv can cause reduced mpgs, I have had the tune for about a month and I can't get better than 35 mpg even if I drive like a grandma, since the malone stage 2 tune can cause overbook I installed a boost gauge tapping directly into the intakes egr block off place, not only is the gauge seem way off (hitting 15-18psi when at 20% throttle and sometimes shooting up as high as 25psi on stock turbo) but now after installation I have a p3373 intake manifold change over valve code, my asv is working but I got a spare from the junk yard, I also switched out the valve from the junk yard as well, I checked a car to see how the hoses were routed to make sure I had it right and a couple diagrams but the diagrams arnt complete and confused me a bit, any help on figuring out this code and why I'm getting such bad fuel mileage would be greatly appreciated

 

[GlowBugTDI]

Here's a question.... if the car drove great before the tune, then you added a tune and started getting bad results. Why would you start throwing parts at the car??
Sounds to me like the tune is the only rhing you changed and has a very good chance of being the issue.
Personally I'd contact malone and see if they can go over the tune and make some changes.
And yes, boost spikes are common on malone tunes. I've seen guys darn near hitting 30psi on a vnt15. That being said I wouldn't say spikes to 25psi is bad.

 

[eeonmomberg]

I did it because everywhere I read says mpg increase and I wanted the check engine light off for the egr, at the time I would drive one hour to work one way and when I drove home once a month it was a 14 hour drive so the potential for a possible 10 mpg increase is very appealing, I figured out the p3373, it had to do with the gauge and I set the torsion back from -.5 to -2.9 to see if that helps, I believe the -2.9 is what it was before I did the timing belt, I'm guessing that might be it, but a tune that's suppose to give mpgs I didn't think it would hurt the mpgs that much

 

[GlowBugTDI]

This obviously isn't ruling out hardware issues that you may have coming into this, but assuming that you got great mpg before and now after its awful I would lean towards software.
I would go over everything and make sure things are running optimally on your end. I would run some logs of IQ, timing, and boost pressures.

 

[GlowBugTDI]

I did it because everywhere I read says mpg increase and I wanted the check engine light off for the egr, at the time I would drive one hour to work one way and when I drove home once a month it was a 14 hour drive so the potential for a possible 10 mpg increase is very appealing, I figured out the p3373, it had to do with the gauge and I set the torsion back from -.5 to -2.9 to see if that helps, I believe the -2.9 is what it was before I did the timing belt, I'm guessing that might be it, but a tune that's suppose to give mpgs I didn't think it would hurt the mpgs that much

As much as I hate to say it, I'm not sure where you got 10mpg improvement off a tune, but ive never seen it. Only guy with skill to get near that around here is @burpod
Tdi's can be tuned heavily and still get great mileage, but they have to be driven right and have good quality tuning.

How long ago did you purchase the tune?

 

[GlowBugTDI]

Unfortunately, malone tuning for mpg seems to be somewhat hit and miss. Mine never did amazing, but some others still saw just as good of mileage.

 

[burpod]

most factory BEW torsion values iv'e seen are +2.5-ish; i set mine at +0.5. and with my tune at least, i love how it runs and drives, and efficiency is excellent. i have to beat on it hard to get <44mpg in wifes 09a automatic....

-2.9 seems wrong, everyone i've seen who has set that retarded doesn't do so well

 

[JDSwan87]

On my now sold BEW wagon, I noticed torsion value played a role in MPG along with my right foot.

 

[eeonmomberg]

This obviously isn't ruling out hardware issues that you may have coming into this, but assuming that you got great mpg before and now after its awful I would lean towards software.
I would go over everything and make sure things are running optimally on your end. I would run some logs of IQ, timing, and boost pressures.

I can do that with vag com right? Ya before I did the timing belt I was getting 42 mpg but torsion was -2.9 i believe and I set it to-0.5, I heard from the fourms that MOST tdis r set there but not all, the timing belt tensioner was blown so I figured that torsion might have been off cuz of that.... typing this I'm realizing the belt has nothing to do with it, how negative can I go with torsion?

 

[powermandan]

I would take any tune that increases MPG with a pinch of salt.

Soon as you have a tune. The in car MPG display is uncalibrated

 

[eeonmomberg]

My car doesn't have an mpg display being an mk4, I calculate my mpg when I fill up at the pump, having the ventsectamy I fill it all the way up to the cap every time so I know I'm getting an accurate reading and I fill at the same pump everytime, unless the pump is giving me less fuel than it says, I've hear of some gas stations doing that

 

[eeonmomberg]

As much as I hate to say it, I'm not sure where you got 10mpg improvement off a tune, but ive never seen it. Only guy with skill to get near that around here is @burpod
Tdi's can be tuned heavily and still get great mileage, but they have to be driven right and have good quality tuning.

How long ago did you purchase the tune?

About a month ago, from everywhere I've read i should get 3-5 mpg for the egr delete and about 10% as a minimum for the tune so I figured around 50 mpg is where I should be

 

[eeonmomberg]

most factory BEW torsion values iv'e seen are +2.5-ish; i set mine at +0.5. and with my tune at least, i love how it runs and drives, and efficiency is excellent. i have to beat on it hard to get <44mpg in wifes 09a automatic....

-2.9 seems wrong, everyone i've seen who has set that retarded doesn't do so well

Ok, i saw a vid of a vw mechanic that that said most r set around -0.5 or 0, I just noticed that when I looked at my computer before I did the timing belt it was-2.9 and I was getting 42 mpg with a light foot but the car having a blown idler pully when dropping from higher rpms (2500+) when it got down to where it idles at 903 rpm it would stall out, when my fuel gauge starts to go down around 150 miles I'll fill it and see what the mpg is, maybe advancing it more will help but this is the first time I've trying figuring it out, I know there is a lot on torsion on here but every car is different from what I've read, plus direct inputs on what I'm experiencing helps figure it out too

 

[GlowBugTDI]

About a month ago, from everywhere I've read i should get 3-5 mpg for the egr delete and about 10% as a minimum for the tune so I figured around 50 mpg is where I should be

I see. I don't think I have ever seen anyone mention getting better then 5-6mpg on a tune. That's typically on the better end. To be fair a lot of that is in how the person drives. I never saw an increase. It was an instant decrease and I expected that because of how I drive.

I could totally be wrong, but I don't see how the egr could impact the engine enough to see a 3-5mpg difference.

 

[eeonmomberg]

I get that, I typically drive the speed limits, with tdis being so slow I wanted the better mpgs but I recently got a job at home in vegas and everyone here drives crazy fast so now it kinda needs the power but just for pulling out into traffic, once I get up to speed on busy streets it's fine, however I was making sure to take routes where I didn't have to gun in on the last 150 miles and only got 32 mpg, 10 mpg decrease when I'm suppose to get and increase is bad

 

[GlowBugTDI]

I get that, I typically drive the speed limits, with tdis being so slow I wanted the better mpgs but I recently got a job at home in vegas and everyone here drives crazy fast so now it kinda needs the power but just for pulling out into traffic, once I get up to speed on busy streets it's fine, however I was making sure to take routes where I didn't have to gun in on the last 150 miles and only got 32 mpg, 10 mpg decrease when I'm suppose to get and increase is bad

I whole heartedly agree. No reason for that big of a drop.

 

[eeonmomberg]

Well hopefully my fuel gauge doesn't start dropping till 200, if so then torsion is was and I'll detune the car to the malone 1.5, I can't afford to be losing 25% of my mpgs

 

[GlowBugTDI]

Well hopefully my fuel gauge doesn't start dropping till 200, if so then torsion is was and I'll detune the car to the malone 1.5, I can't afford to be losing 25% of my mpgs

Or just get the car tuned by someone else all together...

You could ask for a refund from them depending on how long ago this was.

 

[eeonmomberg]

Or just get the car tuned by someone else all together...

You could ask for a refund from them depending on how long ago this was.

Tbh i might do that, main reason for the tune was the promise of better EF and I'm not getting it

 

[burpod]

I see. I don't think I have ever seen anyone mention getting better then 5-6mpg on a tune. That's typically on the better end. To be fair a lot of that is in how the person drives. I never saw an increase. It was an instant decrease and I expected that because of how I drive.

I could totally be wrong, but I don't see how the egr could impact the engine enough to see a 3-5mpg difference.

a good tune can definitely get net you a noticeable improvement over stock efficiency + right mods and everything else all good too of course i'm very pleased with how my wifes BEW runs... with 300k on it, has never run better lots of power, no smoke, and probably at least 10% better than stock efficiency

 

[turbodieseldyke]

Possible first step: restore the stock tune & see what happens.

 

[burpod]

you should also take some logs, like 011-001-004 (always in TURBO mode), see how boost is tracking. see what hot idle IQ is. egr been cleaned i assume? is it deleted? have you checked condition of camshaft? and then of making sure brakes not sticking (check/grease guide pins), alignment, tires good and pumped up. what sort of mpg did this car get when it was stock?

 

[eeonmomberg]

you should also take some logs, like 011-001-004 (always in TURBO mode), see how boost is tracking. see what hot idle IQ is. egr been cleaned i assume? is it deleted? have you checked condition of camshaft? and then of making sure brakes not sticking (check/grease guide pins), alignment, tires good and pumped up. what sort of mpg did this car get when it was stock?

Idk how to do logs, I got the paid version of vag com when I got the tune. Idk what IQ is amd yes intake is clean and egr is deleted, I just did the rear brakes and greased the guides and pins but front brakes were still full pad so I haven't even removed them, might be worth pulling them off to see if they r still greased, they r the same pads from when I bought the car 2 years ago (15k miles) the guy did put drilled and slotted rotors on too, idk y, brakes work best at a certain temp, my golf isn't a race car... yet. The cam has minor wear but barely noticeable, tires have a very slow leak but I have a 12v charger pump so I check it every day before I drive, I was getting 42mpg before my timing belt change, last fill up (-0.5 torsion) it got 32 mpg, I filled up today (-2.9 torsion) in got 35. Torsion before the tim8ng belt change was -2.9