I've gone and got sensible

[Steve-L]

Well last Saturday I traded my Leon Cupra (fully modded) for a 03 plate Ibiza TDI SE.
My insurance has gone down from £100 a month (London postcode and I told the insurance company about all the mods) to £30 a month and hopefully my monthly petrol spend will be about £40-£50 now as opposed to £100 + before.

So far I have been quite impressed :happy: , whilst obviously not as fast as my old car it's still quite nippy and has good mid range acceleration. Being new to a diesel car I have a couple of questions that I hope you experienced diesel owners can help with.

a) What is the best time to change gears for fuel economy ? I'm guessing at about 2500rpm but am not sure.
b) When in town doing 30-40 at what rpm should the car be running for best fuel economy ?
c) I have noticed that a lot of other VW/Audi cars use the 1.9TDI engine including the Audi A6 estate, surely my car's engine must be deliberately limited if its the same engine used in a car twice the size ?

:cheers:

[Son]

b) When in town doing 30-40 at what rpm should the car be running for best fuel economy ?
Keep watching the fuel consumption figures in your computer in different gears. I'd say 4th gear should be best, considering fuel consumption and torque. At least my parents' Passat TDI-PD (6 gears) is running at around 2000 rpm at 30-40 mph. Its best torque is at 1900 rpm like in your Ibiza. Under that it tends to vibrate, too, especially when accelerating, which is a sign of too small gear.

[muddyboots]

c) I have noticed that a lot of other VW/Audi cars use the 1.9TDI engine including the Audi A6 estate, surely my car's engine must be deliberately limited if its the same engine used in a car twice the size ?
Yes, the 1.9 TDI comes in many guises. There are mechanical differences between them though, the higher output versions use bigger turbos (with more lag) and I think there are other differences in the engine itself too.

But your TDI 100 could easily be converted to 130+ with the aid of a tuning box or remap ;)

[Neo_VR]

But your TDI 100 could easily be converted to 130+ with the aid of a tuning box or remap ;)

Jabba seem to be best for tuning the pd100 engines... a chap on Briskoda has a Fabia pd100 which has been remapped to 153bhp and 280lb/ft... gives my vRS a run for its money too.. (especially on acelleration as its got lower gear ratios. :)