1.6 Tdi CR Leon Ecomotive Power Band

[willives]

My parents have just got a new Leon Ecomotive with the 1.6 Tdi CR engine.

I know that to get the best economy, you have to drive it differently to the older diesels.

The gear change prompts seem too low to me....if you change gear when it says, yes, the economy is good if you continue at the same speed, but then there is no power to accelerate, and so the economy drops.

Whats the power band of this engine?

Thanks

 

[Jarre]

You need to give it a bit more throttle then! If you do that the gear change prompt won't come up so early.

Throttle must be that low that the car doesn't think you want to accellerate any further

 

[Deleted member 74601]

Personally, I drive mine between 1,500RPM and 2,400RPM/2,500RPM.

Any lower than 1,500RPM, and the engine struggles.

The CR engine should be considered a halfway point between a petrol and a PD diesel engine, when driving in terms of revs. I think this is the main reason some people in the Ibiza and Fabia have had problems with this engine. Here's how I drive it.

1st up to 2,500RPM up to around 10-15mph.

Dropping into 2nd will then put you around 1,350RPM. Drive up to around 27mph, and going into 3rd will drop you around 1,500RPM. (2nd and first aren't too bad below 1,500RPM but the higher gears REALLY struggle)

3rd up to around 41mph and change to 4th. You can go in 4th about 38mph, but this gear and 5th gear really struggle under 1,500RPM. It can feel awkward and underpowered at 40mph, and the 1mph actually makes a hell of a difference.

Do not use 5th until about 58-60mph, it is NOT needed.

I"d also like to point out that 30mph in 3rd for me pulls around 95MPG on the live display. 40mph at 4th pulls around 95MPG-100MPG on the live display. 5th at 60MPH pulls about 80-85MPG on the live display. Obviously you won't get those figures because of the stop starting, but on a long run at 30 or 40mph, I easily see into 70mpg. It's only my cruise speed that brings the figures down.

I'm about to hit ~65MPG for my latest tank with a 70mph cruise speed on the motorway, which as far as I'm aware, is one of the better MPGs. I have just hit 10,000 miles and have been improving every tank as the mileage is increasing.

I know people usually advise against it, but tell them to use cruise control, it's much better for me than my right foot. I use it at 30/40/50/60 and 70mph, up AND down hills. It will even coast in gear (completely stopping fuel consumption) if the hill is steep enough.

A lot of people will probably disagree with me, saying low revs are best etc. However, being too light on the throttle will cause the DPF to clog up, as you'll never get up to temperature to burn off the soot and causing active regens. Going between 1,500RPM and 2,500RPM SHOULD help the DPF stay a bit less clogged, and then they can burn it off on the motorway.

As for the gear changing crap on the dash, I ignore it. Most people on the Briskoda forums believe it was slapped in there and never modified from the PD engine.

 

[EndlessNameless]

It's not exactly the same, but I hired a 1.2 polo last year, and the gearchange prompts in that were ridiculous, if I followed them I would probably have stalled - nearly did a couple of times. (I was driving it around Cornwall, and with the hills there you certainly need more revs than it wants you to use).

My DSG has a better idea of how many revs to use.

 

[willives]

Thanks for all the advice.

I agree about the dash gear change suggestion....I drove a new Fiat 500 last week, and driving along at 28-30, it told me to put it in to 6th!

I have to say, the car is really great. They just got rid of an 09 plate Ford Focus, with the 1.8 TDCi Zetec engine....what a pile of rubbish that was....honestly the worst car I have ever driven.

The Leon is a 100 times better.