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Adventures in EGR removal and fuel trimming

Most of it has really been from my home to work and back again, the driving hasn't really been any different.

Air con - for now at least, let's see in 2 weeks - was only fixed on Monday. So I don't think that would account for the 5mpg drop.
 
24mpg isn't that bad if you're jogging about stop starting hill climbing and just negotiating typical road layouts, you're doing very well to get over 30mpg with a Cruiser unless on a long run and keeping the speed down.
25mpg is about our norm, that's about the same as our Forester 2.5turbo petrol/lpg, it doesn't take much enthusiasm to see either vehicle returning under 20mpg, both will just edge 30 on a run but that's about it, both are autos.

The way the roads are set up these days even if you travel early morning you have to plan your routes to avoid all the roundabouts and junctions incl traffic light controlled roundabouts where there isn't another vehicle to be seen, the only vehicles to suit the modern raod network are proper hybrids able to recoup most of the losses involved in constant stop starting.

Just going to work in a few minutes i shall take the non direct route through 2 towns and back roads between the two towns, either to avoid mutliple sets of traffic lights or cut the number of roundabouts down, the suspension wrecking third world main route or the endless roadworks to put yet another roundabout and set of lights in to service another new warehousing ind est, not to fix the already wrecked road that can only get worse as the traffic increases even further on the same A road that couldn't cope 40 years ago.
And we wonder why we can only get 25mpg.
 
I don’t think it’s tyre pressures, they’ve been fairly constant.

I am inclined to think the 24mpg has come from poor quality diesel. I’ve done 142 miles of my usual mixed driving and I’ve about used a quarter tank. I had used half a tank with the 168 miles I did previously.
 
Can confirm that the diesel was the issue. I filled it from a half tank with the usual Sainsbury's stuff, and the full tank returned 28.5mpg. So I'm happy(!) there is no issue with the engine or the running.
 
Managed to go on holiday last week to France, in the midst of a fuel strike which was nice. Also gave me the opportunity to see what MPG I get on proper long runs.

From the midlands to Brittany in france, I averaged about 32mpg. That was mostly doing 70mph/130kph which I thought was quite good. Then after I filled up, in order to not be caught out (or to at least make sure I had 300miles in the tank to get back to Britain) I would fill up every day. The worst it did was 32mpg, the best I got out of it was 35!

The OzBush thing I need to reconfigure though, as I think my own commutes to work and back could improve if I dialed down the fuel mapping as in France you don't slow down/get up to speed half as much.
 
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Good to hear it's all going well.
TonyC on the other side knows a thing or two with the Ozbush device on the 120.
I seen his posts, without those I'd have never made the jump.

I am going to email the guy who sells/builds them with a suggestion about it. I know you can have one that's controlled from the cockpit, but while driving I felt that I could've benefited from a button that would flip between two programs. I read in the leaflet he gives you that there'll be people in the outback who turn everything right down to maximise fuel efficiency, but that involves you turning the engine off, then put it on standby, flip the switches a few times etc. If you have two options for stored programs, say one for town one for highway, it wouldn't be too difficult to switch between 1 or 2 while the car is on. Although there's probably a reason as to why the idea is total tosh.

But like I said, in the months running it, that's the only thing I wish it could do. It does everything else so well.
 
The second possibility is that the diesel I bought is shit. I filled up at an independent as it was 5p less than my usual Sainsburys. Sainsburys is the same now so I filled up half the tank today with it.
Good thread on the EGR valve delete.. Been reading your thread start to finish.

I'm not a fan of cheap derv, unless is a lorry park, then you know what your getting (which by the way will lead me to the below thread).

I had a 98 95bhp 1.9tdi B5 passat which was modded to 140bhp... This engine before the vehicle was wrote of had 345000 on the clock, original engine, well maintained and a 2 owner car, the owner prior to me sold it for 350 and he purchased it off an old lady, so know the history and was a motorway car, anyway cut a long story short, it's was fed Vpower derv all it's life which was noticeable on the mpg counter...
Combined average with driving it like I stole it, city, country, start, stop, rush hour traffic was a staggering 52mpg combined.

Took it for a run to Thornbury Bristol from Sheffield empty, filled it up with a ton of gear and returned : driving all day at around 60, and very light on the pedal returned an amazing 78.4mpg that day...
I have once put some supermarket shite in to get me home, and wow, the passat didn't like it one bit, it coughed, spluttered, fatted and just didn't want to perform, and the mpg was lower too..

So Quality fuel means less stress on the engine, and more bangs for the buck.

Which then leads me to the next quote.



Then after I filled up, in order to not be caught out (or to at least make sure I had 300miles in the tank to get back to Britain) I would fill up every day. The worst it did was 32mpg, the best I got out of it was 35!
I used to travel to Paris every week from Sheffield for 29 months back in 2013/16, and near the 2015 mark, ended up taking 3x 20ltrs jerry cans as this was the max amount I could return with, long story, but for accountancy and business purposes the costs are lower.
Anyway the derv in Europe is alot cheaper, and noticeably better quality than our normal derv, and with that, when I returned every week with a full tank plus 60 ltrs additional that used to last me till the next return, bare in mind, I'd probably have done a further 1000 miles in between, I was at the time in a Peugeot partner 1.6hdi (worst engine ever), also used a motorcycle in better weather, but still the fuel across the water is of a better quality without all the additives, I know some additives help, but also these engines were designed to run on heavy oil as they are of commercial category...

Anyway... Thank you for the useful input and hope you're still monitoring your figures...
 
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Does anyone know where the butterfly plate is and how to remove it?
Cheers
 
TONYCY11 is always spot on with everything he does.
The butterfly plate (removed) is fixed to the spindle shown in pic will want screws/rivets drilled out to remove, do it with throttle body off so swarf doesn't migrate to engine.
 
TONYCY11 is always spot on with everything he does.
The butterfly plate (removed) is fixed to the spindle shown in pic will want screws/rivets drilled out to remove, do it with throttle body off so swarf doesn't migrate to engine.

Following last year's emissions failure i cleaned out the EGR (and as far into the inlet manifold as could reach) and whilst the unit was out drilled out the flap leaving everything else intact.
The engine sounds different following this, more throaty if thats a word, better acceleration but the bonus was i slipped into an MOT test centre and had the lads check the emissions for me, an easy pass.
So far i can see no downsides to having clean air going through the engine.
 
Thanks Juddian the butterfly plate is on my removals list,I like removing stuff! I also like a bit of intake roar.
All I've done to mine is cat.con. out,snorkel on,Osbush mapper set to 10% and EGR removal.
I've no idea what mpg I get I just want my engine to run like the designer intended. If it's a little bit rich then that's better for the long haul for me.
Cheers
ps. Would be handy if someone posted a pic of the butterfly plate before it's dumped in the useless bin!
 
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My Ozbush fuel mapper has been perfect since 2015 ish.However I've been experiencing near stalls while manoeuvring no matter what % the dial is set to.I turned the unit off today and the 120 ran perfectly.My Tunit chip worked great for 7 years until it went into limp mode and got binned,I'll not be buying anymore performance electronics for the 120.At least Mr.Young convinced me to bin the EGR.I'll leave the Ozbush in situ (nice jewellery).
I'm preferring less performance now as I'm learning how to drive more responsibly!
Ozbush is now in the bin,less weight therefore better power to weight ratio,I love binning things...
 
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