How are you getting 20mpg?

[di_LR3_co]

yeah.. i wonder too.. let me know if it was worth the $70

 

[BlackRover]

I get 23 on long trips up north, but can't get above 20 in AZ...elevation?

 

[morrisdl]

Maybe different fuel too. Some states use more ethonol. E10 has 3.2% less energy per gallon. YMMV

In my last Audi, I had access to the fuel trim tables via a *** laptop cable (boy do I miss that). I could see how close to lambda air-fuel ratio we were and adjust the MAF to get better MPG and more HP!

 

[jesus_man]

I'd love to get some more power out of the engine as well. I have owned a diesel truck since 2003 and there is so much tweaking availble to get much more power over stock. There were some things you could do to the Jetta TDI I had as well, but not sure what is available for the LR3. I need to crawl under the hood and take a look at the air filter. That's where I'm going to start. Maybe a simple drop-in performance filter would help. I'd stay away from an oiled filter tho. AEM is a great dry filter and washable too.

A simple turbo kit would be awesome on these rigs. They make those tailpipe kits that have good results, but are hard to install.

I just don't want to do anything that might void my warranty.

J.D.

 

[foofighter]

i wish i got that socal driving and a 18 mile commute one way is mostly stop and go and going home is uphill...

 

[davidfkon]

I agree w/foofighter . . . I'm around 15 miles 1 way . . . up and down hills and streets . . . if I'm lucky I get 15 - usually around 12 - all stock . . . started putting the beast in neutral when going down hill . . . oh well - if I wanted milage I would have gotten a PRIUS!!
love the LR3 and NEVER have loved another car like this one
grew up on motorcycles and 4 wheels were always considedered work machines until my Land Rover!

 

[foofighter]

i read a post on disco3 forum about guys running their cars on trips in sport mode and not seeing a degradation in fuel mileage. the discussion is centered around the fact that being in Sport mode youre in the meat of the peak torque band so the engine isnt below that ... I'll give it a try on my next fill up

 

[Houm_WA]

What would be the advantages of doing this (on the interstate)? You'd be forcing the engine to work that much harder. When I'm cruising I'm in regular "D" and if I need to pass someone it's easy enough to pull the lever over, make the pass, and then switch back. I also really doubt that anyone is getting better mileage in Sport mode....you're saying that you're in the peak torque band so you don't need to give it as much throttle? Try it out...you'll have to hand-calculate the mileage. I feel like my economy per the computer goes to **** as soon as I get into Sport mode, even if I'm driving the same way.

 

[foofighter]

i find it suspect as well but some of those guys didnt see any drop...i think though it's during the stop and go traffic and not during highway cruise where it would **** your gas mileage being reved up that high

 

[jesus_man]

I feel there is some validity here. Low RPMs don't mean high MPG's or visa-versa. Every engine has a range of RPM's where it's most efficient and usually most powerful too. This can be compared to vehicles that have underpowered 4-bangers in them. Everyone thinks that if you have a small motor in a vehicle that it'll get good mileage. Not true in many cases. If you put a 4 cyl gas motor in our LR3's, that thing will have to work really hard to get 2.5 tons moving and thus suffer on the MPG side. It works for light weight vehicles. That's sort off course tho.
My example is my 2002 F-350 Diesel I have owned since new. It's peak torque comes in right around 2500rpms. But the curve begins to steepen at 2000 until about 2900 or so. However, I get my best mileage when I am at 1900 to 2000 rpms because the turbo is just spooled and the engine isn't lugging or over revving.

With the tranny in regular "Drive", I feel there are times it should shift into a lower gear when climbing a hill instead of trying to accelerate in OD, thus lugging the motor a bit. Whereas if it were in sport mode, it'd grab that lower gear and go, staying in it's peak power range.

I just remember that I also tried this on a '01 Mazda I had once. When fuel was $4+ a gallon, I was doing everything I could to save fuel money, so I would barely get the rpms up at all and try to baby the car everywhere. Then someone on a Mazda board posted Dyno data for the same engine my car had and it's peak torque was around 3800 as I recall. I started taking the engine up to that point before shifting, while accelerating slowly still, and gained a consistent 1 to 1.5mpgs.

There's my $.02 for all it's worth.

J.D.