# Fuel consumption after re-chipping



## rayhook

This an account of our experience 'longer term' following re-chipping of my 1999 2.5 TD Ford based Chausson ('Bagley') by Boosters UK last Summer. Note re-chipping not re-mapping - a new chip was fitted as the original Ford chip cannot be re-programmed.

We had Spring and Autumn tours last year and the re-chipping took place between the 2 tours so a comparison is justified. Our initial reaction had been an increase in power and this proved very much to be the case; the change in pulling power is noticeable particularly on hills and makes joining motorways much less of an issue. The big question then remained what had happened to fuel consumption.

We tried to keep our driving style the same for the second tour and this is perhaps the first problem - since Bagley now sails up hills instead of needing to book an appointment, clearly we were using some of the extra power. The second area of difference was that the 2nd tour had much less motorway travel which tends to increase fuel consumption - it may be lower speed but going through towns and villages in low gear and sitting at traffic lights eats into the diesel. As did climbing mountains in Provence.

So, a few figures for those who have read this far (my odometer is in Km and I buy fuel in litres, so we're totally metric):

First tour - 5,277 Km consumed 547 litres, so 10.37 litres/100 Km.
Second tour - 5,581 Km consumed 557 litres, so 9.99 litres/100 Km.

If you still use mpg you'll need to get your calculator out, but what we're really interested in here is the change (c. 3.5% improvement), not the actual consumption.

This small improvement probably does not reflect the reality when faster acceleration, better hill climbing and less motorway travel are taken into account. If I had to put a guess on a true like for like scenario, 10% improvement might be realistic.

There are two other factors which are worthy of mention. First our fuel filter light came on as we headed into the Tunnel for tour 2. Thanks Tesco - water in the diesel. It went out after a few Km and then re-appeared only very infrequently for the rest of the tour and I decided to leave well alone until our return home. I don't think it affected the consumption but, logically, if it did, the real improvement in consumption should have been more since Fords aren't made to run on water.

The other factor was a screaming noise from the engine that we've had for perhaps 40,000 Km and was there for both tours. When it first started in 2006 I thought it to be a bearing in the turbo charger since it only occurred when the turbo came in. After assurances from my garage it wasn't that (and after the first 10,000 Km!) we learned to live with it to an extent. Various garages had tried to establish the cause without success until this week when the local Ford main dealer replaced the inlet and exhaust manifolds to cure what turned out to be a leak in exhaust manifold. Parts were 'cheap' but the labour........

As far as fuel consumption is concerned, this screaming represents a level playing field for both tours but may have been the cause of a fairly serious flat spot between 30 and 40 Km/h which appeared after the re-chipping. Time will tell, but there was no evidence of it on my 15 mile run home from Norwich yesterday. That's not much of a test however and our next tour in the Spring will be the real test.

The only other performance issue seemed (and I stress seemed) to be less performance on very hot days our at high altitudes, say 1,500m and above. This could be pure imagination and/or could be related to the above air leak. In any event, performance always felt better than before the re-chipping.

Would I do re-chip again? Definitely yes, for the performance increase rather than any fuel consumption consideration. Next tour we'll probably use some (more) of the extra power and see the effect of fuel consumption but I'm not expecting anything for nothing.


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## brianamelia

Thanks for that very informative post
bri


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## duxdeluxe

Thanks for that.

I neve regretted the remap on my 2.0 JTD - transformed the engine and a real pleasure to drive. Economy slightly improved as a bonus (25mpg to 26mpg - but that's clogging it a bit)


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## millepeed

hi 
i had my ford rimor 2.4tdci 6 speed remapped and noticed quite a improvment but had to have it done again as 1st time i had shell super diesel in her and later found out i was only to have normal diesel in it for the remapping, when all of the super was out of the fuel system it felt worse hence why it went back. a mistake on both our parts remapping company for not telling me and for me not telling them. now she runs on normal and its so much better than befour performance wise, economy is about the same.
cheers


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## rayhook

I could add to my above post that the overall averages, but especially for the second tour, mask some wide variations in consumption from one tank full to another. Bagley is affected by head winds, mountain climbing and garage forecourts that aren't flat (I always fill the tank which gives me a rough estimate of consumption at that point - the truth comes later when I update my spreadsheet for each individual tankfull).

Our second fill of the second tour was somewhere near Montoire sur Loir and we registered true consumption of over 13 litres/100 Km - breathtaking, and I have to say at that point my heart sank 8O . We had never consumed so much and there had been no hills, no head wind and a level forecourt. The only explanation I can think of was a pump delivering less than it showed. After that any variations were much within my expectations.

I have never noticed any difference between the grades of diesel in France and Spain other basic French diesel being very smoky. I do throw in the occasional container of injector cleaner while we're in France (which probably negates the savings on the cheaper grade of diesel :roll: .

There may be more to this story after our next tour - back early July.

Ray


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## boosters

Hi Ray
Many thanks for the report and i am glad you are pleased with the result.
Regards
Alex


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## rayhook

*Further information*

Some more information further to my posts above.

We had the inlet and exhaust manifold gaskets replaced last winter to cure the 'screaming' noise that had been coming from the engine for a couple of years and which local garages had failed to identify; nice job done the Ford main agent in Norwich but I'd rather forget the cost!

This autumn's tour was spent largely in the foothills of the Pyrenees and included climbing a significant number of French 'cols' and Spanish 'puertas' (is that the right spelling?). Also there was no attempt this time to replicate our previous more 'gentle' driving style which was adopted to silence the above screaming noise.

The end result was a few hundred Km more than the previous tour, a few extra litres fuel and diesel consumption per 100 Km of 9.95 litres against the previous tour's 9.99

All in all, it's difficult to argue against re-chipping if our experience is typical. Unless of course you'd rather spend the money on something else!

Now, how much would it cost to fit an inter-cooler..............

Ray


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## greygit

*Re: Further information*

I'm still not convinced about remapping, I would have thought vehicle manufacturers would have done a lot of research as to the best setting for their vehicles as regards power and fuel consumption.
But having said that I have spent a lot of my life tuning engines especially the old BMC ones with quite good results, mind you the fuel consumption would suffer 
The Fiat 2.8 JTD we have seems to fly so I suppose if you are happy with the performance you have why bother........now for that extra rear view camera.
Gary 
:wink:


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## Techno100

My 2.2HDi seems to have more than adequate get up and go but I've nothing to compare it with. As it's only done about 9.5k in its previous 6 years it isnt even run in? but I just got 380 miles of mixed driving and three nights with the erbuspacher on on 3/4 of a tank. I gues I'm going to be getting an easy 30mpg. Is it worth me risking upsetting what seems OK.


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## robrace

*ford 2.4dci*

Has anyone had a 2001 ford 2.4dci either remapped or rechipped.I could do with more torque when towing my racing car.Not bothered about higher mph.but would be bothered if fuel consumtion inreased dramaticaly!!


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