[tinduck]

Hi there,

up to now, I lowered my L/100km by refining my driving techniques, that got me down to approx. 51 mpg or 4,6 L/100km on single trips. On tanks, I have seen no effects yet, but my first 'commute only' tank emptied with ScanGauge is due on monday (and looking good so far) so I hope to get good mileage.

Since I do not want to do EOC (diesel engine, still under warranty), the only thing lowering my consumption in the driving technique department is getting more routine, but I do not expect to see big improvements over the status quo.

Due to this, I have decided to do some non-intrusive ecomodding, which means all mods MUST be easily removable and leave no or only slight telltales of vehicle modification. The reason for this is a) the car is still under warranty and b) the german TUV is not really amused about non-certified vehicle modifications and c) the german police even less, so everything must be debatably harmless or invisibly installed, and for the 2-year checkup and for car maintenance all modifications must be removable without leaving telltale marks.

Agreed, this does not leave lots of improvements to do... first thing which came to mind is a cheapo grill block made of heating tube insulation which is simply cut to length and pressed into the horizontal inlet slits (pics will follow).

Did my first commute with this today. Conditions were OK, but not splendid; temperature at 4°C, no wind, some light fog. I did not use much drafting, only about 10% of the way. Best commute up to now was 51 mpg (4,6 L/100km), today I got 53,5 mpg (4,4 L/100m)! Surely, this is not an ABA test... the following days will show if this was a significant improvement.

Other things I am thinking about is an underbody pan, but two things speak against this... a) the front area is already rather tidied up by OEM and b) this would be a pain to remove and re-install after every check-up and maintenance.

We shall see.

so long,

tinduck