12 Mods, 129.8% MPG - - - VW Passat Shenanigans

[jedi_sol]

looking good!

[dfeldt91]

Did some weight reduction today. Got rid of the full size spare. That was at least 40 pounds gone. Thinking about removing the trunk carpet and tire cover. This car is a beast at about 3000 plus pounds depending on where you find you information. I really want to pull the AC equipment from the vehicle. The AC pump is ran on it's own accessory belt which I cut when I replaced the alternator to save fuel.

Speaking of alternators. I had to switch the old pulley onto the upgraded 125 Amp alternator(Stock was 90 I think). The old pulley is smaller than the new pulley which I had to remove because it was a different belt. That is probably robbing some horsepower and using a bit more fuel than if it were the correct size pulley. Going to look into pulleys and find a larger one to get it back to the right size...and save some gas..

Next for ecomods is probably the front belly pan. I got under the car and noticed it had three different belly pans stock I believe. A front, in front of the rear axle and rear pan. Front and rear are missing. Going to make those happen since they will help with drag immensely on the bottom.

Also have been driving around with my mirrors folded and am just really looking around before switching lanes. No police issues yet. My average for the Salem to Portland trip here in Oregon was about 36 mpg before the grille block and folded mirrors. Now I am at 40 mpg as I get into Portland. This includes a few hills. Thinking I may delete the driver side mirror and create a cover for it.

I will also be deleting the passenger side windshield wiper. I did a little experiment while driving at 60 MPH. I turned the wipers on slow and opened the sunroof. I put my hand out to feel the air going over the car. As the wiper was up, the air was noticeably smoother than when they were in the down position. So delete the passenger side and possibly create something that forces the air over the driver side wiper because they don't hide behind the hood so air hits them head on.

I also want to create some wheel spats to push the air around the tire instead of up into the wheel well. I love it when it rains because I can pull alongside another Passat and watch the air circulate(See the mist circulate) and see where the most turbulence is and then I can figure out how to solve the issue.

I'm going to be selling the Honda Civic that I got in trade since my friend destroyed my Golf transmission. With that money I want to purchase new narrow LRR tires and lightweight wheels. Since my car makes even torque from 1900 to 4500 RPM I also want to get larger tires to bring the RPM's down quite a bit. If I remember correctly, My car does 3000 RPM at 70 MPH or maybe that was the Golf? I don't remember. Anyhow, I'm thinking as much as a 10% increase in diameter.

[dfeldt91]

Alright! This school term is over Tuesday afternoon which will allow me more time to mod my Passat. I picked up 200 zip ties today so I can mod my wheel wells and do some other stuff. I am regularly getting 40 mpg on the 50 mile drive from home in Salem OR to Portland.

[dfeldt91]

Got around to cutting a coroplast belly pan today. Got it installed and then moved on to cutting the rear wheel well covers. Got the driver side cut and bought all the mounting hardware. Ended up using 59 cent fence brackets that are 90 degree brackets with various holes which will allow me to screw them into the inner well plastic while leaving the other edge sticking out with hole to zip tie the coroplast to. $10 for enough coroplast to do a front belly pan, grille block and wheel well covers. $3.60 for mounting hardware. $7.50 for 200 zip ties. $21 bucks total so far and I was already at 40 MPG for the usual 50 miles of city and highway driving I do occasionally before I had the belly pan and rear wheel well covers. I'd be surprised if I'm not at 43 MPG after testing the covers and belly pan. I also cleaned my air filter(Smacked it on the ground a bunch) and got out a large amount of fine dirt. The previous owner lived on a dirt road I suspect at some point because the car was completely covered in fine dirt especially in the door areas when open. A new filter will probably help with MPG a little as well. Going to get an oil change as it was really low and the oil was dark.

Lots of progress to be had. Happy about the progress so far. Will report back! Almost to 150% EPA!!! Should hit it after maintenance and finishing the wheel wells.

[dfeldt91]

Going to get an early start on today's ecomodding as it is the first day of break.

Today's List:

• Power Steering Bypass, Going to remove the pulley, if needed, and run a shorter belt. Should add a bit of fuel economy.
• Wheel Well Covers
• Minor finish work on the front belly pan, add to existing middle belly pan and add a rear belly pan from rear axle back.
• Maybe......Mirror Deletes

[Xist]

If you do remove the pulley, please consider an A-B-A. We are exceedingly fond of them here, but I am not sure many of us have actually tested it. I forgot to and removed the pump and lines, so it is really late for me to try A-B-A testing. If you look at Power steering delete - EcoModder, only three members gave test data, so if you take this step, please add it to the table!

[dfeldt91]

Originally Posted by Xist

If you do remove the pulley, please consider an A-B-A. We are exceedingly fond of them here, but I am not sure many of us have actually tested it. I forgot to and removed the pump and lines, so it is really late for me to try A-B-A testing. If you look at Power steering delete - EcoModder, only three members gave test data, so if you take this step, please add it to the table!

I totally forgot about it so I will have to run back to the auto parts store to grab a shorter belt after measuring. If only I could find some string to measure with now, lol. I'm not sure if the car has power steering at highway speed. You have to put a little effort into it when driving crooked highways. Well, I mean it has some power steering help but I think it has an electric valve or something that controls how much it helps. Possibly VW already thought of trying to squeeze MPG out of it, or maybe I'm just wrong and have little girly arms, hahah.

Also, weather is kind of stormy and cruddy here right now so I will have to reinstall the pulley and do the testing in week or so when it is nice.

As for adding to the Wiki, I will do my best to remember!


Done today:
Replaced Camshaft Chain Tensioner. No More Rattle! It's throwing a P0010 engine code now though. I switched to a new Camshaft Position Sensor so I m thinking it just doesn't recognize the new part and needs to be reset. No engine light though. Performance is as good as it was before jsut without the rattle so I don't think the code is going to kill the engine if I drive it but will switch back to old sensor and recheck. Maybe it isn't the same sensor or is defective.

[Xist]

My understanding is power steering turns off at higher speed, but still provides parasitic drag.

[dfeldt91]

Ok, not much for updates. Still haven't gotten to the power steering delete or the AC removal(Belt is off though), or the fan removal.

I did remove both wipers and put some of the window rain stuff on that makes the rain just fly off. I drove to Seattle and back in rain yesterday and was able to see the entire time. AS soon as I figure out the electric fan and why it isn't working then I will put the grille blocks back on.

Anyhow, I got the Golf back, needs a new transmission as it has messed up synchros and leaks an entire 2 quarts(liters?) of fluid in 10 miles. I was fed up with it and drove the last 40 miles home on a spare with no transmission fluid. Only ill effect noticed was fifth started popping out unless you held it in all the time and the trans was whining since it wasn't lubricated.

Going to strip it out entirely and get a new transmission. Supermodded Golf is back on! The Passat will be my daily ecomodder.

[dfeldt91]

Some Progress Today --- Decided to get around to disabling the power steering pump.

I attempted to remove the entire belt to the alternator, power steering and fan but whenever I gave it gas it recognized that the alternator was not there and gave me a warning on the economy gauge so I couldn't tell what effect it was by having nothing connected.

I went to Autozone and picked up a 5 rib belt that was 38 inches long versus the original 51 inch belt. Install left enough of the belt running against the fan to keep it operational although I may go back and check to see if they have a short enough belt to bypass the fan then fix the electric fan.

I couldn't notice anything difference performance wise from the delete but did notice that when my car is stopped at idle it says 200 MPG instead of 130 like before. Obviously it isn't going any miles while stopped but it is using less fuel while idling. This most likely is from lowering idle from 800 to 750 also.

I was reading a thread on here about using a relay and whatnot to cause the alternator to charge during braking only unless a switch is activated inside the car. I really want to do this so I can save even more fuel but my ECU recognizes the alternator isn't charging the battery so it puts a message on the economy gauge so I can't see my fuel use. I'm not sure how to go about getting around that. Perhaps I'll have to wire the battery into the alternator wires wherever it is getting that signal so it thinks it is charging. I'm not in any way smart with electric stuff so.... Ideas?