Greetings from South Africa
 

Good day everyone.

My name is Erik van Wyk residing in SA.
Hope you all are doing well and I'm happy that I found this site and forum. Believe it or not but this is the most informative and active ecomodding site I discovered on the internet to date, so having said that, well done on maintaining this forum and keeping it active.

I currently drive a 2010 Opel Corsa 1.4i which are almost paid up, after consideration whether I want to upgrade to a hybrid vehicle I thought it will be best to keep it and do some fine adjustments on car as it's already very economical and quite frankly I like my Corsa.

I know I might ask annoying beginner questions which you have answered a million times before but please bare with me as I quite new to this and looking forward to see and hear how I can improve on my vehicles stats. I also do apologize in advance if my grammar and phrasing aren't as sharp, English is my second language.

Have a blessed day all.
Regards.
Erik.

Welcome to the site Erik.

What kind of fuel economy are you getting with the Corsa? I'd recommend starting a fuel log here to help keep track of it. Just click the 'garage' link up top.

Thanks Doax.

At the moment I'm doing 85% urban driving and 15% freeway and averaging what Opel claims is the Corsa's combined or average cycle so my urban driving figures are equal to Opel's combined cycle which is around 5.5 liters per 100kms (+-18km per litre) using the metric system. Thats about 32 mpg. This is using 95 octane, highest octane we get this side. It almost sounds too good to be true but I have a certain route I travel every day and coasting and streetlight timing is second nature by now. I will check out the link and make use of it for sure.

I thought the best way to start is to do a trip on a full tank, writing down my distance traveled. First step maybe is to make sure everything works as efficient as possible. Maybe something like an engine clean, replacing of filters, wheel balancing ect. to make sure all the basics are in place and in order. Vehicle currently have 44.910 miles on the clock.

Welcome to Ecomodder Erik! Thank you for the kind words, our administrators do a excellent job at keeping the site in the best shape possible.

Keeping and working with what you have is a good way to save money. Good choice!

Ask any question you want, we are here to help and guide you to better efficiency :) WE were all once new on the site as well. I will say that if you want a quicker answer, the Search Bar in the upper left corner is fantastic! There is a TON of info that is stored on this site.

BTW, your English is great :thumbup:

Only a pleasure Baby Diesel.

Yes I will make sure to work through other posts first. I thought its best to keep it simple at the start as I can easily get lost when taking on too much at one time. The idea is as follow set out in steps:

1) Get everything running as efficient as possible
2) Replace components such as filters, spark plugs, oil, tires
3) Weight reduction
4) Altering aerodynamics.

This is a very basic and simplified mention of what I planning, would that be the correct order to start in or am I missing something?

A good tune up is an excellent start. One of the first mods you can do is increase your tire pressure to the sidewall max. This means better coasting and overall energy needed to maintain speed, and it is free!

Personally, I would make a plan of what you would like to do to your Opel. I'd start with the easier, cheapest mods (partial grill block, air dam) first and drive for some time to gather info on their effectiveness. Then progress into the more complex mods (kill switch for EOC, accessory deletes) and finally your all-out, crazy mods for ultimate economy (full boat tail, custom tuning, etc.).

Above all else, make it a priority to get some type of fuel economy gauge such as a ScanGauge, UltraGauge, SuperMID, MPGuino, etc. This will help you fine tune every aspect of your driving, as you can see exactly the effect your input is having on your mpgs.

I will most certainly be interested in installing a gauge like that which can basically give me a live feed or indication of how my input is altering fuel usage. I was planning on installing alternate software next year which will mainly be set up for economy.

Good news, I have found a company that can import me the ScanGauge 2. Thank you everyone for your input and for making me feel welcome. I will keep you guys up to date on my progress.

You're doing better in English than a lot of native speakers do, so don't worry about that.

Yes, our moderators are actually involved and vigilant. They have banned troublemakers, shut down a few pie fights, and generally keep the place moving along. That is VERY different from most forums I've visited.

The Corsa D should be able to do a LOT better than a mere 32 mpg. Either you have been flogging it - and by your own description that sounds unlikely - or there is something wrong. I suspect when you spend some time on the engine maintenance, you'll probably sort out a couple of problems you didn't even know you had.

Unless you have the Turbo?

Have you never considered a Diesel car instead of a hybrid?

@elhigh...thanks for your reply. 32mpg is what I get with in-town drive only which is quite better than what the manufacturer claim is. Opel claim 6.5 litres/100 km in-town. I'm getting in at 5.5 litres / 100 km so a full litre less than claimed. Unless I calculated in incorrectly when converting to miles. But I do agree with you that there are room for improvement and would like to achieve a 5 litres/ 100 km in-town. @cripplerooster...yes I have. I'm not fond of the gearing of diesels and it does happen in SA that some rural areas only supply 500 ppm or 50ppm diesel at best. All the latest diesel vehicle require minimum 50ppm or 10ppm. Also my Corsa are almost paid up and are in very good condition mechanically and exterior wise. To pay the extra premium on a diesel car just to gain a bit in fuel usage won't be worth it , cars are a tad expensive in SA due to poor currency. Although I enjoy the usability of the diesel's torque.

Isn't most of South African fuel made out of coal instead of petroleum through the Fischer-Tropsch process by Sasol? IIRC the South African coal is not so badly contaminated with sulphur.