Introducing Miiself
 

Well, knowing for quite some time that we would be needing a car, I did a whole lot of thourough research, both on what car i should buy, and how to mod it for better fuel economy. Having decided on a small turbodiesel hatchback, and spend days on ecomodder and other tech forums planning sneeky and stealthy mods, I am now the proud owner of a naturally aspirated gasoline car... Not quite sure how it happened, you'll have to ask the girlfriend for details;)

So here it is, A Seat Mii, one of the VAG triplets (so it's basically a VW up!), a nifty little car with nice handling, acceptable performance and good fuel economy (4,1 liters/100km or 57,4 mpg(US)). I haven't really done anything to the car yet, except for alloy wheels and removed the antenna, as I want an idea of how the baseline fuel economy is before I start modding it. Currently we are on our fourth tank, so it is still "breaking-in" and we are still getting to know the car, so fuel economy is still improving. Last full tank was at 4,37l/100km (53,89mpg).

Check out the garage for the Mii Details: The Mii - 2012 Seat Mii Reference Fuel Economy - EcoModder.com

and pictures of the car in my album, if I cant figure out how to post the here. Fuel Economy, Hypermiling, EcoModding News and Forum - EcoModder.com - kah's Album: Seat Mii

Of the mods i'm looking most forward to, is changing the standard battery to a LiFePo4, it should save 12 kg of weight, sitting high in the enginebay, and directly over the front wheels.

Kris

http://ecomodder.com/forum/member-ka...-imag0317e.jpg

Hi -

I've read good things about the Up! Reminds me of my 1st generation Rabbit/Golf (the Up! is slightly smaller).

It's not available in Canada/US, and I wasn't aware that the Up was also re-branded with Seat. (What is the 3rd nameplate variant?)

Do you have onboard fuel economy instrumentation? That's one of the first "mods" I would look into.

Welcome to the forum!

PS - you can post images / links once you pass 5 posts. (Anti-spam measure.)

I added one of your gallery images to your first post.

The Skoda CitiGo.

Something you probably won't get to see on the other side of the Atlantic either.

Good choice for an eco-car.
I'm eyeing an up! Ecofuel (with CNG) ;)

Not bad while you're breaking in and still getting to know the car.


Are these already available for use as starter batteries ??

The Miiupic trio lacks any kind of engine insulation underneath the hood.
It looks like some heat-reflective insulation might keep more heat in the engine bay.

Thanks for the replys. I don't have any RT fuel economy instrumentation yet, but when i start modding, I will use the Torque app on my android. With the torque app, I can also keep an eye on voltage and temperatures, so that i know if i'm running safe.

I don't think that there are any LiFePo4 car starter batteries available for the public yet. The battery in the Mii is only a 44 or 47 amp battery, so my plan is to get hold of a shorai LFX36, or maybe two LFX24 in parallel. The engine is only a 0.999 3 cylinder, far smaller than the motorcycle engines those batteries were designed for. My most prudent concern is, that the continous electrical draw is far greater in a car than on a motorbike. For those interested, here' a paper on the benefits of using Lithium Ion batteries in cars http://info.a123systems.com/Portals/...y-advances.pdf (NOTE: Done by A123 Systems, maker of lithium ion batteries.

I've noticed the lack of engine isulation too, but i'm not sure if i'm going to do anything about it. The engine heats up pretty quickly, aparently because "The cylinder head has an integrated exhaust manifold, the engines reach their optimal operating temperature faster with this technical layout."

I'm pretty impressed with the FE figures we are getting already. It looks like 4,1L/100km is doable, even without any mods.

Do you have any specific goals (economy-wise)?

Our first goal is to beat the official FE figure of 4,1L/100km over a full tank, this should be posible without any mods. I don't really know what improvements to expect from the mods i'm planning, due to strict regulations where i live, i can't really do all that much to the car (No crazy aero mods...). But i would love to see a 1000 km tank, that would require getting over 28,6 km/liter or ca. 3,5L/100km, That's 17% better than the official figure..
BTW, I'm a former Lupo 3L driver, my parents still have it but the years have been taking its toll on it, to say the least. When we first got it, I used it for a couple of months for my daily commute, thats what got me into hypermilling! I managed to hold an average of 2,8L/100km, I also did a eurotrip, 7200 km, mostly highway driving, and came back with an average FE of 3,2l/100km..

Definitely get some instant feedback going. It will help.

Lupo 3L: makes me envious. Did that car have a factory consumption gauge? I'm sure it must have.

The Honda Insight is the closest vehicle like that on this side of the pond - 2.5L/100km last tank (rated at 3.2L highway in Canada). That's mostly easy country road travel (80 km/h). With a few mods in place.

The Lupo has both instantanious and average FE instrumentation.. It was very helpfull when learning how hypermile.
The Mii has a gear shift indicator, the higher spec versions have a FE guages, and if you opt for the navigation and entertainment unit, you can also access FE software with history and statistics, plus you can get all sorts of other information about the engine and car.. Would have been nice on have on the car, but that would have meant that we had to wait for up to 8 weeks for the car, the one we bought was on stock..

Dejligt at se en fra Danmark!

I would not bother with the batteries, theyre quite expensive, compared to what you might gain in fe.

i would start with at slight lowering (assuming the girlfriend approves)
eibach springs make some that only lowers it 20mm at the front and 25mm at the back, so they should not give you and clearance problems.

then i would cover the front grille, a bit like the lupo 3l, and other eco-versions from vag.
just buy a black sheet of plastic and either zip tie it, or use closed-cell foam tape, like the stuff used for emblems on cars, it is really tough stuff, and being on the back, it would make a stealth appearance.

change the antenna for a shorter one, when you drive behind one of the triplets on the highway the longer ones always flap about, like the tail on a overexited dog, thats gotta hurt aero a bit. ebay sells some very oem-looking ones.

and consider insulating the bonnet as well, either by placing oem-looking rubber in the sides of the bonnet, and where it might have been left out, or buy a blanket from a scrap-yard (surely the 3l must have one?)

some of the bulbs could also be changed to led, unless it has bulb failiure warning. do a search on ebay for warm-white ones for an oem look.

and you could shed the spare wheel if it has one. maybe the emergency kits found in other vags could replace it for a nice weight saving?

Hej opamann.
You're absolutely right, the batteries might not be worth the cost, which is why they are not top of the list. I would like to try it out, in the name of science, but it would be pointless doing it over the winter, when I can't be guaranteed stable testing conditions.

Thanks for the tip on the Eibachs, the girlfriend approves! I've been a bit hesitant on lowering, the only loweringsprings I could find were 3-3,5cm, which I thougt was a bit too much.
I've been wanting to do that grill block for the last couple of weeks, tried out some black ducttape, but it looked terrible and way too eyecatching. I'm probably going to do a stealth grill block next week, using some black plastic from a small square bucket.
I've already taken care of the antenna, I simply just removed it. The radio still works fine, and we only get a bit of static when we drive through forrest areas.

We just changed to winter tires, so I thought I'd refill to check how the quest for better fuel economy was going (before the change to winter tires). A bit dissapointingly, we only managed 21,6 km/l (4,63L/100km) which is a reduction of 5,7% from our previous tank. I was hoping for better, but the weather has been terrible, and we've done some highway driving too.

I noticed that the fuelguage was dropping quite rapidly after changing to wintertyres, so i decided to test the presure in the tyres, 0,8 bar.. What kind of a mechanic doesn't pump up the tyres after changing them? Stupid SOAB..