Everything sold on eBay is a scam. If it worked, manufacturers would include that technology in their own vehicles. K&N filters do more harm to the engine than good and only seem to offer about a 1 MPG increase. You might get some minor increases in a cat back exhaust (primarily weight savings from removal of OEM muffler) but minimal gains.

Best recommendations are:

Inflate tires to the proper specification (located on the drivers door and in the manual)
Remove extra gear from the vehicle, also remove the roof racks
Keep the air filter clean
Moderate your acceleration and reduce stops that require brakes
Drive the speed limit and try to stay under 65 in the city

 

Add one more, turn Air con to economy in winter, or cooler times, this will save the most fuel.

 

I can't say I've seen much difference - even with it all switched so it displays off? However - it's going to be 110 this weekend so I be testing it for a while yet!

 

These aren't equipment mods, but you can use some of the techniques that the "hypermilers" use such as (in a nutshell):

- Don't "punch it" when you start out from a stop. Even though you'll get the usual obnoxious person tailgating you, just start out easy - unless you're in a hurry yourself of course. (I know it's annoying to be behind some idiot going 5mph. Not saying that, just not necessary to floor it either. There's a happy medium in all things.)
- Leave space in front of you when crusing on freeway or highway: As the idiots in the cars in front of you brake for no reason whatsoever as they constantly do, this leaves space for you to coast. By the time you catch up, hopefully they've started going again.
- Plan your route. UPS drivers for example, have a computer planned route to avoid left turns.
- Avoid hills. Although the current links on hypermiling don't seem to list "planning" anymore, several years ago I read about this and one of the biggest things hypermilers did was plan their routes - and avoiding unnecessarily going up and down hills was a big part of that. They'd go a little extra distance on flat ground to avoid dragging 2 tons up and over a hill. There's a big hill near my house we used to go up/over/down all the time. I no longer do that. They would also avoid other traffic traps such as railroad crossings, etc.
- Keep windows rolled up and sunroof shut. Adds drag if open.
- Cruise control on long trips. Strangely, if I use it on the 25 mile trip home from work (only works later in the evening if I work late), I still do better just driving "by foot". Go figure. But on longer trips, it rules.
- Like others have said, keep your tires inflated properly. And, probably aligned too.

Google search "hypermiling". Some of these guys were getting 60+mpg before hybrids were even invented!

 

Google search "hypermiling". Some of these guys were getting 60+mpg before hybrids were even invented!

Some interesting points on some of the websites... I tried it driving home, check tires, no roofrack, windows up, rolled at every light and only came to a complete stop once - put it in neutral at the light to avoid the creeping, brake light, accelrated light and didn't take it much past 2750 rpm to 300 at most...

I got 18.4 driving home when I usually get 14.0

give it a go.

 

In addition to everything that has been said, I have also started shutting the vehicle off at long stop lights. I have three long lights on my daily commute and I just place the Egg in Neutral and shut it down. When my light is about to turn green I re-start and get ready to go. I have been averaging 14.5 to 15.0 (up from 12 - 13) since I changed my driving habits.

 

I don't now how much a starter is for a Touareg but I'm pretty sure I could idle for a long time compared to a replacement cost of a starter.

Just my .02

Cya

 

Given the fact that I love the Touareg and that I was going to have to live with the poor fuel economy I focused on making changes to my driving habits, such as were mentioned above. When I read that shutting your vehicle off at long lights was a good way to conserve, I decided it was worth a try. My mileage numbers increase comes from a combination of changes, but the numbers clearly show an improvement. Going from 12 mpg to 14.5 over 10,000 miles saves me over $600. Works for me.

 

I don't think there's much risk of wearing out the starter. Consider how many revolutions it turns each time you use it, and how many revolutions an electric motor is usually good for. Starters do die, but I suspect it's from age rather than wear.

I operate a Fuel Economy Survey at TrueDelta.com that's more detailed than most. Unfortunately, just a few of the 10,000 submissions have been for the Touareg so far:

Volkswagen Touareg fuel economy

 

I thought about putting low-drag street tires on for the 6 months that we don't need snow tires but the $1,000 would buy a lot of gas.

 

I missed every light driving home tonight - 13.8

 

Damn, if I had to be that conservative to do most of these things I would be looking into another vehicle seriously...

 

+1, I am going for 10mpg

 

No offense to anyone, but I just want to drive my Treg and not make a job out of it. I avg. 17 MPG (mostly highway) And I'm satisfied with that. It's not a bad idea to squeeze every bit of what you can out of it, but I'd rather not look down to my gear selector to drop it into N then back into D every time I approach a red light. I just want to relax and enjoy the ride. Just my .02

 

Putting the car in neutral to coast to a light is a bad idea. Leave it in gear and just take your foot off the gas. Since the engine requires no power, hardly any gas is used and the downshifting engine braking will save your bakes. Putting it in neutral will require more braking, wear brakes faster at $1800 a pop. Also you don't have control of the truck if something should happen and you need to move in a split secound. Foot off gas = no gas to engine.

 

I drive about a 1000 miles + a week around Texas so I bought a Lincoln Town Car that gets over 25 mpg, maybe you should try that. I only get to drive the Egg about 50 - 100 miles a week now, makes me sad, but after I get out of the boat that I drive all week (the Lincoln) it is like driving a sports car all weekend. If you are

 

worried about gad mpg go get another car guys

 

+1 Evan!

 

lol

 

In my constant pursuit to try to be the most efficent with my vehicle (I use it for work, and drive around town all day), if you just use a few pointers: Namely, just coast to the stop light, and then brake moderately, and accellerate moderately, it makes all the difference. I don't mess around and put it in neutral, or shut off the engine (unless I'm waiting for a long train to pass). Just doing these simple things made a noticeable difference for me. Not night and day, and I'm not going to get rich from doing it, but enough to help stretch a tank to 700+ km per tank in the city, all with about 250lbs of tools and equipment onboard with me.

While stopped, the MFI says fuel consumption is 0.9-1.1L/hr (V10 TDI). Very negligible if you consider, it'll only burn about 1litre of fuel just idling for 1 full hour. I know the gas engines use a bit more than that, last that I've seen while test-driving a V6 was 2.7L/hr, but that was when I looked at it while the engine was dead cold, and had just been started.

 

between my surco rack, hella lights up top and my offroad tires, I get 15 AT BEST on the freeway. 12 in the city. BUT its soooo worth it!

I noticed that running seafoam through the gas gave me a boost of 2 MPG. I guess my injectors were hella dirty

 

between my surco rack, hella lights up top and my offroad tires, I get 15 AT BEST on the freeway. 12 in the city. BUT its soooo worth it!

I noticed that running seafoam through the gas gave me a boost of 2 MPG. I guess my injectors were hella dirty

seafoam where can I get that

 

My gas milege was good now eating gas after getting water pump and timing belt changed WHY anyone I did notice that they didn't put engine shroading back after repair will get in a week.

 

I started to see it and buy it at autozone or checker recently. Put it in on a half tank, it works best then.

My .02 cents on the timing thing, I think that they had to clear the ECU, so you may have to drive the car around for a little bit for the ECU to relearn the programing areas. It is slow but sure.

 

its prob off a tooth in timing.

 

You think it is running okay no miss though

 

i didnt know that you could run seafoam in these cars. i tried with my other vehicle (mercedes c230 v6) and instantly came up with a warning sign on the dash screen... perhaps VW doesnt do that.?

 

i didnt know that you could run seafoam in these cars. i tried with my other vehicle (mercedes c230 v6) and instantly came up with a warning sign on the dash screen... perhaps VW doesnt do that.?

wow what happened???? i was about to buy it until i read this post. is your mercedes okay???