Increasing the power but keeping sensible MPG?
Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 11:46 am
This is our 1999 B5 Passat 1.9 TDI 110 SE Wagon. We have owned the car a few years now and it is a reliable workhorse. Excuse the photo of a filthy car!! 
We live out in South West France. I had problems recently with low MPG and rough running. Also went into limp mode a few times. The car has covered 150,000 miles. I cleaned the turbo twice with the Mr Muscle trick and have totally removed the EGR valve using two blanking plates. After fitting a new thermostat and temperature sender the car runs much better and returns a decent 55 MPG on a long run.
For ages I have been considering upping the power a bit, but we don't want to lose the incredible fuel economy. (you have to do a lot of driving in deepest rural France) 110 BHP is okay , but we are moving to a much hillier part of France and having a bit more oomph would be good! I know you can buy remapped ecu's or send your existing one off to be chipped. Is this the way to go? I think I would rather buy another ECU outright so I can swap back to the original if there are any issues?
Are these chipped ecu's the proper thing or are they just like the Evry Mod and pump more fuel in?
I have read that you can have more power/torque without losing MPG...IF you drive carefully? Thoughts people? Will the 150,000 clutch be okay? Car has alway been well maintained (full VWSH) and driven softly.
We live out in South West France. I had problems recently with low MPG and rough running. Also went into limp mode a few times. The car has covered 150,000 miles. I cleaned the turbo twice with the Mr Muscle trick and have totally removed the EGR valve using two blanking plates. After fitting a new thermostat and temperature sender the car runs much better and returns a decent 55 MPG on a long run.
For ages I have been considering upping the power a bit, but we don't want to lose the incredible fuel economy. (you have to do a lot of driving in deepest rural France) 110 BHP is okay , but we are moving to a much hillier part of France and having a bit more oomph would be good! I know you can buy remapped ecu's or send your existing one off to be chipped. Is this the way to go? I think I would rather buy another ECU outright so I can swap back to the original if there are any issues?
Are these chipped ecu's the proper thing or are they just like the Evry Mod and pump more fuel in?
I have read that you can have more power/torque without losing MPG...IF you drive carefully? Thoughts people? Will the 150,000 clutch be okay? Car has alway been well maintained (full VWSH) and driven softly.