Better MPG on Td5

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Party Monkey

Party Monkey

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Folks - have searched the forum already and seen lots of advice about chipping/de-egr etc etc.

I have a 2005, 110 Defender Td5 which I'm using as my daily drive. Tyres are 235/85 BFG AT's on 16" factory rims (accept AT's may have adverse affect on MPG)

Before I go down the ECU remap etc etc route, are there any other tweaks that I can do (as a relative novice) to improve the MPG?

Have got no problem throwing a few quid at it from the likes of Dynachip or Alive tuning etc in due course... but just wondered what I could do for a little money first of all. Appreciate though that the improvement from little money may be negligable.

Am on top of the obvious...... serviced regularly, tyre pressures etc and I don't drive with a breeze block attached to my right foot. Previous owner had added expedition roof rack and some chequer plate so I accept that this will add to the weight but not sure what difference this would make.

Any suggestions welcome

Cheers

Jon
 
Last edited:
What mpg are u gettin? Ive a 2006 90 with a hannibal rack and safari snorkel and gettin on average 27mpg. Im looking at removing the EGR and maybe decat the exhaust in the first instance..........not sure what the best mpg is for a TD5 with all the tweaks
 
Thanks folks for the suggestions. Am getting around 23 at the mo. Perhaps this not too bad relatively considering I'm on AT's

Probably time to go and throw a few quid at Mike B's suggestions....

Cheers,

Jon
 
Party Monkey said:
Thanks folks for the suggestions. Am getting around 23 at the mo. Perhaps this not too bad relatively considering I'm on AT's

Probably time to go and throw a few quid at Mike B's suggestions....

Cheers,

Jon
Click to expand...

My brother gets closer to 28/29 mpg in his standard 99 TD5. It is on 265/75/16 BFG AT,s and has no cat but the egr is still in place. Most of his milage is short trips.

I improved the mpg and responsivness by removing the cat and egr valve on my TD5 Disco, together with a Pipercross filter and an intercooler flush out.

Del.
 
my last tank was 33 MPG This is usually my average - 90 CSW, de EGR, on 265 75 16 BFG AT. Did 330 miles and the light wasnt on when i filled up.

I did notice a little drop after i swapped to the BFG though.

If you want to get better economy, get rid of any unused weight/Roofrack.

Have you checked your MAF? Mine is disconnected at the moment!
 
Thanks 50 pence - removing the cat & the EGR is certainly on the list in time.

Thanks Rob, I will check the MAF. Must admit - hadn't thought of that :)

Mogwyth also suggested ditching the rack, which is a very fair point, however, I do seem to use it far more than I thought I would (it's a legacy from previous owner). Not something that can be taken off/put back on quickly and easily. Although that said, I've got the height in the garage to rig up a pulley system for it.

Thanks again folks. Will start tinkering and report back :)
 
Hello all!

Just happened to be passing through trying to find tyre pressures (265/75/16 AT's) for our 2000 Defender 90 TD5, when I noticed this bit about mpg. With some of the figures quoted I don't know if anyone's going to believe this! We live in West Wales which is pretty hilly all round. My Daughter bought this Defender about 5 mnths. ago, and it just turned the 100,000 miles last week. When we want to check for mpg we let the tank run low then fill it up to where we can see the diesel in the filler neck. Then record the mileage. When it's very low again we use the same pump in the same Garage and fill it to the same level. Obviously from the mileage reading then we get an exact figure. We have now done this on two occasions with the same result. On both readings we are getting 43 mpg!
This is all local use and no long runs! I couldn't believe these figures because before this Defender, my Daughter had an R reg. Discovery, and that did 31mpg. with exactly the same usage. I had a 3.1L Trooper which was doing the same as the Discovery. The previous owner of this Defender apparently spent close to a couple of thousand at somewhere called Landyzone and had it all chipped and stuff (I'm no mechanic!). There is no roof rack on the vehicle.

cheers all,

Tony.
 
Wow - wanna swap ? :D

Will be filling up in next cuppla days so be interested to see if my mpg has changed from the 23 i last got.

Then will disconnect the MAF and run another test.

Afraid the rack's staying (for now at least)
 
Very odd. Filled up tonight after seeing VL1500's post. Got 29mpg after 230 miles and I've not changed a thing yet. Last two were around the 23mpg.

So clearly I'm cr*p at basic maths. :)

Another 'control' run needed
 
Party Monkey said:
Very odd. Filled up tonight after seeing VL1500's post. Got 29mpg after 230 miles and I've not changed a thing yet. Last two were around the 23mpg.

So clearly I'm cr*p at basic maths. :)

Another 'control' run needed
Click to expand...
are you using the same garage all the while? I only use shell now after some iffy experiences in the past...
 
Rykard said:
are you using the same garage all the while? I only use shell now after some iffy experiences in the past...
Click to expand...

Mostly the same one, Esso and an occasional BP. Don't use any of their fancy fuels - just the bog standard Diesel.

Need to do a couple more tests. If I can achieve 29mpg consistently before any tweaks to the engine and without losing the roof rack... I'd take that :)
 
Thanks all who responded with suggestions etc. Will still look at the mods in due course.

Did a 260 mile round trip today on A roads and Motorway and achieved 29mpg.

Reckon I deffo just had a couple of early iffy readings. Three reasons, 1) Clearly my ****e mathematical skills or 2) Dodgy batch of fuel.... 3) Yep, deffo 1):doh:

Cheers,

Jon
 
I have just had 1st stage remap, egr removed no cat on mine but had centre box removed all at portal rover near Inverness so am hopefull for some extra mpg. The power difference is certainly impressive but need to be careful not to unleash to much of it otherwise could mess up economy!! Has anybody tried Bp ultimate diesel ?? The same chap suggested trying it and to certainly stay away from supermarket fuel.
 
That's what I would have thought but the "cetane" mix i think its called is seemingly added I different quantities for different retailers
 
All fuels in the UK must meet the minimum European spec which will set a minimum cetane number that all fuels must meet. I don't think there is any max though, so reckon it's gonna vary from batch to batch from the refineries depending on the crude they running.

Different retailers seem to add doses of their own special jallop (christ knows what it is) into the base fuel which will boost the cetane, clean injectors etc etc and this will improve the mpg over time. Not sure though that it makes a huge difference though from past experience in other motors.

My next step before mods/remap etc is to try some of that Forte diesel treatment and see if that has any impact. Seems to work for a lot on here from what I've read.
 
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