cheeba

What did you expect them to say - "Yeah, go ahead and tinker with whatever you want - no harm!". Obviously, they can't endorse any non-VAG-sanctioned mod to any of their vehicles. Take a look at my mod's! Compared to stock, I make much more power, get better fuel economy, and my engine is a helluva lot more robust. Would VAG ever recommend doing what I did to my car? Heeeeeell no!

ECU tuning is an extremely well-researched mod - there are at least hundreds of thousands of people who have done it. It should really say something that some dealerships offer tunes in-house! Obviously it's safer to not do it, but it's also safer to never leave your house. I have never heard of a single engine failure that was definitively due to a proper ECU tune.

rocco_ca

I agree with you, but only reason I contacted them and asked is because I found a certified audi dealer that was doing mod's. I thought this was something new from audi.

Basically, i'm satisfied with my Q5 in terms of performance. But what you said about added power, and even better fuel economy.. now thats interesting.

I might do it, but not right now as it will void my warranty.

warcity

iTrader: (1)

Here is my thoughts:

You can do ECU tuning, and sure you will receive warranty by whoever does it BUT. The warranty will be only on the work done as part of the tuning. IF the tuning damages and destroys anything else, Audi will probably void warranty and give you tons of hassle. If as a buyer you want more HP I think it's better just to stick with the 3.2L. There is a reason why Audi tunes these engines the way they do.

rocco_ca

warcity, I went to gas up yesterday for the first time. Last Thursday I picked up my Q5 it had 10km with a full tank. After 7 days I did 490km -10km = 480km (with 1/4 tank left) and it took 58liters at 1.05$ per liter = approx. 61$ I did however use my A/C often not sure if this made any difference.. I do mostly highway.

For the 2.0T Audi announced 10.6 City , 7.7 Hwy , and combined 9.3 so if I average 9.5 / 100km I should be at about 48 liters per 500km

I'm not sure what happened, I didn;t even use the sport mode that often.

What do you average with your V6 ?

warcity

iTrader: (1)

Hi Rocco_ca:

Thanks for your post. First of all, congratulations on your new car. You've got yourself a FANTASTIC car. I wish you many many years of enjoyment .

A little while a go I did a quick test to figure out how much gas my 3.2 really uses. The tank is 75L, here in the Toronto GTA area regular gas is about $1.00/L. I usually only put in Shell premium gas at about $1.16-$1.17/L so it'll typically cost between $85-$90. Of course I try my best to fill up as soon as I hit half way.

A little while a go I did a pretty long road trip about 800Km. I had about 60 pounds of cargo, plus myself in the car and a passenger. All in all there was about 350 pounds of additional weight in the car. My trip involved 60% hwy and rest city. I traveled at various speeds between 60-110 km/h. My windows were are rolled up, AC was on all the time (temp was about 30 degrees).

I reset the computer before my trip to learn the car uses 11.3L/100 combined for this entire trip. I drove using regular Drive mode. I was very impressed with this consumption and since then, it's been fairly consistent.

One thing to note was that before the trip I made sure the tire pressures are exactly where they're suppose to be which in your case they would be just right seeing how the car is brand new.

Another important thing is that shortly after I picked up the car I did the following vag-com mod:

AudiEnthusiasts Vag Com

I corrected the fuel consumption calculation to sample 1:

Sample 1 - Calculation based on volume per distance (e.g. l/100km):
DIS: 9.3 l/100 km.
Real: 9.8 l/100 km. (100 * 9.8 / 9.3 = 105.3
Channel 3 will be changed from 100 to 105

Based on some research I learned that sample 1 is more accurate than sample 2. Not to say the car isn't accurate as is but this made a bit more sense to me. So the stats I presented above is based on sample 1 calculations but still the difference between sample 1 and 2 and stock result shouldn't be far off.

My suggestion to you is to reset your computer and give it another good solid test considering all elements and variable and see if you get the same results as you did.

Let us know.

Good luck and congrats again.

rocco_ca

Hi Warcity,

I didn't know it was possible to make mods to the fuel consumption ratio. I'm new to this,
can you explain how you did it? I assume you programmed your car to consume less per distance travelled. Does this affect the performance of the car? (Torque/HP)

warcity

iTrader: (1)

Hi Rocco_ca:

This is a software modification (along with many others on that site) you can do using the Ross-tech cable and the vag-com software. It doesn't actually make any performances or consumption changes, it simple changes the mathematical calculation logic used by the car's computer to calculate and display consumption, no changes to the car itself.

Even with this change you should see very very minor changes. You should run another clean test on your car to see what the consumption comes up as.

Good luck and let us know.

tomashek

IMO your full tank wasn't really full. Likely dealer filled it up till first kick or maybe not even that. I agree with warcity, fill it up and run tests yourself, keep in mind that your car is breaking in too, so you will have slightly bigger comsumption numbers for now.

warcity

iTrader: (1)

Excellent point tomashek about the car breaking in hence potentially higher consumption.

sbiggs

In case anyone is interested, I have been tracking fuel mileage in my 2010 Q5 (3.2L) for the last 20,000 km. I do a mix of highway driving on weekends and half highway/half stop and go city driving during the week. I'd estimate about 40% of my driving is commuting (highway/city) and 60% is highway driving on weekends. I've averaged 10.6 L/100km over this entire distance with peaks between fills as high as 14.1 L/100km and valleys as low as 8.9 L/100km. I've noticed a definite trend for the better as the car aged and I also noticed that there's relatively little difference between driving with AC on versus windows rolled down. I also occasionally tow a small trailer carrying about 800 lbs and the mileage doesn't seem impacted too much by that either.

I don't rely on tracking mileage using the Q5's computer, but rather keep track of odometer readings and how much fuel I add at each fill up.

Hopefully someone find this data useful. Details are included in the attached.