Land river Discovery 4 fuel economy

[DavenGill1]

Hi all, we are looking at changing our current car and buying a disco 4, our caravan's laden weight is 1500kg and with our current car we avarage 28-30 mpg. My theory is that how much more powerful the LR is, would the fuel economy be about the same? Thanks in advance for replies.

 

[NigelHutson]

Hi DavenGill1,

I have owned a Discovery 4 for five years now (hoping to change this year at some time as it's now seven and a half years old!), having bought it (and the Discovery 3 before it) on the back of judging in the Tow Car Awards. As a tow car, they really are brilliant, and that's not just my opinion! I too tow a 1500 kg caravan. If you are concerned about MPG and running costs, then I'm afraid that the D4 might not be for you. Towing, I usually see 20-22 MPG (lowest has been 18, with 26 the best), and solo, 25-27 MPG knocking about. 30+ on a long motorway run is easily possible. However, don't believe any figures that people quote from the OBC, they are famously optimistic! Mine reads 14% high.

My quandary is what I change it for as it ticks just about every box (apart from running costs maybe) in the Hutson household!

Nigel.

 

[DavenGill1]

Hi Nigel, thankyou for sharing your knowledge of D4, all our research has said high running costs and I don't think that is going to put us off buying one, I was trying to find out if my misguided theory of fuel consumption was actually misguided.

 

[Mel]

How about a Discovery Sport, or if you want something older, a Freelander. Both will tow your van easily. Lower fuel costs than a Disco.
Mel

 

[Hutch]

DaveGill, something to think about, is having the engine ECU ,remapped, I done this to Hyundai Santa Fe 2008, and managed to get on average over 1500 trip to France , every 3 months. A gain of 4 to8 mpg. . For the cost at the time of £250. Well worth it. Will do it to my Present SF when Warranty runs out.
Hutch.

 

[ProfJohnL]

DaveGill, something to think about, is having the engine ECU ,remapped, I done this to Hyundai Santa Fe 2008, and managed to get on average over 1500 trip to France , every 3 months. A gain of 4 to8 mpg. . For the cost at the time of £250. Well worth it. Will do it to my Present SF when Warranty runs out.
Hutch.

If you have an engine remapped you must inform your insurer as it constitutes a performance modification. There are also other risks associated with some remaps, that may increase wear, tare, stress or strain placed on some engine s and transmission components. - Not always worth the risk.

 

[Hutch]

Prof, yes you are correct about insurance etc, the ECU , engine conttrol Unit, when remapped. Will be within the limits of the engines capabilities. The engines are mapped to the country that the engine is being marketed to. They are limited at the lower standard for reliability , If you choose to remap an ECU, the cars equipment, Ie Turbo, can actually handle this remap.. many manufactures will let you remap your car if requested, ie how can the same 2 litre engine, produce more power with the same valves, pistons and compression ratios, all done by Electronic, engine mapping, changiing valve timing and fuel quantity and injection , thats whats that little ECO button does for you.
Hutch.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Prof, yes you are correct about insurance etc, the ECU , engine conttrol Unit, when remapped. Will be within the limits of the engines capabilities. The engines are mapped to the country that the engine is being marketed to. They are limited at the lower standard for reliability , If you choose to remap an ECU, the cars equipment, Ie Turbo, can actually handle this remap.. many manufactures will let you remap your car if requested, ie how can the same 2 litre engine, produce more power with the same valves, pistons and compression ratios, all done by Electronic, engine mapping, changiing valve timing and fuel quantity and injection , thats whats that little ECO button does for you.
Hutch.

Hello Hutch,

It is well known that some car manufacturers use the same basic engine with different maps to facilitate different model variants in a range. It is also true that where an engine is derated for use in a lesser variant, the manufacturer will also select lower specification ancillary such as clutches, brakes, suspension, The size of turbo, gearbox ratios, tyres, etc equipment to enable them to offer the model at a lower price. Consequently if you were to remap a lesser variant to a high specification, it would be running with ancillary components that are not necessarily rated for the higher performance.

Remaps can also affect the emissions, exhaust temperatures and the operation of emission control systems

You can get remaps that will increase performance that go beyond the manufacturer's original specifications, so the same issues noted above should still be a major concern.

 

[Hutch]

Ok Prof, Fully agree, within your script. Cant get my Sante Fe upto 400BHP and 700 FT LBS , of torque yet out of a 2.2 litre.

 

[Dustydog]

Hutch
You need to talk to this bloke. He regularly extracts unbelievable power out puts from standard car engines!

It's Jimmy De Ville a nutter on BHP

 

[Hutch]

I think I will just speak to my son at JLR or a mate at Redbull racing about 2 miles away,

 

[Keefanmaxx]

I too looked into remapping our Antara. While it would have given better performance and economy based on adjusting settings to the optimum (manufacturers set below to meet the required emissions for the area), had Mr Vauxhall needed to update the ECU software, the remap settings would have gone. Queue another £xxxx to remap.

I've now got a box of tricks that boosts both performance and economy fitted. It plugs into the fuel rail and modifies the signal from the ECU to boost fuel pressure.
Since fitting, I've gone from 26mpg average per tank to 32mpg average with a whole lot of extra power too.

I rang my insurers as it's technically a modification, and it wasn't listed as such as the box is removeable. They have noted it on my policy though.

For those interested or curious, search 'pro diesel chip'