600 miles in and a few doubts about engine performance

Seat memories would go, not sure about the immobiliser as I've normally left this to the dealers to do

ChuckleB, be patient. Mine felt very sluggish compared with my wife's SD4 Freelander which has a suspension and tyres that only just match the engine power. I knew her SD4 engine has strong mid range torque and is quite free revving expect my Evoque was not the same.

The Evoque's SD4 engine at 2000 miles is now just freeing up with good mid range torque and strong acceleration. This can partly be attributed to the engine ECU adapting to my driving style (ref Tim's post above) as I now exploit more of the power band. I confirmed with the dealer that the SD4 engines take a while to bed in.

I was doubting mine so much I was thinking of trading it in for a new Disco 4, but have stuck with it and now look forward to each journey. The fuel economy is also improving.

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Been out for a run tonight, audio off and cruising at 2000rpm That's where the main issue lies. Just seems hesitant and unsettled when not under load.

So I'm just going to highlight it to the dealer so they have it on record and we'll see how things pan out over th next 500 miles or so.

Well we're now another 300 miles or so under the belt and a thought has crossed my mind.

Had quite a pleasant run with it the other night, much more responsive and torquey through the range and almost driveable. Then I noticed the odour which would have been the DPF doing it's stuff. Haven't had it since. And the car again doesn't seem quite so perky! Any correlation between the working of the DPF and driveability?

As background the car is doing 1-1.5 hr jaunts daily around the M25 so while it will be running to temp it will not necessarily be doing it under load all the time but I should be doing enough to ensure it is running as it should?Would appreciate people's thoughts? Do they notice the odour frequently? Does the car perform appreciably better once it has warmed up or been pushed a bit?

AM going to have to raise it with the dealer as it continues to hamper my enjoyment of a very good car! MPG still typically round the 33 mark.

I wonder if the apparent loss of power is something to do with the way that the "smart" alternator works to save energy?

Regrading the operation of the DPF, I have never noticed it working on my RRE but my last FFRR TDv8 had one (might have had 2, one for each side of the V8 ) and when they were working it was very noticeable even on a much more powerful engine.

(03-03-2012 11:40pm)ChuckieB Wrote:  Then I noticed the odour which would have been the DPF doing it's stuff. Haven't had it since. And the car again doesn't seem quite so perky! Any correlation between the working of the DPF and driveability?

Pardon my ignorance, but what is 'DPF'?

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(29-02-2012 08:39am)XFullFatTim Wrote:  Autos have an "adaptive/ learning" gearbox that learn your driving style.

Typically, how long does this 'learning' process take? (Is it related to mileage, number of gear-changes, pressure on accelerator, or what?)

(04-03-2012 10:53am)Donny Dog Wrote:  Pardon my ignorance, but what is 'DPF'?

Diesel Particulate Filter . Collects the soot and under the right circumstances converts the nasties. if you don't have the right conditions it can eventually clog and then need to do a hard run to get it to regenerate. Car emits a fruity odour while it is doing it. They"ll give you a leaflet when you get the car that explains.

(04-03-2012 11:02am)ChuckieB Wrote:  Diesel Particulate Filter . Collects the soot and under the right circumstances converts the nasties. if you don't have the right conditions it can eventually clog and then need to do a hard run to get it to regenerate. Car emits a fruity odour while it is doing it. They"ll give you a leaflet when you get the car that explains.

Thanks! (Beginning to think I should have stayed with petrol!)

Edit: Typically, how often does this happen? Is our driving style likely to be a problem, as my wife will use the car for lots of short journeys and only very occasional longer ones, amounting to no more than 5,000 per year.

It does it automatically when it needs to but if you are only tootling along in stop / start traffic in town all the time then it will never go into a regenerate cycle as you don't get up to a steady enough high speed for long enough. For that to happen the car has to be up to normal temperature and doing more than 50mph if I remember correctly. It doesn't do it at any fixed mileage, although if like me you never do stop start city driving then it will go through a cleaning cycle IIRC every 1500 miles. If you are only doing city driving, then yes the petrol version would have been a better buy , same too if you are only doing short trips as the petrols warm up more quickly. The only reason to buy a diesel if you live in town is for the perceived better residuals, but now with all new diesel cars having DPF's as part of their emissions controls petrol engined cars will again become more popular as they don't need a DPF. If your DPF becomes clogged a warning light will appear on the dash and then you have to follow the instructions in the owner's manual.
I would recommend that if most of your trips are short ones you take the car out onto a fast dual carriageway/ motorway for a good blast at 50-70mph every 10 days or so and for at least 30 miles so the car is fully warmed up.

(28-02-2012 11:33pm)broady43 Wrote:  When I took one for a test drive I thought it was a bit sluggish but when I looked at the speedo I was going 90 mph!.I think it is one of those cars that is comfy and without the loud engine noise.

Yeah I did that up the M606 in Bradford. I am coming from a 240BHP Leon Cupra to the 2.2 SD4 Auto.

I put it in S and used the paddles and before I know it I was looking at a ban if I would have not backed it down