5th gear swapout for lower rpm?

[jason m]

I am interested if anyone has done this and if so did you like the change. I am looking for lower rpm when cruising. I run 75-80mph most of the time and think my mileage would increase if I lowered rpm. I also thought of going with larger tires as an alternate solution. Any thoughts would be appreciated, especially from someone with firsthand knowledge.

thanks

[DZLBUG]

Tons of info on this on TDIclub. I haven't done this yet, but plan to in the future. I already have larger tires so I'm only going to drop to a .717

[turboturbo]

I'll take your old gear set when you swap! The TDI 5th is a good set for the gas 5 speed.

[lightflyer1]

From my reading at tdiclub, better economy doesn't really happen with the gear change. Lower rpms for the engine and reduced noise and maybe a slight increase in mpg's. But you are going to have a bigger gap between 4th and 5th to deal with on normal driving. Discussed to death over there on numerous threads, so check it out. Most that put larger tires/wheels find they get less economy. Going from 15/16 to 17/18 results in an economy penalty from what I have read over there.

[jason m]

[QUOTE=lightflyer1;712121]From my reading at tdiclub, better economy doesn't really happen with the gear change. Lower rpms for the engine and reduced noise and maybe a slight increase in mpg's. ?? Increase on MPG = better economy to me

[lightflyer1]

If you want to call a minuscule increase worth it. At $300 or so what is the pay back at 1/2 mpg or even 1 mpg. Is it really worth it? Say you are getting 45 mpg now and 46 mpg after the swap. That is about 15 miles extra per tank. You would have to drive around 200k miles for the payback on the gear swap. Slow down 5 mph and get the same effect for free.