Here's something interesting. Just for kicks I've been driving a whole week like a hypermiler . I've been getting close to 21mpg on mostly city driving (fresh plugs, 91oct, Softronic tune).

Today, found a nice stretch of road and I felt like letting it rip. No launch, just 100% throttle, I was expecting a rush but found myself disappointed with how the car waited and waited for boost to build up on 1st gear. At around 4K things started moving. My butt dyno noticed a big difference in response before and after.

It almost feels like the car fell asleep on me for a whole week's worth of hypermiling. Has anyone had this experience? You think the ECU adjusted to throttle habits?

 

I'll take a stab and say "Not Really". Your ECU didn't learn your throttle habits (i.e., "learn" your driving style) however the ECU is constantly trying to optimize the car's performance by relying on a myriad of sensors to adjust various parameters (e.g., AFR, ignition timing etc) within a predetermined range of settings. Key to engine management and optimal performance is balancing the air/fuel ratio. This is more critical in DFI engines and further exacerbated with turbo engines (where the amount of forced/induced air plays a significant aspect in performance - think boost leak).

That said, I suspect most likely, your "hypermiling" probably resulted in the ECU detecting and managing to extremely "low load" conditions on your engine from its numerous sensors and optimized 'performance' accordingly. When you punched it, the ECU took a micro second to recalibrate based on the new inputs (aggressive throttle) to deliver the required response...the slight hesitation you likely felt.

It isn't really learning but "adapting" to driving styles, if that makes sense. I'm sure more experienced tuners (or others) can explain this better or shed more light. For me, I've never felt this..."hypermiling" isn't a term nor practice that I'm familiar with

 

No way should you have that kind of lag. Get your tune checked. JMO.

 

Hypermiling a turbo pisses them off, so don't do it :-)

 

Thanks, what you said makes sense. I sure hope a tuner would chime in and give us an insight.

I sure hope it's only temporary and the car will "adjust" back. The lag is not fun at all. Otherwise I'd have to reach out to Scott @ Softronic.

Yeah it seems the more civil you drive the car the more problems come out (plugs may have been fouled by the low loads?). I only tried it to gauge it's max mpg that's all.