How often do you use it on your D2? I've rarely used it, but my wife will use it around town. She swears she has had better gas mileage on her last 2 tanks when she has left it on all the time. She will usually get around 260 miles/tank, but the last 2 tanks of gas with sport mode on, she has been able to get close to 300 miles/tank. She drives an '04. In my '99, I'm only getting about 260-270 per tank without the sport mode. Maybe I should leave mine on and hopefully get more mileage?

So, what does it actually do for the car? I know for acceleration it keeps the transmission in a lower gear for higher RPM's and faster speed gains... Does it do anything else? Like, improve gas mileage?

 

Not only no but hell no it will increase gas consumption. Sport mode holds gears longer and revs your engine higher. Think about what it does and then read your manual.

 

I realize that. I'm asking if there are any other benefits to using it.

 

Yeah, you can replace more parts on your truck quicker!

 

"...Sport mode holds gears longer and revs your engine higher..."

It can come in handy on the highway if you go to bigger tires. What more could you want?

If you're worried about gas mileage, then I'm afraid you've bought the wrong truck. Go buy stock in BP and Exxon and enjoy your Disco.

 

Thank you.

I'm not worried about gas mileage. If I was, I'd be driving a hybrid Coke can of some sort. I just haven't done much research on the Sport Mode, and was asking a question. My wife claims she has had better mileage using it, I'm thinking she has just slowed her speeds down. I knew it would hold the truck in a lower gear for longer amount of time to help get the rpm's up and help gain a little more speed. Just didn't know if it did anything else to the truck when activated.

 

OK Well, it does seem to downshift a little more readily on the highway too, but other than also holding the gears a little longer (as mentioned earlier) I've not noticed much difference.

I never bothered with it when I was still running stock sized tires, or even my 235 85s as it didn't do much more than hurt the MPG. Since going to 255 85s though, what it is doing has become significantly more noticeable.

 

Actually a few years ago, a number of people tried driving in Sport Mode in town over a couple of tank fulls, including myself, and we all had increases in MPG which varied between the drivers, but no one lost MPG.
The main reason it will help in town and on hard steep mountain driving is the shift points are lower and require less throttle pressure to make the ecu down shift. The less you are into your throttle, the less gas is pumped to the injectors.

 

I'll turn on sport mode when I'm passing on single lane roads mostly to get that little boost for safety but I never "drive" with it on. I'd assume the engineers intended it and manual mode to be used as such since they disable when the truck is turned off.

 

Mine is on all the time (it does not deactivate on powering off/on,) because it's closer to how I drive a stick.

As an aside, you can't compare two different vehicles driven by two different people. Too many variables.

My wife gets better mileage on our 04 than I do. I'm no speed demon but apparently I must drive harder than she does. For example, on a steep hill I give more throttle in order to downshift. My wife doesn't do that. On local downhills I'll shift to 3 for some engine "braking." She doesn't.