So I hooked the tuner up to the truck on Tuesday to program. That was a chore let me tell you. Good thing Rawyzf mentioned that when he originally hooked it up to his truck, he had to unplug and hook up again to get it to take to the truck. Did the same thing to me.

After about 30 minutes of playing around and figuring things out, I finally had the 91 octane installed with the MDS turned off. I looked at the advanced options for tuning the shift points, but it only had options for shift 1-2 and 2-3. Sadly the one I wanted to adjust the most was 4-5 as I was wanting it to drop in to 5th earlier. So I left it alone.

Thursday, I took it for a 20 mile test drive on some back country roads where I live and a stretch on the highway. No MDS engagement and no engine light. Felt really good. Drove to town and back again Friday (about another 30 miles) and still no issues.

So now to see if she will pass inspection. Once that is done, I will look into getting the MDS fixed so I can tune it again to fuel saving mode. Really want to see what my MPG will do with that tune.

Thanks again for the hookup on the tuner Rawyzf.

 

Awesome, that's great news!

I'm curious what the fuel saver tune does, and if it can be used with MDS off. I might try that one of these days, for giggles.

We just completed about a 700 mile road trip with the Aspen on the 91 tune. Aspen was packed full of supplies and had the bike rack in the hitch with 4 bikes.

Averaged about 16.3 mpg. This is with lots of freeway driving at about 80mph and then some decent hill climbing roads getting up to the iron range.

Was a great first trip with the Aspen.

 

STORY TIME......

So I took it in to get the inspection done today. As I gave the truck to the guy, I mentioned that the seat does not adjust because I have it disconnected. Something I did a while back because I got tired of people adjusting my seat just so they could move it in their parking lot and taking me another week to get it back where I wanted. *** This will be relevant in a minute ***

The guy takes it on his little test drive in the parking lot and then pulls it in to the bay. Checks the lights, gets out and starts keying in the data on his computer. I kept hearing these beeps. A little while later he comes and asks "Which fuse did you pull?"
Me: "Fuse? I didn't pull any fuses."
Him: "Well you said you disconnected the seat?"
Me: "Yes, I unplugged the wire harness under the seat. No fuse was pulled."
Him: "Well I'm having issues with the computer reading the OBDII port. Let me check a couple of things."

Now I'm worried. I'm thinking this tune is preventing the computer from reading my truck and it's going to fail. I'm thinking I'm going to have to put it back to stock settings and fix the issue before I can pass. Little while later he comes back and says I can check out at the cashier. I ask, "Did you figure it out? Did it pass?" He says "Yes, it was a bad connection on my cable."

Dude had me all worried. LMAO. In any case, I passed the inspection.


16.3 is not that bad. Especially with that tune, no MDS and all that weight. I'm sure the bikes added a little wind drag as well.

I've made a couple of trips up to Colorado in the mountains in mine and I agree, they are nice for traveling. Once was through the winter snow. That AWD handled it like a champ. Only issue I had was going downhill in the snow. I had to kick it in to Tow/Haul mode to get it to downshift to a lower gear to help slow it down without riding the brakes.

 

Awesome, glad you got it passed!

It snowed 14" the week I got the Aspen, it was a champ and sold me on this being a keeper here in MN.

I have the Scat Pack for the sunny days!

 

Alright it's been a while. Here is what I've done. I bought a intune i3. Hoping maybe the mds was turned off or something before. Tried a stock tune, tried a stock tune with MDS specifically turned on (modified), tried 87 octane tune with MDS turned on. Then tried the 'mpg tune'. Nothing. Never get the eco light in the evic. Still no check engine lights or anything. It's very strange.

I did manage to get 17 mpg over the highway for a 12 hour drive with the 87 tune. So...I guess that's something?

So this vehicle was imported from Canada. I almost wonder if Chrysler kept the same 2007 setup for this in the 2008 aspen just in canada? (where they don't show the eco light)...is this possible? It's the only thing I can think of given that I'm running the proper oil, no check engine lights, had a dealer and two different mechanics scan it and look it over as well. So maybe it is coming on...and I'm still just stuck with 11-13 on a good week avg ?

Also fyi I've had the MPG tune running for a week and a half now. It kind of seems like I'm getting worse mpg than the 87 octane tune. Not sure why, but I don't have the time/distance numbers to say with 100 percent certainty. Wish I had a dyno or something I could just independently test some things on lol. Maybe I should just put it on jack stands, and be methodical, and look like a crazy person to my neighbors.

 

To be clear, the EVIC does not display an "ECO" light when the MDS kicks in. You must have the EVIC set to display the current MPG. When the MDS kicks in, the display will show "Fuel Saver Mode" along with the current MPG.

With that being said, I am not aware of the 07 model not having this capability or any differences in the Canada models. However, I have heard of people manually disabling the MDS system before I knew about the tuner being able to do so. Not sure exactly how they were doing this, but I have seen a post or two about people doing this. Don't believe it was this forum. Possibly the Durango one. So it is quite possible that this was done manually. Again, not sure how this is done.

Since I've set mine to the 87 octane with MDS turned off, I am running on average between 16-17. Most of that is highway travel to work and back (about 35 miles). I have been trying to keep light on the pedal and gradually accelerating. I'll still run 75+ once I get on the highway, but I gradually bring it up to that.

 

I'm glad that I have a few fellow Aspen drivers who are using the Diablo Tunes . We can bounce things off one another if needed.

Sorry this didn't help with your MDS issue, I really am curious if it was disabled another way, or if it is actually working and just not displaying on the MPG screen.

I could feel mine kick in and out on the highway.

 

Yep not showing up in the mpg section of the evic. It could be a physical thing that turned it off as well. One mechanic said maybe the light burned out. But...those green displays don't typically burn out even on a 10 year old car.

 

Thanks! Yeah I don't feel it and I'm pretty hyper tuned to my vehicles after driving them a little bit. But, I don't have an aftermarket exhaust or anything to help make it more noticeable. I might try to rig a an Eco light myself. Before I take the intake top of the engine off to check out the solenoids.

 

I did just replace the bulbs behind the Climate Controls - One of the bulbs burnt out, so I replaced both while in there.