Fuel Consumption (merged topic)

[Turbo6man]

I haven't been on for a week or so and just came across this one. And I haven't read through all the pages so don't know if this has been said already ...

Firstly, you are reporting readings from your trip computer. BAD. Some are way outa whack. The only way to get accurate consumption figures is from the odometer and the pump. Do your calcs the old way and see what you are really getting.

Secondly, (and only once you have established accurate usage over a month period), if you are getting the figures your trip computer says then I suggest there is a problem with the ECU/fuel system of the car.

Thirdly, if there isn't a problem with the car then it comes back to driving technique - for your manual car in the conditions you described I would be expecting to see no more than 14l/100km fuel consumption. Also, on long highway trips you should be able to get the consumption down to under 10l/100km.

PS. If you can't achive this out of your car and fuel economy is a big issue for you then the only thing left to do is sell it and buy yourself a nice AUIII XR8 or a T2 or T3. The last of the V8 Windsors will give you virtually the same performance you have now but with fuel economy that will be more to your liking. My T3, over it's life of 139,000 km, has an overall usage figure of 12.4l/100km. It's best is 9.3 and worst is 27.8 (driving sedately around Wakefield Park ) I know people with 220kw XR8s that get over 800km from a tank on long trips.

[BOoya]

Finally took the T for its maiden long/high speed run.

So I covered 380km - cruise controled, and she averaged a neat 13L/100!!! the trip showing DTE showed 395 for 230 km, then started to count down!, so estimated total distance able to cover close to 600km! 160km/hour @ 2500rpm

now I was very happy!! I have no doubt that if I sat the waste of time speedlimit set by the rest of australia, im sure to get closer to 700-800 from a tank

Gotta love the 6gears!!

[Revved]

that sounds pretty bad, I fill mine up after floggin it around town and still get rated at 450+++ kms, and when I on the highway I would get around 600. mate up here has same prob he gets rated at 350 or so giving it prob less sh*t then I do.. seems odd but I dont complain

[dingah2]

For highway cruising those are shocking figures 9-10 should be the go even for a modded T....about 9.5 for mine as an example.

Dingah

[shockwave]

hi guys,

I've had my T for aproximatley 2 weeks now and love every thing about the car apart from the fuel bill. its an 04 5spd manual done 58000k's. I dont drive it that often. when I do I give it a bit of a squirt now and then but mainly the mrs just putts it around town during the week yet the fuel consumption doesnt go under 16l/100k's. its costing me about $75 a week to go less than 300k's!

I'm not going to mod the car for more power because of warranty concerns but what can I do to improve the blasted fuel economy?

otherwise if petrol gets much dearer it will be the shortest ownership in history.

cheers

mike.

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What's the service history like on your car?

I'd recommend having the fuel filter changed, pump screen clean and replacing the O2 sensor. What fuel do you run in it?

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usually a 95 octane. mainly vortex. service history is good as it's ex telstra fleet

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so what u mean to say is that it was run on 91 octane all its life??

total fuel system clean buddy....

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you know I didnt even consider that aspect of the telstra fleet. I think you might have hit the nail on the head.

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Telstra Fleet allow Opticrap and Mobil 8000. No 91RON but 98 all the way.

[profrat]

2003 BA Mk1. 5 speed manual. Stocker. 82,000 klicks. Live in a country town. 90% of kms done on the highway on weekends. Averge over the last 65,000 is 12.5 / 100. This was calculated from the log book I keep on every fuel fill. For all but the last 15,000 I used mainly Optimax with the occaisional 95 when I could not get Optmax. Last 15 thou I have used mostly Shell 91 (I just could not get my hand to pick up that Optimax nozzle no matter how I tried :-). The interesting think is that the dash calculator says I have ebeen getiing better mileage that I really have been. When I was running on Optimax it was always reading worse than I was actually getting. Weird.

Now the qualifications. Just driving round my small town with cold starts and 3km to work or trips to the shops 2 km away I get very high consumption. 17-20litres per 100km. I think this is entirely understandable. The car never gets warmed up and is running super rich. Check your instantanious readout as you leave home with a cold engine!!

On the other hand, cruising on the highway at (around) the legal limit with occaisional brisk overtaking returns better than 10L/100km and quite often as low as 9! Best I've seen on an easy 150km trip was 8.8.

Trips to the ski fields on very tempting windy, hilly roads gets me 14.5 on the way up but by the time I am back down (hill) the average is back to 12.5 to 13. That is without the missus of course. Make that 13.5 and 11.5 ave with the throttle dampener on board.

Towing my light trailer with sporting gear knocks the highway mileage around to about 13-14, but I consider that pretty reasonable.

Summery:

Cold starts and very short trips chew fuel. 16-20 normal!

Easy highway miles are quite economical. 9L/100km quite achievable.

Sporty driving in the hills 13-16L/100km. Varies with quotient of enthusiasm, and can be briefly a lot worse on the right road!

I have tried to calculate the difference in mileage I get from Optimax v's 91ron. It's a bit tricky/inaccurate without a long average test in the same sort of driving but, but rough observations, it appears to be around 2 to 3% better on Optimax. Given the price premium of about 7% for Optimax in my area, it is not an advantage purely for economy, but of course it has other benefits. :-)

It would be interesting to hear from others who have done mileage comparisons between 91 and optimax or equivelent.

[JBomb3000]

I just got back from a 600 odd k trip to Sandown and my stock 05 auto averaged excatly 10l/100kms

[profrat]

I just got back from a 600 odd k trip to Sandown and my stock 05 auto averaged excatly 10l/100kms

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I assume that was the dash reading? Did you do the calc on the KMs and Litres? Interesting to know how close they were.

[JBomb3000]

I just got back from a 600 odd k trip to Sandown and my stock 05 auto averaged excatly 10l/100kms

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I assume that was the dash reading? Did you do the calc on the KMs and Litres? Interesting to know how close they were.

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Yeah that was the dash reading, the car had 3/4 tank when I reset the average so I couldn't work it out, but yeah it would interesting to see the difference. That first 3/4 of a tank was 95 RON and from then on I filled up with 98.

[johng]

Just got the car back from Ford. Just to recap, I was getting 250km out of a tank, which lined up perfectly with the 20L/100k reading on the dash.

Ford had a look, and apparently the ECU was programmed with the wrong tyre size - it was set to 19" wheels apparently which would have upset the odo. So far it is now showing a reduction from 20L to 17L, which still is sh*t, but is better. I'll give it a tank or so to re-learn the fuel maps (which were apparently also all reset) and see how it goes.