High fuel consumption help!

Close to 4 years old and only 13,000 miles??

Could be soot build-up from all the short journeys the car is doing.

Specialist should be able to code-read the car and check the function of the lambda before removing it though - could be something completely different.

If it is the Lambda then either replace it or take it out and clean in.
If you're paying a garage to do the work it's probably best to have it replaced.

Generic code reader or a proper one like VCDS ?

R3k1355 said:

Generic code reader or a proper one like VCDS ?

Click to expand...

OP, not sure that you have answered the above question - it was relevant, and still is.

I bought a totally coked-up very low miles petrol motor many years back. It ran OK but only did 28 mpg.
After 6 months of sensible commuting up and down the A1 daily it had improved to 39 mpg.
Maybe I should have sped things up and given it an Italian tune up - like I did regularly with a later diesel. That used to take only an hour and cleaned things up nicely.

My 1.2 TSI started to suffered from rubbish mpg about 8/9 months ago. I only worked 2 miles from my house and I just drove there and back for a while. My journeys for nearly six month were no longer than 5 miles a pop due to using all my milage on blackbox insurance in 3 months. Once I started doing my normal commuting, pottering about etc I got around 26/27mpg even on longer journeys. I let my car to my dad to take to London for work and it came back better. He said he only got 31 driving down there but got 46 on the way back but he also had one of his guys look at the Lambada and he said it just needed cleaning and it was fine again.

Its low miles indicates to me that it's all been short trips when the motor always runs rich and just cokes up. It needs a clean out. Luckily for me when Italian Tuning my diesel it only did 100-110 flat out in 4th so it was reasonably easy to find 10 miles of clear dual carriageway to hammer up and down. Faster cars I've had would have made it much more difficult and dangerous.