Poor economy

[rvdbarnes]

Hi all

The missus drives an Arosa 1.0 S (53 plate) and gets what i think is pretty crap fuel economy. Usually around 27 to 30 mpg, to be fair the majority is short trips to work/town driving.

Does this economy sound poor to you guys who know more about the Arosa?

Although it has been serviced annually and is low mileage (27k) im thinking of giving it a going over and doing the following

Oil, filter and sump plug change
Fuel filter
Air filter
Spark plugs

Looking at the service book, the fuel filter, air filter and spark plugs may never have been done due to the cars low mileage
Do you reckon it could make a difference to do all of these myself?

cheers guys


Lee

 

[m0rk]

Yes, changing those parts will make a difference! It's 7yrs old!

However, check that the coolant temperature sensor is working right, your car might be permanently in 'warm up'

 

[rvdbarnes]

Cheers fella

I thought it would, but wondered if I was trying to convince myself!
I will add checking the temp sensor and might run a course of fuel treatment too to clear the lines a little.

How do i go about checking the temp sensor? I have a VAG.COM set up if that helps
Do you agree that the economy is pretty pants for this engine too?

 

[m0rk]

If you have VAGCOM that's ideal - just view the channel that shows the coolant temp to make sure it's gettingup to 90C

And yes, 30mpg is poor from a 1.0

 

[rvdbarnes]

Will do mate, I will hook it up to the lap top and take it for a run.
How long would you expect this engine to take to get up to temperature?

 

[m0rk]

10 mins or so?

 

[rvdbarnes]

Cheers Mork, I will give it a going over and see if I can improve things at all

 

[andycupra]

M0rk's advice is good.
However 27k in 7 years... so thats 3,500 miles a year.

How often is the car used? - daily? - more than once a day?

If used 350 times a year its averaging 10 miles per day, - which will be 5 miles per journey (one there and one back).
If this is also around town then doing 5 miles each time (and maybe often less if used more than once a day) this will be a major contributor to poor mpg.
As will the likelyhood that trip to and from work will be in the rush hour... How long does it take her to do the 3-4 miles to work?

But as above, so will temp sensor issues and / or thermostat issues if its taking a long time to warm up.

 

[rvdbarnes]

Hi Andy

That doesnt sound far off the mark to be honest, its used every day during the week to get to work, which can be as little as 2.5 miles each way if its to my work!
I often wonder if the engine has even warmed up in that time

Its basically used for regular, short journeys which in the evening, involves rush hour traffic in most cases

 

[andycupra]

would be interesting to see if you have any longer drives coming up to fill up before and after to see what you get on a longer journey which may then allow you to decide if its running poorly or not.

 

[Antdabiker]

i'm currently getting 53mpg out of my arosa. i commute about 80 miles a day, mostly on motorway but with about 10 miles in heavy crawling traffic. best way to work out fuel efficiency is to fill ur tank to the brim, reset the trip meter, drive till you need to fill up then fill it up to the brim again - make a note of how much it takes, i.e 21.45L, and the miels travelled. then convert the figure in litres to UK gallons, then divide the miles travelled on that tankful by the figure in uk gallons.

for example. 21.45L converted to UK gallons is 4.719 Gallons. Miles travelled on that tankful (236 miles). 236 divided by 4.719 = 50.011.

this last figure is your miles travelled per gallon or MPG.

hope that useful for working out your mpg when it gets fixed.

by the way, just serviced my car with an oil change, air filter change and platinum spark plugs and i my average has risen by about 5mpg - might be worth a go if your economy is a bit crap.

 

[Boo]

I think something is up with my Arosa. Its a 1.4 auto and I do a lot of daily driving in a very hilly area. My fuel economy has gone right down and I keep getting the occasional smell of fuel. Have checked the fuel lines and they seem ok. Anyone got any idea's. Its due an oil change I know that.

 

[Antdabiker]

if you get the occasional smell of fuel when the engine is hot, it may be the fuel tank breather hoses releasing pressure or the carbs may be running too rich and pumping too much fuel into the engine.

depends on ur driving style as well - are you using a lot of throttle to get around? what is your average top speed on dual carriageway and motorway? (i'm not a copper, i wont tell ).

could be a variety of things. best bet would be to work out ur actual MPG, relate it to ur driving style.

a service wont go amiss though. Oil + filter change, fuel filter change, spark plugs + air filter.

hope thats useful.

Ant

 

[Antdabiker]

oh and one more thing -if you are only travelling very short distances and the car is only running for less than ten mins at a time, you might consider swaping over to colder running spark plugs as the ones you currently have in will not be getting up to operating temperature.

You may notice when they come to be replaced that they will be fouled up with carbon deposits.

All the best,

Ant

 

[Boo]

if you get the occasional smell of fuel when the engine is hot, it may be the fuel tank breather hoses releasing pressure or the carbs may be running too rich and pumping too much fuel into the engine.

depends on ur driving style as well - are you using a lot of throttle to get around? what is your average top speed on dual carriageway and motorway? (i'm not a copper, i wont tell ).

could be a variety of things. best bet would be to work out ur actual MPG, relate it to ur driving style.

a service wont go amiss though. Oil + filter change, fuel filter change, spark plugs + air filter.

hope thats useful.

Ant

None of my daily driving is on a motorway. The most I manage on the A259 is 40mph because its all winding hills. My fuel economy has never been this bad and my driving style has not changed.

 

[Antdabiker]

check above message Boo

 

[Boo]

I drive 40 minutes to work each day.

 

[Antdabiker]

well i want to apologise as i can't help you further - my area of expertise is motorcycles so i'm not used to cars too well.

wish the problem gets rectified in the future for you.

all the best,

Ant

 

[bradley138]

any luck on improving your mpg as my 1.0 arosa is pants on fuel as well?

 

[Boo]

I'm assuming its something to do with the cold weather and the engine taking longer to warm up causing the car to overfuel for longer periods of time ? I could be wrong though.