Using too much fuel

[Don87]

Just for the record ive got a 1.8 20v, not a cupra or cupra r.

Put 30 pounds worth of fuel in the car which was about a week ago, and today it was on the red after covering only 115 miles of normal, not giving it the beans, driving to and from work and about town. I used one of the many internet mpg calculators and it worked out that i had done just 22.23 mpg!! seriously i knew going from a 1.6 to a 1.8 would involve a change in fuel economy but that is mental! What could possibly cause this? Im starting to regret ditching my old car for the faults ive had with my seat

 

[Slimy]

You don't really say where it starts from, so while you might have come back to the red, if you were very much in the red when you started you may have at least another 50 miles available. A better way of measuring mpg is to fill it until the pump clicks, do 200 miles then work out how much it costs to get back to the click.

Of course, £30 worth of fuel doesn't really help either, considering fuel at the moment is anywhere between 1.20 and 1.40 it's almost impossible to know how much fuel you actually got for your money!

 

[Alexis27]

You should be getting low 30's MPG. Work it out and see if you're dropping into the twenties.

 

[Fl@pper]

Put 30 pounds worth of fuel in the car which was about a week ago

if you are working it out by the £££ then it's more likely that your not using 'more' fuel just putting 'less' of it in

 

[Trublu07]

My average since I have had my car is 24mpg.

 

[GlanzaV]

I put £75 worth of VPower in the other night... never put that £££ of fuel into any car ever!!! It's getting a bit ridiculous, but then it hardly gets driven.

 

[Don87]

Well the calculator i used asks for distances traveled, litres used and cost per litre, its always gonna be a ball park figure i guess, but 22mpg I seems pretty damn low for a NA engine to me, especially when ive not been putting my foot down.

 

[Trublu07]

Might be overfuelling?

 

[RS6]

I put £75 worth of VPower in the other night... never put that £££ of fuel into any car ever!!! It's getting a bit ridiculous, but then it hardly gets driven.

i know that feeling my max was £68 but now the price has gone up i expect it to be that

 

[Don87]

I thought it could be over fueling. What could cause that, if it was a faulty sensor or something wouldn't it throw up a light?

 

[STUSSY]

Maybe the right foot is the problem that's my problem anyway .

 

[Pyro]

That nothing I pit ummmm lets see £110 in, in the last 24 hours but done lots of driving lol

 

[BEOWULF]

I average about 27mpg in mine so £20 quid does me about 100 miles

 

[Slimy]

Well the calculator i used asks for distances traveled, litres used and cost per litre, its always gonna be a ball park figure i guess, but 22mpg I seems pretty damn low for a NA engine to me, especially when ive not been putting my foot down.

My 2.3 V5 (also NA) will average 30-35 MPG (up to 40 if I drive like a grandad!) so yes I'd have expected the smaller engine to do better than that.

You need to do it over a longer period of time though, I can get mine down to 10 if the journey has been a bad one. Ten miles of the M6 across Birmingham will cripple MPG! Keep a log of your fuel and mileage for the next week or fortnight and see what a bigger average gives you

 

[Trublu07]

I thought it could be over fueling. What could cause that, if it was a faulty sensor or something wouldn't it throw up a light?

Faulty Lamda sensor, vac leak? On mine the small hoses under the inlet manifold had small holes in them. Mine was running rich and eventually the eml came on. Do you know anyone near you with vag com, a liquid gauge or a fault scanner? You can have ecu error codes without the dash light.

 

[m0rk]

1) Coolant Temperature sensor under reading - telling the car to be in cold start (rish)
2) Thermostat is jammed open actually not allowing the car to warm up.
3) Pre Cat Lambda sensor is dead

very quickly diagnosed with vagcom & a test drive

 

[Don87]

I replaced the coolant sensor only a month or so ago, but I think its faulty again already ill keep an eye on it! It gets warm air into the car fairly quickly so i assume if the thermostat was jammed open it would take awhile to heat up inside aswell? The last one i cant check as i dont have vagcom, is the ebay jobby good enough to check such things, gotta be worth £10 if so!

 

[Trublu07]

Yes that will scan for codes on your laptop.

 

[Trublu07]

Make sure it supports the right communication protocol though.

 

[Don87]

What should I be looking for?