My wife drives it mostly about 7 miles each way every day. She leaves home, out of our estate and down the road at 30mph. Then she turns onto the by-pass and up the hill onto the dual carriageway (probably giving it some welly) for about 3 miles. Then it's onto an A road for another 3 miles where there are 50mph and 40mph speed restrictions. Then it's the return journey. She also works about 1 mile from home, and often takes the car. Last Sunday I took it for a 97 mile run and it returned 53mpg, and recently to my sisters house 50 miles away and it did 51mpg. For all of this the current long-term average is 41.7mpg from our 110TDi. And doing the calculations by filling the tank means the MPG indicator is surprisingly accurate.

So what exactly could be wrong with mine? Turbo perhaps? I don't think so. The engine runs very smoothly and is very powerful. It could be over-fuelling though and may benefit from a new set of injectors. The coolant temperature sensor was replaced a year ago and the engine runs at about 72°C. I run with the air conditioning on 'AUTO' all the time which of course means the cooling fans run all the time. The MAF was also replaced a week earlier but even though I do have VCDS it's difficult to tell if the air flow reading is correct without a text book figure to compare it against. The basic fuel injection pump timing is within limit but slightly advanced, which is better than being retarded. No fault codes are present, but then again I don't expect there to be. The air filter and fuel filter have only just been replaced, and the car has done 10,000 miles since the last time they were changed. They were in fact in very good condition in any case.

So apart from the short journeys I'm baffled as to why mine is so much worse on fuel than everyone else's. The car has done 155,000 miles and is nearly 6 years old now. I've owned it for a year and bought it with 144,000 on the clock, so obviously the previous owner used it for long trips most of the time. It wasn't a taxi, the previous owner was a self-employed service engineer whose work took him all over the UK. It has a genuine towbar fitted and he used to tow a small trailer.

I'm all ears to anyone who may have any other suggestions......

It has me completely snookered too!! Your car should be returning more than that, but lets look beyond the engine which sounds as though all is well. What about the brakes? Do you have a binding rear caliper???? Just a thought but this may be worth checking. My previous Fabia had this and it was surprising the amount of difference to the economy after this was sorted. Just a thought - hope it helps

It has me completely snookered too!! Your car should be returning more than that, but lets look beyond the engine which sounds as though all is well. What about the brakes? Do you have a binding rear caliper???? Just a thought but this may be worth checking. My previous Fabia had this and it was surprising the amount of difference to the economy after this was sorted. Just a thought - hope it helps

Actually there is the possibility that it does have a binding rear caliper. The handbrake is a bit notchy when you pull it up, but the car does roll quite easily when I push it, which I do every morning when I get my van off the drive. I need to move the car out of the way but I don't start it because I don't like to run the engine for only a few seconds at a time, and to be kind to my neighbours early in the morning.

The rear wheels don't get hotter than normal, and so if one is binding it's only minimal. I doubt that would make that much of a difference to be honest......

It's not the brakes then. I think the best option would be to have the codes read if this has not already been done, but to be honest I think you have changed all the usual things & this has me stumped.

So apart from the short journeys I'm baffled as to why mine is so much worse on fuel than everyone else's. The car has done 155,000 miles and is nearly 6 years old now........

I'm all ears to anyone who may have any other suggestions......

a common problem on these engines seems to be clogging up of the EGR valve +manifold, some of the pictures i have seen look quite shocking and will do no favours to the MPG. I have a good PDF from another none skoda VAG forum that details stripping and cleaning it, not sure if Its allowed to post 'links to other forums' on here and i dont have time to reread the rules right now, but feel free to confirm and I'll put a link up, else pm me and I'll send the link (there is probably info on here, but i couldnt find it the other day when i was looking).

I plan on stripping mine and doing the catch can/elephant hose mod sometime to keep it clean.

a common problem on these engines seems to be clogging up of the EGR valve +manifold, some of the pictures i have seen look quite shocking and will do no favours to the MPG. I have a good PDF from another none skoda VAG forum that details stripping and cleaning it, not sure if Its allowed to post 'links to other forums' on here and i dont have time to reread the rules right now, but feel free to confirm and I'll put a link up, else pm me and I'll send the link (there is probably info on here, but i couldnt find it the other day when i was looking).

I plan on stripping mine and doing the catch can/elephant hose mod sometime to keep it clean.

Thanks for that. I did check the EGR valve a while ago, and they do get clogged up I know. I'm all in favour of blocking the EGR valve off and prevent it from opening. Removal of the inlet manifold is a fairly big job, and while they're off you do tend to look at the build up of carbon around the inlet valves too. That leads you to start thinking about taking the head off to de-coke it, and I really don't want to be doing that unless it's absolutely necessary.

Cleaning it & the ports = good, however you don't need the catch can mod to keep it clean. Decent oil (I generally use 505.01 but good semi/full synth 10w40 or better TD oil is okay) with the EGR blanked off (I use 2mm steel cut blanking plates - available on ebay - used to cut my own) does not then 'bake' the oil.

I have pulled an intake off an engine I did a couple of services later & the clean oil with no EGR had actually cleaned up the remaining EGR muck traces in hard to get corners and it was spotless.

Lovely. And no issues with blanking EGR on a pre-pd engine, nor on most pd's up to 2004, other than a slightly slower warm up & a cleaner, better breathing engine.

Greg.

a common problem on these engines seems to be clogging up of the EGR valve +manifold, some of the pictures i have seen look quite shocking and will do no favours to the MPG. I have a good PDF from another none skoda VAG forum that details stripping and cleaning it, not sure if Its allowed to post 'links to other forums' on here and i dont have time to reread the rules right now, but feel free to confirm and I'll put a link up, else pm me and I'll send the link (there is probably info on here, but i couldnt find it the other day when i was looking).

I plan on stripping mine and doing the catch can/elephant hose mod sometime to keep it clean.

Ok, so an update is due. The 90bhp TDi Ambiente I was considering has gone.

But all is not lost, they say everything happens for a reason.... And I've now put my old 1.6GLXi up for sale to be replaced with a 03 plate Laurin and Klement hatchback which has the 110bhp TDi engine that most people suggested I hold out for. 90k miles in black with the biscuit interior.

It goes to show you should wait around a bit if you've got the luxury of having the time to! I will get some photos up when I go to get it! It has full service history, and from what i've read on here, it still has double the milage left in it than what it currently has. I'm very pleased.

A couple of questions I forgot to ask though, maybe you chaps may know, do all L&K octavia's have xenon headlights? What about airbags, I'm assuming it's more than just the two front ones like I currently have in the GLXi? Will it have a sunroof? I know it sounds like i've bought it before I know what i'm getting. But infact my father works for Skoda and has persuaded me that this perticualr car is mint condition and that whoever were to buy it would do very well, plus i'll be buying it at trade cost. So i'm going to see it this weekend. The only downside is I don't have long to react, hence the fast sale of my GLXi.

Thanks

Ok, so an update is due. The 90bhp TDi Ambiente I was considering has gone.

But all is not lost, they say everything happens for a reason.... And I've now put my old 1.6GLXi up for sale to be replaced with a 03 plate Laurin and Klement hatchback which has the 110bhp TDi engine that most people suggested I hold out for. 90k miles in black with the biscuit interior.

It goes to show you should wait around a bit if you've got the luxury of having the time to! I will get some photos up when I go to get it! It has full service history, and from what i've read on here, it still has double the milage left in it than what it currently has. I'm very pleased.

A couple of questions I forgot to ask though, maybe you chaps may know, do all L&K octavia's have xenon headlights? What about airbags, I'm assuming it's more than just the two front ones like I currently have in the GLXi? Will it have a sunroof? I know it sounds like i've bought it before I know what i'm getting. But infact my father works for Skoda and has persuaded me that this perticualr car is mint condition and that whoever were to buy it would do very well, plus i'll be buying it at trade cost. So i'm going to see it this weekend. The only downside is I don't have long to react, hence the fast sale of my GLXi.

Thanks

It will have xenon's, sunroof, side airbags, ASR traction control, 16in chrome alloys prone to getting bent on the inner (only able to see on 2 post ramp or balancing machine that they are out of round).

Get a FULL diagnostic scan, othe than that a HPI check and a standard mechanical/bodywork checkover.

Nice motor.

Greg.

And if it has a 6-speed box it's actually one of the very first 130s, not a 110.

It's certainly a 110, meaning it will only have a 5-speed box?

A full diagnostic scan? With a vag-com system you mean? It is HPI clear and i'm assured the bodywork is pristine.

I look forward to viewing it, it had more toys than I assumed!

VE 110 = 5 speed, PD 130 = 6 speed.

Yes, with vcds(vag-com)