I bought my superb about a month ago already covered 3000 miles it has now done 79000 miles.I love the car but it has a fuel economy of 31mpg combined.I have changed the mass air flow sensor,fuel & air filters & used forte diesel treatment.none of this has made any difference.I do not drive the car hard.Is this economy normal??HELP!!

What sort of journeys are you doing? When I first got my Octy I was only doing 4 miles to work each way, and getting about 35mpg. On a long journey now I can get 65mpg (indicated, which translates, ime, to about 61mpg actual)

Providing you are not using the car as a taxi on local work then no that is not normal, you appear to be doing about 100 miles per day so assuming these are using normal roads and not stuck in heavy traffic most of the time I would be expecting to get closer to 50mpg (which is the average I used to get from my Superb 130PD).

Personally I would be getting the car scanned with VCDS before you spend any more money changing things.

I bought my superb about a month ago already covered 3000 miles it has now done 79000 miles.I love the car but it has a fuel economy of 31mpg combined.I have changed the mass air flow sensor,fuel & air filters & used forte diesel treatment.none of this has made any difference.I do not drive the car hard.Is this economy normal??HELP!!

Is your figure of 31mpg measured brim-to-brim or from the trip computer?

Trip computers are notoriously inaccurate but I have normally found them optimistic rather than pessimistic.

Providing you are not using the car as a taxi on local work then no that is not normal, you appear to be doing about 100 miles per day so assuming these are using normal roads and not stuck in heavy traffic most of the time I would be expecting to get closer to 50mpg (which is the average I used to get from my Superb 130PD).

Personally I would be getting the car scanned with VCDS before you spend any more money changing things.

thanks for the reply.the car is used as a mini cab,i would say on a run i got upto about 42 mpg.around town i get 28mpg.i am getting through about £30 a day in diesel for about 130 miles.i only use shell diesel.i have had the car put on a diagnostic machine,no faults showing.

What sort of journeys are you doing? When I first got my Octy I was only doing 4 miles to work each way, and getting about 35mpg. On a long journey now I can get 65mpg (indicated, which translates, ime, to about 61mpg actual)

i have done about 3000 miles in the car i would say 2000 miles around town 1000 miles on a run.i drove to colchester last weekend straight up the a12 clear run sat at 70 mph,could not get past 42 mpg according to the trip computer.

thanks for the reply.the car is used as a mini cab,i would say on a run i got upto about 42 mpg.around town i get 28mpg.i am getting through about £30 a day in diesel for about 130 miles.i only use shell diesel.i have had the car put on a diagnostic machine,no faults showing.

That will explain a lot of it, im sure Supurbia will be along shortly to tell you what real life figures he got out of his (auto) Superb taxi.

Edited 20 November, 201015 yr by Gizmo68

That will explain a lot of it, im sure Supurbia will be along shortly to tell you what real life figures he got out of his (auto) Superb taxi.

the car is a manuel if thats any help.buy the way is a vcds a normal diagnostic machine?

Edited 20 November, 201015 yr by 1972wheel

VCDS is a bit more than a 'normal' diagnostic tool, it is basically what everyone tries to copy and regarded by most as the best

That will explain a lot of it, im sure Supurbia will be along shortly to tell you what real life figures he got out of his (auto) Superb taxi.

Ok, here goes, and you can thx Giz cos he also PM'd me to help you out.

Mine was a 1.9 130 automatic, used in full rig with roof sign

Good Day Urban 29mpg

Bad Day Urban 25mpg

Long Run One Off - 44mpg

I now have a 2.0 Passat DSG

Good Day Urban 34mpg

Bad Day Urban 27mpg

Long Run One Off - 50mpg

The 2.0 isn't as good on fuel as the 1.9 btw, other's will say different, but extra BHP means extra fuel, as you are a Dagenham cabby I can only imagine how much time you spend in second gear so that won't help either.

In my Passat 130 miles cost's between £20 - £25.

You could try an oil and filter, and use fully synth 5/30 oil, preferably VW spec'd one, so it's 10k 505.01, or LL which I would consider 15k tops 507 spec, if you have a dpf this will have bad effects as well as it will spend too much time regenerating, and if you do have a dpf it MUST have low ash 507 oil, or it will keep blocking up.

If you know you have a dpf (should be a light on the dash for it, or if it's Elegance spec it will have one) I suggest you do a good 30 mile clear run at around 65mph to hopefully clean it out, and also change the oil, and if you can't diy, make sure you ask for LL 507 low ash oil, Halfords,KwikFit etc will simply stick any old oil in it, so do not go to them.

Edited 20 November, 201015 yr by Supurbia

Ok, here goes, and you can thx Giz cos he also PM'd me to help you out.

Mine was a 1.9 130 automatic, used in full rig with roof sign

Good Day Urban 29mpg

Bad Day Urban 25mpg

Long Run One Off - 44mpg

I now have a 2.0 Passat DSG

Good Day Urban 34mpg

Bad Day Urban 27mpg

Long Run One Off - 50mpg

The 2.0 isn't as good on fuel as the 1.9 btw, other's will say different, but extra BHP means extra fuel, as you are a Dagenham cabby I can only imagine how much time you spend in second gear so that won't help either.

In my Passat 130 miles cost's between £20 - £25.

You could try an oil and filter, and use fully synth 5/30 oil, preferably VW spec'd one, so it's 10k 505.01, or LL which I would consider 15k tops 507 spec, if you have a dpf this will have bad effects as well as it will spend too much time regenerating, and if you do have a dpf it MUST have low ash 507 oil, or it will keep blocking up.

If you know you have a dpf (should be a light on the dash for it, or if it's Elegance spec it will have one) I suggest you do a good 30 mile clear run at around 65mph to hopefully clean it out, and also change the oil, and if you can't diy, make sure you ask for LL 507 low ash oil, Halfords,KwikFit etc will simply stick any old oil in it, so do not go to them.

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thanks for the info supurbia.i will try and get out on a clear tommorrow.the car was serviced by the dealer when i bought the car but i do not know what oil was used,i will do an oil & filter change in the next week.it is an elegance so i will use 507.i will keep you posted how it goes.big thanx to you & giz.

I suspect it's the dpf regen doing it, you need to check if the fluid in the boot is ok as well, as it injects with the fuel to try to break the soot down during burn off.

In all honesty, if you can get shot of it, get shot of it, the mpg isn't that bad, not as good as it should be admittedly, but that engine has a real terminal fault to it, so unless you can swallow and write it off should it lose oil pressure I'd be looking to get rid of, especially if you rely on it for a living, avoid Passat B6's up til 07 plate ones as they suffer the same fate.

my 2.0 superb with dpf manual gearbox averages 37 mpg overall. do around 500 miles a week about 80% of which is short A to B runs (taxi). only use shell vpower diesel engine runs smoother on it and add millers diesel treatment about every 3rd tankfull

Surpurbia makes a very good point about getting rid of it ASAP, the 2.0 140PD is a dog of an engine due to the crap oil pump drive it uses, these fail very regularly at stupidly low mileage and without a full warranty to cover it, will cost the owner thousands to fix (not to mention the loss of earning whilst it is being repaired). Don't expect any worthwhile 'goodwill gesture' out of SUK as they couldn't care less about their engines being not 'fit for purpose'.

Do a search on here and other VW / Audi forums and you will see the widespread problems concerning the 140PD.

I suspect it's the dpf regen doing it, you need to check if the fluid in the boot is ok as well, as it injects with the fuel to try to break the soot down during burn off.

In all honesty, if you can get shot of it, get shot of it, the mpg isn't that bad, not as good as it should be admittedly, but that engine has a real terminal fault to it, so unless you can swallow and write it off should it lose oil pressure I'd be looking to get rid of, especially if you rely on it for a living, avoid Passat B6's up til 07 plate ones as they suffer the same fate.

sorry i'm a bit of a dumbass when it comes to cars,check what fluid in the boot?if it is the dpf is this something that can be changed and how much would it cost to do?

my 2.0 superb with dpf manual gearbox averages 37 mpg overall. do around 500 miles a week about 80% of which is short A to B runs (taxi). only use shell vpower diesel engine runs smoother on it and add millers diesel treatment about every 3rd tankfull

thanks for the reply i will try vpower diesel and see how i get on.

just got back from a good motorway run.did exactly 100 miles stayed in between 65/70mph,computer said 49.3mpg.that is the best i have had out of it so far.i'm sure changing the mass air flow sensor has made a difference.

sorry i'm a bit of a dumbass when it comes to cars,check what fluid in the boot?if it is the dpf is this something that can be changed and how much would it cost to do?

It's a bit of a grey area, you can have it taken off, but this requires a new pipe and an ecu map to stop the system telling you it isn't there, others have also adopted the broom handle mod, this where you take it off and force a hole through it so it can't block up, not sure if this works or not though, the fluid isn't cheap, iirc it's about £300 for a top up, and it normally last's around 70k.

Keep an eye on your figures tomorrow, the urban ones, you should find it has improved to at least 34mpg if not more, this will be because you have managed a full regen of the filter, hence the nearly 50mpg, for a while it shouldn't need to regen and your mpg will be improved, regen's raise the rpm and effectively make the car run on a hot choke, ket us know how things go, it's important for future reference.

It's a bit of a grey area, you can have it taken off, but this requires a new pipe and an ecu map to stop the system telling you it isn't there, others have also adopted the broom handle mod, this where you take it off and force a hole through it so it can't block up, not sure if this works or not though, the fluid isn't cheap, iirc it's about £300 for a top up, and it normally last's around 70k.

Keep an eye on your figures tomorrow, the urban ones, you should find it has improved to at least 34mpg if not more, this will be because you have managed a full regen of the filter, hence the nearly 50mpg, for a while it shouldn't need to regen and your mpg will be improved, regen's raise the rpm and effectively make the car run on a hot choke, ket us know how things go, it's important for future reference.

thanks supurbia,will let you know how the consumption is in a couple of days.

As a comparison, my 1.9 AWX Superb has just completed a round trip - London to Rotherham and back, always within speed limits.

Half a tank of fuel, 58 mpg brim to brim - measured. (The trip computer is 10% optimistic).

The 2.0 PD is rubbish, even when the oil pump goes round. What were VAG thinking of?

rotodiesel.

(Tesco fuel).

Edited 21 November, 201015 yr by rotodiesel

As a comparison, my 1.9 AWX Superb has just completed a round trip - London to Rotherham and back, always within speed limits.

Half a tank of fuel, 58 mpg brim to brim - measured. (The trip computer is 10% optimistic).

The 2.0 PD is rubbish, even when the oil pump goes round. What were VAG thinking of?

rotodiesel.

(Tesco fuel).

The one in my Sat is a BKP variant, y'know the same engine in the Skoda with a different code name :wonder: and the sooner I can get shot of it the better, not because it's a bad car, because it's the smokiest engine I've ever had, and the only time I've ever had to carry spare oil in boot incase it's eaten it all again, 1 litre every 2500 miles, that's whatever VW shoved in it, top up of Mobil and VX oil, plus I dropped the VW oil soon after getting it, suspecting it still had the original oil in it, and still nothing's changed, 4500 later and I've added 2 litres already, shabby and the sort of quality you'd expect from a Trabant.

How many miles has your passat done then suppy?...is it possible that you may have a valve stem rubber on its way out? causing oil to seep past and be burned in the engine? Seems unusual to be shoving that amount of oil into it , unless its a high mlieage motor you have there !

I see Roto is having one of his famous digs at the 140 tdi again...but i do have to say, that prior to the oil pump issue which i was totally unaware of before purchase, the car itself was basically a superb drive, given the travelling that we did in france, and the distances we covered and the ecconomy over the long distances....and even short distances, the car never missed a beat, always started up 1st time never used oil, and prior to the problem that occured , it was indeed a good purchase for its intended use as a large comfortable family taxi.

All superbs have problems, i dont think there is a car that hasnt got problems, it was just unfortunate that the problems were'nt being reported prior to us buying the car in the 1st place...otherwise i would have been on briskoda earlier and quite possibly got feedback from people like yourself, but then again, its quite possible that even you didnt know about the problem till it started to fester later in the cars production cycle, and by then, the 3yrs warranty was up, and suk didnt want to know!.

And of course it's very easy now to look back and see the evidence of seeing what actually has gone wrong...but if and when the car does get the green light to be repaired, i dont see any further problems apart from servicing and other issues that we already know about. And the reduced mileage that our car will be doing in the future hopefully will see the car be around on the road for longer, as if it takes another 38k miles for the oil pump to fail again, it will be years before that happens, and of course there will be other expense involved, possibly with dpf and fluids and the usual senario with car ownership.

But as always, we always welcome Roto's comments, good or bad even , though he does give the impression that he doesnt quite like certain cars !

Na, they either burn lots or none at all, it's not a fault it's how they are, Roto is correct though, it reads how to add 100BHP and turn the best engine into the worst, there's sheet all over it that the 1.9 doesn't have, one piece of VW genius is to cover the oil filter housing with tubes and a solenoid unit, and then site it inside of a manifold that requires you to removal man manouvre twist and turn to get out, over on VWAF one user is doing VW autopsies on early fails, today it's the rear brake caliper, someone sent him one and he's stripped it down, it's siezed inside the electric park brake motor, left to soak in WD40 overnight it's all freed off again, yet VW will simply charge you in excess of £600 for a new caliper unit, to replace the one they couldn't make to resist water entry.

tbh Nutty, I think this is my last VAG car, the two I've had have been good so far, but the backup stinks, and it's always the customer's fault it broke, I cannot wait for a forum group to launch a law suit against VAG, I know VAG will muscle them, but in court with the evidence of design fault in front of the judge, how could VAG ever win that day, another gem, the DSG, UK it's VAG's problem to 60k, but in the USA it's 100k, something is off there, there is no way it's any different a box that they fit, so it should be 100k worldwide, especially as they are stopping cheaper sources from getting a repair bench in and holding up the prices, they even charged my local Boater dealer £1400 for a new mechatronic unit, if that's trade prices, wtf is retail going to be.

Roto is spot on tbh, he like me knows when the headmaster turned the cane around the other way and stopped whipping us with it and got more up close and internally personal.

Edited 23 November, 201015 yr by Supurbia

Trouble is suppy, what car will give the likes of us good reliable and enjoyable motoring? thats my gripe

Trouble is suppy, what car will give the likes of us good reliable and enjoyable motoring? thats my gripe

Honda Accord, Toyota Avensis, KIA Magentis,BMW 5, Merc C, of the rest, they all go wrong, Insignia,Mondeo,C5,407, but the firms will fix their cars, and there's no special terms like what oil did you use, two of them I've experienced, VX fix, Pug fix, but they go wrong a lot more, it's like VW is the Titanic, there are lifeboat's, but it derends as to whether you qualify, where other's are the QM2 where there is a space for everyone, I love the VAG car's myself, and up til now I've been lucky that they equal the VX reliability, but if they hadn't I'd be in a world of pain in a freezing atlantic ocean right now, and as I like those that care for me, my next car will be a Toyota, it would be a VX again but they won't build so a rear passenger can sit in comfort, so it's a Toyota for me as the dealer's do go the extra for you ime.