Fuel Consumption in the snow.

[threadbear]

As has anyone noticed a dramatic fall in their fuel usage since the snow fall and freezing temperature??

Filled up with 40 litres of BP regular diesel after only 376 miles!! Works out at 42mpg! :S

I guess that driving one evening at 20 miles per hour for 15 odd miles didnt help!!

Car has now done 2100 miles, Now the weather has warmed up a bit, the fuel consumption has gone upto 54 on a good run.

Grahame.

[MartynVRS]

I think the cold has a lot to do with it. My vRS's MPG drops a bit.

[Skodaboy1983]

Your lucky my little 14TDI is only getting about 27MPG at the moment....

Davy

[Nigel R Slack]

My mpg is suffering. I added some fuel system cleaner stuff to the last tank and wondered if that might affect it - certainly seems sluggish at times, but perhaps it's just the cold and having the heater on full a lot.

[raisbeck]

As has anyone noticed a dramatic fall in their fuel usage since the snow fall and freezing temperature??

Filled up with 40 litres of BP regular diesel after only 376 miles!! Works out at 42mpg! :S

I guess that driving one evening at 20 miles per hour for 15 odd miles didnt help!!

Car has now done 2100 miles, Now the weather has warmed up a bit, the fuel consumption has gone upto 54 on a good run.

Grahame.

Its ok, my 17000 mile 1.4 TDI Greenline has dropped about 10 percent of its economy during the cold weather. This may in part be down to garages stocking winter diesel which has a different mix to prevent waxing. The downside is a lower calorific value so less mpg. I noticed my mpg improved again a little as temperatures went above zero.

I usually get 67 to 70 mpg. It went down to about 60 to 64 during the cold weather.

From what I can gather on this and other forums its completely normal for a diesel to do this.

Edited 7 December, 2010 by raisbeck

[lemonvrs]

On my commute I normally average around 48 mpg but now its around 45 mpg... but its more noticable in stop start traffic. I can never get it above the low 50s now, same as last winter.

[Joe 90]

I've only had my car for about 3 weeks so hard to know whether my MPG is reasonable or not, however, over a 9 mile commute I'm hitting about 37-40 mpg, quite stop/start with average speed under 20mph.

On a different trip I got 42 MPG over 13 miles, mainly on the motorway.

Does this sound acceptable?

[VRS Doug VX]

Cold weather makes all cars return a higher fuel consumption.

In the winter cars take longer to warm up thus burn more fuel during this stage. We also tend to use our heaters more which damages thermal efficiency...then you've got the higher load put on the alternator with the demand for the electric heating element on the rear screen, fan working harder (to demist), greater use of headlights (dark/poor weather). It all makes for a rather poor mpg. :(

Diesels are hurt even more as 1/ They are more thermaly efficient & thus take longer to warm up than a petrol engine.

2/ The use of winter diesel damages mpg

With regard to new cars, our Octy VRS CRD took about 10,000 miles to start delivering good mpg, the fist 4000 were pretty bad.

Our new Fabia VRS returned 31mpg on it's first tank with gentle driving...I know it will improve...please God!

[Guest]

Cold weather makes all cars return a higher fuel consumption.

In the winter cars take longer to warm up thus burn more fuel during this stage. We also tend to use our heaters more which damages thermal efficiency...then you've got the higher load put on the alternator with the demand for the electric heating element on the rear screen, fan working harder (to demist), greater use of headlights (dark/poor weather). It all makes for a rather poor mpg. :(

Diesels are hurt even more as 1/ They are more thermaly efficient & thus take longer to warm up than a petrol engine.

2/ The use of winter diesel damages mpg

With regard to new cars, our Octy VRS CRD took about 10,000 miles to start delivering good mpg, the fist 4000 were pretty bad.

Our new Fabia VRS returned 31mpg on it's first tank with gentle driving...I know it will improve...please God!

You're spot on with this Doug! And well worth reminding everyone too.

[lemonvrs]

I've only had my car for about 3 weeks so hard to know whether my MPG is reasonable or not, however, over a 9 mile commute I'm hitting about 37-40 mpg, quite stop/start with average speed under 20mph.

On a different trip I got 42 MPG over 13 miles, mainly on the motorway.

Does this sound acceptable?

Doesnt sound great, I was getting 45+ from new with mine over a 13 mile commute with an average speed of 30mph... Im now getting close to 50mpg. The HTP is hit hard on faster roads as 5th gear isnt as high as the other engines. Stay below 70 and they arent bad but start pushing and they give dreadful results.

[Sheffmax]

I normally get around 52 mpg on my commute of 30 miles but because of the snow and ice I'm using a longer, flatter route and getting 60 mpg. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose.

[paully]

In a word Dismal :'( what we need is for these God Awful temperatures to just GO so peace and better fuel consumption can return to our land

[fabia55]

i've no idea how many miles per gallon i'm doing but the fuel gauge is definately going down a lot quicker. I normally top up every week end and it's only wednesday but my tank is less than half full. normally it's two thirds to 3 quaters full by this day of the week.

the starting up and leaving the car running to warm up doesn't help.

[Joe 90]

Doesnt sound great, I was getting 45+ from new with mine over a 13 mile commute with an average speed of 30mph... Im now getting close to 50mpg. The HTP is hit hard on faster roads as 5th gear isnt as high as the other engines. Stay below 70 and they arent bad but start pushing and they give dreadful results.

Bought the car used from a Skoda dealer, 18 months old with 14k miles on the clock, its also my first car so have little to compare it against, however from reading these forums over the last few weeks, was expecting >40mpg when driving carefully, might just be a combination of the short distance i'm travelling from cold with a fair amount of stop/start with traffic lights.

[threadbear]

Thank you all for your informative replies. Good to see that Im not alone!! THE 1.6TDi CR has had so much bad press, it does worry me when the fuel consumption!! The fuel consumption is gradually creeping up again. We are off to the Cotswolds from Kent next week, so will be interesting what we get on a decent run.

Incidentially my Dad had a Golf Plus BlueMotion 1.9TDi PD and his fuel consumption has fallen by about 8mpg and he watches his driving like a hawk!

Interesting to hear VRS Doug VX`s comments about consumption improving with mileage!!

Regards

Grahame

[Furbytom]

Lower temperatures leads to lower tyre pressures and therefore increased rolling resistance = higher fuel consumption. :yes:

[Timelord1.9Tdi]

Hello All

This is good news to see..... I was worried I had a fault on me car I have noticed just about 12% drop in efficency I am glad others have noticed a issue, at least now I know it is enviromental not a fault on me car.

Well it has warmed up now so hopefully some return to normallity soon

Timelord

[westwingdave]

I have a Fabia 1 HTP ( 1.2 6v) - do about 30 miles a day, some parts 50 mph and some 70mph. Generally get about 37mpg, but last few tanks in cold weather have averaged about 35mpg. I was generally expecting over 40mpg, but only ever just get this on motorway runs. Quite heartened to hear it is not just me!! Thought there may be a problem with the car!!

[Dr Zoidberg]

Cold weather makes all cars return a higher fuel consumption.

In the winter cars take longer to warm up thus burn more fuel during this stage. We also tend to use our heaters more which damages thermal efficiency...then you've got the higher load put on the alternator with the demand for the electric heating element on the rear screen, fan working harder (to demist), greater use of headlights (dark/poor weather). It all makes for a rather poor mpg. :(

Diesels are hurt even more as 1/ They are more thermaly efficient & thus take longer to warm up than a petrol engine.

2/ The use of winter diesel damages mpg

I'd agree with all of this.

My Bravo has a 105bhp 1.6 diesel engine and in the summer on a normal clear run to work I get an indicated 65mpg - on really good days I can just scrape over 70 and on a poor day I'll get 60,

Once the temperature drops to around freezing in the morning all of the above combines to drop the consumption to about 62 best and 59 normal.

Once you add in snow and minus ten degrees then the much lower speeds and stop start traffic means the engine takes an age to get up to temperature and some days I'll struggle to hit 50.

If you have the heater on full while stationary you can even see the engine temperature dropping! The tiny amount of fuel it uses on tickover just isn't enough to warm an ice cold car

One thing I did that helped a bit was to block off the lower radiator grille to reduce the flow of cold air into the engine bay.