Fuel consumption - Spring or run-in?

[Brijo]

Eight months of generally miserable winter-type weather haven't helped Annie's fuel figures. Mileage is now at around 4K and a very big proportion of that has, of necessity, been short and local (lots of lanes and hills, with a fortnightly blast on the dual carriageway to clear the DPF!). Only the post-Easter run with the caravan (see another topic) has really given her the opportunity to play. The Fuelly figure in my signature tells an uninspiring tale.

Until this last week! Suddenly, within the last couple of weeks the 'Consumption 1' reading has been way higher than before. Even the routine rural journeys of 6 miles of so (from cold) have given >36mpg and twice it's been a clean 40.0. Forum wisdom seems to be that the 2 ltr CR frees up at around 10K - is Annie a bit early or is it the warmer weather?

A visit to the pumps is almost due but it's probably a bit early for the indicated improvement to show up.

Edit: Oh - a Spring pic to cheer you up!

[rockhopper]

change from winter diesel to summer diesel?

Change from winter tyres to summer tyres?

My CR140 DSG loosened up nicely after about 17,000 miles.......At 36125, she is going very well now thank you

Mind you the Shark breath has helped......

[Llanigraham]

Higher temps so the start-up to warm-up time is reduced.

Tyres slightly harder due to increased temp.

Summer diesel.

My "to work" consumption is now regularly showing 50 plus on the Maxidot.

[Brijo]

change from winter diesel to summer diesel?

Change from winter tyres to summer tyres?.....

Higher temps so the start-up to warm-up time is reduced.

Tyres slightly harder due to increased temp.

Summer diesel....

Interesting... Last fill was 21 April, so possibly 'summer' diesel. Quicker warm-up is a possibility, too. I can't afford the luxury of winters but I was a bit slow in getting round to deflating from official 'towing' pressures (for goodness' sake - 3.0 bar in the back!!).

[Freshacre]

I recorded my miles between brim-ups assiduously and can tell you categorically that when the ambient temperature drops, your miles-per-gallon does the same.

Over the nearly three years I had the Yeti my MPG figures swung from 44 in the warmth to under 40 in the coolth!

In my Z4, the opposite is true - but that's because I don't take it out in the cold - in fact, I hadn't driven it since mid-October last year. Now, of course, it's in use every day without fail.

[horn3t]

Well, my brother has send me a photo of a MFD in his Golf Estate 1.6 TDI showing quite interesting figures (they are in litres/100 km) while driving from his appartment to the gym. He filled the car with "premium" diesel fuel after dropping me off to the airport in Austria and drove back to Slovenia via mountain pass and a section of Motorway on his way home.

So I guess, it really depends on quality of the fuel, summer tyres and air pressure in them and so on...

Best regards!

Edited 7 May, 2013 by horn3t

[AndyC]

I recently recorded my highest brim to brim mpg(47.4). Combination of warmer weather, loosening engine, summer fuel?

Andy

[BossFox]

I recently recorded my highest brim to brim mpg(47.4). Combination of warmer weather, loosening engine, summer fuel?

Andy

Mine averages around 47mpg all the time. Winter or Summer.

Except when towing or hooning round a track.

Unlike a lot of people I don't see much difference between summer and winter economy.

Maybe my driving style changes due to the weather.

[olibluegoat]

Bossfox, What yeti are you driving?

[rockhopper]

Bossfox, What yeti are you driving?

A breathed upon CR170 :lol:

A TapaTalk enabled phone was used to write this...

[Bobdog]

Blodwen is returning about 22 mpg in normal driving, stick it in top and rely on the torque to do the job, but if I blat around a bit swapping gears and giving it some welly that drops to about 13/14 mpg

[cotswoldlad]

My cars always return their best mpg as I sell them, just ordered my new l&K and current Elegance 140 has started doing high 40's 35k best I've ever seen on maxidot was 56 in slow but moving traffic doing about 45mph.

[bilun777]

Blodwen is returning about 22 mpg in normal driving, stick it in top and rely on the torque to do the job, but if I blat around a bit swapping gears and giving it some welly that drops to about 13/14 mpg

The old 747 used to do about 0.2 MPG, but it did carry nearly 400 passengers and lots of cargo.

Just looked up the Queen Mary. It did 13 feet per gallon.

[Brijo]

Continuing the 'improvement' story:

We've just had a couple of days with the Yorkshire branch of the family :beer: :beer:, nearly 400 miles total of rural stuff, A-roads and motorway. On the M1 northbound, in fair conditions, cruise control set at around 66mph when appropriate, the 'Consumption 1' reading hit 46-point-something. On the return journey, despite rain showers, spray, and with fidgety heavy traffic that all led to a wide variation in speed, the final C1 reading was even better - 47.8mpg .

Mind you, it will take a lot of trips like that to show a happier picture in my overall Fuelly figure below!

[jonceebee]

My 1.2 DSG is showing an average of 41.4 over the last 1500 miles. The last few days around town have dropped it down to this as it was averaging 43.1 a few miles ago

[g6zru]

Continuing the 'improvement' story:

We've just had a couple of days with the Yorkshire branch of the family :beer: :beer:, nearly 400 miles total of rural stuff, A-roads and motorway. On the M1 northbound, in fair conditions, cruise control set at around 66mph when appropriate, the 'Consumption 1' reading hit 46-point-something. On the return journey, despite rain showers, spray, and with fidgety heavy traffic that all led to a wide variation in speed, the final C1 reading was even better - 47.8mpg .

Mind you, it will take a lot of trips like that to show a happier picture in my overall Fuelly figure below!

It's what I've always suspected, going North is uphill!

Fred

[Brijo]

It's what I've always suspected, going North is uphill! ...

You're right, of course, Fred. I'd totally forgotten

[The Plumber]

Mine stays pretty constant in terms of readings throughout the year and generally she does better going home from work rather than too but that's down to the terrain; 47 to mid 50's being normal on the fuel computer. However I've recorded all but one or maybe two refuels on fuelly, so my 30k average is 0.1 off 45mpg.

Oh oddly my best ever fuel computer reading was when she was fairly new at just over 60, mind our Monte produced an average figure of 200mpg the other day but Newton had a lot to do with it; we were descending a Swiss mountain

TP

[Brijo]

.... we were descending a Swiss mountain

That might be rejected as cheating - except that you had to climb the mountain first, didn't you? :think:

[The Plumber]

That might be rejected as cheating - except that you had to climb the mountain first, didn't you? :think:

Yes sadly true and from memory we were somewhere in the very low 30's. However that 200 still left us well in the high 50's by the time we got back to our accommodation; normally the Monte is low 40's at best.

TP

[MikeWales]

I thought it may have been Gwladys' recent service as I got 56 mpg last week on my 15 mile trip to work. My previous best was 47.

But I suppose the warmer weather has a lot to do with it and of course last week was half term week, so less traffic to try and race

[vegit8]

I would think that Brian's and our driving types are similar, during the winter months when its too cold / wet / icy to ride the scooter to work I use the Yeti (SWMBO uses the Citigo for her work)- my commute is a 10 minute drive across town and back again. We also do the odd weekend away and there was the delivery journey via the lake district (of 800 miles).

This weekend we turned over 4k miles - of which 3k was on winter tyres.

In an attempt to speed up engine warm up I use the solid plastic lower radiator cowl cover in the winter.

As you can see from my figures I am managing just about 40mpg, maybe the difference is in the gearbox?

[AndyC]

Just back from a weekend in Dorset. 500 odd miles and still the low fuel warning hadn't come on. On a brim to brim gave 48.4mpg, best yet (maxidot said 56.1 - I wish). Now past 20k miles and the engine has definitely loosened up as now accelerates quicker than ever.

Andy