My car seems to have quite poor fuel economy recently, my commute home returning 30mpg today when its all steady traffic moving along averaging maybe 30mph over the 14 mile journey

I drove reasonably carefully and followed the pace of the traffic but i was suprised when it was this low.

Ive never seen more than 44mpg out of this car which i think is quite poor for a 1.2 petrol

Another issue happening recently is when car has been started cold, it will not return to idle after being revved up as if you were pulling away. It dies as soon as you let off the throttle even if the car is in neutral. Once warmed up its fine and doesn't stall any more.

I can also smell a strong petrol smell from the outside when the car is running cold which I haven't really noticed before

Other than the idle issue the car drives fine and doesn't hesitate, just poor mpg.

Any suggestions?

its the 12 valve BME engine

Sounds like your fuel tank purge system may have failed, hence the petrol smell, and also allowing air into the manifold bypassing the throttle causing excess fuel to be injected due to higher than expected manifold pressure. Check to see if the relevant vacuum pipe has come off or split.

That sounds like a reasonable explanation, do you happen to know where the purge canister is on this engine?

I've also had issues filling the car up with petrol with the nozzle clicking before full which i thought may have been related to the purge system

When was the last Air Filter changed ?

 

DB.

...... do you happen to know where the purge canister is on this engine?

 

 

 

The canister is in the driver's side rear wheel arch. You have to remove the plastic wheel arch liner (T25 Torx screws).

Edited 11 January, 20179 yr by TMB

Will check it all tomorrow or at the weekend.

Air filter was changed 7000 miles ago 6 months so I think its fine

Ive just had the arch liner off, right pain as the torx heads were rusted and filled with crap.

There was no canister I could see under there

The white plastic lines which go to the engine bay purge valve seem to come from the top of the fuel tank but i cant see no canister 

On 1/10/2017 at 14:03, clarendon462 said:

My car seems to have quite poor fuel economy recently, my commute home returning 30mpg today when its all steady traffic moving along averaging maybe 30mph over the 14 mile journey

I drove reasonably carefully and followed the pace of the traffic but i was suprised when it was this low.

Ive never seen more than 44mpg out of this car which i think is quite poor for a 1.2 petrol

Another issue happening recently is when car has been started cold, it will not return to idle after being revved up as if you were pulling away. It dies as soon as you let off the throttle even if the car is in neutral. Once warmed up its fine and doesn't stall any more.

I can also smell a strong petrol smell from the outside when the car is running cold which I haven't really noticed before

Other than the idle issue the car drives fine and doesn't hesitate, just poor mpg.

Any suggestions?

its the 12 valve BME engine

Did you solve your issue? I think I hace the same one with the same engine.

I don't have the car anymore, but it improved slightly as the weather got warmer. I was convinced there was something wrong but never really found out what but decided as I was going to get rid of the car it wasn't worth spending the money trying to solve it.