Good Afternoon,

 

I have a 1.3 MPI and for as long as I've owned it I've only been getting about 170-175 miles to a full tank.

 

I've researched here and everything from brakes binded, temp sensor, maf, exhaust sensors etc.

 

Not sure where to start. It had a full service last year when I bought it, new air filter, oil, oil filter etc.

 

Brakes don't seem to be binding, car rolls freely and no jerking or stuttering.

 

There's no visible temp sensor on my car, there is a blue light that goes out once the car is "up to temp".

 

What's the best way to proceed from here? I've tried to look after the car, tyres are all as new, correct pressures, serviced yearly. 

 

Thank you!

3 hours ago, veelsie said:

about 170-175 miles to a full tank

How are you calculating this figure, what is a full tank and empty tank to you?

 

Have you changed the plugs, cleaned the MAF, throttle body?

 

Is the car standard, standard wheels, tyres,?

 

Where are you driving, how are you driving?

 

 

Edited 20 March, 20233 yr by nta16

Which engine do you really have? I don't think there's any Fabia with a 1.3 engine.

How many litres do you need to fill the tank back up - hopefully you are doing this until pump clicks off - as divide miles travelled by litres and time number x 4.5 to give mpg. What is your typical journey - distance and road types such as busy traffic, and terrain (is it hilly).

 An answer to these, especially answering mpg, will give people a starting point to comment as the 170-175 miles has no quantifiable information.

@veelsie  What size are these new tyres on your car?

You never mentioned when the spark plugs were checked or replaced.

 

1.4 MPI's might be as low as 30 mpg with cold start short journeys, and cars might even be getting just 25 mpg. 

 

45 litres used & just around 247 miles maybe.

40 litres @ 25 mpg 220.

 

Edited 20 March, 20233 yr by toot

Apologies it's a 1.2 MPI, not sure how to edit the title on phone will look when home.

 

1.2 3 cylinder MPI, not sure where the "1.3" concept came from.

 

I'll answer the rest shortly.

 

Last refuel was 40.55 Litres, I did 44 miles each way (88 miles) Plymouth - Exeter on the A38 doing 60 Mph and the rest was urban driving (94 miles) for a total of 182 miles.

 

Urban driving tends to consist of a 4 mile drive through city center each way (8 miles daily early morning), no traffic early hours, a few stop/starts for traffic lights, fairly flat terrain, 1 hill midway.

 

I worked this out to be 20.4 MPG.

 

I know it's a small engine car I just figured that was on the low end, I've had a lot of cars growing up and this one feels the worse.

 

Definitely something wrong, should be much better.

 

 

How you drive also has a huge effect on mpg. I try to anticipated road conditions and avoid braking as much as possible. If you are the type of driver who drives up to a set of lights and brakes to a stop at the last moment, then has a spirited getaway on the green light you can almost half the mpg of another more sedate driver. Speed also has a huge effect. It takes a lot more fuel to drive at 70 mph than at 55 mph for very little time saving.

I am not saying you are heavy on the brakes and throttle but it is worth thinking about. I try and get into 5th gear as quickly as possible, even in town traffic, though I have to admit, the short journeys and cold starts I am doing just now is not giving me great numbers for my first tankful with the Fabia. I have only done 160 miles since filling up at the start of the year and I am already just below half a tank on the gauge.

I drive like a **** in my tool eater and I STILL get more range from a tank than this guy so he definitely has a problem!

3 hours ago, Jocko said:

How you drive also has a huge effect on mpg. I try to anticipated road conditions and avoid braking as much as possible. If you are the type of driver who drives up to a set of lights and brakes to a stop at the last moment, then has a spirited getaway on the green light you can almost half the mpg of another more sedate driver. Speed also has a huge effect. It takes a lot more fuel to drive at 70 mph than at 55 mph for very little time saving.

I am not saying you are heavy on the brakes and throttle but it is worth thinking about. I try and get into 5th gear as quickly as possible, even in town traffic, though I have to admit, the short journeys and cold starts I am doing just now is not giving me great numbers for my first tankful with the Fabia. I have only done 160 miles since filling up at the start of the year and I am already just below half a tank on the gauge.

 

I drive according to others very conservatively, I'm always anticipating what's ahead and never close to cars in front etc. 

 

But understand what you mean. I tend to coast a lot which I'm not sure is either good or bad for MPG.

 

I'm going to change spark plugs and clean the throttle body and black sensor on the back today, it's £3.50 a spark plug and like £4 for a carb cleaner so worth trying.

Post photos of the plugs if possible.

Don't think I'd mess about with anything else at this stage unless plugs came out looking great.

 

1 minute ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Post photos of the plugs if possible.

Don't think I'd mess about with anything else at this stage unless plugs came out looking great.

 

Just out dog walking but will do in about an hour. 

 

Is it worth me just replacing the 3 plugs as it's not expensive?

Well worth it if they were not done at the 'Full Service' 1 year ago, and they have not been looked at. 

Just now, toot said:

Well worth it if they were not done at the 'Full Service' 1 year ago, and they have not been looked at. 

Brilliant will pick some up now, the service was done by a family mechanic, he passes back all the old materials so I know fuel/oil/air filter, oil and coolant was done but sparkplugs were left.

 

Will post update

If fuel filter was recently changed, check the area for leaks. You'd probably have smelt any such problem though.

Do this inspection without a lit cigarette. 🙂

Edited 21 March, 20233 yr by Breezy_Pete

1 hour ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Post photos of the plugs if possible.

Don't think I'd mess about with anything else at this stage unless plugs came out looking great.

 

 

I'm no expert, but I changed them. The gap on the old ones seemed about 3 times as much but I would have expected to feel the engine misfiring or something if the plugs were bad surely?

 

Pictures attached for someone better than me to tell me if it was worth while or not!

 

I'll monitor fuel economy.

Did you have anything to measure old or new gaps?

I'm no expert but I would think very large gaps will not be efficient. Late ignition/combustion start?

 

I think you will soon see if there is a difference.

 

1 minute ago, Breezy_Pete said:

Did you have anything to measure old or new gaps?

I'm no expert but I would think very large gaps will not be efficient. Late ignition/combustion start?

 

I think you will soon see if there is a difference.

 

Nothing but the gap was at least 2.5-3x the gap of the new ones. I guess I'll see!

Assuming the new plugs are the correct type and correctly gapped the change looks very worthwhile to me.

 

Like a lot of parts and components on the car they can continue to operate well beyond their optimum or when they should be reasonably attended to, part of servicing is prevention of taking things too far past this point.  As with a lot of warnings the car gives by the time you get them you're well passed the point you want to take action.

 

The computer can keep things going well passed the optimum and into the not so good.  You can rely on your own senses (literally) as much as, and sometimes more often, than the car's various systems at 20mpg you know something isn't right.

 

A full service isn't just attending to the basic engine servicing it's attending to the car as a whole but we realise you were referring to the engine servicing which I would have thought with a s/h car new to you would have included at an inspection of the plugs if not change.

 

Don't rely on the car to have push buttons and messages to sort everything.

 

Brakes, steering and suspension (all three include tyres) are much more important than the engine so they are my priority on a car new to me - and a good battery.

 

I'm sure you'll see some improvements from this basic bit of servicing, let us know how you get on.

 

1 minute ago, nta16 said:

Assuming the new plugs are the correct type and correctly gapped the change looks very worthwhile to me.

 

Like a lot of parts and components on the car they can continue to operate well beyond their optimum or when they should be reasonably attended to, part of servicing is prevention of taking things too far past this point.  As with a lot of warnings the car gives by the time you get them you're well passed the point you want to take action.

 

The computer can keep things going well passed the optimum and into the not so good.  You can rely on your own senses (literally) as much as, and sometimes more often, than the car's various systems at 20mpg you know something isn't right.

 

A full service isn't just attending to the basic engine servicing it's attending to the car as a whole but we realise you were referring to the engine servicing which I would have thought with a s/h car new to you would have included at an inspection of the plugs if not change.

 

Don't rely on the car to have push buttons and messages to sort everything.

 

Brakes, steering and suspension (all three include tyres) are much more important than the engine so they are my priority on a car new to me - and a good battery.

 

I'm sure you'll see some improvements from this basic bit of servicing, let us know how you get on.

 

Fingers crossed! When I got the car the wrong brakes had been put on and that caused issues during a full multipoint service, wouldn't surprise me if they had the wrong plugs. 

 

These are definitely correct ones!

Those plugs are completely worn out, the electrode looks like a mushroom!

Just now, sepulchrave said:

Those plugs are completely worn out, the electrode looks like a mushroom!

I did figure it was worth changing anyway!  I'm now wondering what else has been neglected on her!

1 minute ago, veelsie said:

I did figure it was worth changing anyway!  I'm now wondering what else has been neglected on her!

 

Plug colour is good so no fuelling issues, I reckon you'll notice a big improvement in torque from the change which means you won't have to work the engine so hard.

You are doing a better job than possibly that "full multipoint service".

 

When the weather is a bit better it might pay you to consider doing a full inspection of the car and at least service the engine with oil and filter change and check the air filter.

 

On a 13 year old car personally I would look at cleaning the MAF but I wouldn't use carb cleaner but MAF cleaner for the sake of a few quid extra and not risking and old sensor.  If correct OEM parts are cheap enough sometimes they're worth just replacing if old but the quality of the replacement part must be considered otherwise you could be swapping not too bad for bad.  Also cleaning the throttle body (or whatever anyone wants to call it) again with the correct throttle body cleaner, again why worry about a few quid if you're already wasting your life farting about with a car.

 

Because of the technology the basics are often forgotten on cars but without the basics attended to there's not fully success with the technology and much of car servicing, maintenance and repairs often boils down to the very basics of cleaning, lubricating - and when required replacing parts.

 

No MAF on petrol engines, except mine which is a 90's euro 3 refugee and which also has a secondary air pump and no EGR, probably why it's so reliable.