Hi All,

Since having the car MOT'd it appears to be suffering from worse economy, id say 5-10mpg less. It seems harder work to get the same economy as I did prior to having it MOTd.

I have checked the tyre pressures etc, and wanted to know if there was anything else i could check?

I first noticed when pulling away from the Garage, it was registering 8mpg average and stayed in the teens for much longer than usual. It has had 3 seperate tanks of fuel from different garages since!

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Edit: Car is an 04 Fabia VRS.

Hi All,

Since having the car MOT'd it appears to be suffering from worse economy, id say 5-10mpg less. It seems harder work to get the same economy as I did prior to having it MOTd.

I have checked the tyre pressures etc, and wanted to know if there was anything else i could check?

I first noticed when pulling away from the Garage, it was registering 8mpg average and stayed in the teens for much longer than usual. It has had 3 seperate tanks of fuel from different garages since!

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Edit: Car is an 04 Fabia VRS.

a smoke test is carried out on the MOT , which involves revving the engine up at least 3 times to max revs ,this may have caused a fault (unlikely though) but other than that , i can't think of anything on an MOT that would cause your problem

does the engine feel down on power ? sometimes the MAF sensor can go faulty and you could inadvertantly be pressing the accelerator down more than usual to maintain speed , hence more fuel usage

have you had the air con on More since.

with the hotter weather my climatronic has been working harder and I've seen a big drop In mpg.

a smoke test is carried out on the MOT , which involves revving the engine up at least 3 times to max revs

What's max revs? Is it what the tester decides or the limiter, or whichever's first?

It's supposed to be the limiter

It's not unknown for the test to cause the exhaust internals to disintegrate. You might have backpressure due to a partial blockage. I'd expect it to show as a lack of acceleration as well, but logic and motor cars are not always in agreement. Also check for slightly binding brakes, especially rear drums, after the unusual work they might get during the test. Stop going uphill so as not to use brakes, then feel each wheel. Any warm ones?

Best of luck

V

They rev it to the govnor, really a diesel can sit on its govner all day long - unlike its petrol equivalent.

Its very loud when they do this.

Personally I think that every car should have an MOT coming off the production line and also then every year of its motoring life.

To assume a car in its first 3 years is safer than one after that time is rubbish - imagine someone drives 80k a year so that would be 240k miles and he may not have ever serviced it. Likewise it could be a lemon off the production line.

They rev it to the govnor, really a diesel can sit on its govner all day long - unlike its petrol equivalent.

Its very loud when they do this.

Personally I think that every car should have an MOT coming off the production line and also then every year of its motoring life.

To assume a car in its first 3 years is safer than one after that time is rubbish - imagine someone drives 80k a year so that would be 240k miles and he may not have ever serviced it. Likewise it could be a lemon off the production line.

Driving it on the red line uses more fuel and takes you off the maximum torque curve so resulting in slower get away.

The theory is that new cars will be built correctly and to a good standard and that it should take 3 years for any significant fault to occur. Obviously a new car is also serviced more than old ones.

In NI it is 4 years for first MOT and all kit cars need it from day one.

I'd offer up winter grade fuel plus higher air temps as a possible reason for the increased fuel use. Have you tried dropping a new air filter in the car or making sure the old one is clear of debris?

Thanks for the replies guys, looks like now is an ideal excuse to invest in vag-com and a cable. It has done several hundred miles since, and i have noticed neither lower performance or brakes being stuck on :(

Bit weird. I can still achieve 50mpg+ but only when driving like a granny on the motorway. Before now i have seen 58+ driving under the same conditions.

Thanks for the feedback!