Hi everyone,

On the back of my wife's excellent 1.9TDI Ambiente Octavia estate, I've recently traded my car in for a 2003(53) Octavia 1.9TDI PD130 L&K.

I was expecting a slight reduction in fuel economy compared to the standard 1.9TDI (I was told by the dealer a 2-3mpg reduction) but I've really struggled to get even close. The drive from the dealer I bought it from was 200 miles of mostly motorway. I set the cruise control at 70mph and drive the entire journey without queueing (it was 8-11.30pm) and only managed 49mpg. I've managed 58mpg from my wife's on a similar journey.

My journey to work is only low 40s whereas my wife's car can do over 50mpg (up to 54 on one occasion)

I have turned the climate control to ECON and there seems to be a greater than 5MPG improvement but still low overall. I thought that 5mpg for air con was on the high side too? I'm driving it really carefully and not taking advatange of the extra power. In fact I only bought this car because of it's condition and extras (leather, climate, cruise etc). I'd have been happy to have the normal 1.9TDI.

Am I expecting too much, or might there be a common problem? I'm using the trip computer as the indicator of economy in both cars. I haven't used a tank of diesel in the new one yet.

The other problem I have noticed is a knocking coming from the front going over normal bumps in the road. My wife's car has done twice the mileage of mine and doesn't do this?

I'm starting warranty investigations but would appreciate some pointers from the members?

Thanks,

M

I get an honest 40-45mpg stop/start town driving with 'enthusiastic' throttle use.

It is a step up performance wise from the 90/110 - there will be some penalty.

Don't forget to use sixth gear - makes a big difference to MPG at say 40mph - watch the instant MPG readout to find the best gear for each situation.

The knock will be a worn bush in the suspension somewhere - very common.

I've found that the 6th gear is so high that below 70, it doesn't accelerate very well, or at least, it shows a high fuel useage to do so. I'm surprised to hear of using 6th at 40mph.

Thanks for the suggestions, the car is being looked at by my local dealer on Wednesday. I'll post their findings. I think I might get them to change the air filter for what it'd cost, to see if the economy is any better after that.

How much difference in mpg do you notice when the a/c is turned off?

Thanks,

Martin

I'm surprised to hear of using 6th at 40mph.

How much difference in mpg do you notice when the a/c is turned off?

I'm sure Kandy wouldn't have intended use of 6th gear at 40mph - just 'put it' in the same sentence unfortunately.

On Fab vRS I find approx 'hit' from using aircon of 3mpg.

Air filter - changed ours at 16k was grey. 11k on and changed again to find it was worse than 1st time.

Treat your car to some Millers Diesel Sport 4 - improves mpg, cleans injection system, cuts down on smoke. Lots of users on here - do a search............

Actually - on mine if you're at steady speed there's absolutely no problem using 30/5th, 40/6th. It will accelerate gently without protest if you tickle the throttle (bad to floor it though). At 40/45 6th gear is at least 10mpg better than 5th. If you need to accelerate quickly change gear! I figure if the car doesn't protest/judder it can't harm anything? And don't forget downhill is free - so put it in 6th and get off the accelerator.

I took my wife's car to work this morning and interestingly only managed 48mpg - so only 2-3 MPG or so higher than mine yesterday. Maybe I'm being a little harsh on my car?

How accurate is the trip computer generally? Could this be down to an inaccurate reading?

"Her" Ambiante strikes me as being on the low side at 48mpg; I had 60ish out of one of them, and frequently get 55 out of my 110 on a run.

I also don't see why the L&K shouldn't take 6th at 40; the 110 takes 5th at 30, and there's no measurable difference in instantaneous fuel consumption between 4th and 5th on a flat road.

Hi Ken,

The run to work is about 8 miles, with 90% being dual carraigeway and I'm normally able to do a steady 70. I climb a short hill out of our village at about 30, 60 for a mile or so to the dual carriageway and then queue for about a mile to get to work. The instantaneous MPG shows healthy enough - I just don't think that the journey is long enough to make up for the low MPG average at the start of the journey.

I know that I have sometimes managed 54 on the reverse journey in the Ambiente. I've never seen 60 on any kind of journey in it though, even a long one. From reading around, this is probably down largely to my driving style. I've always maintained 3rd gear for 30 mph limits, 4th for 40. This was taught to me as a learner nearly 20 years ago! I think the reason is flexibility. You can slow down a little without having to change gear and can accelerate out of the limit easily and smartly without having to change down. I normally save 5th for 50 and above and I've been using 6th in my new car only above 70 as it seems to labour below this.

I see that there are a few RoSPA/IAM members on here - what's their take? I had RoSPA lessons in 1999 but I can't remember what was said.

So - are there any common causes of poor or low economy figures? Air filter would seem to be a good example.

On the wife's car, the TDI are all black, so I'm assuming its a 90 not a 110. The overall average figure is 50.3 over 3000+ miles at 35mph(ish) average speed. I checked this morning.

Ah; I've seen all sorts of variable advice on "what gear to use", but I'd reckon to be using a gear higher than you for steady speed cruising up to 40 by the sound of things.

The other point to consider would be that even the Ambiente probably has better torque than a typical driving school car from 20 years back (especially if you learnt on a V@*xh@11 C0r$@; the nastiest car I've ever driven).

Might be worth checking tyre pressures on both cars??

The readouts vary greatly in accuracy from car to car. Why not try Mileage Calculator and Vehicle's Costs Analyser as a long term way of keeping an eye on running costs?

Ah; I've seen all sorts of variable advice on "what gear to use", but I'd reckon to be using a gear higher than you for steady speed cruising up to 40 by the sound of things.

The other point to consider would be that even the Ambiente probably has better torque than a typical driving school car from 20 years back (especially if you learnt on a V@*xh@11 C0r$@; the nastiest car I've ever driven).

D reg 1.6 diesel Escort (which sounds ancient but wasn't in 1989!)

Will try the higher gears, and see what happens. Will also track mpg in the conventional way (miles driven against volume of fuel required to refill)

Thanks,

Martin

I managed to avoid diesel Fords until a hire Mondeo last year, which was quite good, but not a match for the 407 HDi we had at the same time.

I get a steady 45-48mpg every month out of my octavia, my mum & dad have the 90bhp TDI octavia and get approx 10mpg more than I do. 45-48mpg stil isn't bad for a diesel with a decent bit of poke.

local dealer checked for worn bushes with me this morning. No sign of play in any of them. And typically, couldn't get it to rattle on the test drive with the mechanic either!

£80 out of pocket now......

local dealer checked for worn bushes with me this morning. No sign of play in any of them. And typically, couldn't get it to rattle on the test drive with the mechanic either!

£80 out of pocket now......

Missed that; try rocking the radiator.

With not too much pressure applied, the radiator does move and knock.

I take it that the radiator should be, well, not rigid as such, but moving only slightly on rubber mounts - therefore no knock?

I'll compare to my wife's car when I get home this evening.

Thanks,

Martin

Yep. it's a known issue, if more common on the vRS.

Cheers Ken, will nip back to the dealer over the next couple of days.

Martin

My Fabia vRS averaged 40 over 9 months lol

Just nipped out with a colleague to look in a bit more depth. Top mounts seem ok but bottom mounts are completely shot. Metal on metal.

I'm brassed off that the dealer didn't check the radiator mounts yesterday, especially as it's a known problem. I am definitely claiming my £80 back! Although to be fair, it didn't make any noise when the technician drove it.

Booked in for warranty replacement on Tuesday.

Again, many thanks to Ken for the diagnosis.

Martin

No problems.

I suggest you name and shame the dealership involved.

Two dealerships actually.... the one I bought it from last week (who should have picked it up in their pre-delivery check, and the one who looked at it yesterday. When it's all sorted I will.......

Radiator mounts changed today and the noise is much less prominent at slower speeds and bumps etc. I have to consider at what point the noise is reasonable considering the car is nearly 5 years old and 45k miles.

However there is still a noise which I noticed on the dual carraigeway at 70mph, can't say I noticed it at slower speeds (<50mph). It's a knocking/rumbling noise. I can't make my mind up what it sounds like - a cross between the sound I would imagine a loose washer bottle making, (with the wind coming into the engine compartment) and the noise you might get from wheel balancing being out. what's even more odd is that I drove in one direction on the dual carraigeway for a test, no noise; turn around and come back - that's when I noticed the noise. I suppose it could even be the road surface. I'll keep an ear out for it.

The mounts were changed under warranty. No fuss at all eventually. However I have not YET had a refund on the £80 I was charged last week for the dealer to look at the suspension bushes. I was told that the warranty wouldn't cover any investigation work! I find that incredible! So in other words, they'll fix the fault, but only if YOU tell them what it is, and if it takes them three goes (@1 hour of labour each time) to NOT diagnose the problem, that's your tough luck!?

I was told that I would have to take it up with the service dept manager, but he's not back till Tuesday. I will certainly be in contact! Anyone else had this nonsense with the Skoda warranty?

Martin

Looks like I owe you £80

Maybe you are just listening too closely - it being new?

Mines on 82k and no odd noises to report!

I think it's finally sorted. ARB bushes replaced by Chapmans of Pickering today.

Oh and ecomony much better too since I last posted. I've learned how to drive it more economically and can now get 64mpg on a long run which is great for a PD130!