Fuel going down quickly

[chapperzuk]

Hey guys! Over the weekend I filled up with a full tank of Shell V Power fuel into my 182. I did a 50 mile trip, driving very economically and I used just over a quarter of a tank, which was about £15. That seemed like a very large amount for the fairly short journey I did. The trip computer was saying around 33mpg, which I did reset after filling up with fuel, so should be accurate.

Can anyone explain this? My exhaust is blowing slightly as it is missing a gasket where the de-cat pipe is. Could this have anything to do with it? Is there something else wrong? Does V Power fuel just burn quicker?

If anyone can advise me on this, it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[Goodj]

V-power can improve fuel economy, if you drive accordingly.

Indeed, I can eke over 40mpgs from the 172 on a decent run if running V-Power or Platofuel.

It may be your computer being optimistic though, I'm no expert on these things, but people always tralk about Lambda sensors etc. whenever this question comes up.

 

[DannyR]

Yup as above possible lambda fault, but usually your MPG reading will drop to the 20's.

VPower seems to get me more miles compared to BP Ultimate and Tesco 99 too.

 

[chapperzuk]

Would the lambda fault cause more fuel to be used? My mpg reading hasn't dropped really, which is strange. I don't regularly use V Power either, so I don't know if the sudden change of fuel would cause the car to 'get used to' it or not?

 

[Goodj]

Nah.

It can take a few gallons for the ECU to adjust to the extra RONs but it should still only head up not down.

I'll add that tohit my 1-tank best of 43.8mpg's I had the most stress-free drive I've ever known, from Docklands to Fen and back again, B- and A-roads and motorway. It may not be driven in the way this site would prefer, but I got where I needed to be quicker than TomTom said I would and saved a few polar bears too.

 

[chapperzuk]

Nah.

It can take a few gallons for the ECU to adjust to the extra RONs but it should still only head up not down.

I'll add that tohit my 1-tank best of 43.8mpg's I had the most stress-free drive I've ever known, from Docklands to Fen and back again, B- and A-roads and motorway. It may not be driven in the way this site would prefer, but I got where I needed to be quicker than TomTom said I would and saved a few polar bears too.

Haha nice one dude! Really need to get this sorted, fuel is expensive enough, without my car using more than it needs to be. Hopefully it's nothing too costly to fix. May well be a lambda sensor problem though, as it's recently been taken out and put back in after swapping the cat converter on and off for the MOT.

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Swap the lambda's front to rear... reset the trip / mpg and see what happens.

 

[chapperzuk]

Swap the lambda's front to rear... reset the trip / mpg and see what happens.

Will give that a try mate. By reset the trip, does that mean just reset the mileage, mpg, etc?

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

Yeah, as if you'd just filled up.

 

[plymcl172]

I think v power is all in the mind, just stick to normal petrol its cheaper and I have no problems with it!

 

[Pallets]

Without wishing to hi-jack this thread too much, what else could cause poor mpg?

Driving carefully in my ph1 172, I'm getting around 32 mpg (mostly dual-carriageway - Not much stop-start). I did a 300 mile round trip (mostly motorway) the other week, and the most I could eek out of it was 37mpg ish. Everybody else I know with them seem to be getting into the 40's easily!

It's a totally stock car, with an open airfilter, and so far I've changed the oil/filter, cambelt/dephaser, pre-cat lambda, fuel filter, and the fuel consumption hasn't improved at all. The car runs VERY well - It just seems to drink a bit too much for my liking.

I got it mainly to use as a economical runaround :race:

 

[DannyR]

It's definitely not all in the mind. I rarely drive differently at any times.

I put BP ultimate in the other day as it was closer and got about 90 miles on half a tank.

VPower I will get around 100-120 on half a tank.

I was also driving more sensible with the BP ultimate.

 

[DannyR]

Coolant Temp Sensor can some times cause problems

 

[Rubicon_]

Do you only get 200-240 miles out a tank With the charger Danny?

 

[DannyR]

With my normal driving, which is only weekends I get exactly that yes.

When driving sensibly, 60-80mph on main roads I can get upto about 37-38mpg. On the way to the Nurburgring I had 370 miles as I went onto reserve which isn't bad at all to be honest, as good as the standard 172/182s that went.

 

[Rubicon_]

Pretty good actually, better than I expected.

 

[DannyR]

Better than cars with the same performance, friends M3's average about 23-25 whatever!

 

[chapperzuk]

I usually get around 300 miles from a full tank with a mix of driving sensibly and driving not so sensibly... judging by the fuel I've just used though, I will be lucky to get 200 miles from a full tank.

 

[MicKPM]

Deffo something amiss here and I'd honestly get it checked out cos my Laguna GT does 32-33mpg driving it on boost and that's an F4Rt

If you're really driving an NA F4R carefully you should be seeing 38mpg on the clockset IMO.