[fartinfreddy]

Just curious if anyone else is getting similar readings to myself.
Every 2 weeks I do an 1100km round trip, 99% of which is done with the speedo reading 120km/h. I haven't checked with a gps but I figure this would be about 110km/h genuine as now I catch the trucks rather than the other way round.
My economy reading on the dash has normally been 6.0 - 6.5lt/100km.
It has recently jumped to 7.5 - 8.0lt/100km & the only thing I can think of thats changed is that I haven't done the big trip yet - it's only been short trips around town. I've just had my 30,000km service done & the temperature lately has been staying around 40 degrees so the climate control has been flat out rather than settling down to a 1 or 2 fan setting.

[whitbomb07]

Manual or Auto?

In my manual I've noticed an increase in comsumption in the last couple of months as temps have been getting higher. I picked mine up in Nov08 and as we went into winter consumption reduced. Or that's how it seemed to me.

Higher temps obviously mean higher post intercooler temps, which means less dense air which equals less performance, meaning you need to press the noise pedal a bit more to get the same effect as in cooler temps. Combine that with more frequent A/C usage and you end up with higher consumption.

I filled up a few days ago and did about 80kms that day and the day after in warm weather which required A/C, stop start traffic, all city driving and it gave an average speed of 30km/h and avg consumption of 6.8l/100km. Driving the last 2 days to and from work (80km so far) has already brought that down to 5.8 and will keep dropping. It's a cold start each trip but I get some nice highway driving along the way. Best I've accomplished in the trip is 4.3l/100km. But the engine was warm when I left as i'd driven it earlier.

Regards

Daniel

[Dazzler]

Gee I stress if i go up to 5.8... but on the other hand never averaged better than 5.0 for any good distance..

Had a few diesels spiking at mid 6's lately (not sure why) Still waiting to hear what Dave in WA (DB08) has found out about his...

[Lakes]

at the start, thumper aways thought, warm weather got the best economy. i beleaved that too. could be fuel as the use a different blend summer to winter. myself i have not really noticed, but the last trip i did this past week carrying three and baggage i returned 5L/100k seems normal to me.
if you want intercooler temps to drop you can get water methanole injection, just you would have to put a hole in the intake from intercooler. and find somewhere to mount the hardware, but from all reports in most cases it shows a good gain. a friend of mine that has an engine dyno has used it on customers motors to allow increased boost without having to use better fuel, but all his aplications were supercharged or turbo petrol motors. but its ok on deisels no water will reach the combussion as it evaporates its a fine mist spray, it also keeps chamber clean.
would i use it on my i30 CRDi? probably not.

[2i30s]

it may just be your aircon is on higher than it usually, Freddy.

[Dazzler]

it may just be your aircon is on higher than it usually, Freddy.

 

I'm no mechanic but I would imagine if the air is on it's on. Personally, I wouldn't have thought the fan speed of the Aircon would effect the economy... I stand to be corrected...

[2i30s]

i think if the aircon is at different speeds on the fan it pulls more on the pump.[engine power]even changing the temperature setting could do the same.[in theory]

[Dazzler]

i think if the aircon is at different speeds on the fan it pulls more on the pump.[engine power]even changing the temperature setting could do the same.[in theory]

Hope that info didn't come from "News Ltd."..

[2i30s]

maybee some one with more aircon knowledge can help .

[Shambles]

maybee some one with more aircon knowledge can help .

I saw that film a couple of times. Nicholas Cage wasn't it?

Or was that Con Air?

[2i30s]

 

[fartinfreddy]

Great to see this many replies in a short time! I've got a manual gearbox & seeing as I was driving around town I kept the revs around 2000 but still had it hover at 8.1lt/100km. My long drives are done solo with one suitcase so reading others economy figures has me wondering.
If I get the chance I'll do a decent run to see what I get at highway speeds but I'm starting to think I might have to get it back to the workshop to see if I can come close to matching others figures.

[Lakes]

it may just be your aircon is on higher than it usually, Freddy.

it might only be cars with climate control? i have an SX so normal air cond.

Hey Freddy, hard to say, but a shift light for economy like ford have on the fiesta ECOnetic would be good, as sometimes a few more revs help, depending on conditions, like hills and so on. idling a lot uses fuel too but is not measured in distance. we would have a better idea if we also had an engine timer as well, then we could say ....., i got 8l/100k 6 hour, then i got 4.4l/100k 1 1/2 hours, it's a more accurate way of checking economy, also a good way to know when to change engine oil, like at so many hour,s, nor so many K's.

[whitbomb07]

Lakes

As you probably remember the Scangauge has the feaures to show 'engine on' time for the current trip, the day, previous day and since fill up. It is also capable of showing instantaneous litres per hour.

WRT to Thumper, I remember his intercooler cover that showed an improvement in economy, however I believe this was due to 4 things: 1) the engine warms up faster (a cold engine start, especially multiples thereof for the tank is a big killer for the economy) 2) I believe he normally used it in cold weather/at night therefore requiring no A/C, I think there would be different results on a 40 degree day. 3) I believe it was also necessary to granny drive the vehicle. 4) I'm not sure if he did it before but I'm fairly certain he did use it in conjunction with the MICI tuning box that he had (which during the meet we had this time last year we found he had cooler temps in his vehicle) so this introduces another variable.

To me it appears in the right conditions higher temps can benefit, but only if driven a certain way and so on. Personally I'm not to interested in grannying to get the best consumption, I'd rather just enjoy the torque in conjunction with the (relative to other vehicles) great fuel consumption.

Today my drive into work (about 25km) I needed A/C on the whole time and the trip resulted in a 5.7l/100km when normally it's low 5's or on a really good run into the 4's. Outside temp ranged from 30-35, intercooler temps ranged from 40-60, I short shift when the engine is cold and coast into lower speed zones/red lights etc etc, brakes very rarely get touched. 

WRT Freddy I can't understand why the consumption is that high. Might need to have a chat to your service department.

Regards

Daniel

[fartinfreddy]

I knocked off early tonight so did a 30km trip to the next town at highway speeds (cruise control - 120km/h) & the readout dropped to 7.4lt/100km. I turned around, reset the readout & headed back at the same speed.
It settled on 6.4 after about 10km or so & stayed there until about 1km from Kalgoorlie when it started to drop & then as I slowed down to 70km/h & drove the few km's to home it seemed to drop a point every 30 seconds until 5.9lt/100km.
Thanks to some rain the temp was 26 for the drive.
I was confused to start with - now I've probably confused everyone - welcome to my world!
I think the local dealership with some decent plugin gear will hopefully get me closer to others economy.

[whitbomb07]

I knocked off early tonight so did a 30km trip to the next town at highway speeds (cruise control - 120km/h) & the readout dropped to 7.4lt/100km. I turned around, reset the readout & headed back at the same speed.
It settled on 6.4 after about 10km or so & stayed there until about 1km from Kalgoorlie when it started to drop & then as I slowed down to 70km/h & drove the few km's to home it seemed to drop a point every 30 seconds until 5.9lt/100km.
Thanks to some rain the temp was 26 for the drive.
I was confused to start with - now I've probably confused everyone - welcome to my world!
I think the local dealership with some decent plugin gear will hopefully get me closer to others economy.

Freddy

On my return home tonight I returned a much better figure (outside temps in the mid 20's) with no air con used, for the 25ish km trip I used 4.8l/100km with intercooler temps in the mid 30's for the majority of the trip, engine warm up time was initially faster than normal but then the closer to full temp the longer it took, which eventually worked out to be similar to the norm. Albeit I also had less stops at lights as is generally the case on my return trip at night.

I'd like to know more about the condition of the road (what sort of bitumen, average gradient, twisty or straight, any stops/heavy braking and then acceleration etc etc) along the route. As these figure are getting better, but still not great or even good. Also at what point in the rev range that you shift when cold and hot and any coasting/engine braking.

When I go from Newcastle to the Blue Mountains along the F3 (at least 1.5hrs+ of the 2.5 hr journey) I sit on just over 115km/h or just under 2500rpm (speedo indicated, 110km/h indicated on GPS and Scanguage) and definitely don't use this much in my trips and there are some decent hills along the way (in fact I normally find my consumption drops when I reach Pennant Hills Rd/Cumberland highway after getting off the F3, and after getting an E tag the M7 isn't bad either).

Regards

Daniel

[Lakes]

[/quote]

Hey Dazz ol Rupert is a real nice guy , i have meet him personally.
hey and everyone loves Bu ll S...t, it's a fact mate who wants to hear the truth LOL.
cheers

[Lakes]

maybee some one with more aircon knowledge can help .

Real Aussies don't use it mate, its just our Brit & euro links that forced it on us LOL

[Lakes]

Lakes

As you probably remember the Scangauge has the feaures to show 'engine on' time for the current trip, the day, previous day and since fill up. It is also capable of showing instantaneous litres per hour.

WRT to Thumper, I remember his intercooler cover that showed an improvement in economy, however I believe this was due to 4 things: 1) the engine warms up faster (a cold engine start, especially multiples thereof for the tank is a big killer for the economy) 2) I believe he normally used it in cold weather/at night therefore requiring no A/C, I think there would be different results on a 40 degree day. 3) I believe it was also necessary to granny drive the vehicle. 4) I'm not sure if he did it before but I'm fairly certain he did use it in conjunction with the MICI tuning box that he had (which during the meet we had this time last year we found he had cooler temps in his vehicle) so this introduces another variable.

To me it appears in the right conditions higher temps can benefit, but only if driven a certain way and so on. Personally I'm not to interested in grannying to get the best consumption, I'd rather just enjoy the torque in conjunction with the (relative to other vehicles) great fuel consumption.

Today my drive into work (about 25km) I needed A/C on the whole time and the trip resulted in a 5.7l/100km when normally it's low 5's or on a really good run into the 4's. Outside temp ranged from 30-35, intercooler temps ranged from 40-60, I short shift when the engine is cold and coast into lower speed zones/red lights etc etc, brakes very rarely get touched. 

WRT Freddy I can't understand why the consumption is that high. Might need to have a chat to your service department.

Regards

Daniel

All good points Daniel, you can also use a GPS to monitor time as well. but like you say more fun enjoying the experience and TQ.
i probably use more fuel some dsays than others but as no trip PC i don't know about it i just get total trip average.

[fartinfreddy]

Thought I'd wait 'til I did the trip again & pay more attention to conditions etc. before adding to the topic.
The roads are average bitumen with bends here & there & what I would call undulating ground (nothing that stresses the engine/gearbox). Apart from slowing to go through 1/2 a dozen towns & a few turns it's pretty much set the cruise control & sit back for the next 5 1/2 hours. I filled up at the start of the trip & then before my return I put 43.5lt in after driving 627km - (6.94lt/100km which was about the right reading for the trip down)
On the drive back the trip computer was reading 7.5lt/100km on a 42 degree day. When I got to 3/4 of a tank I'd done 250km & trip computer said 450km to empty. I was going to do a 1/2 tank check but stopped at a car rollover for about 45 min. & left the car idling with air con on. When I got back in it was showing 8.8lt/100km but dropped back to 7.5 after a reset. I havent refilled yet since I got back as the idle time would have altered it so I'll try again in a couple of weeks.

[deleted]

Freddy, I note in another thread where you say you only got about 30,000Km from your tyres. Others are getting a lot more. I expect to get 60-70Km based on current wear (3/4 left, 18Km on clock) and previous cars' history.

Maybe you are driving harder than you thought or perhaps with insufficient tyre pressure?

Whatever, I think this is an indicator.  

[fartinfreddy]

Hey Pip,
   The old tyres seem to have worn evenly. I kept them at 32psi but when I had the new tyres fitted my front right had a screw in it & had dropped to 24psi. I'm not sure how long it had been like that as the fronts always had a bit of a bulge (like their owners stomach). The new tyres & wheels were fitted for this last trip so should have been spot on. Being a differant size tyre, I'll have to ring the shop & get a recommended psi.
Reading some other posts I think my driving is similar to theirs & yet an extra 2lt being used. I change gears around 2500-3000 but most of my driving is as written in my above posts. I like your thinking though & had been hoping for a bit of a change with new tyres myself.

[accim]

Hm that's quite high fuel consumption. Even mine is around 5,8 lit/100 km's and I drive around 140-150 km/h regularly. But there is something interesting..for the past two weeks I've been also driving only short trips and my fuel consumption is now 6,0 lit/100 km's and I haven't reset it for a month or two..that means it's been also over 7 or maybe even 8 liters per 100 km's - especially now, when it's cold here.

Hey Pip,
   The old tyres seem to have worn evenly. I kept them at 32psi but when I had the new tyres fitted my front right had a screw in it & had dropped to 24psi. I'm not sure how long it had been like that as the fronts always had a bit of a bulge (like their owners stomach). The new tyres & wheels were fitted for this last trip so should have been spot on. Being a differant size tyre, I'll have to ring the shop & get a recommended psi.
Reading some other posts I think my driving is similar to theirs & yet an extra 2lt being used. I change gears around 2500-3000 but most of my driving is as written in my above posts. I like your thinking though & had been hoping for a bit of a change with new tyres myself.

My rule of thumb for tyres is to start at 90% max pressure (as noted on sidewall) and go down from there only if the ride is too hard (it never is  ) and/or to adjust the front/rear balance.

WRT to gear changes, I generally change up as the revs pass 2000, hardly ever hit 3000 unless in a real hurry. My concern is not so much with the upper revs but instead change up so that the revs drop back to about 1500 but no less. Let then fall under this, particularly in the higher gears, and you're in "no mans land". I accelerate at a snail's pace if I'm not holding up traffic and hardly ever touch the brakes.