Poor MPG from Golf 1.6 16v

[NotMyName]

My wife is getting really quite poor MPG from her 1.6 16v. It's on an old W reg. About 75k miles covered. It had all filters changed last year as well as belts.

She drives around 5 mile to work & doesn't hit 5th gear so i don't expect it to be so great but it's low 30MPG.

Parkers has never let me down. It says her old Corsa C 1.2 was 44mpg with the Golf being 39mpg. Her Corsa was hitting around 40mpg but her Golf is down around 31-32mpg.

Even still i suppose you could explain it away with the stop start driving & not hitting 5th gear.


Well this weekend we drove a good 3 hours up the motorway & the on board computer said 31mpg. I was sitting at 60mph for a large part of it (yes, sad perhaps).
We then hit a bad accident & was really behind on time so i had a lot of time to catch up on. 80mph & we were still at 31mpg.

Did a little bit of around the town driving, not a great deal. Fuelled up & worked it out properly (as i didn't take the on board computer as gospel) ... 32.5mpg. Ok i know we was doing 80mph for a bit & a little bit of town driving, but even still??


Then came the journey home. We set off late & i wanted to get home so to be perfectly honest we were hitting 85-90mph for a very large chunk of the journey. I filled up totally before we left.
Came off the motorway 3hours later & fuelled up immediately.
Now i wasn't expecting huge figures because of the speed but even still .......... 31.28mpg.

Everything just seems incredibly low.


I can do the same in my 1.8 MK4 Astra & get better fuel economy than this!!

Any explanation as to why it's so bad? Like i said, i know the speed wont have helped, but it shouldn't bring it down so low either.

[Dalo Harkin]

have you checked for fault codes?
It could be anything from a lambda sensor to maf

[NotMyName]

I'll be honest here - i don't really know fully what i'm doing with Vag-Com.
I plugged it in & hit the autoscan feature.
I guessed it wasn't Canbus so i selected from the type (MK4 Golf) & the year which i think returned the code of 1J? I'd have to get the laptop out again to check.

Anyway, it didn't seem to return much but this is what it did return...

Wednesday,09,March,2016,22:12:57:47709
VCDS -- Windows Based VAG/VAS Emulator Running on Windows 7 x64
VCDS Version: 15.7.3.0 (x64)
Data version: 20151216
www.Ross-Tech.com


Mileage: 123790km-76919mi   Repair Order:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chassis Type: 1J - VW Golf/Bora IV (1998 > 2006)
Scan: 01 02 03 08 15 16 17 19 22 29 35 36 37 39 46 47 55 56 57 75
          76
 
   Mileage: 123790km-76919miles
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 01: Engine        Labels: Redir Fail!
   Part No: 036 906 034 BH
   Component:  MARELLI 4MV       3773 
   Coding: 00031
   Shop #: WSC 00684 
   VCID: 59B9E87FC3A32FF656-4B34

No fault code found.
Readiness: 0000 0000

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 03: ABS Brakes        Labels: 1C0-907-37x-ABS.lbl
   Part No: 1C0 907 379 C
   Component: ABS FRONT MK60      0103 
   Coding: 0001025
   Shop #: WSC 00028 615 1234567
   VCID: 2A5B67B38645746E0F-5140

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 15: Airbags        Labels: 6Q0-909-605-VW5.lbl
   Part No: 6Q0 909 605 A
   Component: 0F AIRBAG VW5  01   0004 
   Coding: 12358
   Shop #: WSC 00028 
   VCID: 356144CF0FFB2B9692-4B02

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 17: Instruments        Labels: 1J0-920-xx5-17.lbl
   Part No: 1J0 920 925 A
   Component: A4-KOMBIINSTR. VDO V09   
   Coding: 01403
   Shop #: WSC 52580 
   VCID: 275D9E87C557490610-5140

   Subsystem 1 - Part No: IMMO
   Component: IDENTNR: VWZ7Z0Y2803572         
   IMMO-IDENTNR: VWZ7Z0Y2803572       

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 19: CAN Gateway        Labels: 6N0-909-901-19.lbl
   Part No: 6N0 909 901
   Component: Gateway K<->CAN    0001 
   Coding: 00006
   Shop #: WSC 00028 
   VCID: 70EFB5DB30194EBE81-515E

No fault code found.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 46: Central Conv.        Labels: 1J0-959-799.lbl
   Part No: 1J0 959 799 AH
   Component: 4U Zentral-SG Komf. 0001 
   Coding: 04096
   Shop #: WSC 00684 
   VCID: 0407E90B14A1421E55-4B02

   Subsystem 1 - Part No: 1J2959802C
   Component: 4U Tõrsteuerger. FS0002r 

   Subsystem 2 - Part No: 1J2959801D
   Component: 4U Tõrsteuerger. BF0002B 

   Subsystem 3 - Part No: 1J4959811C
   Component: 4U Tõrsteuerger. HL0002r 

   Subsystem 4 - Part No: 1J4959812C
   Component: 4U Tõrsteuerger. HR0002r 

2 Faults Found:
00953 - Interior Light Time limit
            25-10 - Unknown Switch Condition - Intermittent
00943 - Heated Exterior Mirror; Driver Side (Z4)
            35-00 -  -

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Address 56: Radio        Labels: 1J0-035-18x-56.lbl
   Part No: 1J0 035 186 E
   Component:  Radio BNO         0005 
   Coding: 01403
   Shop #: WSC 00028 
   VCID: 275D9E87C557490610-4B02

1 Fault Found:
00852 - Loudspeaker(s); Front
            36-10 - Open Circuit - Intermittent

End-------------------------(Elapsed Time: 05:03)--------------------------

If i need to run some other feature then please let me know.


Does any of the above help?


Oh, I notice it mentions the interior light. I know this is unrelated, but her courtesy light is very picky as to when it works & when it doesn't.

[itavaltalainen]

When was the car last serviced? How do plugs and air filter look.
I would also look at short and long term trim in measuring blocks for the lambda sensor(s) in exhaust.