mk3 16v fuel economy mpg's stuff... practical results.

[Overseer]

hey ya'll... since people often ask these kind of questions i thought i'd share my new found practical knowledge on this. personally i don't do many long distances. hopefully there is enough info here for those who think their car is busted (low MPGs) and those who are looking into getting a valver and are interested in fuel economy.

yesterday I dropped my younger sister (easy len! ) up to birmingham. Its a 270 mile round trip. (basically M5 J25 -> M5 J1 plus about 20 miles and back again )  and took 2.5 hours in each direction.

noticed the following results.

the first half of the journey was more restrained, often around 50 mph.. due to road works around bristol..  so basically speed varied between 50/60 ish and the rest normal motorway speeds of 75-ish..

Average MPG when I got there was 40 MPG.

coming home things were a bit clearer on the roads, I was more awake and could turn the stereo up. MPGs dropped to 38 MPG and i was doing more like 80 ish most of the time.

I made it up and back on a tank of fuel without going into the red. I reckon a tank full is good for 300 miles at a push. At todays prices of 89p a litre down here I think a tank will take almost 50 quids worth of fuel.

So if 50 quid = 1 tank of fuel driving normally on the motorway you should be able to get 40 MPGs and go 300 miles

using this convertor... http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/trol/scol/ccfuel.htm

2.5 gallons = 100 miles. Therefore an etimated tankful going 300 miles means the tank can holds.. = (3*2.5)   -> 7.5 gallons..

[Cra1g]

Dimilar to me, I have a 1.4 Ryder 8v MK3,  I drove from Newport in South Wales to Chester in Cheshire, full tank is £47, I got back with a quater of tank, since having the car i let it drop into red, then filled her up.

Im now ALMOST on the read and have drove a total of 970 miles, is that good? Everyday I use the motor way to get to work driving 70/80 ish and the road from my house to the motorway is a 50 but i do about 60.

Cra1g

[Overseer]

sounds pretty good... but you've filled twice and done all kinds of driving in between

i think only ther GTIs have the MPG readings which help when calculating.. although that site i linked above may help

[Daz...]

if you don't have the MFA then you can work out how many MPG's your car does like this...

1 - fill your tank up to the brim and reset the trip counter on your clocks
2 - drive the car until its down near the red
3 - fill up the tank and make a note of how many miles you have done and how many litres it takes to fill up the tank
4 - then do this....

300miles divided by 42litres used, times that by 4.564 and that will give you your average MPG = 32.6

The figures I've used are pretty much the same as when I worked it out for my car...obviously you will need to use your own   

The 4.564 bit is how many litres are in a gallon


Don't know if that will be of any use to anyone but it can be used to see how accurate your MFA readout is aswell 

[mk2nutter]

I was just going to start thread concerning MPG. I have a MK3 1.4cl. It runs fine(or appears too) but the MPG is dog poo. I've just come out of a MK2 valver which did about 20ish around town (I've managed to find the stats for the MK2 and this figure is normal) but my 1.4 isn't much better. I'm getting around 120 miles for £20 of squirt.....  I'm not thrashing the old girl either... The car as I say seems fine... It has full vag history and only 58k on the clock... Any comments please ?

[Cra1g]

Thanks guys.

And MK2Nutter, simple things like checking your spark plugs, changing filters, and even tyre pressure can help or hinder your MPG.

Cra1g

[mysticblue_mk3]

I did a couple of trips from Felixstowe in Suffolk taking my mum & sister to Heathrow a few weeks ago. I'm too lazy to get a map out or calculate distances traveled etc. but I reckon it's a round trip of about 220ish miles maybe more , and my MFA was showing about 40mpg, doing between 40 & 70 mph depending on traffic & roadworks.

About two months previous I went down to Cornwall, well over 300 miles & was getting 42mpg , again going quite steady.

I think thats quite good economy for a 2.0 8v.

MK2Nutter, I have to agree that does sound a bit thirsty for a 1.4. Manufacturers overall mpg figure for the 1.4 according to Parkers guide is over 42mpg .

Others on here will know a lot more than me about this sort thing and are more than welcome to put me right , but it sounds like your fuel system is supplying a bit too much fuel to the fuel/air mixture . Might be well worth having it looked into next time you take it in for a service, and also doing what Cra1g suggested above .

Phil.

 

[mk2nutter]

Thanks for the tips...  The car runs fine and the tyres have air. I saw a Parkers guide and I think it's for cars a bit latter than mine. This is a 92j. It was left standing for sometime so I'll get it into Peter Breading Motors for a check over... Thanks again...

[Overseer]

my car's economy was awful when i had a few vacuum leaks..

[surreylad1980]

i generally do bout 6miles a day to work, generally in traffic, i have done long distances and have got around 320 from a tank before, i am bit confused i can only ever get no more than 45 litres in it even when i go into the red, and i thought it was a 55litre tank, i generally get bout 230 out of it. normally