Fuel Consumption - GTi 16v 1997 (newbie)

[benday007]

Hi

This is my first post since joining this very helpful site/forum. I have browsed the forum previously as a guest, and found it to be very helpful! Thanks guys.

I have only owned my Gti a couple of months, My previous motor was a 2001 Seat Ibiza 1.9Tdi 110Bhp.

I am very aware I would never acheive fuel consumption anywhere near as the Ibiza, this is why I was driving the Ibiza before when I was doing many motorway miles! On the motorway, at around 70mph in fifth, I could easily achcieve an average of 50Mpg. This I would never expect of the Gti. I did not buy the car to have a great fuel consumption, I bought it for all the great benefits of a Gti!

However, I must say, I am finding it hard to acheive anything like what I would expect, from a 2.0 16v engine. If you drive the car silly, you would expect to see a silly return on fuel/mpg.

I have recently filled up with Super Unleaded (I do when I can) and driven the car on a national speed limit Road, not doing over 60, and changing gear well below 3 thousand rev's.

By the end of the 10 mile journey, the fuel computer shows a consumption of 31.2

Is this anywhere near other drivers with the same vehicle? I know the combined mpg should show 32 mpg, according to offical fig's (blah blah) and I am struggling to achieve this figure on a Motorway cycle?

Any Suggestions guys? your help much appreciated!!

Ben

[raylee25]

31mpg sounds about right for 60mph.

[shaft69]

Thats poss about right my 8v poss about same very rare mine get over 32-34mpg. I drive to work 11 miles m/way and 7miles normal road. I dont drive it hard.

[Guy]

that's fairly much average for my GTi 8v... usually 32-34mpg ish... unless of course I'm hacking it... 

[boneybradley]

I average 28mpg for my 8v.... but have had 40mpg on a transpenine motorway run!!
on a run to work (14 miles non motorway) I get 35mpg so your figure sounds about right

[DazVR6]

Has it been serviced regularlly/recently? a good service helps in the battle for better mpg, also does the car drive ok/pull strongly, aslong as it does then your not far off what i get which is usually 34-36mpg on the motorway.

[benday007]

Has it been serviced regularlly/recently? a good service helps in the battle for better mpg, also does the car drive ok/pull strongly, aslong as it does then your not far off what i get which is usually 34-36mpg on the motorway.

Thanls for the info guys, helps to know its about right, was expecting a few more miles but it all ok!

Regards it being serviced regular, it was a company car for the first 5 services so had VW, since then it has had local garage to the last ower serive around every 10k, it currently sits on 99k, in the last 1k I have changed the oil, air filter, and fitted Bosch super duper Platnum Plugs, will prob run some fuel treatment (redex or similar) to give it a little clean out!

[oggy]

I have a 16v 5 door of the same year and careful driving below 60 continuously for over 7/8 miles I can achieve 41 mpg - more with super. This is ideal of course. Motorway at a steady 80, I achieve around 36. My own view is that your fuel consumption is a little heavy. By all means check out filters/plugs/rotor arm/distributor contacts/tyre inflation, check if brakes are binding, wheel bearings OK etc etc.

However, I did all of this previously, and occassionally I still could not better 33 mpg and it sometimes felt a little gutless. I then changed out the ECU relay and voila!

Doing the service checks and replacing cheap components such as filter/plugs/cap/rotor arm/ undoubtedly helped to achive my current figures, but the biggest single factor was the ECU relay.

The relay being £10 from a dealer it's surely worth a punt.

[firstgolfgti]

I had a nice trouble free trip down to Rye (30-odd miles each way) yesterday on the country roads and got 41mpg on position 1 of trip and avg 37mpg on position 2, haven't seen those figures for quite awhile.

[benday007]

I have a 16v 5 door of the same year and careful driving below 60 continuously for over 7/8 miles I can achieve 41 mpg - more with super. This is ideal of course. Motorway at a steady 80, I achieve around 36. My own view is that your fuel consumption is a little heavy. By all means check out filters/plugs/rotor arm/distributor contacts/tyre inflation, check if brakes are binding, wheel bearings OK etc etc.

However, I did all of this previously, and occassionally I still could not better 33 mpg and it sometimes felt a little gutless. I then changed out the ECU relay and voila!

Doing the service checks and replacing cheap components such as filter/plugs/cap/rotor arm/ undoubtedly helped to achive my current figures, but the biggest single factor was the ECU relay.

The relay being £10 from a dealer it's surely worth a punt.

I must say as I was only doing 60Mph, I was hoping to achieve a little more than 31. as around the 70mph mark, this would see my fuel consumption worsen more, and was hoping for more like 31 combined, not best!!

 take it it was the Main engine ECU relay you changed? Did the main dealer suggest this? I will certianly look into purchasing this part! Do you have the Part no.? Also is it poss. to post a pic with the location of the part?

I think that the rotor arm is the only part out of your list that has not very recenty been changed, will take the dizzy cap off & have  a look as I have not done this yet!!!I have noticed on another post that there can be a prob with the engine temp sender, causing the car to overfuel, is this a common or likely thing to cause?>

Cheers!!