High fuel consumption - Advice

RICK..._2

Went and bought my mum a new car a month or so back and she's worried it's using too much fuel.

Taking into account high fuel prices etc, it still seems slightly excessive to me also. She's worked out she's getting around 40 miles to £10.

Anyway, took it to a local garage today to check for leaks etc and they say it's fine, nothing wrong with it, which is fair enough. Checked all the tyre pressures etc aswell.

Could it be overfuelling or anything? or does 40 miles to £10 seem about right?

Car is a 02 Astra, 1.6 16v SXi. She does a mix of motorway and town driving.

I had an Astra myself a year or so ago, obviously fuel prices were a lot lower then. But that did about 90-100 miles to £10 mixed driving and it was a 2.2 16v.

Got a diesel myself, so have nothing to compare it to.

Any advice appreciated!

Hintza

She needs to brim the car to the top and note mikeage. Drive around for 200-400 miles brim the car again and note how many litres/gallons it took and then do the calculations.

Just putting a £10 in will give inaccurate results.

Does the car need a service?

Coveredinbees!!!!

I'm thanking you for your sig. it's great

cpdc1030

Might help you with comparison - my previous car was a Honda Civic 1.6 Coupe - almost the same size and same engine displacement. I averaged about 35mpg overall, about 38mpg if I took it easy on the motorway. That is about £15.50 per 100 motorway miles with fuel at £1.20 per litre- quite a lot when I look back on it but it seemed normal at the time.

The car I've replaced it with sips about £10 of diesel per 100 miles

PasturesNew

You can't judge it on £10... too many variables. You have to really fill the tank up and then drive until it's nearly empty, then fill it up again and calculate the miles/cost. And keep doing that for 2-3 refills to get a good long average.

Kilty_2

I **think** it'll be the 1.6 Twinport engine at that age.

My 2007 Astra has the same engine if it is, and returns 40MPG easily.

And yes, do a proper test by brimming the tank

RICK..._2

Coveredinbees!!!! wrote: »

I'm thanking you for your sig. it's great

Glad you like it haha

Thank you for all your helpful replies! I shall send her the link to this so she can read through it!

Edit- Oh and the car was serviced in Feb.

Cool_Username

Just to follow on from what people have said, Vauxhalls have a fuel warning light that illuminates once you're down to the last gallon, then flashes when you're about to run out.

So wait till the light comes on and reset the trip computer, then fill up as soon as possible with a full tank - keep the receipt as that will tell you how many litres of fuel you've pumped in.

When the fuel light comes on again you can take a note of the miles you've done since filling up and then do the maths - or if you Google 'MPG calculator' or something similar you can enter the details into a website and it will work your miles per gallon out for you.

skiddlydiddly

If its overfuelling you'll see black smoke out of the exhaust and the sparkplugs will got black too.It will also be down on power.

Another thin that an affect the mixture is the air filter.Its usually very easy to access and check to see if its clogged up.Just give it a quick vacuum anyway once its open, even if it doesn't need replacing.I gained 5mpg just from changing the filter on my current car.

What sort of mpg did your mum gt from previous cars and how did that compare to the manufacturers figures?Peoples driving styles vary massively and so does the mpg they can achieve as a result.

RICK..._2

Thanks for the replies.

She had a Pug 106 1.5D previously. Not sure about MPG figures, but it was better on fuel than her new car, but then again it was a lot smaller, didn't have PAS etc.

Will try and check the air filter/spark plugs at the weekend if I get chance! What about fuel filter? Could that cause any problems?

mikey72

We've the same pug, does 55 to the gallon, and a Zafira 1.8, does about 26 to 28 around town.