Wrong Engine?

peelprincess

This is going to sound really stupid :rolleyes: but.....

I bought an S Reg Punto from a small dealer on Saturday. It is a Punto 60 i.e. a 1.2. Previous to this I had a 206 Gti 2.0 and decided on a smaller / cheaper car as i'm a full time student plus it had extortionate running costs and finance.

Anyway, when I was driving home it felt slighly quicker that I remembered a 1.2 to be. (I did have a 1.2 once but this is going back 5 years).

I filled it up with £20 worth of petrol at motorway service station and it only lasted me 2 1/2 days (in this time I had driven approx 70 miles). Does this sound right to you? This fuel consumption is on par with my previous 2.0 GTi. Is it because I filled it up at a more expensive petrol station? I'm confused. I've had a look at the engine but it just says Fiat Fuel Injection. I've checked the VIN with the DVLA and nothing seems to be untoward, it's coming up as 1242cc.

Please help!!

immoral_angeluk

Well if you only put £20 in and filled it up at a station where it costs more you're obviously going to get less actual petrol than at a cheaper place. Performance engine wise is based on various thing and not just the cc of the engine. Plus if it's been 5 yrs since you've had a 1.2 then you can't really compare unless you had the same 1.2 car as you did 5 yrs ago.

aj3001

Unlikely,

http://www.carpages.co.uk/guide/fiat/fiat-punto-1.2-8v-active-3dr.asp

Check the specs then see if it is faster then that site says it should be and stuff (obviously I'm not talking about trying to break the 96mph top speed )

Also, try and find an engine code on the engine, then google it

xzibit

The Punto's are quite light cars. I have a 2005 Punto 1.2 16v, which has 80bhp, and it is very quick for a 1.2. It's quicker than the 1.4 106 I had.

Although yours is the 8v version, I average 45mpg. The 8v should average about 40ish I suppose, especially yours being slightly older.

What year is your car?

The mk1 punto came in 1.2 8v, 1.6 8v, 1.2 16v and 1.4 8v Turbo engines
mk2a in 1.2 8v, 1.2 16v, 1.8 16v
mk2b in 1.2 8v, 1.2 16v, 1.4 16v and 1.8 16v.

To be honest, I doubt you have the wrong engine in the car. I'd imagine that being an older car, it won't be as economical as when it was new. Perhaps run some fuel system cleaner through it. Or perhaps there is an underlying problem somewhere.

peelprincess

I knew it was a bit of a far out thing to claim but was slightly confused.

I had been driving around a friends 1.1 Saxo (10 yrs old) for 2 weeks previously and got used to that fuel consumption (i.e. next to nothing). So just was slightly concerned when the Punto seemed to be eating double that.

It's a year 1999 model btw.

xzibit

peelprincess wrote:

It's a year 1999 model btw.

It's a mk1 1999 'S'. You should average about 41mpg on the 1.2 8v 60bhp engine according to fiat. The Saxo 1.1 should average 42mpg according to Citroen.

So you should in theory be getting ever so slightly worse consumption from yours.

steveo3002

it could have a fault causing the extra fuel consumption

xzibit

Just one thing to note. How did you drive your 206? Did you 'give it some' most of the time, or drive it reasonably sensible?

A 2.0l 130bhp engine is going to find 'normal' driving much easier than a 1.2l 60bhp engine, as the punto has much less torque.
If you were driving gently in the 206, but seem to be revving it in the Punto to compensate for the loss of performance, it is possible you would get better mpg from the 206, as it's working much less.

You'd be surprised! If you are driving the punto in the same fashon to how you drove the 206 though, there should be a noticeable difference between the two.

£20 of fuel, would get me ~200 miles, I'd imagine I should get ~150-170 if I drove your car.

Idiophreak

So say it should do 40mpg, even very expensive fuel (which should help get more to the gallon anyways) is <£1, so we'll say £1/l. Which means you put 20lrs in = 5 gallons, which means you should have done around 200miles on the £20 worth - so I'd suggest either you drove in 2nd gear on the motorway or there's something wrong with it.

Or is my math wrong?

xzibit

Thing is, you'll not get manufacturer mpg claims in a 8yr old car. Mine is only 18 months old, and I get about 4mpg less than what Fiat say i should, and my driving is mixed urban/suburban.

It's only a guide really. She should expect about 37mpg I expect.

Peelprincess. Next time you fill up, fill the car to the brim and reset the trip, then run it to when the light comes on. Look in the handbook, and it will tell you how much that is, probably around 40 litres. You will be able to work out what mpg you're getting.

peelprincess

Thanks guys for all your replies. I'm just a bit obsessed with the whole fuel consumption thing. I drive 60+ miles a day due to commuting to university so need to keep my driving costs down to the minimum.

Maybe it is the way i'm driving. I'm definately missing the 206

I'll fill it up to the brim and reset the trip as suggested.