Fuel consumption

Johnpug

Member
Filled my tank around £33 1.4 petrol done 165 miles and on quarter of a tank thats just very short journeys 8 miles a day during the week around the roads no duels or motorway is this normal.
 
Filled my tank around £33 1.4 petrol done 165 miles and on quarter of a tank thats just very short journeys 8 miles a day during the week around the roads no duels or motorway is this normal.

Hi,

The A2 fuel gauge acts like virtually every other car, in that the fuel gauge seems to take a long time to move downwards at first and then once it hits half full it seems to drop even quicker.

One of the reasons for this is that if you fill your car up to the brim, you have actually exceeded the limit of the gauge and so it is only when you have used all of the fuel in the filler pipe (there can be quite a bit in there) and then some fuel from within the tank, that the fuel gauge "float" can start to move.

So the first quarter of a tank on the fuel gauge is actually a quarter of a tank PLUS the bit above the gauge float, plus all of the fuel in the filler pipe.

The last quarter of a tank has no extra at all and worse still you have the reserve section on the gauge. So the last quarter has the "reserve" amount excluded. So the difference between the first quarter of a tank and the last quarter is huge.


I hope that this relates to the post you just made, I can't tell of you are saying that you think it was using more, or less fuel than you would expect.

Steve B
 
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Ok steve i kind of understand lol i will run it so its very very low see what milage i get.how many miles should i be roughly doing.
 
Ok steve i kind of understand lol i will run it so its very very low see what milage i get.how many miles should i be roughly doing.


We all have TDIs in our family (all 6) and so I can't comment on the 1.4 consumption, but I am sure that someone will fill you in (up) with that information.

Steve B
 
Hope so steve 6 thats crazy lol you lot must love the a2s

Yes we all do.

It started when I bought an A2 for the wife, new in 2001, thinking "I won't like it, three cylinder diesel? small sluggish car??" I couldn't have been more wrong. At that time I had a pretty expensive car myself and yet every time we went out I said "lets go in the A2".

I was soon hooked and got rid of the big thirsty car and got myself an A2.

Then our Daughter, who had been in the A2 many times, sold her Range Rover to buy an A2. She was lucky too, I found a very low mileage full Audi service history dolphin grey A2 with the alcantara seats and OSS etc. What a great A2 that is (she still has it 5 years on).

Our other Daughter had her car pack up on her and so she wanted an A2 as well and after a reasonably long search for the right car, she has a good one too.

Then my Son bought one for his wife and he then enjoyed it so much he now has one too!!!!

The amazing thing is that this means that we have had A2s in the family since 2001 and on average around 4 at any one time throughout that and yet not once have we been hit with any repair bills or breakdowns. When you also add up how much money we have saved on the low insurance, huge MPG and £30 a year road tax, you can see why none of us would part with our A2s.

Steve B
 
Ok steve i kind of understand lol i will run it so its very very low see what milage i get.how many miles should i be roughly doing.

By the way, try to avoid running it too low.

For those that don't know the best way to calculate MPG, try the following

The best method is to wait until you have just hit the low fuel warning beep.
Then go to the nearest fuel station and fill up to the top, after the nozzle clicks off automatically, wait a second then try again until it stops.
Then reset the trip meter and drive it until it hits the low level warning again and then when you top up do exactly the same as you did last time, fill to he click then wait a second and fill to the click again (no more than this, overfilling is not a good idea)
Note the mileage you have covered and note down the number of litres from the fuel pump
You can then calculate the MPG using the two values

Take the mileage covered and divide that by (the number of litres divided by 4.55)


So if you did 300 miles and it took 30 litres the sums are as follows

30 (the number of litres) divided by 4.55 (approx.) . That gives you the number of gallons (roughly 6.6)

Divide 300 (the miles) by the gallons (6.6) and you have your MPG (45.45 MPG)

Better still, just create an excel spreadsheet that does the following

Put the miles covered in one cell (B1 for example) and the litres in another cell (B2 for example)
and then in another cell (B3 perhaps) put the following =B1/(B2/4.546090)

Then just keep changing B1 to the number of miles since last refill and change B2 to the number of litres
B3 will then give you the MPG every time.

Steve B
 
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On our 90 diesel for a fill up of £36 I get about 140-150 on a quarter of a tank 280-300 on a half and then 400 or so on the last marker. Then at most another 100 until the klaxon.

Edit. Fill till the pump cuts out , wait 5secs and then click again. And this is 70miles a day, 30 miles @65-75 on the motorway.

Edit 2. oh a quarter of a tank. Ignore me I'm a buffoon. Not so good, but then you are only doing short journeys. I get more out of out 1.8t Beetle
 
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I do it brim to brim, and it takes ages to get it properly full - wait 5 seconds and some fuel has inevitibly glugged down the pipe into the tank. And.....I don't just look at it tank-to-tank (since that would have errors according to how full it is) I do it over the entire time with the car from the first fillup to the most recent.

On my little spreadsheet I also record the date of fuelling and the price paid, that way I can also predict my annual mileage and annual/monthly fuel cost.
 
I do it brim to brim, and it takes ages to get it properly full - wait 5 seconds and some fuel has inevitibly glugged down the pipe into the tank. And.....I don't just look at it tank-to-tank (since that would have errors according to how full it is) I do it over the entire time with the car from the first fillup to the most recent.

On my little spreadsheet I also record the date of fuelling and the price paid, that way I can also predict my annual mileage and annual/monthly fuel cost.

Hi Paul,

yes you are right in that keeping a track of this over time rather than just one fill up will become more and more accurate over time.

But I really don't recommend filling the tank right to the brim, not only do you lose some down the overflow on corners, but your tank needs some air space at the top (especially in warm weather when the fuel expands.

Losing a little from the overflow when cornering might not seem that important but as an ex motor bike rider I can tell you that most roundabouts are slippy due to people overfilling their car.

It can give you just as accurate a reading if you fill to the second click every time.

Steve B
 
Given your car is listed as being a MY2002, I'll assume it to have a 34L tank. In the TDI with the same size tank, I get around to around 290 miles when the tank is at 1/4 full, and average 59 MPG. I stop filling the tank at the first click of the pump. Roughly, given you've stated 165 miles, I'd estimate your car to be doing around 33-34 MPG. I don't think this is too bad, given its getting colder and particularly if you drive on faster roads, perhaps?

Just monitor it over the next few tanks. As mentioned above, Fuelly is a great service; I'd recommend using that.

Regards,

Matt.
 
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