370 miles before I get the beep...

Hedge

Hedge

A2OC Donor
Hi,

Bear with me a bit, I'm a newbie..

I've a 51 plate 2002 MY 75bhp TDi. To date the best I've got to (today) is 370 miles before the refuel beep flashes up. Is this any good? I read elsewhere of punters getting 450+ to a tank & I'm not that convinced I'm near it.

Or I could just be misguided, which is eminently possible...

Sorry if I'm covering old ground, I did a search, promise!

Thanks.

Cheers,
Hedge
 
Hi Hedge,

If you've used 28 litres by the beep, which should be around right as you'll have the 34 litre fuel tank, you're averaging 60mpg.
If your car isn't modified for fuel economy and you're not exclusively doing motorway journeys, that's not at all bad.

There are loads of things that you can do to improve it, all of which have been documented randomly in other, similar threads.
Common faults like binding rear drums and ageing coolant temp senders can also have a negative impact upon your economy. Given that your A2 is over 10 years old, either or both of these could be the case.

Cheers,

Tom

Edit: Also, thanks for your kind words on my sale thread.
 
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Before you can tell whether it is good or bad, we'd need to know the following:

* How much fuel do you put in each time? (for example, some people here such as myself 'brim&vent' which gets a lot more fuel into the tank than just filling until it clicks off, hence they get more miles between refuelling. This doesn't affect mpg of course, just range).

* What is your typical journey length? (longer journeys get better mpg. Even a single 'quick nip around the corner to the shops' will drop your tank average)

* What are the typical driving conditions you experience? (stop/go city driving gives worse mpg than long distance 60mph driving)

* What is your preferred motorway cruising speed? (55mph would give a lot better mpg than 95mph for example)
 
Ok so I regularly do a 65 mile return trip, 15 of which is through town, the rest is motorway/ A-road. I always change up at 2k rpm & sit on the m-way at 60/65, never more. The return journey is broken up by a few hours each time. I don't bother to brim & vent, yet.

The car's at Sarges next week so I'll ask him to check the rear drums & coolant and sensors then.

Thanks a lot.

Cheers, Hedge
 
Yup, deffo the smaller tank. Being the dimwit I am I can't easily suss what mpg 370 miles equates to. By Tom's maths it's around 60 which is ok. Guess if I want to get up to the 70's I need to go the 6th gear or modded 5th route & get a remap. The latter's being done the week after next at Stealth. Plus it's just this week been serviced so should run a little better too maybe.

Cheers,
Hedge
 
Hedge said:
... I can't easily suss what mpg 370 miles equates to. ...
Click to expand...

The vital bit of information you are missing is fuel volume. Make a note of it when you refuel or ask them for a VAT receipt (which usually tells you). Then also write down the distance onto the receipt before you reset the trip meter. Once you are home you can then do the maths on the windows calculator:

distance * 4.5461 / litres =
 
Indeed... you'll notice I 'guesstimated' that you were using 28 litres to the beep, but if you're not using the vent 'n' brim technique, that volume may be slightly less, meaning your economy is slightly better than 60mpg.
Myself and Mike both have the 34 litre tank and regularly get well in excess of 400 miles per tank, but our cars have been seriously modified and have had all the potentially-fuel-sapping niggles like the rear drums sorted.

You may be encouraged to know that, with the first tank of fuel after buying my A2, I managed only 280 miles!!

Tom

PS: To calculate your fuel economy, either use the simple formula Mike states above, or type this into Google: 370 miles per 28 litres in miles per imperial gallon
Google will do the maths for you! :)

Mike - I also write my mileage on the receipt.
 
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