Fuel economy

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Sun May 01, 2005 4:32 pm

What sort of fuel economy do people get from their Mk2s? My Coupe S seems to be running fine, but I only got 29mpg from my last tank of fuel. I used normal Shell unleaded in it, so in theory is using quality petrol. Granted, 150 of the 210 miles I did were pretty much flat out on the M1 - but I'd expected better economy than that.

Maybe I'm just too used to injected cars, lol. Can drive Yoof's GT hard and still get 35mpg+.

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Mon May 02, 2005 1:31 pm

I get around 35.. although I'm convinced that I should be getting at least 40 from it, 40-45 seems to be about the norm for most people. I'd be worried by 29mpg in such a light car, injection or no injection..

Gareth_GT_Hatch · Post by **Gareth_GT_Hatch** » Mon May 02, 2005 2:00 pm

best ive ever managed is 34mpg on the mk2, worst Ive managed being around 10mpg less than that.

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Mon May 02, 2005 3:52 pm

I'm going to see how this tankful goes, the car's not been used for 6 months or so prior to me getting it - so will see if it settles down. To be fair to it, the 150 miles were literally foot flat to the floor - but my dad used to drive our old 1.3 breadvan in a similar manner and used to manage 34mpg.

Don't want to start pissing about with it though, it's still got the nasty Pierberg carb on it. They're autochoke units right? So I couldn't have been driving with the choke on for all those miles could I? Gave the carb a good old dose of carb cleaner the other day too - as it seemed pretty crappy in there.

Gareth_GT_Hatch · Post by **Gareth_GT_Hatch** » Mon May 02, 2005 4:18 pm

yeah the pierburgs have autochokes - which is why theyre so s**t!

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Mon May 02, 2005 4:32 pm

You can get manual choke conversions for them, I don't think they're too expensive. Probably worth it.. or get a weber replacement which will do the job ten times better. I've just re jetted my weber, so I'm hoping that'll help out the economy, plus I should have a reconditioned dizzy coming soon, so things might just improve.

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Mon May 02, 2005 9:59 pm

I think I might just tear the engine out in the end anyway, but will see how it goes.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:35 am

how are you driving it anyway.......

did 90 most the way brum -> bournemouth in the tray, though i had to keep it down to 55 / 78 through the hellzone*, and pasted the guts off the thing on the last 20 miles (it was 11pm by then, hilly, i was bored, there were no traps in evidence)..... and even so, got 29mpg at more average speed than the 1.0 could have managed at full pelt.

* m42 between the m6 toll and the m40. its just getting steadily more frightening not just to look at but to drive on. it's the best evidence yet that an abundance of cameras make for a more dangerous driving experience.

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Tue May 03, 2005 10:04 am

Well, like I said - it was foot to the floor for most of the 150 miles, and for the other 60 it was driven fairly gently. 29mpg is poo though, flat out or not flat out - driven in a similar manner on the motorways Yoof's GT will return over 40mpg, my old AAV (SPI, so a better comparison) used to get over 34mpg.

I'm going to put it down to a combination of the car not being used for ages and being hammered, will see how it goes. If it's still pissing me off once I've got uni out the way I might cobble together an injection system for it out of my spares.

GingerNik · Post by **GingerNik** » Tue May 03, 2005 12:53 pm

I managed 42mpg on a long run on Sunday, it was pretty much 50-60mph all the way though, which may go some way to explaining the high figure.

I certainly don't get figures that good normally!

Gareth_GT_Hatch · Post by **Gareth_GT_Hatch** » Tue May 03, 2005 4:08 pm

I think now summers almost here my economy has improved a fair bit. Im on 80 miles at the min with less than a quarter of a tank used. And thats all town driving.

amstrange1 · Post by **amstrange1** » Thu May 05, 2005 8:38 pm

Went home from uni today to vote, so after that was out the way had a poke around the car. I'm 99% sure the headgasket's starting to go, so that's a nice little job for me to do after uni exams - along with fitting the new clutch...

Ah well, as if to confirm my suspicions the car started missfiring slightly on the way back to uni, along with a bit of white smoke. Classic symptoms!

Phoenix · Post by **Phoenix** » Tue May 10, 2005 11:45 pm

lol dunno how but my MkII breadvan was flat out up to 125 for a 455mile run to london and back and i managed 44miles to the gallon on average without going below 85 unless we were coming in the services

thats no oil change with in 20,000 miles aswell

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Tue May 10, 2005 11:48 pm

Clocked up 40.5mpg over the weekend, including the sprint track at inters. That involved a combination of the country lanes around here and the motorway/dual carriageway on the way to inters averaging maybe 75mph.. Add in the carb tune and ignition timing adjustment that should be happening on thursday when the mechanic comes, and I think that I've finally got my economy sorted

bstardchild · Post by **bstardchild** » Tue May 10, 2005 11:50 pm

My MKII Coupe S averaged 40.5 mpg over 155,000 miles - don't laugh every tank was documented and before I sold it I worked it out for a laugh....