Getting 25mpg from 1.6 16v - Please help!

[themanbearpig]

I'm not sure whats going on with my car, but its only doing around 250-270 to a tank, or about 25mpg. Mostly town driving, but still its too low for such a small engine!!

It seems to be running fine, no obvious problems. I've checked the tyre pressure, oil levels etc, and everything is fine.


Has anyone got any suggestions??




I'm seriously thinking of selling it and getting a car with a proper engine, as this junk is costing me the same to run.

 

[Fl@pper]

up in am off to work drive 3 miles across town and 2 miles outside of it - back home again at night

^^ be lucky to see more if ya journey is like that

 

[Jimski]

Might be an idea to get someone to Vag-Com it, thermostats have been known to cause a wibbly MPG, what are you service schedules like for spark plugs? Throttle body cleaning also improved mine,

On average im getting 30-35mpg i think!


Jimski

 

[themanbearpig]

Might be an idea to get someone to Vag-Com it, thermostats have been known to cause a wibbly MPG, what are you service schedules like for spark plugs? Throttle body cleaning also improved mine,

On average im getting 30-35mpg i think!


Jimski

Did you clean the throttle body yourself?
Just googled, and it doesnt seem to hard.


I will have to pay to get it vag-com'd. How much do thermostats cost? Would it be worth replacing it, or would you recommend getting it checked over first?


ps. thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Jimski]

I paid an hours labour for it to be cleaned by a place local to me, i would get it Vag-Commed first and see what happens mate.

Whereabouts are you based, im pretty sure if you do a request there will be someone near to you who would help out with the vag-com for a beer token or two!



Jimski

 

[LEE69]

I will have to pay to get it vag-com'd. How much do thermostats cost?

Vag com you can buy of ebay to scan for the codes for about £20 iirc.
Thermostat is less than £10, have a search covered it recently, my mpg as got loads better since.

Don't trust your gauge telling you the car is 90 deg, mine did but i was at 75 deg.

 

[robbie2008]

mines is the 1.6 8v mate im having the same problem i finkin of gettin my throttle bodly cleaned out the sparks were dun around 2,000 miles ago if that!!! i think my throttle cable is abit loose aswell can a garage tighten it or shorten it sorta fing to take the slack of it?? is it suppose to be tight??

 

[Jimski]

Yeh thats an easy job fella, yeh definately not slack!

Get ur throttle body cleaned an go from there.


Jimski

 

[olliep]

on the 'unlocking the secrets within the climate control paney' number 51 is 'Engine Coolant Temperature (ECT) in deg C' will that be sufficient to establist if the guage is lying or will it need to be vagcommed

 

[LEE69]

That is fine.

 

[highguyuk]

Where you get yours cleaned Jim? Cost much?

 

[Jimski]

PSI Tuning in Newcastle, think it was an hours labour £35 + vat???



Jimski

 

[olliep]

That is fine.

just been for a drive with the a/c diagnostic thing on. for anyones reference it has to be on (blowing) for it to work.

i was interested to see that when the needle got off 60 and started moving the digital display was indicating 20ish and when the needle reached 90 (and set itself there) the digital was still at 46, whcih carried on rising to 90 even though the needle had long since stopped moving however... it did reach 90 and didnt go a single degree either way once it got there. so am i safe to assume that rules out a) the thermostat and b) any other temperature related issue that could be causing the problems??

 

[LEE69]

Sounds good to me, mine got to 75
It's quite surprising just how fast the dash needle does climb, in relation to the actual temp recorded.

 

[highguyuk]

PSI Tuning in Newcastle, think it was an hours labour £35 + vat???

Jimski

Thanks. Might give them a bell.

just been for a drive with the a/c diagnostic thing on. for anyones reference it has to be on (blowing) for it to work.

i was interested to see that when the needle got off 60 and started moving the digital display was indicating 20ish and when the needle reached 90 (and set itself there) the digital was still at 46, whcih carried on rising to 90 even though the needle had long since stopped moving however... it did reach 90 and didnt go a single degree either way once it got there. so am i safe to assume that rules out a) the thermostat and b) any other temperature related issue that could be causing the problems??

Oooo. What's this a/c diagnostic thing? In fact - I do know about it but where I can find out how to operate it?

 

[LEE69]

http://www.lee69.co.uk/Car stuff/Leon/codes.txt

 

[highguyuk]

Interesting. So which one is it that I need?

 

[LEE69]

Number 51 from that link

 

[highguyuk]

GRRR. Searched through that list and couldnt find coolant! Thought it might be listed as something "technical". Thanks for the pointer, will try it out later...

 

[olliep]

Ctrl + F = search text. pop 'coolant' in and it'l show you