Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

[B5]

What is my car doing? It has been the same through these years since I’ve own the car from new. I can’t get past 450~500km per tank in city. Doesn’t matter the weather is hot or cold, summer or winter, the amount of fuel usage just abnormal.

At first I thought the engine still hasn’t broken-in. OK I can wait, but now the car has been driven 46,XXXkm. Should I start wake up from my bloody dream believing the gospel? Yes, I got the Upsolute Chip from Simon L.(before the EU Tuning) no big deal with the chip and I believed the HEALTHY TDIs with chip is still using a reasonable amount of fuel.

Diesel addictive on every fill-ups, Mobil Delvec 1 oil change every 3 months and drive like I do not baby the car. I can just keep going… blah..blah..blah… Anyways, here are the numbers:

00 GL Auto, Up chipped, some suspension work, boost spike up to 28psi on my VDO and rest at 18psi steady(not concern too much because nothing had blew up yet). Fuel pump timing has been checked by SFC is within the VW specs.

According to the online fuel mileage calculator I get these figures:
Distance traveled: ---------------439.4 Km
Amount of gas required:---------------41.116 Liters
Metric (Canada): ---------------9.36 L/100KM
Metric (Europe): ---------------10.69 KM/L
US Gallons: ---------------25.28 MPG
Imperial Gallons: ---------------30.19 MPG

No bulls, I got picture as of January 9, 2005 before I pump the fuel in.



Thanks for viewing.
B5

[Gumby]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

First check the obvious, brakes dragging (rears) and tire pressures. I know that sounds stupid but i've seen the rear brakes drag for months and customer complain of low mileage. next i would try either a temp sensor (around $15.00) or possibly the air flow meter (should be warranty). I've changed both these items on a few cars and mileage has gone up. Have you had your intake cleaned (carbon). Does it still have lots of power?

[Khyron]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

That's worse than my 1.8T - and you have no cel... I agree with gumby, could be a siezed brake from a track day or a really messed up wheel (I'd think your tires would need to be flat to hurt economy that bad). Jack each end up and see if you can freely turn the wheels to start with?

Khyron

[Aleks]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

Thats what I get per tank with my 1.8t with a bunch of mods, and a CEL....city driving not babied....something is wrong...

[Canadian Turbo]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

I can almost get that with my VR6 if I try hard. I was with Simon L on the weekend and he was getting close to 1,000kms on his tank near empty with a bit of highway action so I think you have some issues.

[Stonewall]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

Could be one big thing or a bunch of little things. First off being an auot you are going to take a hit, then using winter fuel and the cold conditions could be a factor. The Maf and intake will cause a loose of power over time, leading to a heaver foot but that will not affect much lose by itself. The temp sender only needs to be replaced when you can watch your gauge do all types of weird things (like mine would go up and down all the time actina all speradic). The most likely cause is water frozen in the ebrake cable causing rear brakes to grab and I bet your tire pressure is down a bit. Your pressure seems a little high even for a chipped car so I would keep an eye on that but if you aren't throwing any codes, I wouldn't panic yet. Give the car another fill or two and see if the milage stays the same, if it does you have problems. Also have you drained the water out of the fuel filter lately? Freezing in there can cause problems.

[Gumby]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

The temp sensor runs more than the gauge! it is an input for the ecm. It is a cheap experiment to change it. I have also changed ecms to get better mileage.

[Stampfan]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

Anybody cost a local price quote on getting an intake cleaned?

[B5]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

No CEL at all

No Brakes dragging –
All four wheels spin free

Tire pressure -
check every month(15” winter put 35psi/17” summer put 40psi)

Temp sensor –
Not sure, but if it is faulty then I can get the reading from the instrument cluster right away

Air flow meter –
I had my third replacement MAF on Oct 2003.(The third high quality VW product.)

Intake/manifold clean – Or cooking up?
That is hilarious at this mileage. I spoke to many Diesel engine specialists like people service Cummings, Powerstroke, Caterpillar and Kenworth. All of them come down to a similar conclusion that is not necessary for the carbon cleaning and something is wrong. Indeed, SFC offers me a BG package that cost $550.00 CAD. That is a lot of money but the only thing is that they do not guarantee on how the car will perform after. So, what gives? One specialist said those carbon service clean up is make sense to do if the car ran about a million miles.

Lots of power? – The power is about the same since the chip.

[B5]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

Update January 10, 2005

At South Centre Fine Cars I spoke to the Service Manager Paul P. I brought the print out of the instrument cluster and an online fuel mileage calculator to show the bad fuel mileage I constantly get @ 9.36 L/100KM. Paul P. agreed that the number is a high. He told me nothing that they(SFC) can do about this situation and cannot understand what went wrong with the engine. So, is that means like after 4 or 6 visits, charge like $100 bones each still don’t know what happened to the car? Why he gave me such a ridicules answer? If you don’t know then who can? Isn’t that hilarious? If they can’t fix VWs, why still carry the brand?

I will not let this slide. I’ll find out from VWOC soon here and tell them I was told by my local VW SFC dealer they can’t fix my car. Can you(VWOC) recommend me some private shops within my driving distance that can do the job. Hahaha….

Update with you guys soon.

[B5]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

Anybody cost a local price quote on getting an intake cleaned?

SFC has BG system that cost around $550.00.

[Stonewall]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

The temp sensor runs more than the gauge! it is an input for the ecm. It is a cheap experiment to change it. I have also changed ecms to get better mileage.

First off you can tell when the temp sensor is faulty, I know you know that. Second off who can you justify a what $500 piece of electronics to a customer so they can get better milage? There is no way engine management hardware would ever go bad unless it is faulty or a bad chip install, that I should know I work with electronics for a living (no not selling stereos).
Stampfan if you have a garage you can clean your intake yourself. It is a little messy and will take you about 3 hours the first time but it is not all that hard. There are plenty of writeups on the TDI club about it.

[bart]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

bad mileage probably because:

-automatics get way less mileage
-your intake probably clogged, but you'd feel this if the car was slow...
-maf maybe, it'd feel slower too...

thats where i would start, other reasons are:

dont drive a tdi like a granny, if you do, they will stay like that forever... just some advice, its actually true.

[B5]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

Hay Bart, I do not drive any slower than you. LOL. Remember last summer you and me on the Race City track?





Thanks for the info everyone. I do aware of those common problems. Only the newer TDIs seem to have more iffy problems than other VW gassers.

A piece of advice from the mechanics in SFC is “No one in our workshop wants to own those TDIs”. It is true for me now.

[Stonewall]

Re: Fuel consumption seems VERY high on my TDI

A piece of advice from the mechanics in SFC is “No one in our workshop wants to own those TDIs”. It is true for me now.

I forgot to ask if it is a new PD TDI if it is that is a whole different ball game. They do get a bit less milage but still not that bad. I would do some asking around on the TDIclub, those guys over there are great.