03 Passat 1.8T - 17.5mpg - does that sound right?

FrankGrimes

I have an 03 Passat 1.8 turbo for a year and I never tried figuring out the mpg until now though I always felt it was using a lot of petrol.

I let the tank run down to just after the warning light came on and I filled the tank to max with 60 litres (16 gallons) and reset the odomoter.

280 miles later the tank was back to the same spot and I again filled the tank to the max with 60 litres/16 gallons.

280miles divided by 16 gallons is 17.5 Miles Per Gallon. That sounds extremely low right?

It's an automatic with tiptronic and this 280 miles was done using the manual gear selection and not driving agressively - I up gear reasonably early. Most of the journey was my 10mile commute, half of which is done at 20-40mph and the other half at 50-70 on the M50. Time in traffic would be no more than 20%.

I leave the climate control around 21 or 22 celsius and only use the heated seats sparingly.

Am I right in thinking that something doesn't seem right and that this is an abnormally high rate of fuel consumption or is this to be expected? What can I do to use less fuel (besides cycling which I'll be doing when my new bike arrives this week!)?

mickdw

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I have an 03 Passat 1.8 turbo for a year and I never tried figuring out the mpg until now though I always felt it was using a lot of petrol.

I let the tank run down to just after the warning light came on and I filled the tank to max with 60 litres (16 gallons) and reset the odomoter.

280 miles later the tank was back to the same spot and I again filled the tank to the max with 60 litres/16 gallons.

280miles divided by 16 gallons is 17.5 Miles Per Gallon. That sounds extremely low right?

It's an automatic with tiptronic and this 280 miles was done using the manual gear selection and not driving agressively - I up gear reasonably early. Most of the journey was my 10mile commute, half of which is done at 20-40mph and the other half at 50-70 on the M50. Time in traffic would be no more than 20%.

I leave the climate control around 21 or 22 celsius and only use the heated seats sparingly.

Am I right in thinking that something doesn't seem right and that this is an abnormally high rate of fuel consumption or is this to be expected? What can I do to use less fuel (besides cycling which I'll be doing when my new bike arrives this week!)?

Well I had a 1.8T Audi TT 180bhp and it did better mpg than that. about 26mpg. I guess your car is 150 bhp or so?
I now have a 1.8Tfsi Audi A5 and it does about 30 mpg. Saying that, if I was in stop start traffic, it would be alot less.
If I was you I would get it looked into. Is your engine mnagement light on? Any running problems? Uneven engine idle, lack of power? anything?

crosstownk

I had similar mileage in a Volvo S60 2.0T auto a few years back with similar driving conditions. Hopefully that's of some help to you.

but43r

60 litres is not 16 gallons but 13.2 gallons which would leave you at about 21.2 mpg. It would sound reasonable enough taking that half of your jorney is through town but you are better of going to diagnostics and they would be able to point out the problem if there is one...

gar120

i have a 1.9tdi 04 passat.

my mpg is about 37.8

granted it is a diesel though. only way to go i reckon!

mickdw

but43r wrote: »

60 litres is not 16 gallons but 13.2 gallons which would leave you at about 21.2 mpg.

I missed that.

Well at 21.2 mpg, it being automatic, and driving in traffic, it may be normal

mickdw

gar120 wrote: »

i have a 1.9tdi 04 passat.

my mpg is about 37.8

granted it is a diesel though. only way to go i reckon!

If ya like that sort of thing:D

FrankGrimes

Cheers lads. I looked up the litre to gallon conversion here but maybe that site has some mad American calculation thing going on, good to know it's a slightly better mpg I'm getting anyway.

Still, it's hardly economical - there's SUVs that get better mpg I think, even on petrol.

I really like the car but I'd sell it if it was worthwhile and downgrade to something more economical (that still had tiptronic though - never going back from that!) but I paid €16k for the Passat in May 2007 and it's probably worth feck all in this market.

Where should I bring it to get the diagnostics looked at and what should that cost?

No other problems with the car - had an oil pressure problem a while back but got new pump and filters and that went away. No power problems. Only problem on it now is I had the CV joints and bolts replaced with non-VW parts and the ABS sensor kicks in sometimes when braking in rolling traffic - doubt that would be affecting fuel consumption though?

Would the air con and heated seats be making much of a difference or barely noticeable?

Marcus.Aurelius

gar120 wrote: »

i have a 1.9tdi 04 passat.

my mpg is about 37.8

granted it is a diesel though. only way to go i reckon!

You should check if your accelerator pedal has been glued to the floor or something with mpgs that low for a TDi. Should be up around 45-55.

Mr. Presentable

FrankGrimes wrote: »

Cheers lads. I looked up the litre to gallon conversion here but maybe that site has some mad American calculation thing going on, good to know it's a slightly better mpg I'm getting anyway.

Still, it's hardly economical - there's SUVs that get better mpg I think, even on petrol.

I really like the car but I'd sell it if it was worthwhile and downgrade to something more economical (that still had tiptronic though - never going back from that!) but I paid €16k for the Passat in May 2007 and it's probably worth feck all in this market.

Where should I bring it to get the diagnostics looked at and what should that cost?

No other problems with the car - had an oil pressure problem a while back but got new pump and filters and that went away. No power problems. Only problem on it now is I had the CV joints and bolts replaced with non-VW parts and the ABS sensor kicks in sometimes when braking in rolling traffic - doubt that would be affecting fuel consumption though?

Would the air con and heated seats be making much of a difference or barely noticeable?

Hah! American gallon is only 6 imperial pints. 25% less than UK gallon.

gar120

House wrote: »

You should check if your accelerator pedal has been glued to the floor or something with mpgs that low for a TDi. Should be up around 45-55.

it's the only way i know how to drive it with my foot to the floor.

i learned how to drive from 'the stig'

Marcus.Aurelius

gar120 wrote: »

it's the only way i know how to drive it with my foot to the floor.

i learned how to drive from 'the stig'

Well then I await your upcoming promotion to Supreme Overlord of the Motors Forum.

Anan1

21mpg is poor for a Passat 1.8T auto, in my opinion. I'm getting that around town in a Subaru Forester 2.5XT auto, and Forester turbos are notoriously hard on petrol. I'd have the car looked at if I were you.

professore

FrankGrimes wrote: »

I have an 03 Passat 1.8 turbo for a year and I never tried figuring out the mpg until now though I always felt it was using a lot of petrol.

I let the tank run down to just after the warning light came on and I filled the tank to max with 60 litres (16 gallons) and reset the odomoter.

280 miles later the tank was back to the same spot and I again filled the tank to the max with 60 litres/16 gallons.

280miles divided by 16 gallons is 17.5 Miles Per Gallon. That sounds extremely low right?

It's an automatic with tiptronic and this 280 miles was done using the manual gear selection and not driving agressively - I up gear reasonably early. Most of the journey was my 10mile commute, half of which is done at 20-40mph and the other half at 50-70 on the M50. Time in traffic would be no more than 20%.

I leave the climate control around 21 or 22 celsius and only use the heated seats sparingly.

Am I right in thinking that something doesn't seem right and that this is an abnormally high rate of fuel consumption or is this to be expected? What can I do to use less fuel (besides cycling which I'll be doing when my new bike arrives this week!)?

I have a peugeot 206 1.4 HDi (Diesel) with a 50 litre tank. I do mostly city driving (Cork) and I struggle to get less than 450 miles. On occasion I have had 560 miles out of it, and i reckon I could easily get 600 if I did a tank on motorways.

but43r

Diagnostics would cost +/- €50, depends where you go. Your local VW garage should be able to do it and it only takes about 10-20 mins
I wouldnt say its terrable fuel consumption taking that its automatic and half of your jorney is in town but i would check it anyway if it was my car.

homer90

Got a passat 1.8T manual .... usually get in and around 400 - 450 miles between fills ......... Even for an auto that seems way low.

Guy:Incognito

21 mpg i sstill very low. I got in and around 20 in my 2.5 auto (4 pseed) safrane. That included a morning trip from Tallaght to the likes of Phibsboro and then home at around 4, so plenty of traffic.



You've had problems with this car before havnt you?

unkel

FrankGrimes wrote: »

It's an automatic with tiptronic and this 280 miles was done using the manual gear selection

Why don't you do the same driving, but this time leave the tiptronic in drive (don't manually select at all) and report back here?

Good chance you'll have used less fuel...

SV

gar120 wrote: »

it's the only way i know how to drive it with my foot to the floor.

i learned how to drive from 'the stig'

and then bought a diesel?

went wrong somewhere..

FrankGrimes

Stekelly wrote: »

21 mpg i sstill very low. I got in and around 20 in my 2.5 auto (4 pseed) safrane. That included a morning trip from Tallaght to the likes of Phibsboro and then home at around 4, so plenty of traffic.



You've had problems with this car before havnt you?

Yeh, I've had a few troubles with it alright - what appeared to be coil pack problems when I got it turned out to be something stuck/blocked at the very bottom of the engine - they had to open the whole engine to get to the bottom of it to clean it out. Then I had to replace the CV bolts and joints and the generic/spurious parts are not perfect and the brake sensors kick-in at low speeds - doesn't affect driving just makes a noise.

Then a year later it started underpowering and the red engine light came on. After a bit of a saga I had the oil pump and filter changed - problem went away.

I was then rear-ended and had to get the boot replaced and a new fuel line installed -it had cracked just above the engine. I don't see any signs of fuel leakage since then.

So yeh, bit of a nightmare overall but I do like the car and would be very happy with it now if it had a reasonable mpg.

I was under the impression that driving in manual gear selection would be more fuel efficient than driving in standard automatic D...I certainly keep the revs lower when selecting manually than it does in automatic, sound right?

Not sure who my local VW garage is - I live in D12 and work in Sandyford. There's Beacon Automotive nearby who did my crash repairs and sell Skoda Octavias - any point bringing it there?

jonathan11

http://www.dicomwg12.org/mpg/VOLKSWAGEN/Passat-Saloon/

21mpg is average for Urban driving according to this site...
25mpg for the 1.8T non tiptronic version...
39mpg for a TDI

BlackWizard

I get 38 on my Passat TDi in urban.

So that site might be right.

FrankGrimes

jonathan11 wrote: »

http://www.dicomwg12.org/mpg/VOLKSWAGEN/Passat-Saloon/

21mpg is average for Urban driving according to this site...
25mpg for the 1.8T non tiptronic version...
39mpg for a TDI

Cheers for that, very helpful.

Though I'm driving urban, it's not bumper to bumper - moving steadily most of the way. I actually feel that driving up and down to the country it uses even more fuel than on my commute but maybe that's to be expected when driving at 60-80mph, though the Extra-Urban figure of 39mpg on that site seems to indicate otherwise.

Top Dog

mickdw wrote: »

I missed that.

Well at 21.2 mpg, it being automatic, and driving in traffic, it may be normal

I brought a manual version of this Passat back from the UK last year (also a '03 reg) and I thought the fuel consumption was dysmal. Covered a shade over 700 miles and managed what I considered to be a very poor 32.8mpg. Vast majority of the journey was open motorway/dual carraigeway cruising between 70-80mph. No matter what I did, I couldn't get a decent figure for it. I kept resetting the shorter trip meter to see if the different speeds had much impact or improvement but it was all in vain.

By comparison, our 14 year old Golf GTI (read as old, underpowered etc.) has managed 34.5mpg over the last 2000 miles, and a lot of that is a 26 mile daily commute to work on back roads which can be "spirited" driving

My own expierence with the Passat put me right off the 1.8T version - give me the TDI 130 any day!

galwaytt

I had an 05 Passat 130bhp Tiptronic for 15k kms (rep-ing).

Over the 15k kms it average 38mpg, and some of that was very hard driving. Worst I ever saw, thrashing it in manual, was about 32mpg. There's something wrong with your car - if not the usual MAF issues, there could be pump/injector issues.

TopDog - the 1.8t isn't bad on juice at actually, really. Put it this way - a normal 1.8t would use a lot less petrol than his current diesel ! In my TT I used to get about 32mpg. The 1.8t in a Passat is more mildly tuned, 150bhp, so I would be expecting it to be in that area, or better.

For now, I'm going back to petrol cars, when I eventually get out of my current diesel.

Top Dog

galwaytt wrote: »

TopDog - the 1.8t isn't bad on juice at actually, really. Put it this way - a normal 1.8t would use a lot less petrol than his current diesel ! In my TT I used to get about 32mpg. The 1.8t in a Passat is more mildly tuned, 150bhp, so I would be expecting it to be in that area, or better.

For now, I'm going back to petrol cars, when I eventually get out of my current diesel.

Maybe it was just the particular car I brought over so, but I found it very thirsty and also had to be revved to make any reasonable progress. Just felt to me like the car was too heavy and the engine didn't want to move it.

By comparison I had a loan of a friends TDI 130 (same sport spec) and that felt so much better in every area that I couldn't understand why anyone would want the petrol turbo. The diesel was better economically, felt more relaxed at motorway speeds without constant throttle adjustments to keep a steady speed, and didn't require anywhere near the same amount of gearchanges for overtaking and the like.

Come to think of it though, the 1.8T was a 5 speed and the TDI 130 was a 6 speed - wonder if that could account for some of the difference.

galwaytt

Top Dog wrote: »

Maybe it was just the particular car I brought over so, but I found it very thirsty and also had to be revved to make any reasonable progress. Just felt to me like the car was too heavy and the engine didn't want to move it................
Come to think of it though, the 1.8T was a 5 speed and the TDI 130 was a 6 speed - wonder if that could account for some of the difference.

Sorry, Mea Culpa - I forgot yours was a petrol. So let me refresh: I'd expect your 1.8 to return, say 30-32mpg.

Being a petrol, and assuming the basic fundamental engine is o.k. (compression is the first thing that comes to mind........), the MAF is a very likely culprit to fail. Next I'd be looking at turbo boost, to see if you're losing any. Again, a simple air leak could play havoc with things. The turbo pop-off valve is also a likely suspect, as the OEM VAG one is, frankly, rubbish. A very common cure is to replace it with a Forge 007 valve, which is not only infinately better in quality, also has a modest improvement in mid-range. It's a 15-minute item to fit, and all you need is a screwdriver or two.

Your car should have no hesitancy on pickup, and imho, the VAG 1.8t is one of the finest and most flexible examples of a 4-cyl turbo installation.

As for you friend's 130PD Sport - I agree, it's an astonishing engine. (As is my 150bhp Saab 1.9Tid btw) - they are all very good. But, and it's a big But, there is a very big premium, price-wise on them, over their petrol equivalents, and there isn't a huge economy advantage. If you're not doing 20k+miles a year I can't see the justification in the extra purchase costs (and interest if it's financed btw.......), increased service costs and intervals, and now, a higher price per litre for the fuel as well.

I think an hour with a good diagnostic house on the computer would answer a lot of things. I don't know where you are, but I see a poster on this boards here from Kane Diagnostics. You'd be mad to sell the car if the issue can be solved - the loss on selling and buying would be likely many times the bill just to get the car the way you like it.