Renault Laguna & fuel consumption

julio arca

Hi guys,

I have been driving an 02 Laguna for 3-4 months now and the fuel consumption is really starting to surprise me. For example, i put €70 petrol in (takes almost €100 to fill) and after maybe <200 miles (100 on motorway) the tank is empty again. Is this normal for these cars??? I have been having trouble with the electrics (dashboard lights flash when i indicate) and i am thinking this could be having an effect on the fuel efficiency. I am just asking these questions to assess the viability of keeping this car when i get it fixed up. The fuel costs are really killing me.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

-Corkie-

Have you noticed the soaring price of petrol???

julio arca

When i said any help appreciated i didn't mean smart answers. All i am looking for is a comparison on fuel consumption.

-Corkie-

julio arca wrote: »

When i said any help appreciated i didn't mean smart answers. All i am looking for is a comparison on fuel consumption.

It wasnt a smart answer actually. Have you calculated how many miles you are getting to the Litres you are putting in. How many miles are you getting when you brim the tank?

illegalpower

That seems very high consumption to me alright. 200 miles of motorway driving should prob only use half a tank of fuel. Is it a 1.8 lire

garhjw

i agree with corkie, next time you are close to empty, put X litres in and then see how many miles you get. this will help you calculate mpg and you will know if the laguna is thirsty

illegalpower

Just a litttle advice that may help. Check that your tyre pressures is correct as this may effect fuel consumption, is the car long overdue a service as this would also cause poor mpg. What kind of driving style do you have, are you constantly burying the pedal. If so change up a gear sooner than you would normally do. Make sure your boot isn't full of heavy stuff that's eating into your fuel tank

The others are correct about filling the tank fully and zeroing the trip computer so that you can calculate the range of the tank at the moment. By your description i wouldn't be surprised if there was something a miss but there can be so many variables that can cause poor mpg

Max Power1

julio arca wrote: »

Hi guys,

I have been driving an 02 Laguna for 3-4 months now and the fuel consumption is really starting to surprise me. For example, i put €70 petrol in (takes almost €100 to fill) and after maybe <200 miles (100 on motorway) the tank is empty again. Is this normal for these cars??? I have been having trouble with the electrics (dashboard lights flash when i indicate) and i am thinking this could be having an effect on the fuel efficiency. I am just asking these questions to assess the viability of keeping this car when i get it fixed up. The fuel costs are really killing me.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks

illegalpower wrote: »

That seems very high consumption to me alright. 200 miles of motorway driving should prob only use half a tank of fuel. Is it a 1.8 lire

Wow, what a great, accurate thread.

We've now got both stupid measurements used, €/km and Miles/tank.

The only way to measure fuel efficiency is to calculate MPG by brimming, zero the trip counter, then re-brim, and calculate the miles per gallon (4.54 litres) manually.

I literally facepalm anytime a thread is polluted with this €/km or miles/tank BS.

BrianD3

That sounds like you're only getting around 20 mpg. Don't know what people are ranting about your measurements, it took me approx 5 secs to estimate 20 mpg from your 70 euros for 200 miles figure.

For comparison I have a 03 1.6 petrol Laguna and I get more than double that. My driving would be 75% 100 km/h N roads with the rest made up of regional roads and urban areas. I'm rarely stationary in traffic for long.

julio arca

BrianD3 wrote: »

That sounds like you're only getting around 20 mpg. Don't know what people are ranting about your measurements, it took me approx 5 secs to estimate 20 mpg from your 70 euros for 200 miles figure.

For comparison I have a 03 1.6 petrol Laguna and I get more than double that. My driving would be 75% 100 km/h N roads with the rest made up of regional roads and urban areas. I'm rarely stationary in traffic for long.

This is exactly what i was looking for, perhaps my sentence wasn't grammatically structured as well as "Max Power1" would like. Perhaps his exceedingly homo-erotic username is making up for short comings in other departments.

I can do the maths 200m/(€70/1.52c/4.54lpg)=19.72mpg

I just wanted a comparison.

Many thanks for your help Brian

Dartz

Mine's an 1.8 auto. It always drinks fuel. It always has. It's ten years old, and an automatic.

Flashing dashboard lights sounds like a gammy earth, check the wiring mayhap?

Got so expensive I've been borrowing a Diesel Scenic.

BrianD3

There are a few things to look out for although most of them woud cause quite obvious symptoms. The Laguna is known for plug coil issues, but if you have a bad coil it will be a pig to drive with no power and would need to be floored to get anywhere.

The throttle body is another source of issues but that should also result in obvious running or starting symptoms.

A binding brake (can happen on any car) would cause the car to feel sluggish, would affect mpg and you'd probably hear strange squealing noises from the brake disc which would get extremely hot, even the wheel itself would get hot.

EPM

julio arca wrote: »

This is exactly what i was looking for, perhaps my sentence wasn't grammatically structured as well as "Max Power1" would like. Perhaps his exceedingly homo-erotic username is making up for short comings in other departments.

Infraction given. Please do not insult other users.

Max Power1

julio arca wrote: »

This is exactly what i was looking for, perhaps my sentence wasn't grammatically structured as well as "Max Power1" would like. Perhaps his exceedingly homo-erotic username is making up for short comings in other departments.

I can do the maths 200m/(€70/1.52c/4.54lpg)=19.72mpg

I just wanted a comparison.

Many thanks for your help Brian

As an infraction has already been given, I am not going to retort to a slanging match about any "other department" or "homo-eroticism".


Regarding your "i can do the maths" comment, you are introducing another unknown, variable figure (Cent per litre) which is not constant. Also you have no known verifiable figure of litres used unless you use the brim to brim method. Both of the above reasons will lead to unnecessary inaccuracies in any consumption measurements via your method.

johnos1984

Max Power is on the ball.

For you to get an accurate measurement brim the tank, zero your trip computer drive until empty then return to the exact same pump and brim it again.

Then see how many litres it takes to fill it again and using your mileage covered work out your MPG.

Repeat for a second or third tank then get the average fuel consumption over a number of tankfuls.

Also you haven't told us what engine the Laguna has. For all we know it could be the 3L V6 automatic or the 1.6l.

Your method has too many variables. For instance my Passat gets over 60mpg on long runs at 100k/hr and less than 40mpg if I am doing lots of short trips. It tends to average somewhere around 50 mpg the last time I check but this seems to of improved a lot since I got it serviced so I have to work it out again.