Car recently serviced/timing belt change - eating petrol

NIMAN

Got my 1.4 petrol Golf serviced and timing belt changed couple of weeks ago, and since it came back from the mechanic it seems to be getting very poor mileage.

Is this possible? Could something have been done that would cause the car to use more petrol? I haven't been horsing the car or anything.

The car was usually fairly easy on the juice, but the petrol tank needle definitely seems to be going down a lot quicker than before the work.

Am I imagining it?

puzzle factory

possible he may have advanced the timing when he put the new timing belt on.

George Dalton

How is the car running? Are there any warning lights on? Have you had a diagnostic scan done?

Mycroft H

puzzle factory wrote: »

possible he may have advanced the timing when he put the new timing belt on.

I'd imagine the golf being a relatively modern car would have the ignition set by the ECU and not like the old cars with a point whizzing around a distributer cap.

Mech1

BX 19 wrote: »

I'd imagine the golf being a relatively modern car would have the ignition set by the ECU and not like the old cars with a point whizzing around a distributer cap.

I would imagine he is talking about valve timing not ignition timing.

Mycroft H

Mech1 wrote: »

I would imagine he is talking about valve timing not ignition timing.

Unless the machanic did something very very silly, like slip a tooth when changing the belts, then I can't really see how it would affect the mpg. However, I'll wait for someone knowledgeable to confirm/disagree

George Dalton

It is very easy to mess up the cam timing on the short belt on these, even with the correct tool. But there would usually be running issues and fault codes where this is the case.

NIMAN

Thanks for the replies so far.

No warning lights, no issues with the running since I got it back. Seems to be going grand.

When my tank next empties I might try to do a mpg test to see. I was getting low 40s last time I tried it.

Stheno

I'd my tb kit and variator replaced recently and thought I'd suffered a loss of mpg

When I threw in a full tank and mixed up my driving rather than throwing in 20 at a time and basing it on a few days it made a big difference.

Start out with a full tank and base it on the driving over that?

NIMAN

Stheno wrote: »

I'd my tb kit and variator replaced recently and thought I'd suffered a loss of mpg

When I threw in a full tank and mixed up my driving rather than throwing in 20 at a time and basing it on a few days it made a big difference.

Start out with a full tank and base it on the driving over that?

The thing is, I often do a short journey of 25 miles, and the needle seemed to move a noticeable amount on the dial doing this run, whereas before maintenance it would not have moved.

As I say, I will try to do a measured run once my tank empties and I can get an idea of how much fuel I put in.

tbh, I don't think a full tank v €20 fill should affect your mpg much, other than a small amount of extra weight in the car.

Stheno

NIMAN wrote: »

The thing is, I often do a short journey of 25 miles, and the needle seemed to move a noticeable amount on the dial doing this run, whereas before maintenance it would not have moved.

As I say, I will try to do a measured run once my tank empties and I can get an idea of how much fuel I put in.

tbh, I don't think a full tank v €20 fill should affect your mpg much, other than a small amount of extra weight in the car.

If I put in 5-10 litres my gauge reads as a quarter full.

If I fill the tank it's full at 50 litres.

Makes a big difference when you are calculating mpg to start with a full tank.

Mine doesn't drop for about 75 miles on a full tank, by the time it gets down to being allegedly 1/4 full it sinks like a stone.

Fuel gauges are not always reliable, you might be surprised by the results