Is my car burning petrol?

crazylady1

Hi, I'll start off by saying that I dont have a clue about cars and that my husband is the same!!

I have a 00 ford focus, 1.6 litre which isnt a bad car but I find that its drinking petrol lately. I put €20 in to it and I only get about 60-70 miles out of it. I know petrol is getting dearer but I think that its burning more petrol then before. I do alot of town driving, and have done for along time. Wouldn't do too much motorway driving. Do ye think that its taking alot of petrol

I was thinking about upgrading next year but may do it sooner now. I was going to get a deisel car but from what I have read here lately, may be better off sticking with petrol because I do alot of urban driving. What do ye think? Thanks very much for reading.

corktina

my 2 litre focus does 30 mpg or a bit more so yours sounds high, but town driving does eat it up I guess.... €20 is what roughly 3 gallons I guess.

skyhighflyer

crazylady1 wrote: »

Hi, I'll start off by saying that I dont have a clue about cars and that my husband is the same!!

I have a 00 ford focus, 1.6 litre which isnt a bad car but I find that its drinking petrol lately. I put €20 in to it and I only get about 60-70 miles out of it. I know petrol is getting dearer but I think that its burning more petrol then before. I do alot of town driving, and have done for along time. Wouldn't do too much motorway driving. Do ye think that its taking alot of petrol

I was thinking about upgrading next year but may do it sooner now. I was going to get a deisel car but from what I have read here lately, may be better off sticking with petrol because I do alot of urban driving. What do ye think? Thanks very much for reading.

Well I make that to be about 22-25 mpg, which is heavy for that car even for town driving.

A few points to note:

• when was the car last serviced? - if it's well overdue then this could be the reason
• are the tyres pumped to the recommended pressure?
• do you buy all your fuel from the one garage and, if so, try another and see if this helps
• Is your car full of useless crap in the boot that you don't need? My mum was terrible for getting a bag or two of coal put into the car at the petrol station and then driving around with them until she remembered to ask me or my Da to get them out.
• Does the car have air conditioning and is it on all the time?
• Do you have a hard driving style (not necessarily fast, are you changing up the gears on time or are you driving around town in second gear all the time)?
• Does the car get up to the correct temperature on the temperature gauge? If it isn't then the thermostat could be stuck open meaning the engine is overfuelling because the engine computer thinks the engine's cold all the time.
• If you're doing really short trips (like, a mile or two) from a cold start then the car will never get up to full temperature and will use far more fuel than normal journeys.

All of the above can contribute to high fuel consumption.

If you're doing town driving and want to save fuel, a small (1.0) petrol engine would really be the only way to go as modern diesels really don't like the short trips around town you do. However, you might have to downsize the car to something smaller than a Focus which you might not want to do.

If I was doing town driving I'd be looking at small light petrol engined cars like:

Citroen C1 / Toyota Aygo / Peugeot 107 (all the same car, different badge)
Fiat Panda or 500
Toyota Yaris or Nissan Micra 1.0

or if you wanted to go the real city car route:

the new VW Up! or Skoda Citigo
Toyota iQ
Smart car?


or you could consider a Prius or Civic Hybrid. Normally don't like hybrids as they're no more efficient on the open road then a normal car, but it sounds like they could be ideally suited to your type of driving.

RED PASSION

before this problem how many miles do you think you got from €20.

Anan1

Work out your exact fuel consumption and post it here, then people can help.

Francie Barrett

I make out your mpg to be about 25, which isn't far off the manufacturers guidelines of 30.1 mpg for urban driving. If the car hasn't been serviced recently, then getting that done will increase the figure a little. Don't expect anything dramatic though.

The easiest fix is to adjust your driving style. Stop accelerating up to traffic lights, ease off the accelerators when going down hills and don't hammer it when you're taking off from traffic lights or a stationary position. Also follow skyhighflyer tips (empty the boots of non essentials, check tyre pressure, turn off air conditioning, consider, try to cut down non-essential trips or combine them).

You could consider dropping down to the 1.4 Focus. It will be a little more efficient for short hop runs.

allthedoyles

We had similar problems and it was diagnosed to be the catalytic converter , , which caused poor fuel economy.

were told the reason for problem was driving too much with the petrol warning light on .

In other words the car was nearly always out of petrol , and we used only top-up with €5/ €10 .

langdang

allthedoyles wrote: »

We had similar problems and it was diagnosed to be the catalytic converter , , which caused poor fuel economy.

were told the reason for problem was driving too much with the petrol warning light on .

In other words the car was nearly always out of petrol , and we used only top-up with €5/ €10 .

Sounds highly unlikely!

carbon nanotube

allthedoyles wrote: »

We had similar problems and it was diagnosed to be the catalytic converter , , which caused poor fuel economy.

were told the reason for problem was driving too much with the petrol warning light on .

In other words the car was nearly always out of petrol , and we used only top-up with €5/ €10 .

constantly 'topping up' with 5/10 until the light comes on is a brilliant way to destroy a car.

Anan1

carbon nanotube wrote: »

constantly 'topping up' with 5/10 until the light comes on is a brilliant way to destroy a car.

Unless there's dirt in the tank there should be no problem with this - there's still a good bit of fuel left in the tank when the reserve light comes on. Driving until the car cuts out won't do the cat any good, though.

RED PASSION

Francie Barrett wrote: »

I make out your mpg to be about 25, which isn't far off the manufacturers guidelines of 30.1 mpg for urban driving. If the car hasn't been serviced recently, then getting that done will increase the figure a little. Don't expect anything dramatic though.

the car is 12 yrs old so 5 mpg off the manufacturers guidelines is not a bad thing.

crazylady1

Hey guys, thanks for all your replies. Some very helpful advice. Really appreciate it. I dont know how many litres I put in to it. I always go by the the amount of money I put in!! I must check it the next time, which probably wont be long!!

I used to nearly fill the tank before and that seemed to last me for ages. I haven't been able to do that lately for financial reasons. I know a full tank would last me alot longer but I thought that since there is less weight in the car that I'd get longer out of it!

The comment of putting less petrol in to it and driving it on empty for ages is making me think that could be it, because I drive with the red petrol light on in it for ages! will try top it up sooner from now on. My husband is going to get fuel cleaner for it aswel so hopefully that will help. Thanks again guys.

Mycroft H

carbon nanotube wrote: »

constantly 'topping up' with 5/10 until the light comes on is a brilliant way to destroy a car.

Rubbish.

With the exception of longer journeys, I've been sticking tenners into my car every now and then for the last year.

carbon nanotube

Anan1 wrote: »

Unless there's dirt in the tank there should be no problem with this - there's still a good bit of fuel left in the tank when the reserve light comes on. Driving until the car cuts out won't do the cat any good, though.

for $hit boxes it might be acceptable way to treat a car.

any modern cars would not like to have a fiver put in each time and driven until a petrol light comes on.

you got about 40/50 miles left when the light comes on, constantly driving with the light on puts more stress on a fuel pump.. good luck getting a fuel pump changed on a car, most new ones will cost you quite a bit and you will wish you didn't skimp on petrol.

aside from that you will eventually screw your cat up with such stupid driving practice...

again, good luck in getting a cat replaced on the cheap.

rover james.. if you give one of my posts a 'like' i will pay you 500gbp.

dr.fuzzenstein

I think a good service may be on the cards.
New oil, oil filter, air filter, sparkers and maybe have it connected to something that reads the exhaust gases to see if there's something out of whack.
Make sure your tires are inflated to the correct pressure, too.
Then fill it up till it clicks off, record the mileage, fill ti again, record the mileage and so on.
That way you can work out your MPG exactly.
Try this:
http://www.xr2.org/information/mpg.php

langdang

Old age and petrol kills cats, how does driving a car with the fuel low light on kill cats? Fuel pumps maybe yeah, can't see the link to the cat tho?

carbon nanotube

the cat, lambada sensor, fuel pump all have a role to play in the fuel system.

mess around with them constantly and you are asking for trouble.. and putting a fiver of petrol in at a time and waiting for the petrol light to come on is serious messing.

all aforementioned issues will cost to fix right. and i don't mean 20euro.

martyc5674

carbon nanotube wrote: »

the cat, lambada sensor, fuel pump all have a role to play in the fuel system.

mess around with them constantly and you are asking for trouble.. and putting a fiver of petrol in at a time and waiting for the petrol light to come on is serious messing.

all aforementioned issues will cost to fix right. and i don't mean 20euro.

How Is chucking a fiver here and a fiver there messing around??... It's not a bird.

Weve same car 99 1.6 saloon (a real beaut!)... 120k on it and it's at least 6 years since it's had a service of any sort.
Yet it returns 35 plus... It is noticeably heavier in town but I never measured it.

What I'm saying is don't waste money servicing the engine thinking it will drastically change mpg...

Look at emissions, also coil packs go on these, stuck rear drum maybe?
Makeup bag stuck under the handbrake maybe?
Oh and definitely take HHS dead body out of the boot.

Check the tires run some fuel system cleaner through it, do a brim to brim mpg check and report back.

Marty.

dr.fuzzenstein

martyc5674 wrote: »

What I'm saying is don't waste money servicing the engine thinking it will drastically change mpg...

I think a good service when it's due is never a waste of money.
If the oil is slush, the sparks black and the airfilter gunked up, a service will make a hell of a difference.
If the car needs a service, playing around with everything else is a waste of money and time.

martyc5674

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

martyc5674 wrote: »

What I'm saying is don't waste money servicing the engine thinking it will drastically change mpg...

I think a good service when it's due is never a waste of money.
If the oil is slush, the sparks black and the airfilter gunked up, a service will make a hell of a difference.
If the car needs a service, playing around with everything else is a waste of money and time.

Your correct.
I'm just advising that an engine service will unlikely improve the mpg issue,so spend a few quid elsewhere first.
I'm assuming the OP's engine isn't as neglected as mine and not screaming for an engine service.
Marty.

dr.fuzzenstein

martyc5674 wrote: »

Your correct.
I'm just advising that an engine service will unlikely improve the mpg issue,so spend a few quid elsewhere first.
I'm assuming the OP's engine isn't as neglected as mine and not screaming for an engine service.
Marty.

Well, it's up to the OP now, only she knows when it was serviced last. But totally agree on tires, if they're down on pressure and the alignment is bad, it won't do it any good.

Stheno

dr.fuzzenstein wrote: »

Well, it's up to the OP now, only she knows when it was serviced last. But totally agree on tires, if they're down on pressure and the alignment is bad, it won't do it any good.

Yup, I finally set the tyre pressure to the correct level for my car (i.e. I finally rtfm) and the difference in fuel consumption is noticeable, drove from Dublin to Cork and back today on far less fuel than usual. Did a rough calculation there and mpg is up from 28 to 33 for that run

Expecting a difference in town too, but about half that improvement