Only 20mpg ave on 130 tdi passat tip!!

[sammm]

Hi guys, I am new here,

having owned several thirsty Mercedes in the past I bought this 51 plats with 130k miles and a new gearbox thinking I'll save on fuel. Well i was wrong. Its my first dieseld so dont know if its supposed to be this loud?

I put in 30 pounds at 1.129 per litre. it did 120 miles before the reserve light came back on again!! Thats approx 20mpg!! my 300E Mercedes averages 16mpg!!

20mpg was with 80% in London and 20% on motorway. I am shocked and dont know whats wrong. Can someone please advise me thanks!!!:confused::confused:

[martin1810]

Get a code read done. I'm surprised a tdi 130 can get that low.

[Y90USF]

sammm you definately need to get a scan done......i boot it around everywhere and the lowest mpg ive ever had since owning the car is 26mpg!!! and that is 4300rpm every gear. and upto 53mpg when driving sensibly..

Regards

[wid77]

Yes, definately something wrong there. I would get it checked asap.

[venetian-red]

Got to agree with all the others. I put in £30 and did just over 300 miles on that (albeit 90 of which were motorway), with the heated seats, heater, lights the full works on, so your MPG sounds like a leak somewhere or, as others have said, something which will show up on a fault code read.

[Y90USF]

thinking about your low mpg could there be a problem with the air mass meter as i was advised to change that when i first bought the car due to poor mpg and also may be worth taking a look at your egr valve.

[vwtdi130pd]

poor you i got more mpg when towing a caravan

[caldirun]

Hi guys, I am new here,

having owned several thirsty Mercedes in the past I bought this 51 plats with 130k miles and a new gearbox thinking I'll save on fuel. Well i was wrong. Its my first dieseld so dont know if its supposed to be this loud?

I put in 30 pounds at 1.129 per litre. it did 120 miles before the reserve light came back on again!! Thats approx 20mpg!! my 300E Mercedes averages 16mpg!!

20mpg was with 80% in London and 20% on motorway. I am shocked and dont know whats wrong. Can someone please advise me thanks!!!:confused::confused:
You do not say what the tank contents were before you put 6 gal. in.
If it were empty and the refuel warning came on at 120 miles all could be in order, 120 miles done, 60 miles to empty then 50 miles in reserve to an empty tank = 230/6 = 38/gal.

[cazyp]

Hi guys, I am new here,

having owned several thirsty Mercedes in the past I bought this 51 plats with 130k miles and a new gearbox thinking I'll save on fuel. Well i was wrong. Its my first dieseld so dont know if its supposed to be this loud?

I put in 30 pounds at 1.129 per litre. it did 120 miles before the reserve light came back on again!! Thats approx 20mpg!! my 300E Mercedes averages 16mpg!!

20mpg was with 80% in London and 20% on motorway. I am shocked and dont know whats wrong. Can someone please advise me thanks!!!:confused::confused:


You do not say what the tank contents were before you put 6 gal. in.
If it were empty and the refuel warning came on at 120 miles all could be in order, 120 miles done, 60 miles to empty then 50 miles in reserve to an empty tank = 230/6 = 38/gal.

Agreed. Fill it up, test it properly.

[MalcQV]

Got to be a leak, don't reckon I could manage that with my petrol, well maybe if I tried very hard.

[sammm]

hi everyone,

what I do is press the reset button on the odometer to zero as soon as the reserve light comes on. I then put 30 pound in then drive it until it lights up again. Therefore only the miles in between reserve lights are counted. Ive measured it several times like this. trust me after having thirsty Mercs all my life I have become almost obsessed with calculating the mpg...

How do I get a code read done? I live in central london so does anyone know where I should go anywhere around here?

Im gutted with this car. Within 3 days of buying it the radiator started leaking. So changed that myself in the freezing cold.
Then the turbo intermittently cuts out then works after restarting the car. So changed the boost sensor and the N75 only to find problem showed up again after 5 days.
Then i began realising that the mpg was so poor. In fact i was in paris 2 weeks ago and I reset the trip computer while in the centre of paris. I moved around 2 miles in about 40minutes and the mpg read 5.9 mpg!!!!!!

I changed the fuel and air filters already. Its got 132k on clock. previous owner said he changed the injectors. Is it possible he put the wrong ones in? I cant see any leaks anywhere and I dont smell any diesel.

I got 47mpg on motorway so that seems ok. But what on earth is causng 20 mpg??

Ive started driving my brothers 730d BMW as its more fuel efficient than this passat!

[wid77]

I would get on google and find a vw or audi independent specialist. Must be several in London. They can then give it a thorough check over.

[Y90USF]

il be in london from the 13th feb till the 17th feb if you would like a fault code scan doing???

[cazyp]

hi everyone,

what I do is press the reset button on the odometer to zero as soon as the reserve light comes on. I then put 30 pound in then drive it until it lights up again. Therefore only the miles in between reserve lights are counted. Ive measured it several times like this. trust me after having thirsty Mercs all my life I have become almost obsessed with calculating the mpg...

How do I get a code read done? I live in central london so does anyone know where I should go anywhere around here?

Im gutted with this car. Within 3 days of buying it the radiator started leaking. So changed that myself in the freezing cold.
Then the turbo intermittently cuts out then works after restarting the car. So changed the boost sensor and the N75 only to find problem showed up again after 5 days.
Then i began realising that the mpg was so poor. In fact i was in paris 2 weeks ago and I reset the trip computer while in the centre of paris. I moved around 2 miles in about 40minutes and the mpg read 5.9 mpg!!!!!!

I changed the fuel and air filters already. Its got 132k on clock. previous owner said he changed the injectors. Is it possible he put the wrong ones in? I cant see any leaks anywhere and I dont smell any diesel.

I got 47mpg on motorway so that seems ok. But what on earth is causng 20 mpg??

Ive started driving my brothers 730d BMW as its more fuel efficient than this passat!


Your MPG figures are correct. If you moved only 2 miles in 40 minutes of engine running (the engine uses fuel while standing still.,.,) then you are only going to achieve a very low miles per gallon because you haven't moved far - same as your slow central london journeys.

The only way to do a proper MPG test is to fill the tank to MAX (until the pump clicks off) drive around until perhaps only 1/4 or less left, fill again until MAX, note the exact miles driven and the volume of diesel pumped on the second MAX fill. You can then work out the real MGP.

The Rad is a common fault/water trap at the corner and was due for a change at that age.

Don't start guessing and changing parts re boost cut/limp home mode. Take it to a forum member for some beer money or a VW garage and get a code read done.

[MalcQV]

If you have access to a Linux/UNIX Os (A proper Operating system :D) you can use this for calculating your MPG. May work on a MAC too. There are opens source apps to run UNIX scripts on Windaz too.

#!/bin/bash
gpm=mpg

printf "\nHow many miles have you done since last fill up? "
read miles
while ! [ $miles -ge 0 -o $miles -lt 0 ] 2>/dev/null
do
printf "\nNot numeric, try again please\n"
printf "How many miles have you done since last fill up? "
read miles
done

#Using decimals not so easy to check
printf "\nEnter cost/litre £"
read cstlitre
while [ `echo $cstlitre | tr -s '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'| grep [a-z] | wc -c` -gt 0 ]
do
printf "\nNot numeric, try again please\n"
printf "\nEnter cost/litre £"
read cstlitre
done

printf "\nHow much did you put in? £"
read amount
while [ `echo $amount | tr -s '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]'| grep [a-z] | wc -c` -gt
do
printf "\nNot numeric, try again please\n"
printf "\nHow much did you put in? £"
read amount
done

#Calculate how many litres
litres=`echo "scale=3;$amount/$cstlitre" | bc`

#Calculate how many gallons
gallons=`echo "scale=3;$litres/4.54" | bc`

#Calculate MPG
mpg=`echo "scale=2;$miles/$gallons" | bc`
printf "\n $mpg$gpm\n"

[sammm]

hi there everyone,

thanks for your input.

Y90usf that is a very kind offer. Yes I would love to get a code read done on the car when you are in London. How much do you charge and where would you be in London. I live between Central and West London but can meet you wherever in London. Thank you so much.

By the way guys Ive bought the coolant temp sensor because 2 people have said that a faulty one could be causing the excessive fuel consumption.

How do you know if the Mass Air Flow sensor is working? In Mercs the car would seem like its mis-firing but i think its different in the Passat. I disconnected it and drove the car and it seemed like it lost power. reconnected it and power was back. Does this means it is working properly or could it still actually be faulty?

Thank you all!!

[Y90USF]

i will be in harrow mainly and maybe in ilford at some point....as for costs i shall let you decide on that im really not fussed. if you need to contact me at all just give me a call 07970646537

[Y90USF]

as for you air flow meter i changed it anyway when i bought my car just for self satisfaction...as i later found out the previous owner did not look after the vehicle...