Poor fuel economy

F

fnselmi

Member
Hi everyone,

I recently bought an Audi A2 1.4 SE petrol, 2001 reg, with 36k miles on the clock. I love the car to bits, however I seem to have hit a problem. I filled up a full tank ( 34 liters i believe ) and it did about 100 miles for the first quarter tank, ( seems very good for country lanes ) but then we got some errors on the dashboard, the ABS light came on, traction control light came on and a circle with an exclamation mark in the center led screen. Since then we have done 100 miles with 3 quarters of the tank, that's an average of 27mpg instead of the 47mpg I should be getting on these roads!

I'm taking it to the garage tomorrow who said they were going to fit some new sensors to correct the lights on the dashboard, but I do not know if that is related to the very poor fuel efficiency.

Any ideas please?

Thanks
 
The fuel tank indicator is not linear as far as I can tell after 6 years of ownership of a small tank 1.4 petrol A2. Although I haven't measured how much the initial 1/4 is, I can usually get 7/80 miles depending on conditions around London. I've done as low as 50 and as high as 100+ miles of that first 1/4. By that count I can get 400 miles from a tank but that'll be unrealistic, I've never got more than 300 miles before I have to fill up (usually 31L).
 
Thanks for the information, that's good to know, still seems low that were getting just over 200 miles in country roads.
 
.... 400km is very reasonable.

Get it scanned, because you won't know why the lights came up and there may be another reason.

Is this your first tank? It's really easy to throw the A2 around and drink lots of petrol, especially if you're doing some "spirited" driving or town stuff. The economy really shows on lower speed runs - i.e. only on 50mph A road stuff I will see the right side of 6l/100. And that's only with 15s on, 17s ruin the numbers and bring it back towards 35mpg.

Wait a second, why do you think you should see 47mpg? The manufacturer numbers? experience?

Bret
 
Hi, I think 47 was manufacturers details. Yes it is the first tank, I'm driving pretty slowly, 3 to 4th gear, not going above 50. I will let them know this at the garage tomorrow, hope they find out what is wrong and don't come back with nothing, as 27mpg seems very low for this car.
 
Iv also got a 1.4 petrol and get 36mpg because my driving is city driving.. and Ive got quite a heavy foot :eek: still good though I think, and I cant say I bought her for fuel economy.

But 27 is a bit :confused:
 
mightbe worth checking tyre pessures, brakes not binding/driving with foot 'resting' on brake pedal, clutch slip, service/fit clean airfilter, if you are using mainly 3/4 th gears are you revving the ******* of it instead of changing up? etc etc
 
yeah, just done 210 miles since the last fill and Im getting the fill tank light. I have an eight tank left :(

I hope they find out whats wrong. I want my baby well!
 
27mpg.. hmm... that's 5.9miles per litre, 10ks, so 10l/100. That's OTT.
35 would be reasonable - as stated above.

Bret
 
Use 5th gear?

Definitely get the warning lights investigated though. Get them to scan the ECU for error codes logged.
 
just got back from 480km, mostly 50mph. Consumption 5.6l/100 --> 49mpg. That's for a 1.4 petrol. 185 winter tyres, outside temps 0.

Bret
 
Got the car back from the garage, they have fixed the electronic signals. We filled up the tank to the brim and will wait and see what the fuel economy is. Fingers crossed.
 
Ah, those light are now off, but now I have the Engine Management System Light on, so back to the garage tomorrow morning. I hope they fix that, could that have been the root cause of the poor fuel consumption?
 
bretti_kivi said:
just got back from 480km, mostly 50mph. Consumption 5.6l/100 --> 49mpg. That's for a 1.4 petrol. 185 winter tyres, outside temps 0.

Bret
Click to expand...

haha, that's good! I just finished a tank of shell standard, 29L for 200 miles! That was 1.5hrs of crawling traffic (accident on motorway) and then mostly 2/3rd gear in town ;-)
 
average speed crawled up to 57km/h, consumption down to 6.0l/100 - that's over the last 2000kms now. cruise and low limits are good for something.... shame we can't lengthen fifth, though.

I'm thinking right now that if the wife's issues with trains continue, we'll pick up a 2001/2002 TDI and she can drive, as we should see the right side of 4l/100 with that.

Bret
 
ABS/Traction control /Warning lights problems??

fnselmi said:
Hi everyone,

I recently bought an Audi A2 1.4 SE petrol, 2001 reg, with 36k miles on the clock. I love the car to bits, however I seem to have hit a problem. I filled up a full tank ( 34 liters i believe ) and it did about 100 miles for the first quarter tank, ( seems very good for country lanes ) but then we got some errors on the dashboard, the ABS light came on, traction control light came on and a circle with an exclamation mark in the center led screen. Since then we have done 100 miles with 3 quarters of the tank, that's an average of 27mpg instead of the 47mpg I should be getting on these roads!

I'm taking it to the garage tomorrow who said they were going to fit some new sensors to correct the lights on the dashboard, but I do not know if that is related to the very poor fuel efficiency.

Any ideas please?

Thanks
Click to expand...

How did you get on with the error lights with you ABS/traction control etc , I have had the same experience last weekend?
Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top