I'm running a 03 plate 1.6, 16v petrol & from putting 45 litres (approx £61) in it, to the fuel light coming on again, I'm getting about 385 miles(according to the miles covered do-da on the speedo).

Most of my coverage is about 60 miles a day on the motorway, with speeds between 60 - 80 MPH, to keep up with the traffic round about me (so I'm not out hogging the outside lane, hooning it like a loon), with another 5 or 6 miles on A roads, doing 30 - 40MPH.

Do the obvious things, like clearing the boot of EVERYTHING you don't need, checking your tyre pressures & maybe even buying a bottle of REDEX & putting some of that in, just before you fuel up.

 

i've had the same problem but of my own doing. I had an induction kit and i didnt connect the breather pipe to it, the car avaraged 23mpg then (14.4L of fuel and only got 75 miles out of it). Just put the original air box back on and the fuel consumption seems to have improved alot.

How is your temperature sensor? I've heards that if you have a faulty temp sensor where your temperature needle is eratic on the dash that can cause excesive fuel consumption. I'm replacing mine on the weekend (Ebay£5) due to it displaying the engine temp as stone cold even if the car has been driven for half hour.

 

Temperature sensor is fine. I'm not sure what's wrong with it. I've done just over half a tank from a full tank and only done 115 miles? That's low isnt it surely?

 

I have subscribed to this as i have the same issue.

25MPG!

I bought a new coolant temperature sensor from GSF but VAG-COM says its still faulty!

anyideas

 

I am getting roughly 14 mpg. 55 litre tank full - 2 segments below half and only 115 miles done. That's estimating I'll get 65 out of the rest

 

There's definitely something wrong if your getting 200 miles to a tank from a 1.4.

I get 300 minimum out of my 1.8t and i do have a heavy right foot. The basics such as tyre pressures, weight in the boot etc cannot affect your mpg that much surely.

Get any blackish smoke out of the exhaust? is your exhaust tip covered in black? When was the last time it had a full service? Spark plugs etc?

Has it been like this since last september when you bought the car or just recently started?

If your buying temp sensors, dont bother with GSF or ebay parts. Go straight to VW and pay the price. Yes its expensive, but the eBay parts are crap and fill fail after a few months.

Get a ebay code reader or find someone to scan it you to see if there are any error codes stored, could be a dodgy sensor somewhere.

 

Well my boot is always empty and tyres are all 32 psi. I never notice any smoke come out of the exhaust. I'm at work at the moment so I'll check the exhaust in a bit. I'm not 100% about the last service but I think it was the day before I bought the car although I think it may of been an MOT. Will check that when I get home.

I've never really noticed the fuel consumption till recently when I finally filled it up fully and remembered to reset that mile counter.

 

Personally the first thing i would do is a full service then.

Give it a oil and filter change, fuel filter, air filter and spark plugs and go from there.

 

Temperature Sensor from VW £39.40!

 

As above, full service.

Could be an issue with your lambda sensor as they also control fueling etc.
Make sure all vacuum pipes and so forth are secure, no air leaks, make sure your tracking is good and tyres are not scrubbing causing high rolling resistance

 

Try unplugging your Lambda sensors, run the car a few days without them, it will run on the factory default settings, see if you fuel consumption changes. (you should get at least another 10-15 on factory default)

Full service is a good shout also.

Does the 1.4 have a MAF sensor?

Can you smell petrol anywhere (friend of mine had a pin hole on the fuel filter, couldn't smell fuel but MPG was aweful)

 

Also put a paper towel or white towel under your zorst. As above, does it spit black stuff out?

That would indicate its running very rich.

 

Ty for all the help. Didn't expect this much advice off of a website haha.

 

Thats what i love about this site. Lots of member online most of the time and theres always people willing to help [y]

 

Just had a look at my exhaust and its has a load of black stuff around the tip of it. About 1cm wide covering the spout and I noticed a mild petrol smell when I got out of my car with the engine running.

 

http://imgur.com/gYfq90r.jpg

I reset the mile counter when I filled up. As you can see the fuel needle isn't looking healthy for the miles done.

 

I would expect its overfueling then mate.

If possible still get it scanned by a code reader. £10-15 ebay jobby, Vag-com or otherwise to see if it highlights anything in particular.

The coolant temp sensor and lambda sensor affect fuelling [y]

 

That's awful mpg mate hope you get it sorted asap. 1.4's are not great on petrol but you should be getting 30mpg minimum easily. Doing 117 miles you should probably use two lines on the petrol gauge.

 

I took it to a family friend who is a mechanic earlier and he said since my work run is only about 3 miles. The car is running on auto choke to get it warmed up but by the time I get to work it is still running on auto choke since the car hasn't warmed up which is probably why I'm using 2x the amount of petrol than I should be.

Anyway I'm driving to Brighton and back this Saturday and I'm filling up and resetting the counter before I go so I guess that will see if that is indeed the problem.

I'll let you know Sunday I guess

 

Are you sure your temp sensor is working properly?

If its faulty it can fool the ECU into thinking the engine is cold which means it will be overfuelling.

Does the gauge get to 90 degrees and stay at 90 degrees bang on throughout your journeys or does it fluctuate?

 

It doesn't get to 90 degrees coz I'm not driving long enough. I'm literally driving for 5 minutes down some country lanes so no traffic.

 

Have you ever driven it for longer than 5-10 mins lol? On you way home just take a detour on something and have a 15 minute drive round. After 5-10 mins max your temp gauge should have risen to 90 degrees and should stay sat at 90 degrees.

If it doesnt move at all or is random in its reading IE up down up down. Then given your overfuelling symptoms i would 99% say its this causing your MPG issues.

if it is, go a buy a GENUINE VW one. It will cost about £40. Yes they can be bought off eBay for less than a tenner but they are cheap copies and they will fail after a few months. Buy cheap buy twice.

 

I probably get about 300+ miles from a tank on my 2002 1.4 lasting me a few weeks (without running it empty).. I think I usually get about 30+ mpg

 

Yeah of course I have driven it for longer lol. My temp gauge does get to 90 and stays there. Just since I started this new job which is only 3 miles from my house that I've noticed fuel consumption go up. When I worked 15-20 miles away I never had this problem.

I could take a dual carriage way to work. Would only take an extra 2 mins. Would that make any difference to the consumption? I'm guessing it would warm the car up a bit quicker and cut off auto choke?

 

Oh right that wasnt made very clear lol

Its understandable that your MPG will suffer from lots of short journeys where the engine doesnt have chance to warm up properly but 14mpg does seem extreme.

Hope you get it sorted