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[jimbo_lad]

Chris - thanks for your comments.

Handbrake
I agree it seems unlikely that brakes could cause that much extra fuel consumption, but worth checking out - there are lots of historical posts about corrosion to hand brake cable. When I first jacked the car up, I thought there was a bit of an issue; however after taking the wheel off it was clear the handbrake cable was moving freely and the slight resistance seems to be due to differential and very slight brushing of brake pad on the disc (the car hasn't been out for a week and I guess in this warm weather there's some very slight corrosion to the discs). When I road test I'll check the temp of the drum and disc to make sure this isn't a problem.

Auto Gear box

One thing I had rather forgotten about was the very slight oil leak reported by the main dealer when they tried to fix the petrol issue last September. The mechanic told me it was easy to top up, so I bought a litre of fluid, but haven't yet topped it up.  However looking at the maintenance guide it doesn't look easy at all, given I don't have a proper jack or axle stands.

Chris to answer your specific question - the car does get into top gear, but recently has tended to change down sooner than it used to - I've assumed this was due to lack of engine power rather than a gear box issue. However it would be good to top up the fluid - can anyone tell me whether this is possible without axle stands?

Engine Issues

I finished the work on the engine yesterday and very pleased it started first time. Most of the plenum/tubes were  surprisingly clean (for 86k miles), but as mentioned in earlier post, one of the tubes was blocked - so I'm hoping this will make a difference. I also changed the spark plugs (the old ones were rather dirty - not completely sooty, but not good).

Next step is to take it for a decent road test and see what mpg I get.

BTW this is the first time I've done any serious work on engines since 1976 when I stripped down a Rover 2000 engine and put in new pistons and big ends, as well as grinding in valves etc. Unfortunately I didn't get to enjoy that car for long since around Xmas that year a young kid stole a car just up the road on the way to school. He was keen to show off his Graeme Hill impression to his mates - unfortunately, while he knew what to do with the accelerator, the same wasn't the case Re brake pedal. He came down a slope towards  T junction, went straight over and smashed into both my car and my neighbour's writing off all 3. He ran away while his mates watched. Despite all the witnesses, Police were unable to find out who he was (something to do with interviewing minors).

I also had earlier experience with pistons on an A35 van - but that's another story........


Jim


 

[jimbo_lad]

This issue has been resolved in a most surprising way.

After the work detailed in earlier posts there was no improvement in fuel consumption and I was getting quite depressed - so much so that I started looking at a replacement and have more or less settled on a Skoda Octavia. Last night I started looking at a Skoda forum and found several posts about poor fuel consumption. One comment caught my eye - "is your car recording miles per US gal?" 

A quick check revealed mine was indeed set to US settings! I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry!

Having reset, I made a short 10 mile journey this morning and recorded 24mpg from a cold start, and on return an hour later when car was still a bit warm I got 27.5mpg.  Much the same as I used to get and pretty good for a 3.2 on a short run.

It seems I accidentally changed the settings to US more than a year ago - there never was a problem.

With hindsight, I should have checked mpg in the old fashion way, rather than relying on the electronics. Too much electronics in these modern cars!

Am I the only person to have fallen into this trap (I couldn't fine any earlier references)?

You live and learn.


Jim

PS a US gal is 80% of an imperial gal. So the 24miles per US gal mentioned in my first post is equivalent to 30 miles per imperial gal

[Tim11111]

How do you check what setting it's on and how do you change it?

I've noticed my consumption droppping slightly over the past few months (but this could be due to other issues).

Thanks
Tim.

[jimbo_lad]

Its deep in the systems settings menu - page 36 in my manual




Jim

[Chris_H]

This issue has been resolved in a most surprising way.

After the work detailed in earlier posts there was no improvement in fuel consumption and I was getting quite depressed - so much so that I started looking at a replacement and have more or less settled on a Skoda Octavia. Last night I started looking at a Skoda forum and found several posts about poor fuel consumption. One comment caught my eye - "is your car recording miles per US gal?" 

A quick check revealed mine was indeed set to US settings! I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry!

Having reset, I made a short 10 mile journey this morning and recorded 24mpg from a cold start, and on return an hour later when car was still a bit warm I got 27.5mpg.  Much the same as I used to get and pretty good for a 3.2 on a short run.

It seems I accidentally changed the settings to US more than a year ago - there never was a problem.

With hindsight, I should have checked mpg in the old fashion way, rather than relying on the electronics. Too much electronics in these modern cars!

Am I the only person to have fallen into this trap (I couldn't fine any earlier references)?

You live and learn.


Jim

PS a US gal is 80% of an imperial gal. So the 24miles per US gal mentioned in my first post is equivalent to 30 miles per imperial gal

Fantastic.  What a result! and it's not as if you've been paying over the odds while the "problem" existed.

You're right about electronics in cars (but more specifically automation within cars).  There's no substitute for sporadic checks by independent means and also the ability to disable options by the superior human.

From and electronic engineer.

Well done by the way.  And thanks for the reminder.

[Darth Loo-knee]

Well done Jim I enjoyed this read