TD5 - 34.5 mpg!

There's been a lot of chat around MPG on this forum, but I was especially pleased with this, so I though I would bore you all with it! Sometimes I check my MPG (spreadsheet in my ipaq), and the average over 108 tankfuls (I sound like an anorak!) is almost 31 MPG.
On Wednesday I filled the tank in Edinburgh (Shell normal diesel, not the vpower stuff) and drove steadily to Sheffield. Yesterday I set off early to Warwick, and home last night. I fuelled-up at 605 miles (the fuel light hadn't come on) with 80 litres. That's 34.5 MPG!!!

I was driving fairly steady (as you have to on the A1 in Scotland because of traffic and speed cameras) and sticking to the speed limits. No speedy acceleration, only 2 cold starts over the whole journey, tyres at normal pressure, etc etc...

Disco is 126k miles/6 years old (owned by me from new), and recently serviced by the non-Stealer. Castrol magnatec oil.

Best MPG yet by far, if only it did this all the time !

MartinK said:

There's been a lot of chat around MPG on this forum, but I was especially pleased with this, so I though I would bore you all with it! Sometimes I check my MPG (spreadsheet in my ipaq), and the average over 108 tankfuls (I sound like an anorak!) is almost 31 MPG.
On Wednesday I filled the tank in Edinburgh (Shell normal diesel, not the vpower stuff) and drove steadily to Sheffield. Yesterday I set off early to Warwick, and home last night. I fuelled-up at 605 miles (the fuel light hadn't come on) with 80 litres. That's 34.5 MPG!!!

I was driving fairly steady (as you have to on the A1 in Scotland because of traffic and speed cameras) and sticking to the speed limits. No speedy acceleration, only 2 cold starts over the whole journey, tyres at normal pressure, etc etc...

Disco is 126k miles/6 years old (owned by me from new), and recently serviced by the non-Stealer. Castrol magnatec oil.

Best MPG yet by far, if only it did this all the time !

Click to expand...

Hi Martin, well done and particularly well done for posting something positive, instead of the normal "Help - my doo-flicker valve has just broken, what do I do".

Just a thought you understand, but bearing in mind all the drive train and power-sapping friction of a Disco, I decided to try an experiment/investment for one of ours. It's not conclusive but early signs are encouraging.

I drained all of the drivetrain fluids ie. gearbox, transfer box and both axles and refilled them with fully synthetic oils. I used Difflock EVO1 for the gearbox and EVO2 for all the rest.

What I've found is that the vehicle seems more eager, reaches 60mph (our normal max cruising speed) much easier with less apparent throttle required and generally runs quieter as well.

These oil are not cheap and if you did a cost/benefit exercise it may be difficult to justify the expense, but I'm assured that the service intervals can be at least doubled, which offsets the cost differential somewhat.

Maybe something to considor??

This program was done on my wifes Tdi 200 with 162,000mls and I'll certainly be doing the same to my Tdi 300 auto, 78,000mls.

thebiglad, thanks for that, I do share your view that there's a lot we could do to get better mpg. I think I have MTF94 in the box, and magnatec in the engine. However the BFG AT's probably cost a few % of mpg over road tyres (could also add a few psi to reduce drag). Also this dry warm weather is probably good for mpg, with minimal alternator load (not warm enought for aircon either), and dry roads are presumably better than wet roads for minimizing drag? It definitely all adds up!

MartinK said:

thebiglad, thanks for that, I do share your view that there's a lot we could do to get better mpg. I think I have MTF94 in the box, and magnatec in the engine. However the BFG AT's probably cost a few % of mpg over road tyres (could also add a few psi to reduce drag). Also this dry warm weather is probably good for mpg, with minimal alternator load (not warm enought for aircon either), and dry roads are presumably better than wet roads for minimizing drag? It definitely all adds up!

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Hi Martin, with the costs of fuel at the comletely rediculous levels they are now, I like to try all avenues for fuel consumption reduction.

The Tdi200 was giving a day to day mpg of 36, "so my mission Jim, should I accept it, is to increase that to 40, by then end of this month - this message will self-destruct in 5 seconds"

Well, we'll see ....................

Hi Martin

I was just wondering about your 80 litre tank fill. Is the TD5 not 95 litres, of which 9 litres is the amber light reserve?

Glad your getting decent economy. I'm happy enough with mine as well.

Cheers

Andy

03 td5 auto dsco:

road tyres
egr blanked
down pipe cat gone
driving steady

I can only get 24.5 mpg at the max from mine, any ideas how to improve further?

Hi pindie Try cleaning the map sensor. It is mounted in the inlet manifold and is a 15min job to do. Did it to my td5 and has made a big difference to smoothness and fuel consumption

Hi 4x4forks,

I think i have already done that if its the one held in by two 8mm bolts and has aplastic peg and a depression in it. I have not tried cleaning the one in the inlet from the air filter though.

i was wondering if its just an auto thing? Any body got an auto thats reasonable on fuel?

My last tankful worked out at 35mpg dead. That's a 200tdi disco running on BFG muds and driving as carefully as poss. Normal carefree driving gets me 30ish usually. Currently running 80% svo 20% pump diesel.

pindie said:

Hi 4x4forks,

I think i have already done that if its the one held in by two 8mm bolts and has aplastic peg and a depression in it. I have not tried cleaning the one in the inlet from the air filter though.

i was wondering if its just an auto thing? Any body got an auto thats reasonable on fuel?

Click to expand...

I've got a Tdi300 auto and I'm sure that of all the autos have had over the years this one took the most getting used to.

If you think about 122bhp, 2+tons and an autobox, it's not a recipe for fast accelerations.

However, after De-EGRing & De-Cating mine it is much improved.

I took mine for a testdrive yesterday after I finished some work on her and if I evaluate it logically, what I would say is that on my car, you don't have the same sense of accelerating through gears (as on a manual) as the box changes sooooh smoothly, but I get up to 60 in a surprisingly short time, bearing in mind 122bhp, 2 tons etc.

On the subject of mpg I get about 33.

Hi, Martin,
I'm getting 34 to 35 out my 2002 td5, manual, like it says in the hand book, keep the revs between 2000 and 3000 for best economy, keep the tires at the correct pressures and change the airfilters at the required intervals.

Not bad for a 2+ ton 4wd gas guzzler.

Not quite as good as my neighbours Toyota Yaris at 38mpg.

Can anyone tell me why the cost of diesel is now more than petrol, when back in the early 70's it was about half the price of petrol.
Would be interested to know.

Regards
Richardg

RichardJG said:

Hi, Martin,
I'm getting 34 to 35 out my 2002 td5, manual, like it says in the hand book, keep the revs between 2000 and 3000 for best economy, keep the tires at the correct pressures and change the airfilters at the required intervals.

Not bad for a 2+ ton 4wd gas guzzler.

Not quite as good as my neighbours Toyota Yaris at 38mpg.

Can anyone tell me why the cost of diesel is now more than petrol, when back in the early 70's it was about half the price of petrol.
Would be interested to know.

Regards
Richardg

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Don't talk to me about the price of diesel. Here in France everyone has a diesel car and when we first moved over about 6 yrs ago, it was 68 cents (0.68 euro), today I bought some (not a lot) and it was 1.459 euros - more than double and what's even worse is that it's now the same price as petrol !!!!!!!

Not happy, no siree bob, not happy.