Right I have owned my TD5 for less than a week, and already I'm not so sure whether I have made a mistake! I filled it up, fue pump cut out twice so definately full, then zeroed the trip clock. It has covered all of 375 miles and the empty light has just come on. I have driven approximately half at motor way cruising speed and half at just running about, but not booting about in sports mode (auto box). Other than a leak somewhere is there anything that I should look at?
Jeremy
Hi Jeremy, on the face of it, your mpg does sound a bit heavy. Here are my results from a '99 TD5 auto:
1. Mixed use ie motorway at 65 to 70mph, plus day to day stuff gives me about 30mpg
2. Long motorway runs at 65-70mph about 32mpg. When I fill up I really fill up so I can see the level of diesel in the pipe. That gives me a reference point for the next fill up. I regularly get 500kms (312mls) from full to the halfway mark and then about 300kms (188mls) from halfway to the yellow light.
3. Towing seems to bring down the mpg to about 25ish bit I must stress that when I'm towing (last job was towing a trailer with a D2 on the back so about 3000kgs) I tend to keep to about 45-50mpg and use third gear
4. My car has been De-EGR'd, K&N filter, has fully synth transmission oils, recent oil and filter job on the auto box and it has it's engine oil (fully synth 5w-30) changed every 10,000kms.
5. It took quite a long time to get into the swing on driving an auto D2 and to be honest, even though they drive well, they are probably not the most efficient drive-train, especially compared to todays 6 to 8 speed auto boxes.
I find if you are driving in areas where you are unlikely to achieve 55mph or more, then selecting '3' rather than 'D' has it's advantages, especially when above about 48mph as the 'box goes into third gear torque lockup.
One final overiding comment is that TD5's, in my experience, are more refined that TDi 300, but slurp more juice.
Don't panic yet, do a few tankfulls before knowing exactly what your mpg really is, but change your air filter immediately.
Good luck
Dave
