Help My TD5 is too thirsty...

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

Sounds normal to me...

an electric car

buy the car expect the expence wait until you need a garage to repair it.

Jeremy Hughes said:

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

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how many litres did you put in?

Normal!!! That is just under 20 miles to the gallon. My old Disco managed at least 24mpg and that was driven with a heavy rigth foot.

Define:Motorway cruising speed.

If that >= 75mph then yeah, it's normal.

You're driving something with the aerodynamics of a pair of mating housebricks, in terms of high speed economy, in no way will it compare with the Audi A4 you shopped in for it.

The owners book says it has a 95 litre tank, and the light comes on when it has 9 litres left, I will fill it up again tomorrow just to make sure the guage isn't out, but I do not hold out any hope.

On the motorway I probably was doing between 65 to 75 for 90 to 95% of the journey with no stop starting as a very clear run.

At 75 mph the motor is working hard to push the car through the air. Try keeping it to 60 mph.

20 mpg does sound low. Whats the service record like ?.

Del.

Although mine is a manual I get between 400 and 500 miles to a tank averaging 28MPG

Any fuel leak should be easy to find (normally). Check your oil level and make sure it is not high which would suggest diesel is leaking into the sump.

Next thing would be a thorough service

T

Jeremy Hughes said:

The owners book says it has a 95 litre tank, and the light comes on when it has 9 litres left, I will fill it up again tomorrow just to make sure the guage isn't out, but I do not hold out any hope.

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To check your mpg brim the tank run it till the light comes on then brim it again divide the number of litres put in by 4.54 to get the number of gallons, divide the miles covered by gallons. Under 20 is pretty poor unless you are driving it like a racing car, I can match that in my V8.

Jeremy Hughes said:

On the motorway I probably was doing between 65 to 75 for 90 to 95% of the journey with no stop starting as a very clear run.

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I suspect your fuel consumption is correct for that speed, keeping your speed at 55-60mph (2250 to 2500 rpm approx) will greatly improve your fuel consumption. Anything above this will dramatically increase your mpg, I've only done a couple thousand miles since I've had my D2 and have managed an average 34mpg

Nigel.

Just to chip in, I had the same experience when I first drove my disco 2 TD5 - however, my fuel consumption improved significantly when I had:
a) a full service undertaken;
b) sorted out a seized viscous fan - these fans can't half drag down your fuel consumption if they are not working properly! Check to see if it spins freely by hand.
c) added a half litre bottle of slick 50 fuel additive to each of my next 3 fill ups to help clean out the fuel lines and injectors

50 pence is right - these cars need regular servicing!

Hope this helps

can I just say, ANY vehicle that you want to run well and return good economy needs regular servicing...

i get 400 miles full to ligth on my manual td5 but i drive at 70 ish on the motorways and amy pretty pleased with it as its a breeze block on wheels.

Also regualr maint is key mine has full oil change every 6000 miles and full service including fuel filter every 12K.

Jeremy Hughes said:

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

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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

Well some good advice. Also I filled up today as ran around on the yellow light for approx 25 miles. Filled the tank till it cut out twice, and with a bit of maths and a minute later I calculated it had actually done 23.9 mpg, so not as bad as first thought, however still slightly disapointing as my old 95 TD Disco did this even when driven fairly quick and that had covered just over 212K.

Jeremy Hughes said:

Well some good advice. Also I filled up today as ran around on the yellow light for approx 25 miles. Filled the tank till it cut out twice, and with a bit of maths and a minute later I calculated it had actually done 23.9 mpg, so not as bad as first thought, however still slightly disapointing as my old 95 TD Disco did this even when driven fairly quick and that had covered just over 212K.

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Hi Jeremy, was your TDi 300 auto or manual?

just pottering around town i get 22mpg out of mine. When i took it on a run to Blackpool 130 miles each way i did 70mph almost all the way there but stop start for 1/2 the way back, with the air con on and got 29mpg over all. It has been said many times on here that the TD5 is thirstier than the 300tdi but personally i dont find the TD5 bad at all.
Mark