Freelander 2 (LR2) 'Normal' fuel consumption

Reaching out for thoughts on SD4 fuel consumption:

I bought my SD4 for towing and moving motorcycles and indeed took it down to Gibraltar and dragged goods, chattels and trailer back to the UK, would appreciate thoughts on my fuel consumption experience:

I wouldn't say I am a hyper miler but the other half and I are pretty good at driving sensitively to achieve good fuel economy. The SD4 was reading around 29.2 mpg when we got it, driving around the UK we got it up to 30 (A bit less than I'd hoped but guessed it was better than the TD5 I had and, its still a a bit of a brick). Was keen to see what it would do on the run to Gibraltar:

Driving at a steady 70mph only got it up to 31.9mpg over 1500 miles; have to say was not looking forward to the return trip with a lot more in tow....

Left Gib with a trailer with two motorcycles on the back a roof bag and the Landy rammed with 'stuff' I reckon it all came to just over a Tonne of extra mass... prepared for open wallet surgery in fuel stations on the journey back.

Kell surprise at an average of 60-65mph (don't shoot me) she returned 28.9 mpg on the way back......

Maybe she needed a good run? I had been using a tank of normal fuel to a tank of 'expensive' fuel and had put some injector cleaner through her, maybe she would now return awesome fuel economy in the UK?

now three months on she is still only holding 30 mpg pretty much however we drive!

Is this Normal and as expected? I am not overly worried as I have an old petrol Mondeo which we use for daily commuting and I can get nearly 40mpg out of her and the Landy is used as and when.

Just interested...!
SD4 2010
100k
FSH
recent (before my ownership) new Turbo fitted.

P.S.

if you breakdown in France not many places will work on a Landy.

Thanks

Dunno what an F2 should do - but that is very poor fuel consumption.

An F1 would give 40 on long runs like that, less with the load I suppose.

My old F1 petrol would easily get 30mpg and 35 if I drove it steady, admittedly it only had an1800cc engine but I had to drive it harder to get any decent performance out of it. I would have thought a decent diesel fl2 would get over 40mpg if driven steadily.

Col

Sounds about right with a big trailer and a roof box.

I drive to Spain quite often and on the toll roads at steady 65mph, 30 °C ish, Spanish diesel and no trailer etc. then get 35-38 mpg.

But at home round town, in the winter on supermarket diesel I am lucky to get 23 mpg.

So rounding up they like the open road and hot weather. They don’t like the cold or things that muck up the aerodynamics.

Just add I tried changing to expensive diesel and it made very little difference

thanks all, just puzzled why there is so little difference between loaded an unloaded... As the turbo had been changed I assumed it was lunched so checked the intercooler to see if it was full of oil but no, it was clean inside.. no diesel smells, no smokey exhaust and no DPF..

Loaded or unloaded should not make much difference on a level road at a constant speed. Turbo either works or not (I wouldn’t change one just to save fuel). Drag goes up with speed and things you put outside of the vehicle like roof box, bike carriers, trailer etc. DPF goes through a cleaning cycle in cold conditions which uses a lot of fuel but its not worth going for a run down the motorway just to clean the DPF. You could move to a warmer country but that’s a bit extreme to fix your fuel consumption. Looks like you are doing the best you can. See how it goes in the summer?

My TD4 manual does about 30 MPG around local Cornish B roads, and I'll average 37 MPG on the motorway heading northeast to Cardiff.
The return journey heading southwest normally sees the MPG drop to about 35 MPG. This will be at and indicated speed of 75 MPH (real speed 73) MPH.

If I'm driving at 60 on a good A road, the MPG will climb to low 40s MPG.

Keep in mind that the MPG calculation is only over the last 29 miles travelled, so a change from efficient motorway to less efficient B roads or town driving will register a drop in the figures.

My SD4 counts its mpg since last reset. It compares precusly to the receipt if I check it full to full.
Those SD4 mpg figures are about right. You'll get 51mpg at a constant 50mpg. Gets a bit better at constant 40mpg. Around town with a bit of A road you'll get just above 20-24mpg. I get about 36mpg at 60mph constant speed. 30-32mpg at 70mph.

The OP’s mpg is a bit on the low side, especially if his SD4 has a manual box. My auto averages 32~34 mpg driven to the speed limits. Driven ‘manually’ I average 35~37 to the gallon. On long stretches of road where the speed limit is 50 or 60 mph the mpg creeps up towards 40 if, and only if, you keep the revs below 2k by selecting a higher gear.
Cruising down the motorway, with cruise control on, at 70mph returns 37mpg (unless there’s a headwind!)
Towing is thirsty work. Towing a 2-berth caravan gave me 26~28 mpg.
Driving style makes a huge difference in mpg. Braking late instead of backing off early wastes fuel while harsh acceleration guzzles the stuff. My wife tends to brake late and often. She gets a lot less mpg than me.

Thanks all for your responses, there clearly is a wide range of fuel consumption experiences out there. My consumption still 'feels' high when driving around the conservatively against what she did well loaded up through Europe, I would be quite happy with 29mpg towing a Ton around but 30-31mg with nothing but fresh air inside seems... excessive....

Just completed an engine service, will get the Auto TX fluid changed as cant confirm its history, see if it makes a difference. No codes up but only looked with a standard OBDII reader, will see if there is a PCM update overdue.. though clutching at straws!

You might want to have a look at the EGR valve. I fitted a blanking kit years ago after seeing how restricted the EGR valve and inlet manifold were with oily, sooty paste. Note: There are no dashboard alarms and the car has sailed through its MOT emission tests ever since.

Definitely worth checking the air filter is in decent condition, and well worth checking the intake manifold for carbon build up as suggested above.

Thanks Guys, air filter is clean and new but have ordered an EGR blanking plate so will fit soonest. I saw posts about carbon build up in the inlet manifold, but assumed as my power 'seems' to be OK it wasn't an issue, but likely its time to roll my sleeves up (looks like a grubby job) and strip it out!

Cheers

Allan Trotter said:

Thanks Guys, air filter is clean and new but have ordered an EGR blanking plate so will fit soonest.

Click to expand...

You might find that blanking the EGR puts the MIL on, as after 2011 it was an MOT requirement that it be obvious to the tester there was a problem.
I've also noticed a 2 MPG drop after my EGR was blanked. Not ideal if you're wanting to save fuel.

Just to pile on...
New (to me) 2014 FL2 TD4, 116k miles, FSH - Did 150 miles yesterday (motorway) at 70mph using cruise control for most of it -- 46mpg.
10 miles to the shops (and pub) today on tight B-roads and stop-start traffic - smidge under 30mpg.Might not be enough miles for a good mpg today.

FWIW - 'real' mpg from others:
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/land-rover/
Says 25-40 for the SD4.

Allan Trotter said:

Thanks all for your responses, there clearly is a wide range of fuel consumption experiences out there. My consumption still 'feels' high when driving around the conservatively against what she did well loaded up through Europe, I would be quite happy with 29mpg towing a Ton around but 30-31mg with nothing but fresh air inside seems... excessive....

Just completed an engine service, will get the Auto TX fluid changed as cant confirm its history, see if it makes a difference. No codes up but only looked with a standard OBDII reader, will see if there is a PCM update overdue.. though clutching at straws!

Click to expand...

Theres too many facters that can oftset the result. Like none standard tyre size. How and where yer drive. I run my tyres at 32psi to stop the 19inch rumble. When the dash says 54mph my own sat nav is on 50mph. Test it like this on a constant flat road on cruise control. Reset the trip counter. You'll know what its doing after a mile.

Nodge68 said:

You might find that blanking the EGR puts the MIL on, as after 2011 it was an MOT requirement that it be obvious to the tester there was a problem.
I've also noticed a 2 MPG drop after my EGR was blanked. Not ideal if you're wanting to save fuel.

Click to expand...

I acknowledge you're the font of all knowledge when it comes to FL2's, but I found the exact opposite. No MIL alarm and an improvement in mpg. But my inlet manifold was VERY choked.

Rank Amatuer said:

I acknowledge you're the font of all knowledge when it comes to FL2's, but I found the exact opposite. No MIL alarm and an improvement in mpg. But my inlet manifold was VERY choked.

Click to expand...

There are many factors that effect MPG, but the MIL issue is a compliance thing, so should be standard across all effected vehicle ages.
Mine doesn't put the MIL, but I have measured a 8% drop in economy after installing a EGR blanking plate. Ok I don't know if it's the actual lack of exhaust gas in the intake upsetting the O2 sensor, or simply the ECM detecting a lower intake temperature than it should be seeing and implementing some default parameters, but it's definitely effected the local journey MPG. I've also noticed it takes much longer to get the engine up to running temperature when there's no hot exhaust gasses passing through the EGR cooler. Maybe it's this that has effected the MPG, who knows.

A quick update; carried out a full service and planned on a few partial drain and dumps of the transmission. Prepared a number of marked up bottles to hold the 3-4 Liters of expected fluid so I could refill with the requisite amount and top up..

Removed the level plug and as expected fluid ran out... and kept on running... and running.. and running... finally pulled the drain plug and the remainder followed.

Started pouring the expected 3.5L into bottles to find I had recovered 7.5L... {Don't judge the 1.5L Gin bottle it was all I could find)



Decided to put the 3.5 L back in and see what happens, test drove no problems, no fault codes so changed a couple more times.

Been testing for a few hundred miles and the fuel consumption has been improving slowly on the trip, so did a brim to brim range check and sticking to speed limits seems to be getting 36.5 MPG <am guessing it takes a while for the history to clear on the trip>

All that extra fluid being pumped around the box seems to have dragged the fuel economy down by around 2-4 mpg...