Northern Auto Tech - ECU and Blue & Me Repairs

General TA fuel use

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General TA fuel use

Bella500

Bella500

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Bella is now three weeks old and she has done 1050km. Her dash reading for fuel use is 6.0l/100km, but having filled her up for the second time, with a total of 60l she is actually doing more like 5.7l/100km. That's about 50mpg. How does this compare?
 
Bella500 said:
Bella is now three weeks old and she has done 1050km. Her dash reading for fuel use is 6.0l/100km, but having filled her up for the second time, with a total of 60l she is actually doing more like 5.7l/100km. That's about 50mpg. How does this compare?
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excelente!
 
It depends on where you drive and how far you drive.

We have a TA 85bhp Lounge.

I've just come back from Derby, having driven up there a day or two earlier. From here in Cornwall it was 260miles each way motorway driving.

I filled up before I left and filled up at the end of each drive.

Steady 70mph, AAC set to 24degC, lights on, wipers used quite a bit.
55mpg going there, and 52mpg coming back.

Had I kept the speed down to 50mph, no doubt I'd have managed over 60mpg, but I'd be bored stiff!

Locally, we have steep hills. Plenty of them, and our general journeys aren't usually more than 12miles there and back .......... our fuel consumption seems to be around the 38mpg mark.

Hope that helps,
Mick.
 
Bella, 50mpg for a Twinair is pretty good, without knowing types of journey, driving style etc. It's also pretty cold out there right now, which impacts mpg, so expect more if the weather warms up and your journeys etc. stay the same. Some people have reported that the mpg increases as more miles are put on the engine, but I personally didn't notice this.
 
50 mpg is pretty good. My TwinAir 85HP (69HP with eco mode) has done about 7000 miles since bought new in May and it has done just under 48 mpg on average since new. I usually keep the air con on to avoid the windows steaming up in our damp climate, and that might cost me a couple of miles per gallon fewer.

On longer journeys with four people and luggage and the eco button off for the motorway, it drops to 40mpg.

It all depends on whether your daily commute is on the flat or in hilly country: flat on a 15 mile in each direction from cold you can get 49-50 mpg. This drops to the mid 40s in hilly terrain as the little engine has to work harder to get up hills in lower gears, and the eco button means you have to drop down another gear using even more fuel to maintain speed.

The EU tested mpg is plainly wildly overoptimistic: they must have had just a litre of fuel in the tank, the tyres over pumped, the air con off and a midget driving to get high 60s as average mpg.
 
I've managed nearly 100mpg in the hills with two on board, and the A/C on. Best tank to date was 59.7mpg over 725km again with two on board and the A/C on. I don't use the ECO button.

50mpg is very good as a tank average with only 1000km on the engine.
 
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I've managed 61 over a 240 mile journey, best was 67 on a 30 mile round trip (both in Eco) Average everyday is low 40's mostly Eco off.
 
UFI said:
I've managed nearly 100mpg in the hills with two on board, and the A/C on. Best tank to date was 59.7mpg over 725km again with two on board and the A/C on. I don't use the ECO button.

50mpg is very good as a tank average with only 1000km on the engine.
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Interesting! I'd love to know exactly how you've managed that because for the life of me, achieving that sort of mpg in our own TA would be impossible. Our own car has 8400 miles on the clock as of this afternoon and was serviced last August.

My missus does an 18 mile round trip to work each day and averages between 46 and 47 mpg per tank. The highest recored mpg on a single tank we've had so far with the car, is 59 mpg of mostly motorway and dual carriageway driving.

Our climate control is on all the time when the car is underway. The car runs mostly on the ECO setting, tyres are at the correct pressure and there's no extra weight being lumped around in the car (except the wife, six feet tall and twelve stone), although we do carry a full size spare wheel, but it doesn't weigh much more than the skinny space saver. The only fuel that has ever been put in the car since driven off the forecourt, is Shell Nitro unleaded which it runs extremely well on.

We've reached the point whereby we are no longer obsessed with trying to get as much mpg out of a tank on the TA as we can, that is utterly pointless because we know that there is no way on this earth we can ever personally achieve Fiat's claimed mpg figures. It's still a great little car, we've really warmed to the engine and its sound and it doesn't cost us anything in VED, so we're happy.
 
frupi said:
Interesting! I'd love to know exactly how you've managed that because for the life of me, achieving that sort of mpg in our own TA would be impossible. Our own car has 8400 miles on the clock as of this afternoon and was serviced last August.

My missus does an 18 mile round trip to work each day and averages between 46 and 47 mpg per tank. The highest recored mpg on a single tank we've had so far with the car, is 59 mpg of mostly motorway and dual carriageway driving.

Our climate control is on all the time when the car is underway. The car runs mostly on the ECO setting, tyres are at the correct pressure and there's no extra weight being lumped around in the car (except the wife, six feet tall and twelve stone), although we do carry a full size spare wheel, but it doesn't weigh much more than the skinny space saver. The only fuel that has ever been put in the car since driven off the forecourt, is Shell Nitro unleaded which it runs extremely well on.

We've reached the point whereby we are no longer obsessed with trying to get as much mpg out of a tank on the TA as we can, that is utterly pointless because we know that there is no way on this earth we can ever personally achieve Fiat's claimed mpg figures. It's still a great little car, we've really warmed to the engine and its sound and it doesn't cost us anything in VED, so we're happy.
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what tires u running 15's or 16's?
 
ahmett said:
what tires u running 15's or 16's?
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14 inch winter steels at the moment with Vredestein Snowtrac 3's at the correct pressures, 15's in the summer with the factory fit Goodyear's.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe we'd ever achieve the sort of mpg that's being bandied about irrespective of what size wheels we're wearing or even if the weather was better than it currently is. We had a pretty good summer last year and yes, the mpg did hit 50ish a couple of times. My missus drives quite gently, she's not interested in ragging the backside off her car, in fact, she treats it very well, but she's also not interested in driving like she has to watch the pennies either. Yes, we could switch off the climate control every time we're in the car, but then that has its downsides and we're not sacrificing in car comfort for the sake of a couple of extra mpg.
 
frupi said:
14 inch winter steels at the moment with Vredestein Snowtrac 3's at the correct pressures, 15's in the summer with the factory fit Goodyear's.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe we'd ever achieve the sort of mpg that's being bandied about irrespective of what size wheels we're wearing or even if the weather was better than it currently is. We had a pretty good summer last year and yes, the mpg did hit 50ish a couple of times. My missus drives quite gently, she's not interested in ragging the backside off her car, in fact, she treats it very well, but she's also not interested in driving like she has to watch the pennies either. Yes, we could switch off the climate control every time we're in the car, but then that has its downsides and we're not sacrificing in car comfort for the sake of a couple of extra mpg.
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besides fuel is cheaper now = )
 
Frupi, I've monitored the mpg of my last few cars with a/c on and off, and can't detect a difference. Leaving it on helps demisting, keeps the bacteria down and is good for the seals. My best mpg over a 23 mile commute was 57, but I've a mate who has more self control and he regularly achieves low 60s on decent runs.
 
Bella is a 2014 series 3 with the 85hp engine, not the new version of the TA, as we live in Australia and FIAT over here still use the older unit. The daily commute is on motorway and 60kph roads, but Bellas' average speed, according to her dash read-out, is 38kph since new. She has the 16X6.5 wheels and our weather right now is hot, between 30 and 40 centigrade, since we picked her up, so her soft-top is usually closed because it is too dam hot and the AC is on full. We have not turned the ECO button off nor her SS and she runs the Dualogic cog-box. We run her on Shell 98 octane petrol and are very happy with the way that she drives and the fuel consumption.
 
frupi said:
Interesting! I'd love to know exactly how you've managed that because for the life of me, achieving that sort of mpg in our own TA would be impossible
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Hypermiling skills are part of my driving skills:) As I've stated repeatedly, good mpg isn't about driving slowly, IMO that's the mistake most people make it's almost as easy to drive too slow for mpg as it is to drive too fast. Another secret ingredient was driving on hills. Honestly, 100mpg was a surprise to me as I wasn't really a full on eco run. The first part of the tank was just having a bit of fun and not really paying attention to mpg, I share driving UFI 30% of the time with a less dedicated driver, so factoring that in a 70mpg tank is basically within reach.

100mpg sounds impressive (much more so than 2.9l/100km), but I'm not really sure it is. I was driving 'blind' with only the MFD for guidance, I've now fitted an OBD gauge for a bit more info. Currently on 16" wheels. Here's a 20 year old 140mpg (imp) CRX for comparison:

http://ecomodder.com/blog/20-yearold-modified-honda-crx-hf-scores-118-mpg-fuel-economy-run/

(note that the pointy nose does nothing for aerodynamics at road car speeds - even subsonic aircraft have blunt noses)

The rest of my daily drivers' lifetime averages are 35-40% over the official EU cycle figures, so I really shouldn't be happy with anything less than consistent 100mpg tanks. There's certainly more to come, but we'll have to wait and see.
 
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UFI said:
Hypermiling skills are part of my driving skills:) As I've stated repeatedly, good mpg isn't about driving slowly, IMO that's the mistake most people make it's almost as easy to drive too slow for mpg as it is to drive too fast.
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I think one reason I get really bad fuel efficiency is that in my suburbs/local hood, people drive really slowly. I mean seriously, the speed limit is 50km/h but often there is a line of cars stuck behind someone doing 35-40km/h.

There's times where we're moving so slowly I can't even shift from 2nd into 3rd gear. And then of course there are speed bumps everywhere as well to add to the fun.

It's really annoying. When I'm able to shift into 4th gear, I'm beaming, because I know that's where the fuel efficiency is much better :D
 
44sunsets said:
I think one reason I get really bad fuel efficiency is that in my suburbs/local hood, people drive really slowly. I mean seriously, the speed limit is 50km/h but often there is a line of cars stuck behind someone doing 35-40km/h.

There's times where we're moving so slowly I can't even shift from 2nd into 3rd gear. And then of course there are speed bumps everywhere as well to add to the fun.

It's really annoying. When I'm able to shift into 4th gear, I'm beaming, because I know that's where the fuel efficiency is much better :D
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Similar situation, plus the fact that two substantial stretches of 70kmh road on my drive to work have been reduced to 60 in the last couple of months. Both are wide-open divided highway with excellent visibility and it's extremely frustrating. I don't consciously drive for economy but I leave the ECO on most of the time and only use AC on the hottest days, preferring open top and/or windows. The reading was hovering around 40mpg last I looked and I'm content with that. I fill up every second Saturday with 98 RON. I think switching to the latter more than paid for itself.
 
44sunsets said:
I think one reason I get really bad fuel efficiency is that in my suburbs/local hood, people drive really slowly. I mean seriously, the speed limit is 50km/h but often there is a line of cars stuck behind someone doing 35-40km/h.
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I have a pretty bad commute (~28km/h avg), but I'm able leave just after peak hour or it would be a lot worse. Most petrol cars will be most economical around 50km/h (some older automatics might be slightly below this) with diesels around 70km/h. The slow movers are really annoying in my diesel as I want to be doing at least 60, where I can just pull sixth on the flat. The best technique is to coast in neutral in these situations, at low speed where aero drag is minimal, you can go a long way in neutral and you'll be getting around 100mpg for the duration.

I think the 'Drop 5 save lives' campaign has caused a lot of traffic congestion, the speedo already takes off 5 and then if you drive 5 below that, you're traveling pretty slowly.

Speed humps needn't be a big issue, if you can slow down for them just using the engine you'll be using momentum to recharge the battery and you're getting 'infinite' mpg. It's all about stringing all the techniques together at exactly the right time, and switching to the appropriate technique as traffic and conditions allow.
 
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