Technical Improving Fuel Economy?

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Technical Improving Fuel Economy?

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Mar 19, 2005
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Just wondering if theres anymore tips I could use to improve fuel economy on my 1.2 8v mk2?

Im gonna try lose some weight out of it, but with 17's and an amp/sub etc its gonna be hard.

Ive got a new exhaust recently that seems to have helped a bit

I gave it a dose of Redex fuel system cleaner, might have worked

I drive reeeaaally carefully, usually in 4th or 5th round about 30-40 so I cant drive anymore economically lol

anyother ideas?
 
I tried an example to work out mpg and that agve me roughly 45mpg, thats from 110 miles to roughly 11 litres of petrol, thats what my punto is doing on average, so 45mpg seems quite good I think?
 
For 17's and all the audio doing 45mpg thats very good mate, if you put steelies on and took ICE out bet youd hit 48/50
 
thefishdude said:
yeah with the alloys and the extra weight 45 is seems pretty god to me also. is that driving round town ?? out inopen ?? cause you will get better mpg at 50 in 5th ithink you will find but if you in town cant do that obviously.

mostly in town
 
I had an 8v 04 reg courtesy car while my Sporting was being fixed and over the 3 weeks of 10 miles to work in the morning including through town and 12 miles return on about 8 miles of dual carriageway and 4 miles of town it returned 61 mpg.

This was achieved by keeping to speed limits, changing gear at no more than 2,600 rpm and cruising on the dual carriageway at around 65 mph.

I noticed that above 65 mph and gear changes over 2,600 rpm greatly reduced the fuel economy.

Driving my 16v Sporting in a similar way returns about 56 mpg but if I open it up it comes down to about 48 mpg.

Having carried out mpg checks by the full tank method and comparing it against the trip computer my car's trip computer seems fairly accurate. How accurate the trip computer on the courtesy car was, I don't know
 
Shunter said:
I had an 8v 04 reg courtesy car while my Sporting was being fixed and over the 3 weeks of 10 miles to work in the morning including through town and 12 miles return on about 8 miles of dual carriageway and 4 miles of town it returned 61 mpg.

This was achieved by keeping to speed limits, changing gear at no more than 2,600 rpm and cruising on the dual carriageway at around 65 mph.

I noticed that above 65 mph and gear changes over 2,600 rpm greatly reduced the fuel economy.

Driving my 16v Sporting in a similar way returns about 56 mpg but if I open it up it comes down to about 48 mpg.

Having carried out mpg checks by the full tank method and comparing it against the trip computer my car's trip computer seems fairly accurate. How accurate the trip computer on the courtesy car was, I don't know


Yeah thats pretty much how I drive, occasional ragging though :eek:
 
wolfracepunto said:
To save weight you could take the spare wheel/toolkit out and replace with tyre weld ;)

whats this now? I remember hearing about this before, how much and where can I get some? 'cause the spare wheel etc is heavy and Id never put the damn thing on, Ive had 2 nails in my tires and never used it.
 
use narrower tyres/increase the pressure a few psi and check them weekly as this will drasticly effect mpg.
 
Absolutly. Tyres make a big difference. You need an acurate guage, and pump them up a bit more than Fiat state to reduce the resistance. Having energy saving tyres also helps. Note that there is likely to be less grip available, much like if you brought hard compund tyres. But if you're driving economically then it's not such a problem.

The other thing is, don't brake. Obviously if you need to then do so. But look ahead and adjust your speed without braking in advance. My wife hated me flying round corners in my Punto when she was a passenger. I do it not just for fun, but since it means I don't have to accelerate as much (which uses more fuel), as well as save on braking before hand and its associated wear. In a similar vein, don't accelerate up a hill if you don't need to. Instead lift off a little and then accelerate down the other side. It takes a lot of energy to climb a hill, so use the momentum you have already. Stop-start driving is the worst to get good efficiency, so if in a slow moving traffic jam, keep moving slowly and smoothly, not start, race up and stop.

Drag is also an issue, so don't open windows or the sunroof. Some manufacturers now do special versions with underbody aero stuff to reduce drag.

Final tip: fill right up. Save yourself that extra trip to the petrol station, unless it happens to be on your way normally. I used to be able to get 500 miles from a tank in the summer holidays (less traffic to slow me down). which means less fillings up, with any associated miles to get to the petrol station.

My old trip computer seemed on the whole to overread by a few mpg compared to calculations from full tanks. I kept a log over the 60k miles, and managed to average 50mpg, despite driving with a lead foot sometimes.
 
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