Technical Unreal consumption, unreal mileage

[tothemax]

Have had an 02 1.2 for three years, now. Other than the door locks, no problems to speak of until now.
Doing mostly motorway driving, I tend to get an indicated cumulative consumption of around 47mpg. On the first half of one 300 mile round trip to Scotland last month, no surprises. At my destination, the Stilo remained outside for several hours, while temperatures dropped below freezing. On the way back, indicated cumulative mpg. started falling fairly fast and, even with a load of very short trips since, isn't dropping below 51-52mpg. (I know, it doesn't sound like a problem so far).
What was also noticeable on the return from Scotland was that the trip mileage reading was out, showing approx. 90 miles more on the round trip than it ought to have done. Since then, I've noticed that for every real mile of travel, 1.6 are being registered, i.e. it is registering one kilometer of travel as one mile of travel, hence the superb apparent mpg (yes, the indicators remain "mi" for miles and mpg). The odometer is affected in the same way as is the trip mileage indicator. I have the impression that the speedometer is indicating the correct speed, though.
How do I deal with the problem?

 

[Argonought]

I'd have a play with 'My Car' options and then reset everything by removing battery lead for say 30 minutes.

 

[tothemax]

Thanks Argonought. I'll take a look.

 

[The Beard]

Mrs. Beard has a '05 1.4 Active. Around town she typically gets around 37 mpg according to the trip comp, I get about 42. On a trip last Summer to the Poole which was almost all on national speed limit A roads her Stilo with me driving showed 50mpg on the average readout. When I filled it up, I worked the average consumption out as 47mpg and 46 on the return with a similar figure along the South Coast.

The car is way more economical than the 1.6 Focuses I've had in the past. I think it very much depends how you drive it, obvious I know, but if you don't ask too much of it in terms of performance the car is capable of excellent fuel
figures.

 

[JTD_Liam]

Havn't there been cases of the milometer going faulty, where it does things like this?

A mate of mine had a problem with his 52 Reg 1.2 Active, where the total mileage would get to a certain point, and then drop back by 100 miles or so. For example, it could be on 23,550 & count up every mile, then when it reached 23,600, it would jump back to 23,500, and would keep doing this over & over again.

Its not totally the same but in the end he had to get the whole instrument binacle replaced. Not sure if that's always necessary though. It could always be an earth/connection problem that i think ive read about on the speedo/instrument panel?

 

[Big Black Stilo]

stilo can have little fits like this.

i didnt notice the miles thing but my car once thought it was in italy as the mirror on window switches went the wrong way round

as posted, battery off and all sorted

 

[tothemax]

Disconnecting the battery off didn't sort it. I've since worked out that the distance in kilometers is also inflated. But the degree of inflation varies. Yesterday, on an identical Scottish trip, the inflation factor was 1.27 instead of 1.6.

I've also noticed that - occasionally - on bends the fuel gauge now swings to empty and back again, even when the tank is almost full and that this is - very occasionally - accompanied by "ASR Failure" flashing up, along with the corresponding alarm.

Also, when speedlock is switched on, occasionally it tries to lock the already locked doors again when reaching 12 mph or so.

Dodgy earth or complete unit?

 

[Argonought]

Dodgy earth or complete unit?

Hopefully dodgy earth

This might sound quite insane but it might be worth fitting a new coil to each cylinder (just buy one and swap down the line - if the fault remains).

Couple of people have cleared erratic fuel gauges by doing this :chin:

 

[JTD_Liam]

Also, when speedlock is switched on, occasionally it tries to lock the already locked doors again when reaching 12 mph or so.

My Stilo has always done this - thought that was just how it was. However my miles are proper miles & my fuel gauge doesn't do a dance for me. I feel slightly disappointed

 

[tothemax]

Thanks, guys. Out of respect for the Stilo's many good features, don't misinterpret the expression "add to the pile". Anyway, Mrs. Max has been using it for the last two days and reports SOMETHING NEW! There's an occasional slight misfire (I'd noticed that, too, in the last couple of weeks) and sometimes yes, sometimes, when it misfires, I'm told that the fuel gauge swings to empty and back again. This, though has not so far been accompanied by "ASR Failure".
Please follow the logic chain which I can't grasp and advise - earth, coils, kit or caboodle?

 

[Argonought]

Please follow the logic chain which I can't grasp and advise - earth, coils, kit or caboodle?

It's something like a £30 gamble (cost of a coil) and many would argue you SHOULD be carrying one as a spare anyway.

 

[tothemax]

Rightly or wrongly, Stilos have always given me the impression of being relatively lightweight in construction. I had never imagined mine having enough mass to distort space and time, also the presence of mind to let me know it was about to try something very special indeed.
There’s so much you have to take on trust – do you know, for instance, you’ll be paying attention for that nanosecond when nuclear fusion finally comes of age? You won’t be wanting to miss out if a Stilo near you decides to have a go, so here are my observations. But can there be a rational explanation? Will an oil change get me to Roswell?
Being a methodical kind of guy, I was making a note of the odometer and trip mileage readings once back home after this morning’s drive to town. We were stationary, in fact parked, facing downhill on a fairly steep slope with the engine idling, misfiring repeatedly (previously there has been isolated misfiring, always at speed). Fuel was lowish, but the amber warning light had not come on.
Out of the blue the following happens. The Low Fuel message appears, accompanied by the audible warning. The fuel gauge swings to empty, back to nearly full and settles down at a slightly lower level than it had been showing. At the same time, the passenger doors (not the driver’s door) lock themselves – a sensible but arguably inadequate precaution in the light of what followed.
When the Low Fuel message disappeared, the odometer had gained 2 miles, and the trip mileage had gained 1.3.
But, apart from being 1.3 miles away from where I thought I was, everything around was telling me I was still in the same place in the same Stilo.

 

[Argonought]

Well, the classical laws of physics are very robust in my experience and you can be sure there WILL BE an explanation.

So how about making some attempt at actually finding the cause rather than just theorizing about it







.....we can do that afterwards

 

[tothemax]

Cutting the story short (I've been as sick as the car), I took the Stilo to a main dealer, and all the problems have been resolved.
Two conclusions - JTD_Liam - they say that the system is programmed to keep locking the already locked doors when speedlock is switched on. I just thought it strange, as it had not been doing that virtually the whole length of time I've had the car.
The main problem, and they say they've seen a few like it, was all down to a faulty spark plug. Put in technical terms, it "spiked the ECU", and everything flowed from there.
Now that seems less complicated than it seemed to be.

 

[JTD_Liam]

Cutting the story short (I've been as sick as the car), I took the Stilo to a main dealer, and all the problems have been resolved.
Two conclusions - JTD_Liam - they say that the system is programmed to keep locking the already locked doors when speedlock is switched on. I just thought it strange, as it had not been doing that virtually the whole length of time I've had the car.

Wicked, glad it's resolved and that i need no longer worry about Stella attempting to lock her already locked doors, thanks

 

[JFL]

when my car had the dancing fuel light and no readings on the trip computer whatsoever it turned out needing a new body computer