Technical Winter diesal

[peter7889]

I have got a 1.9 GPs and in the summer i was getting around 40 mpg around town on every tank, but i have just noticed my mpg has gone down to 34 mpg. I have heard that when they introduce winter diesal to stop the diesal waxing in cold weather it dose lower mgp on most cars. Has any body else noticed a drop ?
I have been used millers diesal additive for a few months now and personaly MPG and power wise it has made no differance at all, has any body else had any better results from it ?

 

[1.8Stilo]

ran 3 bottles of miller through this year, not 100% sure if it did or didnt make a difference, it could just be the placebo affect. Though I did notice when i use it, she puts out more of the black stuff than usual under steam. Maybe its loosening crud and cleaning it out?

Ive been using shell vpower diesel more regulary and can tell the difference. the engine feels smother? or though maybe that is placebo again.. seem to get the same miles out of a tank with either that or normal which is around 250miles around town out of £30, though vpower is 129.9p which makes the wallet twinge. Apparently vpower has cleaning additives in it aswell...

think im going to stick some comma diesel magic in from my local motorfactor over the next couple of weeks to try.

mpg has dropped as the car takes longer to heat up, would say 2/3mpg... Im down to 39/40 from my town normal of 43/44.. Combined, motorway stays same late 40's/50mpg.

Best mpg was 52 this summer when i went to edinburgh.

 

[peter7889]

ran 3 bottles of miller through this year, not 100% sure if it did or didnt make a difference, it could just be the placebo affect. Though I did notice when i use it, she puts out more of the black stuff than usual under steam. Maybe its loosening crud and cleaning it out?

Ive been using shell vpower diesel more regulary and can tell the difference. the engine feels smother? or though maybe that is placebo again.. seem to get the same miles out of a tank with either that or normal which is around 250miles around town out of £30, though vpower is 129.9p which makes the wallet twinge. Apparently vpower has cleaning additives in it aswell...

think im going to stick some comma diesel magic in from my local motorfactor over the next couple of weeks to try.

mpg has dropped as the car takes longer to heat up, would say 2/3mpg... Im down to 39/40 from my town normal of 43/44.. Combined, motorway stays same late 40's/50mpg.

Best mpg was 52 this summer when i went to edinburgh.

I must say i did use vpower for about 2 months in the summer and my mpg around town went up to about 42, on a run i was getting 49 mgp and that was doing 80 all the way there, didn't notice any power increase though to be honest.
I don't think i am going to bother with millers again it realy seems to be doing nothing, i think i might bite the bullet and start using vpower again in the summer. I think that 36 mgp out of a diesal is bloody awfull

 

[doncarlyon]

Down to 33mpg at the minute

 

[peter7889]

Down to 33mpg at the minute

I am not the only one suffering at the moment with this weather and winter diesel, when although i am only doing 36 mpg at the moment it's still better than my last 1.4 car that only did 30 Role on the summer when i will be back up to 40 again.

 

[hilly81]

I am not the only one suffering at the moment with this weather and winter diesel, when although i am only doing 36 mpg at the moment it's still better than my last 1.4 car that only did 30 Role on the summer when i will be back up to 40 again.

About 42-44 MPG in my 1.3 Mjet at the mo.... Possibly less

 

[1.8Stilo]

Thats still not bad, my misses 1.2 stilo only manages 34/35mpg in this weather and late 30's in better weather

Although newer engines are much more economical

 

[DJSparky]

Ahh didnt know this about diesel. My car doesn't really like to move in the morning to work, really struggles. So now I know what this is! or it's going to die : P My MPG is pretty poor. Looking 31-33mpg too and from work. Although im not too sure how reliable the OBC is in giving accurate info as far as MPG is concerned. Guessing its more of an approximate?

Do correct me if im wrong!

 

[Shauncorwyn]

Ahh didnt know this about diesel. My car doesn't really like to move in the morning to work, really struggles. So now I know what this is! or it's going to die : P My MPG is pretty poor. Looking 31-33mpg too and from work. Although im not too sure how reliable the OBC is in giving accurate info as far as MPG is concerned. Guessing its more of an approximate?

Do correct me if im wrong!

EGR failing will easily knock 10 mpg off your average and have lots of turbo lag/ poor performance.

 

[Mozarella]

Ya, what Shaun said. There's a lot more drag on an engine in the winter, electrical loads, and thicker engine/gearbox oil, plus having the heater on full slows down the initial engine warm up, etc. Tyre carcasses are stiffer, etc The best time for the annual service if possible, is late September.

I think the accuracy of onboard consumption indicators is often suspect, the best way is to use your actual consumption figures.

I noticed that using Shell V-power in my last diseasel was helpful, as others have found. I change my engine oil in September/October if I can, what comes out on a cold day looks and runs like molasses. It doesn't look anything like what goes in.

 

[peter7889]

. Although im not too sure how reliable the OBC is in giving accurate info as far as MPG is concerned. Guessing its more of an approximate?

Do correct me if im wrong!

I always zero my car every time fill up so i can check the mpg my self against the computer. I have found mine to be fairly accurate normaly within 1 mpg of what i make it to be.

Mine is due it's yearly service in march but i think i am going to bring it forward to feb or even late jan as we have had such a hard winter.

 

[Mozarella]

The advice was that the most engine wear occured with cold starts and old oil. I'm no scientist. The bikers would change oil every 3000 miles, an idiocy, I thought, but if I can I do an interim oil change at 6000 miles, then a dealer service at 12000 that's ok.


Screwfix sell a £40 pump which sucks oil out of the dipstick hole. Great. 10 minute oil change. (Yes, I know it leaves a bit in the filter).

 

[peter7889]

The advice was that the most engine wear occured with cold starts and old oil. I'm no scientist. The bikers would change oil every 3000 miles, an idiocy, I thought, but if I can I do an interim oil change at 6000 miles, then a dealer service at 12000. Screwfix sell a £40 pump which sucks oil out of the dipstick hole. Great. 10 minute oil change.

I only do 7000 a year in mine the engine gets very little use really, seems a shame to change the oil every 3500 miles/ 6 months so i have desided to do it every 10 months it's about the best compromise i can come to.

 

[Mozarella]

It's the short journeys and cold starts, regardless of the mileage, I think. Oil is cheap, compared to recon engines.

Oh! This is turning into an Oil Thread! Run away now!

 

[Shauncorwyn]

The advice was that the most engine wear occured with cold starts and old oil. I'm no scientist. The bikers would change oil every 3000 miles, an idiocy, I thought, but if I can I do an interim oil change at 6000 miles, then a dealer service at 12000 that's ok.


Screwfix sell a £40 pump which sucks oil out of the dipstick hole. Great. 10 minute oil change. (Yes, I know it leaves a bit in the filter).

I had one of those but found the tube was too narrow to extract oil through the dipstick. Most garages have simliar but the pumps are much more powerful.

 

[Mozarella]

ah, mine has been fine and a great investment. It slurps the gooey oil from a P*ss*t and was fine on my departed G*lf TDi. The trick is to give it some time, I think, with slightly warm oil. Takes about 20 minutes. While the sucking is going on, other bits, like the air filter can be changed, or tea can be partaken, and biscuits munched.

They are the only way of changing the oil on a many boat's inboard diesel engine, by the way, unless one wants to drill a hole in the bottom of the boat to get at the sump plug.

There's a discussion here.

 

[peter7889]

there we are back on oil again

 

[Mozarella]

God yes, why are we (me) obsessed with the vile brown goo?

As I don't drive a diseasal any more I can't add much, other than when I accidently put 10 litres of un-leaded in the fuel tank of my diseasal RAV4 I was told not worry as the truck drivers shoved 10% unleaded in their fuel tanks in winter to keep the stuff flowing. The car seemed untroubled, but I can't recommend this peculiar trick. I ran the thing on Tesco rape-seed oil for a couple of weeks during the fuel shortage with no apparent ill-effect either but it was a Toyota, not a Fiat.

It stank of chips forever after, though.