Ucof said:

Will be dropping the car off at the garage to have the steering wheel realigned, so will fill up and record the volume then. Will let you know how it goes!

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That worries me.

Did you have a proper alignment done, or just the wheel moved?

Correct alignment will help with your fuel economy drive.

I didn't see mention of a service or weekly level checks. What are their status?

Cheers

SPD

Car gets full service every autumn.
I took the car in to have the steering wheel corrected and the lazy git who was assigned to the job took the steering wheel cover off, undid the nut, turned the steering wheel round, put it back on, did the nut up, put the horn cover on... and then charged me £15 for the honour.

The bastard.

However, to be fair to them, it's the first time they have pissed me off with something like this.



Tracking has definately been checked though, they did that after they repaired the last lot of damage I did!

I keep an eye on the fluid levels every now and then anyway.

The tracking is not right if they had to move the wheel.

They've done the short cut which leaves your ackerman angles incorrect.

Take it back and get them to do it properly, at their expense.

Cheers

SPD

Fuel economy seems to be getting "worse"


Don't know if it actually reducing, or if it is actually recording my average MPG overtime at my true ( 'normal' ) driving rate however.

It's been getting colder, your car needs a bit longer to warm up, it will be in the injector equivalent of having the choke out for a bit longer.

Looking at the differences between your 3 fillups I wouldn't be too worried.

I lost 4.6 mpg with my last fillup :bang:


Trev

Hi People.

New to the forum, but read through this post with interest.
I have a Diesel Uno currently returning 54mpg with a few mods and some hypermiling techniques. It's good to see the figures for the 1l petrol. Thanks to the OP for this thread.

Just something I wanted to advise against - coasting in gear with the clutch down - If you do this regularly it will cause premature wear of the clutch release bearing. You would be better off dropping out of gear and coasting in neutral with the clutch engaged.

Thanks.

IR OP and all your base are belong to us


Thanks for the warning about the clutch release bearing, I hadn't thought about that.


My economy is getting worse, and worse
I can't work out if it is because I am slowly starting to speed up on the motorway, or if the cold if affecting it.

Ucof said:

My economy is getting worse, and worse
I can't work out if it is because I am slowly starting to speed up on the motorway, or if the cold if affecting it.

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I would think the increase in speed, IMO the cold should help to make it better not worse.

I think you have a vac/econ gauge fitted. I imagine you drive with that in mind.

Have you been using more choke or leaving it out longer to deal with the cold Ucof?

rawill said:

I would think the increase in speed, IMO the cold should help to make it better not worse.

I think you have a vac/econ gauge fitted. I imagine you drive with that in mind.

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The cold makes the engine take longer to warm up therefore making it take longer to reach maximum efficiency. This will be evident with the reduced economy.

As standard the mk2 Unos didn't come with vacuum gauges. To my knowledge only the mk1 45S and 60S (and special editions based on these models) came with a vacuum gauge, aka 'econometer', as standard.

Good to meet you this afternoon Ucof, and many thanks to your dad for the fuel tank and various bits and pieces!

Just checked my MPG
I've corrected my Odo reading by also measuring by GPS
As my 185/60/13s make the Odo just slightly out
46.4MPG . . . not T00 bad for a 17 year old car with a 21 year old engine block/head
from the cost of the last tank fill it works out at 11p per mile

Not bad..

Im thinking I could make a tank of petrol now last 2, if not 3 weeks now, if I dont hammer it round the country roads, driving like a dick.

Moved house recently, and have gone from 62 motorway miles a day, to 22 country lane miles instead.

*Jealous*

I'm only getting just over 30mpg at the moment

I got a best of 42 on a run, but having spent the last 6 weeks driving through freezing temps at 7am and 8.30pm on the way to and from work my mpg has really suffered

Still, with the weather warming up I'm hoping to see an improvement over the coming weeks...

Here's my Fuelly profile:

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/chasunomk1/uno-70sx

UCOF - The best I have had out of my 88 60s is 42.5mpg, all open road running.

I can't catch you, I must be doing something wrong!

However not all bad, at least my figures are like ChasUno

rawill said:

UCOF - The best I have had out of my 88 60s is 42.5mpg, all open road running.

I can't catch you, I must be doing something wrong!

However not all bad, at least my figures are like ChasUno

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The FIRE engines are a much more modern design, and in the case of the 999cc 8v it was designed more for economy than power therefor they would be a lot more economical. Still, my 70SX has 68bhp and cruises at 80 - 90mph if necessary so I guess that extra power comes with a price!

Ucof said:

Not bad..

Im thinking I could make a tank of petrol now last 2, if not 3 weeks now, if I dont hammer it round the country roads, driving like a dick.

Moved house recently, and have gone from 62 motorway miles a day, to 22 country lane miles instead.

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Hmmmmmmmmm, :tempt:62 miles cruising, or 22 miles in looney mode !!!

You reckon you will use less fuel ?

I can see the :devil: already

Hope the move went well, and nought broken.


Trev

Chas Uno said:

The FIRE engines are a much more modern design, and in the case of the 999cc 8v it was designed more for economy than power therefor they would be a lot more economical.

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:yeahthat:
Even just things like having less thermal mass (less to warm up) and the crossflow head design. I still think the camshaft has really unusual timing that restricts engine breathing for efficiency at low speed, while also creating a 'brick wall' of power at high speeds. I remember my Mum's Uno FIRE would get up to exactly 142km/h and just not be able to go any faster (on the flat). With most cars, the rate of speed increase gets slower, but with that Uno, speed would increase steadily and then just suddenly reach a plateau.

The old Uno 60 is still a useful tweak over the FIAT 128 that really was the ancestor of that engine type (yes there was the Strada too, but that was relatively heavy and slow). Five more bhp in the 1116cc Uno (than the 1116cc 128) and a more aerodynamic body lifts the average from about 30mpg in our family 128 to 36mpg (in my Uno 60). rawill - 42mpg is a great result for an Uno 60, you're doing well

If you do the sums, you find that you have to save a lot of fuel to justify buying a newer car. But, if you ever have the choice between a FIRE Uno and a non-FIRE Uno, you may as well take the FIRE (unless the non-FIRE is a Turbo).

Still, my 70SX has 68bhp and cruises at 80 - 90mph if necessary

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Understatement of the month!
I thought I was doing well to get nearly three figures out of a brand-new three-cylinder Vauxhall Corsa, until I met you and the 20-year-old Uno. Up to that moment, I'd thought the 1301cc Uno was a bit pointless unless it had a turbo. I thought they topped out at about the same speed as the FIRE Uno anyway (my Mum had a 70SL as well). Then that day with you, I realised the damn thing was about as fast as my Uno Turbo ever gets to go...

I wonder how fast you'd go in my Alfa 164 I was driving today at a steady 105km/h (top speed 230+km/h) If I opened the taps, I'd have a court appearance to deal with. Any speeding more than 50km/h over the 100km/h limit is a loss of license and reckless driving charge. And speeding at 140km/h is almost as dismal, with a huge fine and loss of license for 28 days.

Of course, we should think about the possibility of killing someone, too. Back in 1974 in a time when speed limits were less policed, twice as many people died on NZ roads as have in recent years - an awful statistic especially when you consider the huge increase in number of cars on the road. But I wonder if they got to drive faster back then... maybe not? I wonder if speed actually has anything to do with it at all...

To back up my claims, I determined that there were fractionally over 1 million cars on the road in NZ in 1974, and apparently there are 3.8 million vehicles on the road now. With 2.53 million licensed drivers to drive them. Somehow I think any sort of statistical analysis is doomed to fail here

So let us get back to the fiscally-more-important topic of fuel economy rather than safer driving, though perhaps the two really are linked hand-in-hand

-Alex

My golden rule is to get teh job of motion done with the minumum amount of engine revs possible. More revs equals more air and more fuel going through the carb.

Learn to take corners in almost GP fashion, i.e. go in as wide as you can, loosing as little speed as possible and accelerate away smoothly.

On the mechanical side I guess some mileage could be had from balanceing the engine end lightening the flywheel and waterpump some, but we are probably talking sigle digit improvents at the risk of a shortened crankshaft lifespan, if your boyracerness comes back.... Don't worry, I used to see cornering on more than two wheels as a failure.