Fuel Economy

crapday · Post by **crapday** » 10 Feb 2005, 19:41

hi my 1.9td xantia is only getting about 350 miles to a full tank of fuel, any ideas how to improve (changing my driving style may be). Thanks

mezuk04 · Post by **mezuk04** » 10 Feb 2005, 19:51

Do you do alot of Motorway Driving, or is mainly town driving, whats your usual speeds????

crapday · Post by **crapday** » 10 Feb 2005, 19:53

mainly town but i used to get better trhan this when i first got the car

born2die · Post by **born2die** » 10 Feb 2005, 19:54

sure its not an activa?? lol

crapday · Post by **crapday** » 10 Feb 2005, 20:39

what's the difference between the activa and an ordinary xantia

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 10 Feb 2005, 20:44

The Activa is a Xantia with lots of complicated extra bits that go wrong and the parts have to be imported from France.
Or, the Activa is the one with active anti roll bars so it corners absolutely flat. The active anti roll bars mean the suspension doesn't have to be absolutely rock hard all of the time to acheive the handling. The Activa system wasn't continued onto the C5 which is a shame.

mezuk04 · Post by **mezuk04** » 10 Feb 2005, 20:55

Well the usually responses seem to consist of replace the cheap things first like air filter, fuel filter (but im no expert myself)

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 10 Feb 2005, 22:18

Check for low tyre pressures, binding brakes and blocked exhausts first.
Air and fuel filter problems don't tend to cause big drops in fuel economy, they can cause small drops. My Xantia TD does around 600 miles on a tank. 350 miles from brim to brim would indicate 25mpg. 25mpg indicates a serious problem.
The worst fuel economy I ever had was down to a fuel leak on the suction and return pipes that go down the bulkhead behind the engine, but even with a fuel leak I still got 35 mpg.

Pat Neenan · Post by **Pat Neenan** » 10 Feb 2005, 22:20

BORN TO DIE.
HOW MANY MILES DO YOU GET FROM A TANKFULL WITH YOUR ACTIVA ?
i GET 270 - 280 MILES AROUND TOWN AND ON A LONG RUN 330 MILES WHICH EQUATES TO 18 MPG IN TOWN AND 25 ON A RUN

born2die · Post by **born2die** » 10 Feb 2005, 22:37

hi last time I checked I averaged 310 miles on a mixture of urban and about 330 on a run not grat but better than the saab lol.
So its not too bad if I keep the revs under 2500 then its superb but as you will know that is near impossible.[:D]

crapday · Post by **crapday** » 10 Feb 2005, 23:27

its a late n reg 95 with 145000 on the clock had the head gasket done 20000 miles ago, 3 weeks ago changed the air & oil filters and the oil, just done the lhm oil change (easiest thing i've done to the car). on a long run i used to get about 600 miles to the tank-full but not done a really long drive but now the most i get is 350 miles that includes say an 80 mile round trip. if i take it to a tune up garage will that make a difference. I once had a Volvo 740 petrol that got 320 a tank than i took it to a tuning garage and after that all i got was 280 miles. is it worth in to do this with a diesel.

puddle jumper · Post by **puddle jumper** » 11 Feb 2005, 01:53

mine is a N reg with 180K on the clock - I do about 60 A road miles a day and get about 720 miles from a tank...(65 lts )

np · Post by np » 11 Feb 2005, 02:32

I ger an average 40mpg.About 500-600 per tank full.My trip tp work is 30 miles a day,mainly motorway.I dont hang around,so would get more if i stuck to 70-80mph.Thats also with the a/c on sometimes.
I find Wynns injector cleaner,or diesel smoke reducer,in a purple bottle always improves the smoke & adds a few mpg.

weety · Post by **weety** » 12 Feb 2005, 05:43

I get 45 mpg out of my m reg xantia hatchback and 40 mpg out of my r reg estate (with air con) and do about 500 miles a week..... i would break down and weep if either started only doing 350 miles a tank...

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 12 Feb 2005, 14:23

A longshot - but have a good look at the fuel tank and surrounds for leaks. As your car is diesel they will be easy to spot as wet traces.
I had a leak from a vent pipe on our ZX1.9D when we purchased it - turned out a small pipe had split out of view on top of the tank. The tank itself was soaking which was the give away. I think if we had run it on the bottom half of the tank we would never have noticed it! - but as the gauge hits the red with about 5 gallons left it wouldn't have been very satisfactory.
Routine tune-ups for diesels aren't usual. Normally they are bad liars and if there is something wrong they won't start, or smoke heavily or are noisy etc. They don't just quietly slip off tune! By and large if they do none of these then there's nothing wrong with the engine itself.
jeremy