Avg Mpg?

[craggle]

I've just got back after a little jaunt on the M1 to Derby and back to West Sussex and I think I did quite well really.

Seeing as I have an iQ3 so the larger 1.3 engine and I was driving at between 70 and 80mph all the way I managed to get 52mpg on the cars computer and 50mpg calculated by me based on how much I put in it to fill it up again after the journey and the miles on the trip computer.

Pretty pleased with that and reckon I could have done a lot better if I'd of sat on the inside lanes between the trucks doing 56mph but that does get a bit tedious!

Craig.

[wornout]

Hey wornout, thats some road trip. Please remember that it will take a couple of tanks of the good stuff for the ECU to properly learn what the fuels limits are. I tend to give my second tank a bit of all types of driving, being city, higher speed/dual carriage way, racing away from the lights (to 30 mph) and some super Miss Daisy driving.

Fish

I think I am on my fourth tank of Shell posh petrol. Until I do a long trip on normal fuel I won't really know if it was worth the extra expense.............but watch this space. I am doing Miss Daisy driving all the time now but after this tankful I am going back to a slightly less conservative style and see what happens then.

Thank you for all your advice.

[Guest]

Just what is going on with the iQ? Our iQ? I ask because yesterday (Wed, 29-02-2012) we filled up from Morrisons, using their offer of 15p off a litre if you spend so much in store. It got us £4.07 off! Get in!

I'm sure this is what happened last time I filled up. The fuel gauge -such as it is- showed full, as expected when filling up. However, the AVG MPG resets, as expected, but then appears to rocket up to a good old amount, in this case yesterday to 59.9 mpg before we got back home. I'm sure, had I gone further, that the avg mpg would have gone higher too. Why does it not go up as quick after this? Having a break obviously makes the gauge lazy.

The figures will help some of you understand I'm sure. I managed to get in 27.11 litres at £1.33.9 a litre, at £36.30, minus the £4.07 is £32.23, which is a decent price for a fill up, despite the high cost of fuel. Now before this I was getting mega range anxiety as my wife told me that she had seen the fuel warning light flashing on Tuesday, and we estimated that was with another 9 miles to go before getting back home. Our journey to Morrisons is approximately 18 miles, a total of 27 miles with that light flashing. I'll tell you this, it was a-twitchin.' There was no way to tell if the fuel was going to last, I hate that. Give me an analogue or better calibrated and displayed fuel gauge any day.

[marcandsebe]

My iQ3 auto is showing about 28 mpg around town. The clock is always loosing time too. I might get it checked out. I filled up yesterday and it was £40. I had driven it for some time with the last segment flashing, as I know that I have a fair bit of fuel left when it comes on. When I first got the iQ and the last segment came for the 1st time, I filled up straight away. It only took 22 litres to fill up, so there was about 10 still left in the tank.

[s44gtw]

was that about 29 litres for £40 ?

So how many miles had you done before needing to put in £40 worth of petrol?

Is it showing 28 mpg after a few days of running from putting in more than 10litres,

or is that what it shows all the time in town.

It takes about 10 minutes till the engine oil is up to temp from starting off from a cold start.

You are not getting optimum MPG untill the Coolant & engine is up to temp.

So if each trip last 15 minutes, you are never going to be getting optimum MPG.

& in town if it is Stop Start and the car does not have Stop Start, means lots less about MPG, if you are stopped at traffic, crawling along etc.

Thats engine running time and not really MPG.

The Air Con 'on', easily uses 3- 5 mpg .

george

[Guest]

I don't think I could get £40 quids worth in our tank... but then, that time will come I'm sure with ***** (Don't belive this, deleted Richard Head) Turpin working at the government, putting fuel up, parking fees, blah, blah, and everyfink like 'at.

I've noticed as well, when sitting at lights and so on, that the meter is still running! WTF? Well, the AVG MPG display is counting backwards (all too quickly) as the car sits doing nowt with the engine on. That nice avg mpg figure you built up is dealt a cruel fate in stop start traffic. Far better to have Stop Start but as mentioned elsewhere on this Forum, what effect does the Stop Start have on the Battery?

Does the Battery last as long as it would in a car without that magic switch-off? So, is it still better than public transport? 'HELL YEAH!' PS: It takes about a quarter of a mile for our engine to warm up, before that little Cool light disappears. Country roads see.

[s44gtw]

Thats the coolant temp.

The engine starts, the coolant flows around the engine, gets up to the 88 degrees or whatever before the thermostat opens.

If you are running an 'Oil Temp' on the engine you will be surprised with some engines how long it takes before

the engine oil is at a temp that proves more economic for the engine & fuel consumption.

To be honest i have no idea about iQ engine/oil/coolant temps,

possibly the 3 cylinder gets up to temp quicker than the 4 cylinder.

(some here have monitors for their engines and will know)

but i know on my current daily drive that does show engine and gearbox temps that it can take over 15 miles for the engine oil to reach 86-90 degrees celcius with an ambient air temp in the morning of 10 degrees celcius..

george

[marcandsebe]

A company called Kenlowe sold an engine pre heater. You plugged it into the mains and switched half an hour or so before starting. It was meant to save on engine wear. I had one on my first Toyota Hilux and it was great in frosty days too, as it cleared the screen very quickly. Here is a link.

http://www.kenlowe.com/pre-heaters/cars/whatwill.html

[craggle]

Friend of mine had one of those fitted to his V8 Defender Land Rover. Great thing as he had it plugged into a timer so it came on half an hour or so before he needed to get to work and it was all warm and ready to go when he was.

Only thing is you must unplug it before driving off, Big shower of sparks otherwise as he once found out! :)

Webasto used to do fuel powered heaters too but not sure if they are small enough to fit our little motors and if they did petrol ones, I only used their Diesel fuelled versions?

Craig.

[marcandsebe]

No wonder I'm getting low MPG. Just look at the 0 to 30 times and G Force

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z459/marcandsebe/eac17a8a.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z459/marcandsebe/4c3dfd37.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z459/marcandsebe/0858a76a.jpg

http://i1190.photobucket.com/albums/z459/marcandsebe/31d56abe.jpg

This is for an iQ3 Multidrive

[johnan]

Friend of mine had one of those fitted to his V8 Defender Land Rover. Great thing as he had it plugged into a timer so it came on half an hour or so before he needed to get to work and it was all warm and ready to go when he was.

Only thing is you must unplug it before driving off, Big shower of sparks otherwise as he once found out! :)

Webasto used to do fuel powered heaters too but not sure if they are small enough to fit our little motors and if they did petrol ones, I only used their Diesel fuelled versions?

Craig.

I had the original Kenlowe preheater in a Jeep I made about 30 years ago and used the car every day as my main transport to work with the heater on a timer in the morning.

I eventually gave the car away after using it for about 25 years and the engine was still as sweet as a nut, mainly due, in my opinion, to not having had to endure cold starts with plenty of choke.

I now have the later much improved Kenlowe heater on my MG which means it doesn't have to endure stone-cold starts after a period of non-use.

Makes a lot of difference to overall economy too, but a bit of a luxury really unless you are going to keep a car for a long time as they are a bit expensive to buy, and can be a bit awkward to "plumb in" effectively.

John