1.3 fuel economy

[H48HPE]

Back when I was using my Maestro as my daily car I used to keep a record of every fill up I did, I always used to brim the tank to calculate fuel efficiency...

I found my old record book today so I put the info into excel to analyse the results...

it was MOTd in october 2003 and i remember the emissions were just over 4% so the test guy adjusted the carb and fetched it down to 2.5% exactly; which I witnessed on the screen. before the MOT for the previous 2 years the car had returned an average of 39.3 MPG over 48 fill ups and 11,726 miles. mainly mixed driving to and from work doing a 16 mile round commute

after the MOT now with leaner mixture the car averaged 35.18MPG - I only kept the record for 10 fill ups covering 2720 miles - at that point i stopped making the record as I think I had a company car by then...


2 reasons for this post:

1. I thought it was kind of interesting as a long term test for MPG as a working car

2 it seemed strange that making the mixture leaner kind of spoilt the fuel efficiency...

on one run back in August 2002 i traveled from the Lake District back to South Yorks and managed to get 47.23MPG - I wouldn't have been thrashing it, but I always used to keep up with traffic.

Andy

[Captain Slow]

I keep a record as well. However, whilst from the look of it you filled up when you needed to, I keep mine high and brim it every week. I'm averaging 34mpg if we include collecting the car (39.44mpg) and a week of local, low mpg use, probably about 30 if we exclude collection, 33mpg as an average of my 25 mile commute over 3 or 4 weeks.

None of that is, I think, THAT bad for a 2.0 saloon car made 24 years ago!




There's a website called Fuelly where you can keep track of your car's MPG, save you working it out by hand. I work mine out manually, but have a Fuelly account to save me plotting it onto graphs and working out long term averages. Anyone of a Yorkshire frame of mind should sign up!

[daveyboy]

I dont keep a record as i dont drive mine enough but my dad who uses both my mg maestro and 1.6lx auto does, he averages 26mpg in the mg and 25 in the auto.
Poor i think but thats all short journeys on a run both do alot better, dad dosent really care he is of the opinion that he insures both cars cheaply and depreciation dosent come into it and we both love the cars so all is good

[E_T_V]

I don't dare work mine out it just depresses me on the T16 and the maestro turbo.

[Guest]

Sorry to change the direction of this a bit, but didnt feel it warranted another thread!

what sort of mpg should i expect from a 1994 maestro deisel turbo. 2ltr Perkins ?

[H48HPE]

nasp diesel we had used to do between 60 and 65 - but my dad used to drive it quite steady! i think turbo ones do only slightly less...

[maestro dave]

I keep a close log of mine via the internet ( fuel calculator) and driving at a steady 56mph I get 32mpg so if you guys are getting higher how are you doing it ? as my car is always serviced and driven carefully.

[Captain Slow]

I don't hypermile or anything - I just drive it normally. If I really went for ecodriving I could do better I reckon

[H48HPE]

I keep a close log of mine via the internet ( fuel calculator) and driving at a steady 56mph I get 32mpg so if you guys are getting higher how are you doing it ? as my car is always serviced and driven carefully.

What engine is it?

[maestro dave]

What engine is it?

1.3 . 1994 clubman

[H48HPE]

I don't know what your doing wrong, it might just be your mixture needs setting up better - I think my car was happy around 3.5%CO

Also there must be an element of stop start driving in your day; so if you do a lot of stop start then this will reduce fuel efficiency...

Choke use has a big impact. Do you do a lot of cold starts per tank of fuel? the more time the choke is out the worse it'll be.

Andy

[ryncharlton]

Also , from past experience make sure the garage setting the mixture for you know what their doing! , a 1.3 on a 1994 L will have a catalytic converter and so if they set the mixture as standard by the tail pipe it may in fact be way out of accuracy - it should be set using the sample pipe , which is a exhaust gas sample tube under the bonnet which gets its gas from the downpipe before the cat

Ryan

[Guest]

My average over 6500 miles is 43.6 mpg, I do about 50% town driving and 50% A-road. My best on a long run was 55.3 mpg. Recently I've been a bit heavy footed and the lights, rear screen heater, wipers etc. are usually on so it's taken a bit of a nosedive, about 35-40 mpg.

http://www.fuelly.com/driver/benb12/maestro

[Captain Slow]

Just added you on Fuelly as a contact Ben - I'm E225CMV

[maestro dave]

Also , from past experience make sure the garage setting the mixture for you know what their doing! , a 1.3 on a 1994 L will have a catalytic converter and so if they set the mixture as standard by the tail pipe it may in fact be way out of accuracy - it should be set using the sample pipe , which is a exhaust gas sample tube under the bonnet which gets its gas from the downpipe before the cat

Ryan

Hi ,the cat was removed long before I bought the car