E230 fuel economy

[Frankie]

How many miles to a tank are people getting? Light on,filled tank with 20 litres,did about 100 miles until the light came on again.A little worse than the old Mondeo I had but it's a bigger car so I thought fair enough.
Next I filled it to the brim,so far I'm down to half a tank and I've only managed 100 miles.My concern is that if I only get another 100-150 miles out of the rest that there may be something wrong.It seems like it's drinking fuel It doesn't have a strong smell of fuel from outside.Faulty gauge perhaps?

 

[Shude]

Your first step is to record the mileage from full tank to full tank. Then you can work out something approaching the exact MPG.

There was a time when the tank senders were a known fault.

 

[Frankie]

I filled it right up last fill up.I think it is only going to get about 200-250 miles to the tank by the looks of things. Obviously like you say,I've got to run for a bit to get an idea.
Forgive my ignorance,but if the fuel sender is faulty does that mean that it would give an incorrect fuel tank level or would it mean I am actually using more fuel?

 

[DITTRICH]

First fill the tank until you can see fuel at the lip of the fuel pipe where the nozzle goes in. Zero the mileage counter on the instrument panel. Drive around until the tank shows half full. Fill it again as in the beginning. You have the fuel in litres from the VAT receipt for fuel. You have miles travelled from the counter. One uk gallon is 4.54609 litres. Simples.
Post the info and give account of your driving habits - how you drive the car and the type of journeys you do - then it is possible to say whether you or your car has a problem.

 

[jefrs]

I'm getting well over 300 miles (maybe 385 miles) per tank on the E320 (petrol), and that's not to empty: big car, big lazy engine. I won't even consider topping off the tank until it's over 300 on the trip odo, that could still be quarter-full. Even so that's no better than around 30mpg.

 

[Frankie]

I'm just over half a tank at the moment,I'll take it for a drive tomorrow and fill it up when down to half.At the present rate I appear to be getting 15mpg

 

[Neiltodd]

300 to 350

 

[kwakdonut]

First fill the tank until you can see fuel at the lip of the fuel pipe where the nozzle goes in. Zero the mileage counter on the instrument panel. Drive around until the tank shows half full. Fill it again as in the beginning. You have the fuel in litres from the VAT receipt for fuel. You have miles travelled from the counter. One uk gallon is 4.54609 litres. Simples.
Post the info and give account of your driving habits - how you drive the car and the type of journeys you do - then it is possible to say whether you or your car has a problem.

Please DON'T do that! Filling that full could be potentially dangerous, spillage etc.

Fill to first 'click' on the pump nozzle instead.

Economy is relative to how you drive, where you drive etc etc. So what you might get may be very different from someone who does mostly motorway miles @70mph, city stop-start driving etc

 

[Frankie]

To give an idea,I drive only a few miles to work at 30 ish.In the Mondeo I had I would average 26mpg at worst to 29mpg at best on this trip.
On the rare occasion I went on a trip on the motorway I could get 44mpg.

Now I'm driving the E230 like a saint and getting terrible economy.I'm about to pop out in a bit to run the remaining tank to halfway and fill up.I'm assuming I have a 70 litre tank, soo it should take about 35 litres from halfway?

 

[kwakdonut]

The cold weather seems to affect MB's more than any other car I've owned.

To give you an idea, during the summer, my E320 was averaging 45mpg (motorway) but I now struggle to get 40/41 for the exact same trip.

AFAIK there is nothing wrong, because it's diesel, it's taking longer to warm up and with the additional electrical loads (heated seats etc) and heating on am not surprised that it is suffering a little although I am not wholly unhappy with the MPG!

I know yours is a petrol but I think you need to do 3 or 4 accurate full-to-empty measurements which should give you a fairly accurate figure.

 

[Sorry Pete]

It's also winter now, so your MPG is going to go down. Factor in the time of day you fill as well. Early in the morning, cold petrol, more dense = more petrol per litre. For every 5C temerature change, you get around 0.5% change in density. Of course, this might be offset by the different winter formula petrol the oil companies use, where they add more volatile components, of a lower molecular weight to aid in cold starting. Your car is also going to take longer to reach temperature, and that's going to affect your MPG.

These factors are less significant, and as has been discussed before on threads of this nature, you simply can't get a real idea of MPG from 250 miles of driving.

Please see this thread, which is the only one I've read on here that speaks a bit of sense. Lots of people look down at the trip computer, then post something to the effect that they're getting x amount of MPG: OMG! There are only two variables that you know are constant, and hopefully correct: litres of fuel used, and distance traveled. Check your vat receipts over a minimum of 1000 miles and see what that reveals.

Again, driving style, and city vs motorway will affect your results greatly.

Having said all that, 15 mpg would seem on the low side, but I'd be surprised to see an E230 get more than mid to high 20's.

 

[tagnut]

A few years ago I used to religiously calculate all of my fuel consumption (have chilled out a bit now though ) and always found a 10% drop for the winter period. This was in a Vauxhall but I have noticed it on all cars that I have had and don't think my current one is any worse in this regard.

 

[Sorry Pete]

To give an idea,I drive only a few miles to work at 30 ish.

In that case, low to mid 20's would be about right.

 

[Frankie]

In that case, low to mid 20's would be about right.

Only problem is that those figures were on the Mondeo I had.The E230 is getting nowhere near that.Just off out to fill up,will see what it takes.

 

[Sorry Pete]

Come to think of it, with your driving profile, high teens/low 20's probably isn't way out either.

 

[Frankie]

Trip meter at 120 miles,gauge halfway,took 24 litres.I make that out to be 22mpg which is ok in my book for the sort of driving I'm doing,was getting 26 in the mondeo but that was a lighter car.If I can get 35mpg on a run I will be happy enough.

 

[Forest]

E230 mpg.

My '97 (P) E230 auto estate regularly does 35-37 mpg. Mainly motorway though. Worst most recently was 29 mpg, all local journeys.

 

[Timster]

Have a look at

www.fuelly.com

interesting and useful.

 

[Frankie]

I had a look on that site,appears to be American so mpg figures would be different.They have one 230 listed which appears to be around the same figure though.

I dropped the car into the bodyshop earlier for a couple of bits to be done.When I get it back in a few days I'll take it for a long run and see how it fares.

 

[DITTRICH]

Please DON'T do that! Filling that full could be potentially dangerous, spillage etc. Fill to first 'click' on the pump nozzle instead.

Your preference.

I have successfully used this method for the last 11 years without spilling fuel. Relying on the "click" means you rely on the nozzle to do its job properly. My experience is that the nozzle click is not a reliable way of ensuring that the tank is full each time to the same level. In a 62 litre tank, up to an additional 4.5 litres can be added after the first click up to the lip.

Obviously, if the OP is cack handed and doesn't partially pull the trigger and control the flow of fuel then he might spill some. But anyone with a driving license is obviously able to make that decision for themselves and I doubt they make a habit out of spilling expensive fuel!

The beauty of the system is that, if you use the same filling station pump, then all other variables are eliminated and you get as true an mpg figure as it is possible to get.