Poor Fuel Economy or a dodgy fuel gauge

[benpike]

I bought myself a 110 cdi vito on a 52 with 100,000 miles. a great economical drive I heard.

I am gettng terrible fuel economy. I put in £20 this morning (i know fuel is at an all time high) which filled it to just over a quarter, drove down the motorway and back for work like an old man at 65, tailing trucks etc. as I have had worries over the mpg and by the time I returned home the fuel gauge was at completely empty...

I have not done an acurate check yet but this seems rediculous. Checking on google maps I drove a total of 110 miles, 90% of which on the motorway at beneath 70.

This cannot be right. I have not checked the figures but I cwas literaly watching the gauge go down. The gage does keep going up and down a little and is affected by gradient but when I checked on flat garage forecourt and back again outside of my hose, over a qurtser of a tamk had been used.

The van runs and pulls brilliantly, the only this i do have wrong is back in the cold spell when below freezing, the exhaust manifold gasket had a tiny blow until the engine was up to temp. there is no loss of power or anything.

Running this van is proving very expensive. PLEASE HELP, i love the van and do not want to settle for a vivaro or similar.

 

[A210AMG]

£1.20 a litre = £5.44 gallon.

£20 = 3.67 gallons

110 miles on 3.87 gallons = 28.59mpg


Thats seems ok to me....try runing my ML

 

[benpike]

But this was taking it stupidly steady, literally 55-65, rarely overtaking at 70, tailing trucks etc.

i have run all manner of vehicles petrol and diesel. this seems unreal.

 

[davidjpowell]

Is it getting up to temperature? Try checking the air filter as well.

 

[benpike]

temp is normal, did wonder about filter but it runs so well...

 

[benpike]

when looking into vans, i opted for a vito 110 as i'd read about their good mpg, even when driven hard. I run this van as a car, ie i have seats and windows but is costing me a fortune.

What should I expect to get, what I am getting is not good, esp. for a common rail my last car was a 2000 E220cdi that seemed to do double the milage and on paper it is heavier.

I literally am driving this thing like an old man, I'm up into 3rd withn 40m of the lights. It's painful. Could the gauge be faulty, is there a common fault, of not even a fault are they just not very acurate, I can stop and start up again and the gauge is in a diff. place, only a mm or so but noticable. Very noticable as I am becoming obsessive about it and it is become a pain to drive.

 

[davidjpowell]

tyre pressure's ? try filling it brim to brim and record the mileage

 

[Charles Morgan]

Can I suggest that instead of estimating mileage and relying upon a gauge (Mine is faulty) you fill it to the first click, zero the tripmeter, do a run in mixed conditions and return to the same station and refill to the same level as you started with. At least that way you will get an accurate read (assuming your tripmeter is accurate) to start with.

 

[benpike]

Yeah must do that. job for tomorrow, I have same trip planned.

Just bugging me and sat at pc seeking advise.

 

[benpike]

It's so weird, I feel no drag at all, free wheels lovely, just feathering the throttle etc.

 

[Charles Morgan]

Certainly doesn't sound like you are driving it into the ground! Do you know what the expected mpg should be?

 

[benpike]

No just looking now,

I read many reviews saying it was good and well over 30. I have had 4x4's that I accuratly measured doing 30+ and seemed so much better and never really gave it a thought, drove to my own style and put fuel in when needed. Not at all like this.

Will measure it accuratly tomorrow.

 

[benpike]

'With an impressive fuel figure the Vito is certainly a viable mid-sized panel van option, and drivers will be more than happy with the level of power.'

I'm reading comments this over and over again with figures such as 37.9 mpg and drives well... I am driving mine like an od git, not even letting the turbo kick in and by A210AMG calculations I am getting 10 mpg below that figure.
Mercedes give it an average in the original brochoure of 7.9 litres to 100 kms what ever that works out to be...

 

[benpike]

'
1. 1.89 litres for 27.5 miles
2. 17.08 litres for 134.8 miles
This turns out to be 4.75l/100km or 59.4mpg (UK gallons) in the first instance and 7.87 (35.9mpg) for the second. I am very pleased with the result because I am not a feather footed driver.'

There's defo. something wrong with mine...

 

[A210AMG]

^ I doubt you will ever see 59mpg out of it...

I think 30 / 35 mpg on a run empty at normal speeds you be ok, when was it last serviced.

 

[BTB 500]

Mercedes give it an average in the original brochoure of 7.9 litres to 100 kms what ever that works out to be...

That's 35.7 mpg. Is that the constant 90 kph (56 mph) figure? M-B give a range of figures in the brochure e.g. for the current shape Vito 109 (90 bhp) with manual transmission and no particulate filter:

Urban: 23.9
Extra Urban: 38.1
Combined: 31.7
56 mph: 40.9

In the real world the Extra Urban figure is about the best you will ever get IMHO. For my Vito 120 the brochure Extra Urban figure is 37.6, but the best I've ever managed (on a long motorway run) is just over 30.