THIRSTY XR6 HELP?

[Anonymous]

HI EVERYONE,
I HAVE A 2003 AUIII XR6 VCT THAT USES ABOUT 60 LITRES OF FUEL TO DO 450 K'S AROUND COUNTRY/FREEWAY WORK.(NO STOP-GO CITY STUFF).IS THIS THE NORM? IF NOT CAN YOU GIVE ME EXAMPLES OF YOUR ECONOMY. FORD'S COMPUTERS SAY THERE IS NOTHING WRONG .
ALL HELP APPRECIATED.

 

[xctasy]

Well 21.1 mpg (13.3l/100km) isn't bad at all. If its on LPG it would be acceptable, cause they are always down on a good gasoline engine.

If you have a roof rack, body kit or wider section tyres (245's or more), they can hurt it a smidgen, and low tyre pressures can also hurt big time. Are you driving on concrete or chip seal (bitumen)? Smooth surfaces improve the litres/100 km by up to 5%. And automatics are much thirstier than T5 manuals because Ford has used the same torque converter for the last 10 years, no optimised conveter for the VCT. Normal LP gas AU Taxi drivers find there fuel consumtion improves up to 5% from running a Kyver 2200 rpm stall convertor. AS fuel figures are done with the air conditioning in the "off" postion, and you won't come close to them.

I'd say an AUiii is heavier than the norm with that great IRS set-up, and that if its hot, the mileage figures would take a dive. If you haven't reground the brakes after some really hard charging, there could be scoring casing a binding issue after pad change.

My LPG XE does 21 mpg on the open road with almost 200 kg less, but your machine is slicker and quicker. As soon as I get back to hilly Dunedin, I get 14 mpg or worse on day to day driving.

 

[Anonymous]

cant tell ya much more except give u an example.... my mate has a series 1 AU XR8 ute.... with i guess you mite call city driving (well suburbs) he gets over 500KM to his tanks, which i think is the same 60l youd have..

-matt-

 

[addo]

No stop-go driving? What about all those pretty coast girls? I would have thought you'd be constantly braking to look. I worked on the Central Coast for six weeks, and think I nearly got whiplash from this. Seriously, using the aircon, ventilation method (like driving with a front window open and nowhere for the air to go), and tyre pressures would be what I looked at. Keeping the car clean makes a difference.

Is it manual or auto? Slightly premature upshifts might not be helping.

Cheers, Adam.

 

[Anonymous]

Just to add into this,
My father has an AU sedan that he regually gets around 600 Ks from a petrol tank full, on the rare occasions that it stays on petrol.
But he also used to get that figure from his XF from a few years ago.
My own AU fairmont with the VCT engine does around 450Ks on a tank full around the Dandenong hills in vic.
Havent been on a trip yet.
The trip conputer int the car would only be registering fuel used as to distance travelled.
But may be time to head back to the dealer.
The engine must be operating at the correct temperature, fuel economy will reduce if the engine is running too hot or cold.
The engine/computer must be operating in closed loop mode. Question the dealer if the oxygen sensor is operating coorectly, not just a fault code check!
Economy mode makes alot of difference, so I am told.
Try this, if its ok then stop pressing the go pedal so hard.
Noel.