Fuel Consumption

[SAM LOVERS HER TOYOTAS]

Guys...

Has anyone noticed if they're fuel consumption has shot up during this damn cold freezing spell recently???

I've noticed my fuel needle drop everyday and i only do say 5 miles per day! Its an 06 1.6 SR hatch which is normally fairly resonable...but i put it down to this weather...would like to know what everyone thinks!

sammy

[msprince]

Mine has gone up a little bit but then i put £40 in the car the 27th nov and i still have over a 1/4 tank only because im driving 7miles at about 30mph now because of all the bad weather up here.

Plus i have been getting stuck in the snow a few times lol.

[CorollaD4D]

definitely this weather reduces fuel economy. takes longer for the engine to reach optimum temperature also and if you get stuck then it just drinks the fuel down lol. my diesel drops by around 5-10mpg in the winter time i estimate.

[illgryphon]

exactly what corolla said, mpg has gone from bad to abyssmal. Also car has used a tiny bit of oil too with all these cold weather starts.

[nrgizerbunny]

when your car is cold, its in open loop so the ECU chucks in more fuel to stop it stalling and doesn't rely on the O2 sensor for feedback.

Once its warm, the car is in closed loop and given the temperature with the air being denser it will actually spray in more fuel than it usually does for a given engine RPM. However the net benefit is the engine will produce more power.

Difference in power between +30C and -15C is at least 10% probably more.

[Cyker]

Yeah, cars, especially petrol cars, tend to use more fuel during winter, partly because it takes a bit more energy to counter the cold, but mostly because cold air = more air-per-unit-volume (i.e. denser) so more fuel can be burned.

It's sort of like a slight natural turbo charging

For some reason my D4D takes ages to get to operating temperature in winter, but once it does I find I can perform some serous torque abuse and short-shift effortlessly without lagging behind traffic so that's off-set the mpg drop a fair bit.

The killer is getting stuck in traffic since then you're just burning the extra fuel without even moving!

[CorollaD4D]

My corolla d4d takes around 25mins from first starting to fully warm. that's broken down into 5mins of idle when first started and then town driving gentle not going over 2000rpm and by the time i've reached the motorway (this is my commute home) the car is more or less fully warm.

some people mention after a coolant change the car warms up much quicker and mines touching 100K miles now so i think coolant change would be sensible

[andycam06]

mine has gone from 53 mpg to 45 mpg, but this also is starting it up in the morning and leaving it for 5-10 minutes while you defrost the windows and that, as said its the short runs that really kill it so thats what up with your sam, nothing to worry about, totally normal...........bring back the sunshine

[SAM LOVERS HER TOYOTAS]

Cool guys...i thought as much...just a warmer feeling knowing we're all in the same boat...rolla...whatever...lol!

Guys are so right about the extra power though...i notice it everyday...i did think the more colder the air going in...the quicker it goes...lets just say...im a very cautious driver...hardly ever go over 30-32mph...but these last few colllllld mornings...hmmm...its kinda exciting when you hit 40+ in such short space & time lol! I'll control myself lads...lol...takecare all!

Sammy

[pajjy]

Cool guys...i thought as much...just a warmer feeling knowing we're all in the same boat...rolla...whatever...lol!

Guys are so right about the extra power though...i notice it everyday...i did think the more colder the air going in...the quicker it goes...lets just say...im a very cautious driver...hardly ever go over 30-32mph...but these last few colllllld mornings...hmmm...its kinda exciting when you hit 40+ in such short space & time lol! I'll control myself lads...lol...takecare all!

Sammy

thats why intercoolers are fitted to some engines to give cooler air into cylinders adds extra bhp.