A4 170 S-line se BAD MPG

lespaul

lespaul

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Hi folks,

Well picked up my 57 plate S-line SE, ride is a bit hard a times but I can get used to that. I don't think I could get used to the 34MPG. I let the car run down to just over 1/4 of a tank and got the shock of my life. I thought that these things were supposed to do at least 45 combined but 34?!!?!?.

It's back off to the Audi dealer next weekend. Must be something wrong with it.

Any comments that I could say to the stealer?

Cheers
 
Perhaps ask them to look for MAF sensor values and requested/actual boost pressures as you could have a boost leak? Does it drive ok?

It could be a injector not spraying correctly or anything..like finding a needle in a haystack. I'm in the same boat, average being 36 mpg at the moment.
 
Hi yeah drives fine thanks. Just took it out with my boy round some roads in oxfordshire. Sticks to the road and is fun to drive once you get passed the hard ride. Got it from a stealer as I say, it's got a years warranty on it too.

Just thought when you're not nailing it it would not drink fuel. Perhaps a long motorway run will sort it. But thanks for the advise. Is the EGR vavle and intercooler easy to clean out?

Cheers
 
Ive had my 170 for just over a year now and suffered the fuel injector problem.
Ive had all four(4) injectors replaced in December, checked on vagcom so i know its set up and running correctly.
My commute is about ten(10) miles on the motorway at 80mph with the cruise control on most of the time, four(4) miles at 50mph again on the cruise & then another three(3) miles in moving london traffic.
From a full tank i get between 500 & 530 miles.
That equates to 27-28 mpg :(

I am 99% sure this is due to the car running at over 2000rpm most of the time with the turbo boosting.
If i drove at 70mph in 6th, its just under 2000rpm and the mpg is considerably better.

Time is precious with a familly so admit to breaking the national speed limit, if i left earlier i could save a small fortune in fuel bills.

If you want better figures you will have to alter your driving style.
 
Hi Guys,

I also have the 170BHP S Line se and i only get between 30 and 34mpg on the motorway, sometimes i actually get better economy around town according to DIS.
when i've been on the motorway i've tried slowing down and speeding up from between 50 to 100mph, and the MPG hardly changes! I can't believe that there is only 2MPG difference when going from 50mph to 100mph in 6th speed! Something doesn't seem right. The car seems to drive ok, plenty of power and doesn't miss a beat, just poor economy, maybe just have to settle for a thirsty car!!
 
Get used to it.The official consumption figures are a load of old ********.Id expect them to be around 20% over real time, but in my case they are about 45% out.My b7 140bhp tdi did 37 to the gallon whether i booted it or not.My B8 170bhp tdi does 32 when its cold and 35 when the weathers warm.I get 412 miles to the tank regardless of how i drive.Exactly the same after my remap to 200bhp.If id have known this before purchase, id have got the 3lt.We must have all bought cars built on a friday....oh and buy the way the DIS lies big style
 
I'll jump in on this if I may.... Ive been complaining about this on another forum (not as good as this 1 lol) I bought an s line se 170 3 weeks ago.. filled her up at a cost of £76 and got 488 miles out of it but filling up again and it took £80 60 ltr... so thats only just 35 mpg. Im scared really and dunno if I have bought the wrong german car????? my drive is dual carriage way but I have been driving it as I have always driven ... changed from an old rover t reg 220 diesel that was doing 45mpg. Gonna service her and drive it carefully and see what I get but im not keen on nursing mpg out of a car!!!
 
What an idiot, got my maths all wrong:redface:

1 Imperial gallon = 4.54609188 litres.

So 13.18 gallons = 60 litres(size of the 170 tank!).

Therefore 500 miles divided by 13.18 gallons = 37 mpg, im ecstatic :laugh:

Next time i fill up i will do an economy run in the name of science and see what i can get to the gallon.
I will keep the revs below 2000rpm except from a standing start, no traffic light grand prixs for me!
 
170 tank is 70 litres im sure that what my manual says, also parkers.
 
My a4 s line se took £80 easy the other day and was 60 litres and the light only just came on as I was driving to get fuel. still shocking mpg for a 2.0 tdi modern engine... are the common rail engines any better? how the hell the 140 engine has been rated green car Audi A3 TDI is 2010 Green Car of the Year. Clean Diesel Reigns! | GreenCar.com and the 170 be so shocking.. is the technology that old in a 4 year old car?
 
Sorry to go off on a tangent but whilst there is a few B7 2007 170 Line SE owners on this thread i thought i'd sieze the opportunity to ask if the front grill is supposed to be black or chrome? Mine has a chrome one but i'm suspecting it has been changed!

Thanks Chaps
 
Mine is silver and its 57 plate. 99% sure black grill is on the "blackline" or whatever its called

Because of this thread and the one about "724 miles from a tank" I on an economy drive since yesterday hoping to get 600-700 miles out of it. Economy is terrible when you live on the turbo, which i usually do. Quite enjoying the economy game though.
 
The economy game can get seriously addictive and darn right dangerous. I would stare more at the DIS on a run than i would on the road because i was so fixated with getting it higher and higher.

I agree with the claims that the DIS lies. If mine states im getting anything above 60MPG im actually really getting around the 47MPG mark. I dont even have a 170 like you guys. I have a 140!

To the OP, i believe who asked about cleaning egr valve and intercooler. Its a bumper off job for the Intercooler, but if your confident taking off the front bumper (which is so pizs easy) then the intercooler is only a further 2 minutes. Its simple 2 pipes, one on top and one down below and then you just push it out. The EGR valve is rather easy too. When cleaning out the EGR, its good practise to remove the inlet manifold and the motor intake flap to give everything a bit of a clean out of crud deposits and carbon. Makes the car run smoother. Taking it off is simply a few bolts/nuts. Its cleaning the darn things that takes ages!

I gave my car an italian tune up (good thrashing up a VERY LONG HILL with 5 up and luggage) in a hope to perhaps clean out my car a little, and guess what? I think its worked a little! Well its either that or this french diesel seems to be a lot better than UK Diesel. This tank i look like i'll be hitting 500 miles, but the funny thing is no part of this tank has been economical. From dover to east london i was doing 100+ mph 5 up,up those HUGE long hills in dover, and since ,all my journies have been short and pretty heavy footed. Never gone past 500 on one tank!
 
170 se I have has a silver grill surround... will soon be black tho, as will the rest of my milky chrome/alu window trim.
 
fwd tank size 70l 4wd size 63l,so its 500 by 15 gallons.
 
audi upgrades
Well

Filled it up on Monday just got to 400 miles and it's due to go back tomorrow for a check. Filled it up again today took 40 litres so by my calculation that's 45MPG hahahaahahah. I was driving it like Miss Daisy, but the M40 is shocking so could not get above 70MPH. But 45 MPG not bad.
 
Oh and for those talking about the grill mines black, so unless someone has changed it before me, which I doubt cos it was a lease car. Saloon S--line SE
 
Well I have just filled up with 65 litres at my local Esso, cost me £85.
I'm going to do a economy drive, not revving over 2000rpm to prevent the turbo from boosting and will see what mpg I can get?
One thing I do know is it's going to be a very dull driving experience!
I will have to get out my old Saab 900 turbo for some fun!
 
Last edited:
There are two Audi A4 S-Line 'Special Editions' - the one with the mutispoke alloys (pre 07 plate) and the 'final edition' which was after 07 and had the RS4 style wheels as well as the black pack.

I have the latter, with the 170 engine and average 42mpg most of the time or 38mpg if I thrash it.

Not bad, but not great when you consider a friend in a 140 A6 S-line gets 47 and its a bigger / heavier car!

140 + Remap = Better than a factory 170?

I've never managed to do an economy full tank, I get to about 300 miles and then get bored! :(
 
wish i'd gone for the 140 s line tdi now!!! I just couldnt turn down the bargain 170 se I found! Keep for a year or 2 then part for a newer a4 CR tdi I think
 
Personally I test drove the 140 and didn't enjoy it. I bought a 150tid Saab 93 which I loved.
I only got shot if the 93 because of the depreciation. I think if I was going to trade in my 170 it would be for a BMW diesel.
I think if you bought the 170 to do great mpg you bought the wrong car, I think it likes to be driven with the turbo boosting giving you all that effortless torque.
My mrs has a civic type r returning 29mpg, we need one familly load lugger and I have it, doesn't need to be boring, so bring on my 170 horses!!!
 
I have a 170 57 plate and I got 41 mpg on my last tank 50/50 mileage with motorway/london crawl.

I have a 70L tank and i believe I could get 700+ miles motorway but 450 London rushhour. I'm pretty happy with that.
 
I have the 140bhp Sline Avant and achieve 38mpg when flooring it everywhere & normally 45mpg with normal driving and have regularly achieved 50mpg when being very careful lol! All my fuel is documented in excel so I know these are true figures and not DIS figures.

I do find if you do a lot of short journeys under say 15 miles the fuel economy is rubbish as it takes so long for the engine to warm up.
Now had it remapped to 176bhp so will see how it goes but the DIS reckoned 800 miles to 900 miles so will wait and see when I have filled her up a couple of times over the next few weeks.
 
topped up today. 390 miles to £61 at £130.9 38mpg and thats been taking it easy for a week and a half! not a happy bunny!! anyone wanna buy 1????
 
Guys I can't believe what I'm reading here.
I had a 1.9 B6 130bhp with 90% driving on motorway I was getting almost 50mpg average!
I've sold it and bought touareg 2.5tdi few months ago and barely get 30mpg, still 90% motorway.
I was thinking about going back to a4 and especially 170 quattro s-line SE,
but you want to tell me that I will not get even 45mpg from it?
Or you just floor it too much?
What do you guys get when driving 70mph on cruise?
 
Having driven both types of 170 the CR version is defo the more economical of the two and is giving around 42 on a tight engine < 500 miles where has the PD engine I would be hard pressed to get 38 on a loose engine
 
If you do 90% motorway @ 70mph you will get 45mpg. I got 41 mpg from a 50/50 mix motorway/london.

Once it warmed up and at cruising speed its not too bad. But lots of short trips its terrible. For example that half my tank was used doing trips to and from work in london which is 10 miles each way. But im sure on the motorway itd do 700+ to a tank
 
Thats what I need really.
Now just need to sell Touareg...
 
jaygeezer871 said:
Well I have just filled up with 65 litres at my local Esso, cost me £85.
I'm going to do a economy drive, not revving over 2000rpm to prevent the turbo from boosting and will see what mpg I can get?
One thing I do know is it's going to be a very dull driving experience!
Click to expand...

Its been five(5) days since i started my economy drive and i have had enough.
Not revving it over 2000rpm has meant that my daily drive has become dull and dangerous.
I found pulling onto roundabouts with no urgency just plain dangerous with other traffic tearing up behind you.
Also pulling onto the motorway with lorries in the nearside lane doing 65mph and having no accelaration to get onto the motorway safely was rather scary.
I returned to the same fuel pump tonight and brimmed it.
For my 180 miles i used 20 litres of diesel, that works out at 40.9mpg.
Considering i do a mixture of motorway and london drivng im happy with that.
I would have thought if i was doing a 100 mile motorway drive at 70mph, 45mpg would be realistic.
I must say im looking forward to returning to my normal driving style in the morning and enjoying my car again!!!.
 
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Addie said:
There are two Audi A4 S-Line 'Special Editions' - the one with the mutispoke alloys (pre 07 plate) and the 'final edition' which was after 07 and had the RS4 style wheels as well as the black pack.

I have the latter, with the 170 engine and average 42mpg most of the time or 38mpg if I thrash it.

Not bad, but not great when you consider a friend in a 140 A6 S-line gets 47 and its a bigger / heavier car!

140 + Remap = Better than a factory 170?

I've never managed to do an economy full tank, I get to about 300 miles and then get bored! :(
Click to expand...

Thanks Addie for clearing up the grill situation, as suspected mine should have the black grill, it was a lease car before i got it so don't know what happened to the black one! I don't suppose anyone has a spare one lying around in their garage do they?!!!

As for the Fuel situation, i've just filled up my avant 170 s line se 57 plate FWD after doing 471 miles, the car took 62 litres, about 13.63 gallons, so my calculations work that out to be 34.6 MPG. My drive is about 3/4 motorway and 1/4 town driving. I haven't been taking it easy, i just find it impossible to do so, especially when i'm on my way home from work!!!
I normally do between 70 and 90 on the motorway, traffic depending, and my town driving is deffinately not "economical" shall we say!!
 
The shocking MPG of Audi deisels really is scary. I had a chipped 335d with circa 360hp and 700nm torque. So thats a 3 litre twin turbo tuned deisel. I always drove 'progressively' and averaged mid to high 30s on a combined cycle. On an 'economy' run i managed to eek out 50mpg. Now thats amazing for such performance motor but obviously achieveable. Why are Audi so terrible. The 320d that BMW supplies has fantastic mpg. If you have a look on the old youtube you can find a video of a guy running a 335d on the autoban at very high speeds and he is achieving about 26mpg. In this age of poor world economy everyone wants more for their cash. Audi need to address this especially when their advrtised mpgs are obviously away off the mark..
 
Audi won't lower their advertised MPGs if they can still achieve them under testing conditions as it helps them sell cars, and it doesn't constitute false advertising. Being honest with your customer base... that's another matter.

As a comparison, I have the 3.0tdi and am just approaching the fuel warning light being on and will have done about 470-480 when it does... That's mostly motorway but not holding back when needing to, including a-roads & a bit of town driving, all with a passenger and a full load in the boot. It's a quattro so has the 63 litre tank but will post a calculated (not DIS) MPG after I fill up...
 
I cant believe that when I posted on here 1st of feb 2011 diesel was 130.9 by me its now 148.9 ??????????????
 
jaygeezer871 said:
I think if you bought the 170 to do great mpg you bought the wrong car, I think it likes to be driven with the turbo boosting giving you all that effortless torque.
Click to expand...

^^^WHS.

Having said that, my 170 quattro returns a genuine (measured, not DIS) 40mpg overall with mixed driving (50% motorway). Personally I think that's pretty good for a 'performance' diesel with 4wd. YMMV, literally ;)
 
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