poor MPG on 06 S3

[DJ-S3]

It depends what you call drive like a nun, my driving like a nun (occasional right foot) I get 28mpg. If I drive normally I get 26mpg, if I use the car like its meant to be driven 19mpg. Are you used to a turbo car? Because sometimes it takes a little getting used to, to realise how to optimise the mpg. Like where the max torque is so to not use the right foot as long as you need to.

 

[SteveMcB]

Just remembered that my 08 A4 has a piece of gauze about halfway down the snorkel before the airbox. I only found it by mistake and it was clogged solid, despite a recent service. I think it's fitted to some cars to prevent snow going down there but it really just effectively blocks the air intake. Don't know if yours has this or not but it wasn't obvious on mine and looked like it hadn't been cleaned for years, looks like the kind of filter you get on the back of a hairdryer. Might be worth a look.

 

[pablo]

defo dont have that Stevie, maybe someone added it later as it doesnt sound original?

DJ-S3 - had a few turbo cars including an 8L S3 which would have seen 35ish on a run from memory.

by drive like a nun I mean mostly off boost, low revs taking it handy. I do a 40m run to my mums the odd weekend with my wife and son and usually play the max mpg game S3 is the worst so far.

air filter was changed the other day, looked a bit grubby but on the whole not too bad.

 

[SteveMcB]

Pity it would have been an easy fix, it is a genuine part though, specced on some cars but not others for some reason, might be something to do with a winter pack or the like. I used to drive a 10 plate S3 at work, great car, but I never saw much over 20mpg, mind you I wasn't paying for fuel and drove it accordingly. Good luck tracing the source of your problem

 

[DJ-S3]

Ok, that rules out my suggestion. Ha. 35mpg from the s3 8l?? Waw! I could only get 32, and that was the dullest drive ever. Haha. I used to get 23mpg in my 8l, so my 8p is a dream to own in comparison.

 

[S.]

i got 38 mpg yesterday with full trunk and 3 persons. day before i got 36 on a motorway. arround the town i get 22-24.

 

[Daggerit]

You talk about driving off boost, have you given it a decent thrash recently?

The only reason I ask is that I had an Astra VXR that got comparable mileage, possibly a bit better, and would get maybe 200-240 miles to a tank if I was lucky during normal driving. Took a drive with some lads that had VXR's as well and we weren't hanging about, covered about 170 miles at pace and when I got home I'd used just under half a tank! Not quite sure how that works but might be worth a try to see the difference and give everything a dust off?

 

[pablo]

oh yes believe me it gets a good workout when Im on my own

 

[Muzza80]

So I'm kinda in the same boat.

• 08 Astra VXR Nurburgring Edition tuned to ~ 300bhp and I could return 37-39mpg on a 60mph run up the A9 to Inverness, mid 20's average when driving it around town but also using the power when I could. Average tank would get me 300-350.
• 08 Focus ST-3 again tuned to bang on 300bhp, could see 33 mpg on a run, I once seen 190 miles to half a tank sitting at 70 motorway all the way, dropped to low 20's around town and under 20 if I was driving it hard for any length of time. Average tank would get me 240-290
• 06 Impreza WRX tuned to 290bhp, I never seen more than 30mpg even on a granny run, most I seen from a tank was 300 miles, worst was under 200. Average tank 240-260.
• 2010 S3 Sportback, average over 1400 miles is 23.4mpg, granny run could see 32mpg but since having it mapped last week I've never seen over 30 even when really trying to squeeze it out which surprised me. Best I've had yet out of a tank was 300 miles, this latest tank after having it mapped I'll be lucky to get 250 I reckon.

.


So for me the S3 is not as bad as the Scooby but nowhere near as economical as the Astra VXR and even on a run the ST trumps it which I'm a little disappointed about it has to be said. If I could consistently average over 30 on a long run then I'd be happy, when I boot it around or get the car on track I couldn't really care about economy.

I did expect the remap to improve that side of things to be fair and it has not as yet but the temperature has dropped this week significantly which may account for an mpg or 2?

 

[OVRA3]

No disrespect intended lads at all but when you've paid 13-30k plus for an s3 4wd with all the Bells and whistles why are you worrying about a few miles extra from a tank? It's by far not an economical car but that's not what you bought it for right? And in most cases it's a major upgrade from vxr's and st's so enjoy couple of quid here and there it's just part of the fun.

 

[S.]

i get on a long run from 28-37mpg even seen 40! with full boot and 2 passangers and me. town driving and rush hour is the one that's killing it. i get 20-24. and that's all with the bad fuel we get here. that's from a stage 2+ car running 340+ bhp
i guess something ain't right on yours?

 

[S3Alex]

No disrespect intended lads at all but when you've paid 13-30k plus for an s3 4wd with all the Bells and whistles why are you worrying about a few miles extra from a tank? It's by far not an economical car but that's not what you bought it for right? And in most cases it's a major upgrade from vxr's and st's so enjoy couple of quid here and there it's just part of the fun.

Absolutely right.

By comparison with one of my previous cars(the GpN Escort),even now the car is fast,and relatively good on petrol,and when you compare it with an easy 8mpg(yes 8) it seems pretty good to get 28-30mpg,with 500bhp performance.

I think the only point that could be made is that if the car really isnt returning the sort of figures it should,and assuming it's got nothing to do with town driving,or a heavy foot,then it may point to something else like fuelling or throttle body problems that need sorting.

 

[Muzza80]

i get on a long run from 28-37mpg even seen 40! with full boot and 2 passangers and me. town driving and rush hour is the one that's killing it. i get 20-24. and that's all with the bad fuel we get here. that's from a stage 2+ car running 340+ bhp
i guess something ain't right on yours?

So all of our cars have a fault but yours is ok?

Sure we can all drive a few miles and get a high average but over the course of a long journey with ups, downs, wind ect the best I've had is 32 over say 40 miles or so and trust me when I say that was driving at like 65mpg using no boost at all, completely steady on motorway and on a calm day, you literally couldn't drive more economically.

37, 40mpg... are you talking the fluctuation you see on instantaneous MPG? If not and you mean the average reading then I'd say either yours is running lean at those speeds/rpm or you have a very long incline that you drive down while checking average mpg, you're the only person on this or any other board I've seen claim to achieve these figures.

Or you're talking ******** lol

 

[S3Alex]

So all of our cars have a fault but yours is ok?

Sure we can all drive a few miles and get a high average but over the course of a long journey with ups, downs, wind ect the best I've had is 32 over say 40 miles or so and trust me when I say that was driving at like 65mpg using no boost at all, completely steady on motorway and on a calm day, you literally couldn't drive more economically.

37, 40mpg... I'd say either yours is running lean at those speeds/rpm or you have a very long incline that you drive down while checking average mpg, you're the only person on this or any other board I've seen claim to achieve these figures.

Or you're talking ******** lol

To be fair,we all drive differently,and over different roads.

I can drag 33mpg out of mine on the way into work,and rarely more than 30mpg on the way home,as the traffic is heavier,and the drive home is uphill overall,so there are many factors,but overall,it will still do 29mpg including a few good runs.

Put another way,if I can get a best of 35mpg from mine.......I don't think that a car tuned to a lower level than mine would be unable to reach the sort of figures quoted by S.,but it's down to roads,driving style and so on.

 

[Muzza80]

No disrespect intended lads at all but when you've paid 13-30k plus for an s3 4wd with all the Bells and whistles why are you worrying about a few miles extra from a tank? It's by far not an economical car but that's not what you bought it for right? And in most cases it's a major upgrade from vxr's and st's so enjoy couple of quid here and there it's just part of the fun.

None taken, as you can see I've owned a number of high performance cars so clearly economy is not a massive priority to me.

That said, is it wrong of me to question what I see on a steady run when people are banding figures as high as 40mpg around?

I couldn't give two hoots what the car uses when I'm using the power however on a long boring drive along a bit of motorway I'd have expected a little more, that's all, no biggie, just interested to see what others are getting in these situations.

 

[pablo]

most of my driving is family runs at the weekend. I get to play when Im in the car on my own but this is a minority.

to only get 30mpg on a run is a sign something is wrong. All this claptrap about oh its a performance car is getting boring. There is clearly an issue and thats why I started this thread. When I say a run I mean 60mph max, off boost absolutely milking it for economy.

To date I have:

- found out it was mapped, and had the map removed
- replaced the thermostat and coolant sensor
- had brakes checked for binding
- serviced with new oil/filters/plugs

Next suspicion would be MAF and/or Lambdas causing overfuelling.

 

[OVRA3]

most of my driving is family runs at the weekend. I get to play when Im in the car on my own but this is a minority.

to only get 30mpg on a run is a sign something is wrong. All this claptrap about oh its a performance car is getting boring. There is clearly an issue and thats why I started this thread. When I say a run I mean 60mph max, off boost absolutely milking it for economy.

To date I have:

- found out it was mapped, and had the map removed
- replaced the thermostat and coolant sensor
- had brakes checked for binding
- serviced with new oil/filters/plugs

Next suspicion would be MAF and/or Lambdas causing overfuelling.

Chill out Pab's you're not a million miles away from what the general figures that people are coming back with, a lot of the guys are mapped so will probably see slightly better figures.

I wouldn't worry too much my a3 Quattro is about 24 around town and about 33 at a steady 65

 

[S3Alex]

most of my driving is family runs at the weekend. I get to play when Im in the car on my own but this is a minority.

to only get 30mpg on a run is a sign something is wrong. All this claptrap about oh its a performance car is getting boring. There is clearly an issue and thats why I started this thread. When I say a run I mean 60mph max, off boost absolutely milking it for economy.

To date I have:

- found out it was mapped, and had the map removed
- replaced the thermostat and coolant sensor
- had brakes checked for binding
- serviced with new oil/filters/plugs

Next suspicion would be MAF and/or Lambdas causing overfuelling.

Mine was definitely easier to drag a good mpg out of when mapped.....at best when stock it would do about 28mpg,so that may well be a part of what you're finding.

At Stg1,30mpg+ overall was quite easy,due to the extra torque.

The easiest way to have all of the other things checked is to have someone log the car and find out exactly what it's doing.

 

[stetheo]

Some of the figures people manage to get surprise me. I've got an average of 24.2 over the last 600 miles with mixed driving including a bit of boring motorway driving. Haven't managed to get over 28 at all yet. That is with a completely standard car.

its getting mapped this weekend so will be interesting to see if this changes at all...or possibly gets worse haha.

 

[Dave-S3]

I seem to get 270ish miles to 50L of Vpower each time i fill up. The tanks 60L and i always have 10L left when the light comes on, on that basis i presume that scraping the tank dry i should see about 330 miles/tank. Im happy with that given the type of car it is, I drive 20 miles a day on main roads full of traffic lights and stop start traffic. If I'm really careful i can get 28mpg on the way to work, best I've seen so far was about 34mpg on a short motorway run including some speed up slow down traffic.

Again as a few others have said, i didn't buy it for economy, if i wanted that i would of kept my 2.0TDi.

My CTR wasnt much better than my S3 is for economy either and that was A N/A 2.0 petrol engine.

It does seem that those with stage 1 remaps get better economy, this is something i will be doing in the near future.

I think some people forget you really can't compare our cars at all to the likes of VXR's or even ST's driven like grannies because even though its quattro/haldex some of the power is always going to the rear wheels so the car is going to use more fuel than its chavtastic counterparts

 

[Dan-Jnr]

Get in the car and drive it how you want, if you don't like the MPG you're getting sell the S3 and get a TDi.
Who's cares what MPG you get cause I know I don't.
Performance petrol cars aren't for the economically minded.

 

[s3_trev]

Pretty average MPG for me. I get 330 miles to a full tank pretty much every time, but the majority of my driving is very short distances. On a long run I would get up to 35 mpg or so.