2.0TDI fuel economy

I made a quick excel sheet which calculates how much the aircon is costing in mpg under certain situations.

- For busy traffic city driving it is costing me just over 3mpg which is around 10% of my fuel economy!
- For sitting at 70 on the motorway it costs me just over 1mpg which is a more respectable 3%
- Anthony566, it would cost you almost 2mpg to run the aircon if sitting at 60 on the dual carriageway (which is around 4%).

I guess I should start to use my aircon less especially in town.

(these figures are assuming the aircon uses 1/20 gallon per hour as roughly indicated by the DIS)
 
Just as an example I took a few photos of my trip to work and back yesterday, on the way to work the roads where quite clear so manage 70/75 ( and maybe the odd power blip to get past the odd HGV convoy ) most of the way to work and this was the reading when I got there :-



On my way home it was a 65/70 trip home and this was the reading :-



there was a bit of congestion each way but not a lot and this was A19/A1/A1M/M62 this is my shortest work trip as when I do the longer one the mpg goes up.

Also can I just point out before I get any comments please not the position of the rev gauge !!!! I was parked up in a car park when I took the photos :)

Now I know people will say the DIS is wrong etc etc but I have to say this has not been my experience with this B8.5 if anything its 1 to 3 mpg low not high....
 
allanmb said:
I made a quick excel sheet which calculates how much the aircon is costing in mpg under certain situations.

- For busy traffic city driving it is costing me just over 3mpg which is around 10% of my fuel economy!
- For sitting at 70 on the motorway it costs me just over 1mpg which is a more respectable 3%
- Anthony566, it would cost you almost 2mpg to run the aircon if sitting at 60 on the dual carriageway (which is around 4%).

I guess I should start to use my aircon less especially in town.

(these figures are assuming the aircon uses 1/20 gallon per hour as roughly indicated by the DIS)
Click to expand...

that is interesting Alan ... I only really use it to clear the screen if needed and as we didn't really have a summer this year it didn't get used much then either :)
 
I've turned off my AC for a few tests. Today my mpg was considerably higher than the past few weeks but the temperature was 11C today compared to around 2-5 over the past few weeks. As for the DIS mpg, I find mine reads high. I use FuelLog on my phone for my calculations which suggests the DIS is approximately 2mpg on the high side.
 
desertstorm said:
I am really surprised about some of the mpg results that people are getting. My 3.0 TDI quattro isn't far off what some of the 2.0 143 cars are doing and it's making over 300 bhp. I always brim the tank and record mileage and fuel added in an excel spread sheet.
Have done for years with mine and the wifes car I can see if there are any issues occuring .
Over the last 14 months my car has averaged 32mpg, the DIS says 34mpg so seems pretty much to always be about 2mpg high.
This includes all the time I have been on dynos, Santa Pod, GTI Festival , GTI International, Towing 1300Kg of caravan with a fully loaded car etc.
The best I have ever had out of a tank was 36mpg , the worst 27.3mpg that was sitting in loads of traffic on the M5 for hours and towing our caravan with a fully loaded car.
90% of my driving is the 10 mile trip to work and back or pottering around locally. I don't often do longer trips but went to the Harry Potter studio trip on Saturday, As I had my sister following I set the cruise to 75mph most of the way so she could keep up.
It averaged 49mpg going there and 47mpg coming back according to the trip.
Thats a 112 mile trip down the M6, and M1. There is a good stretch of 50mph roadworks on the M1 that probably helped . I suspect when I fill the tank next it should beat the previous best for a tankful.
I am really happy with the fuel economy considering the performance of the car and the weight with quattro etc.

Karl.
Click to expand...

I have the 3.0 TDI and log my fuel fill ups just like you Karl and my readings are almost identical.
33mpg on average over the past 6 months, and this is with quite a bit of 'spirited' driving.
I think this is great considering the weight of the car, 290bhp, quattro etc.
On long motorway I can easily get mid 40s.
My car still has the DPF, I can imagine the figures would be even higher if I removed this.
Very impressed.
 
Yeah the 3.0 TDI is a sweet spot for perf/economy. I just couldn't afford to get one this time round. My option was either a 3-4yr old 3.0TDI or brand new 2.0TDI(177) so I opted for the latter in the hope that I don't have too many surprise repair bills like my old 3.2 FSI did!
 
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This morning I chose not to get fixated on the DIS - I just turned it off and showed my media track listing instead, and drove the car naturally as I normally would, then I saw what economy I got at the end.

Guess what - 46.7mpg (compared to previous averages of 40-41) and that was with a few foot-to-the-floor moments to get past stuff....

The moral of the story is if you get obsessed with the wretched instantaneous fuel economy readout then you are probably USING fuel by all the constant lifting off the throttle (and then having to reaccelerate) in a vein attempt to make the numbers go up.....
 
Another titbit of info - today I refilled from empty; the DIS showing only 5 miles to go and the needle pointing on the "R" - 6 o'clock position. The tank only took 55 litres yet the owners manual says 64.

Clearly there is a generous "reserve reserve" to discourage you from running completely dry. I guess it's a contingency against people doing damage to catalytic converters and getting airlocks in their fuel systems.
 
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RapidAssistant said:
Another titbit of info - today I refilled from empty; the DIS showing only 5 miles to go and the needle pointing on the "R" - 6 o'clock position. The tank only took 55 litres yet the owners manual says 64.

Clearly there is a generous "reserve reserve" to discourage you from running completely dry. I guess it's a contingency against people doing damage to catalytic converters and getting airlocks in their fuel systems.
Click to expand...

My fill to fill is 54 litres on average and a year ago it cost me £75 now 54 litres cost me £60.00 ... and my last 2 fills have given me 550/555 miles even with the crap weather ... so I am quite happy with what I am getting. I do also have a DTUK Box installed.
 
allanmb said:
Yeah the 3.0 TDI is a sweet spot for perf/economy. I just couldn't afford to get one this time round. My option was either a 3-4yr old 3.0TDI or brand new 2.0TDI(177) so I opted for the latter in the hope that I don't have too many surprise repair bills like my old 3.2 FSI did!
Click to expand...

I was in the exact same position Allan, I would have loved the 3.0TDi .... with paddle shift but lack of funding forced my hand as I wanted a black edition with satnav and I wanted new as my old 1.8T ( petrol ) had been so reliable with 260,000 miles ( and more now as my son has it ) I decided to stay with Audi and so far I have not had any issues to complain about. I am hoping the clutch on the TDi last as long as it did on the petrol as that lasted for 250,000 miles lol and it still has the original exhaust fitted :)
 
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490 miles this week from my 54 litres but I have spent quite a few hours sitting on the A1, M1, M62, M60 and the ****** M6 .......
 
i don't really keep records of fuel consumption in detail but always put £30 at time which lasts a week, giving me around 120/130 miles.
the reason i don't fill up to full in one go thinking about the extra weight of the fuel would decrease the mpg..
am i right to think that way or does it not matter.....
 
The weight of extra fuel will have a marginal effect on economy. If you go by the weight of 1L of petrol as 0.74Kg and diesel around 0.84Kg per Litre.
Half a tank, 30L , of petrol weighs 22.5Kg and diesel 25.2Kg . That's about 1.5% of the weight of the car.

Karl.
 
I topped up this morning and I got 320 miles to around half a tank! :)
 
Little update to this thread based on my earlier posts....

My daily commute is now sitting typically at 46-47mpg, up from being down in the low 40s during winter time. So we are definitely on summer diesel fuel now. Not having lights on and not using the heated seats is probably making a difference too.

On a long run recently from Perth to Essex (458 miles), the DIS finished up on 51.2mpg for the whole trip.
 
2.0tdi 170
I set my trip counter last tank and got 610 out of the tank till i was on red (in the lovely warm weather).
I got overall 48 mpg average including winter months according to DIS, but seeing 50mpg now with around town driving and between 52 - 57 on motorways with the warmer weather. I have staggered wheels and MPG definately dropped a little since I started running them last year.
I thought my car was broken when it got 47s in the coldest winter months, till summer came back and it is back in the 50s.
I love the summer as I get amazing MPG, maybe just wait another month and you will all get a bit more for your tank :)
 
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Gaz170 said:
@Manda are you sure your not being tow'd lol i haven't seen above 45mpg yet in mine
Click to expand...
ahaha
I used to have a mapped petrol 1.8t so took lots of pictures last year as I was chuffed with the MPG :)

SUmmer months before the staggered wheels

After a nice 50 zone on the m3, never got this again tbf, 58.8 was my closest since:
17135710665_fc552be3e9_c.jpg


and after an average summer drive on the motorways:
17134141942_aa3af5b066_c.jpg


Now on 100k !
On staggered wheels and it is getting back in the 50's but been allot mid to late 40s off the motorways over the winter months, and 50 on the motorways.
Got 53 this weekend
 
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I struggle to hit 50mpg doing a trip from Bristol to Swansea and back...generally hit 49.5 and it stays there...no aircon on..windows closed...motorway driving...70mpg...so annoying!
 
andyam said:
I struggle to hit 50mpg doing a trip from Bristol to Swansea and back...generally hit 49.5 and it stays there...no aircon on..windows closed...motorway driving...70mpg...so annoying!
Click to expand...

I did a trip from Newcastle to Leeds last weekend when it was warm. Had the aircon on intermittently. I was doing 70ish ;-) but with a few stretches of 50 for road works. I averaged 53.2 mpg! Definitely my best yet. The car has done just over 13k miles so maybe it is nice and run-in now :)
 
got 58.8 average over 300 miles of mixed driving over the weekend, I love the summer and so does the car!

Maybe the lower mileage engines need more wearing in to get better mpg. and the 140's seem to not get as high either.
I had passengers, foot nearky flat acceleration a few times and Air ride in the boot.
<3 my barge (170)
 
Just got rid of my B8 2.0TDIe saloon and it averaged 48mpg over 4.5 years and 103K! This was a mixture of motorway driving and London driving.

This was with the AC on all the time.

My best trip was on the M1 when it was restricted to 50mph for 40 miles...I managed 60mpg!

And I must say when I returned it the car was running perfectly!
 
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