Very Poor MPG from TDIe what can I check

SRRAE

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Hi,

I got the TDIe Audi A4 because, from all the information I found, it was meant to be the one which gives you the best MPG. I usually like cars with a little umph but I was happy to sacrifice this to have lower running costs, and I'd expected the Audi to do similar if not better MPG than my 2004 Mazda 6, which was falling apart when I got rid of it.

I calculated my mpg when I fill up each time and I'm only getting around 36mph per tank. That's about 450 miles a tank.

My usual daily commute is 4-5 miles around town taking the kids to school etc, but then 15 miles of clear motorway and dual carriage way with 2 roundabouts and I always keep it around 60mph. During a tank we'll have a few family days out which is usually 50 mile round trip on the motorway, again keeping it around 60mph.

According to the car's dashboard on the motoraway I'm getting low to mid 50s mph it seems to be around town which is killing it.

Before I bought my car I test drove a friends 2.0 TDI A4 (B8) and around town it was saying I'm getting about 40mpg, while roughly the same trip my car says I'm getting high teens low 20s.

The car has done 130,000 miles, its been serviced very well, runs ultra smooth, the tyres are inflated correctly, they are major brand tyres and I don't carry excess weight in the car.

Oh, and the car hasn't been remapped by Audi. When I put the car's VIN in to Audi's site it says its not been done.

What else can I check?
 
Hi Ive just bought a 13 plate tdie avant and I’m disappointed in the mpg too.
I got 52mpg at 70 for an hour on a motorway hardly any traffic. Round town 35mpg. I’ve just hit 30.000 mls. Car has had Audi remap as just got it form a stealer.
Sons A3 does 70mpg in the same situation and my 2005 golf gt tdi did 50mpg round town with 130.000 mls on it.
I did read a thread somewhere that it’s a problem Audi know about but won’t fix. Saw it the other day and now can’t find it again.
 
Thanks for the reply,

Round town is killing it. The MMI dash is quite accurate with the MPG when I compare it to the method calculating it between fillups and it says my commute to work I'm getting between 40-47mpg and yet the couple of trips in to town and to the shops makes it drop to mid 30s.
I think around town I'm getting 25-30mpg

My Wife's A3 is getting mid 40s on the same trip.

I guess I'm just stuck with it and use my wife's car for the small trips.
 
Oh my god worried about your mpg it’s minus 4 outside just drive it every car uses more in cold weather if it bothers you that much get a Prius
 
With 130K miles on the car the DPF may be partially blocked, they do have a service life and don't last forever. This wouldn't help things , however it's possible you have other issues such as binding brakes caused by a sticking caliper or other issues such as EGR valves sticking.
The A4 is a good deal heavier than the A3 and this does show up more around town where you are having to accelerate the extra mass more often.
Real world consumption figures usually bear little resemblance to the manufacturer figures.
The 2.0 TDIe 163 seems particularly bad here.
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/audi/a4-b8-avant-2008
 
I have the 136hp TDIe.

I get between 600-700 miles on a tank. In summer around 55mpg on a run, but obviously less during the cold.

Funnily enough, I was struggling with MPH recently, but had a service and cam belt change and getting really good MPG again.
 
I’ve only just had mine from a main dealer.
Had a B7 2.0 tfsi Sline Quattro 10 years back and the mpg was good for that 36mpg
10 years on with a diesel and the same car less Quattro I would expect better mpg.
My sons 2010 A3 gets 70mpg on a run similar to what I did last weekend. 20mpg difference for about 300kg in weight is a lot.
Maybe we just expect too much ?
 
I have the 136hp TDIe.
I get between 600-700 miles on a tank. In summer around 55mpg on a run, but obviously less during the cold.
Funnily enough, I was struggling with MPH recently, but had a service and cam belt change and getting really good MPG again.

I have the same engine on the A4 Technik and recently I've hardly got past 400 miles per tank at times. It is due a cambelt change which I hope may help. Tighten up the timing a bit.

With 130K miles on the car the DPF may be partially blocked, they do have a service life and don't last forever. This wouldn't help things , however it's possible you have other issues such as binding brakes caused by a sticking caliper or other issues such as EGR valves sticking.
The A4 is a good deal heavier than the A3 and this does show up more around town where you are having to accelerate the extra mass more often.
Real world consumption figures usually bear little resemblance to the manufacturer figures.
The 2.0 TDIe 163 seems particularly bad here.
https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/realmpg/audi/a4-b8-avant-2008

I hope it isn't the DPF, the EGR I can take off and inspect. I'll give that a go in the summer.
I have the TDIe 136 and I'd love to get the 50mpg it stats people are getting.


I’ve only just had mine from a main dealer.
Had a B7 2.0 tfsi Sline Quattro 10 years back and the mpg was good for that 36mpg
10 years on with a diesel and the same car less Quattro I would expect better mpg.
My sons 2010 A3 gets 70mpg on a run similar to what I did last weekend. 20mpg difference for about 300kg in weight is a lot.
Maybe we just expect too much ?

I own a Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo which has been modified to over 500 bhp. An average tank I would get 22-25mpg. Once driving to Scotland I managed to get 37mpg. My Audi is starting to feel a little like that but without the 0-60 in 4.5 seconds. ;)
 
If you aren’t getting over 400 miles I can only imagine all your journeys must be short and in built up areas?
 
If you aren’t getting over 400 miles I can only imagine all your journeys must be short and in built up areas?

It's not though. My daily commute is 15 miles, 2-3 of them is town traffic to the motorway and then clear motorway which I stay about 55-65 mph on cruise control.

I'll have to keep a record of where I go for a month to see how many short journeys I'm doing. If I'm getting 45-50mpg on the motorway to make the average drop so low, I must be betting way less than 30mpg around town.
 
To be fair, that’s similar to my commute, but I regularly do longer stretches on a tank. During current weather I get about 47mpg on the commute according to the trip computer.
 
To be fair, that’s similar to my commute, but I regularly do longer stretches on a tank. During current weather I get about 47mpg on the commute according to the trip computer.

I find the trip computer quite accurate for me, and is only 1-3 mpg different to what I actually get. My trip computer says I get 43-47mpg for my commute and I've done a couple of long runs to Manchester where I've got to the low 50s and yet adding the around town parts my last fill up I only managed 38mpg.

How many miles do you usually get on a tank?
 
As above I get between 6-700 miles a tank. Winter generally closer to 600 and sometimes just under.
 
Are your Cars standard 136bhp models or any had a box or remap ? I know when Audi put the new map on when they got caught out has been on the tv with people complaining that there car no longer feels right and doesn’t drive like it did.
Would a box or remap change this ?
 
Are your Cars standard 136bhp models or any had a box or remap ? I know when Audi put the new map on when they got caught out has been on the tv with people complaining that there car no longer feels right and doesn’t drive like it did.
Would a box or remap change this ?
Mine is a standard 136bhp version and I'm pretty sure it hasn't been remapped. I checked the Audi website with my VIN number and it said there was a recall for emissions.
 
It was done before I bought it second hand. I wouldn’t have got it done had I been given the choice.
 
I’m watching this with interest as I’m only getting low to mid 300s from a tank on my 177tdi quattro and am suspecting the emissions may have something to do with it.
There’s a tuner down the road from me who will reset it to pre-emissions for the miserly sum of £100 and it’d be a no brainer, except I don’t know if doing this sets the TD1 flag in the ECU meaning Audi will treat it as a tuned car in the case of a warranty issue. I asked the guy, but he hasn’t got back to me so I suspect either he doesn’t know, or it does indeed mark the car as tuned.
 
The cr 2.0 certainly wasn't designed for efficiency.
 
I’m watching this with interest as I’m only getting low to mid 300s from a tank on my 177tdi quattro and am suspecting the emissions may have something to do with it.
There’s a tuner down the road from me who will reset it to pre-emissions for the miserly sum of £100 and it’d be a no brainer, except I don’t know if doing this sets the TD1 flag in the ECU meaning Audi will treat it as a tuned car in the case of a warranty issue. I asked the guy, but he hasn’t got back to me so I suspect either he doesn’t know, or it does indeed mark the car as tuned.
@Jemster, how old is your car?
 
@Jemster, how old is your car?

It's April 2015. Emissions update was put on it last July before I owned it, so I had no say in the matter and no way of comparing before/after. Still got a couple of months warranty left, and then, being PCP'd, I'm not to sure of the in's and out's of having it potentially marked as TD1 and yet being a finance company owned car...
 
It's April 2015. Emissions update was put on it last July before I owned it, so I had no say in the matter and no way of comparing before/after. Still got a couple of months warranty left, and then, being PCP'd, I'm not to sure of the in's and out's of having it potentially marked as TD1 and yet being a finance company owned car...
Ah, OK.

Mine is June 15, and I had it stage one re-mapped last year. It's still on PCP, but I've always known that come June, I'll be making the balloon payment. This S4 is playing for keeps. :)
 
I have the 136bhp TDIe 2013 A4 Avant. I'm getting on average around 62mpg, never goes below the low 50's, depends on how I drive and how many Audi hating peasants have cheesed me off on my daily commute. But, having said that my daily commute is 150miles, and it's all motorway.

If I'm feeling thrifty I can get it up to the mid 70's, but I need to be in old man mode, sitting in the left hand lane getting overtaken by co-op lorries.

PS - Mine has had the emissions update,was done September 2016, and hasn't caused any problems yet.
And normally about 760-790 miles per tank (depends on where I get the fuel from.)
 
I can't get my tdie over 50mpg. Even doing 70mph for 200 miles. It'll say 60+ on the dash but really its liked 46.
 
Having driven quite a few courtesy cars from Audi, there is an inconsistency between cars and mpg. Even models with the same engine, same year, similar miles etc.
A lot of this is possibly down to when they were new and driving style. Driving it like a granny when new doesn't help. I've found these engines need to be driven hard during the initial bed in. If you don't do this, mpg will suffer down the line.

Gone are the days of treating your brand new car like a baby for the first 5k!
 
I have a 2014 2.0 tdi 170 and to me I only ever seem to get around 400 per tank which compared to my 2006 2.0 tdi 140 is terrible. I don’t drive that much to make it a huge issue however I didn’t think a 170 would be so bad.
 

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