A5 Cab, 2.0TDI, Very poor MPG?

[George Surrey]

I've picked up a 2011 A5 Cab with the 2.0TDI 168BHP engine. The engine isn't particularly inspiring but it's quick enough for me.

I was really hoping for better economy as i'm only getting around 36MPG on average, my daily drives are generally town driving with some bypasses and no motorway but even still I was expecting at least 40MPG

I had an A6 2.0TDi 177 which returned 40MPG n average and a 59 plate A4 2.0TDI 140 which got me well into the upper 40s on average!

Seems really low for this engine? Can't find any faults with the car and I am a careful driver?

Anyone else had anything similar and or any tips?

 

[V6Tom]

Dosent sound good. I get 40 easy in my 3.0 tdi

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[George Surrey]

That's mad.

The "quoted" combined for the 3.0 Cab is 41.5.

For mine, it's 49.6! Yet in the real world your getting 10MPG more on average than me, doesn't make sense?

Maybe I should get it mapped.

 

[V6Tom]

That's mad.

The "quoted" combined for the 3.0 Cab is 41.5.

For mine, it's 49.6! Yet in the real world your getting 10MPG more on average than me, doesn't make sense?

Maybe I should get it mapped.

Sounds about right, tbh i did 29 to work this morning because i opened her up abit, but the 40 odd i got the other day was a nice calm drive home and not alot of stopping tbh, a rare clear drive home.

put it in sport and ill hit 10mpg easy. but i alot think good mpg form a 3.0 is because its not working as hard to move the car? as a 2.0 would be.
i could be wrong

 

[George Surrey]

Yeah think you're on the money there, when cruising your 3.0 is prob hardly using anything. Where as 2.0 is working overtime to gain speed.

 

[V6Tom]

Yeah think you're on the money there, when cruising your 3.0 is prob hardly using anything. Where as 2.0 is working overtime to gain speed.

exactly and when i put my foot down i might aswell have a hole in the fuel tank lol

 

[kanecullen89]

I would imagine that the 2.0 tdi would have more than enough torque for it to be a relaxed drive with good MPG.

As @V6Tom above, my 3.0 tdi gets mid 40's on average. I do probably 80% town driving so I would exect yours to be much better.

Is yours quattro because that can have an effect on MPG, but ours are quattro too so i'm not sure.

 

[V6Tom]

I would imagine that the 2.0 tdi would have more than enough torque for it to be a relaxed drive with good MPG.

As @V6Tom above, my 3.0 tdi gets mid 40's on average. I do probably 80% town driving so I would exect yours to be much better.

Is yours quattro because that can have an effect on MPG, but ours are quattro too so i'm not sure.

My one is a quattro. fully stock for now no map or anything, im planning on a delete for multiple reasons. and a map soon. my friend with a fwd 3.0 gets slightly better mpg but im talking 3-5 at most

also taking into account yeah 2.0 should be strong enough, the car dose weigh 2 tonne ish i think so its alot of metal to move

 

[George Surrey]

@kanecullen89

Not quattro just standard 2WD, it is a drop top which I know adds weight but even so, just so far from the quoted

 

[George Surrey]

exactly and when i put my foot down i might aswell have a hole in the fuel tank lol

Lol definitely worth it though, those 3.0's are insane!

 

[V6Tom]

@kanecullen89

Not quattro just standard 2WD, it is a drop top which I know adds weight but even so, just so far from the quoted

Have you run a diagnostic check on it ? Might be some errors that dont show up normaly ? Try a map. Might get the extra mpgs for you

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[George Surrey]

Have you run a diagnostic check on it ? Might be some errors that dont show up normaly ? Try a map. Might get the extra mpgs for you

Haven't yet, not had the car long you see, had a full-service last week and no issues found but not sure if they ran like an OBD or equivalent.

Might take it to an Audi specialist to diagnose, if nothing comes back will prob try an economy remap. they're pricey though got my last A4 done and he had to crack some kind of Audi lock on the ECU!

 

[V6Tom]

Haven't yet, not had the car long you see, had a full-service last week and no issues found but not sure if they ran like an OBD or equivalent.

Might take it to an Audi specialist to diagnose, if nothing comes back will prob try an economy remap. they're pricey though got my last A4 done and he had to crack some kind of Audi lock on the ECU!

I hear Darkside Dev are reasonable with the map prices. and probably could advise on other ways of improving the mpg.

 

[George Surrey]

I hear Darkside Dev are reasonable with the map prices. and probably could advise on other ways of improving the mpg.

Got to the bottom of the issue! Just me being thick!

I was basing it off the on board computer 1, which only tracks mpg on that particular journey so it was starting at 20mpg and then going up slowly but on a short journey would not reflect average MPG.

I should have been using computer 2 which tracks mpg across total journeys until it's reset! Since using this computer I'm averaging 40mpg which should increase the more I drive.

I've seen a few people reporting similar issues so I wonder if they are just using the wrong computer.

 

[DrEskimo]

Got to the bottom of the issue! Just me being thick!

I was basing it off the on board computer 1, which only tracks mpg on that particular journey so it was starting at 20mpg and then going up slowly but on a short journey would not reflect average MPG.

I should have been using computer 2 which tracks mpg across total journeys until it's reset! Since using this computer I'm averaging 40mpg which should increase the more I drive.

I've seen a few people reporting similar issues so I wonder if they are just using the wrong computer.

Even that will be slightly inaccurate. Tends to over estimate unfortunately.

The only true way is to note mileage when you are next empty. Fill to the top and keep record of number of litres used to fill. Then do the same again when you next need to fill up.

...or just use something like the Fuelly app to do it...!

 

[George Surrey]

Even that will be slightly inaccurate. Tends to over estimate unfortunately.

The only true way is to note mileage when you are next empty. Fill to the top and keep record of number of litres used to fill. Then do the same again when you next need to fill up.

...or just use something like the Fuelly app to do it...!

Yes think i'm going to have to, after tracking around 200 miles on the long term computer i'm still getting 36MPG! So if thats overestimated then the fuel economy is terrible! I have been driving very very economically, using start/stop etc seems insanely low!

No idea what the issue could be.

 

[DrEskimo]

Yes think i'm going to have to, after tracking around 200 miles on the long term computer i'm still getting 36MPG! So if thats overestimated then the fuel economy is terrible! I have been driving very very economically, using start/stop etc seems insanely low!

No idea what the issue could be.

If you are just doing short trips around town, then I don't think I would have much expectation for higher MPG...

 

[George Surrey]

Yeah fair enough, I just got much higher on same journeys with both my old A4 2.0TDI (140BHP) and A6 2.0 TDI (177BHP). Which made me expect a similar amount on this car.

I even had an 04 C Class with a 2.7CDI Auto and that used to get around 38MPG on same journeys, that thing was a beast as well!

Maybe your right, remap here I come!

 

[DrEskimo]

Yeah fair enough, I just got much higher on same journeys with both my old A4 2.0TDI (140BHP) and A6 2.0 TDI (177BHP). Which made me expect a similar amount on this car.

I even had an 04 C Class with a 2.7CDI Auto and that used to get around 38MPG on same journeys, that thing was a beast as well!

Maybe your right, remap here I come!

I'm probably not

Only thing I can go off, is that I would expect around 27ish MPG on my old 2009 A5 2.0TFSI for that type of journey, so 36MPG from a diesel version sounds about the right differential...!

Remap probably is the way forward in any case. Perhaps, as you suggested, it's worth getting it checked over by a specialist before remapping, just to sign it off with a clean bill of health?

Best of luck with it!

 

[George Surrey]

Update

Had my audi mechanic looks at the car yesterday

Diagnostics didn't return any issues, however, Air & Fuel filters had not been changed/cleaned for 2 years so have swapped them.

Also tyre pressures were out of kilter and have been corrected.

No recorded change yet but will wait and see!

 

[V6Tom]

Update

Had my audi mechanic looks at the car yesterday

Diagnostics didn't return any issues, however, Air & Fuel filters had not been changed/cleaned for 2 years so have swapped them.

Also tyre pressures were out of kilter and have been corrected.

No recorded change yet but will wait and see!

With new filters i would imagine a improvement in your mpg. Keep us posted !

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[George Surrey]

UPDATE:

So after a few weeks of driving MPG hasn't increased significantly, I have done a few longer trips over the last 2 weeks 200 Miles to manchester each way and a few motorway journeys to North London.

It has pushed my average MPG up to 42.8 over the last 1000 miles.

I achieved around 50MPG on the trip to manchester, this is great however the MPG has not improved around town, if I reset the trip computer i'm still getting around 34-36 MPG for daily town driving, will have to see what my average falls to by end of the year.

It seems it's great on the motorway but terrible round town which seems the same for all diesels! Have decided to go for a remap and see if this helps.

 

[V6Tom]

Whats the mileage on her? Mabe get the engine carbon cleaned?

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[George Surrey]

Whats the mileage on her? Mabe get the engine carbon cleaned?

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Done 48,000 so far, which is nothing really, I took my last A4 2.0TDI to 185K before selling and still drove like a dream!

 

[George Surrey]

UPDATE: So, after 5 months of ownership and around 6,000 miles:

Average MPG is now 38.1, out of these miles probably about a 60/40 split between town and motorway.

Overall I am pretty happy with this, MPG never really drops below 30MPG in town, and once warmed up I see maybe 30-35MPG, once I get on a long run I can easily hit 48MPG at a constant 70MPH.

On route to Manchester, I was doing 65MPH for around 50 miles and took the trip comp up to 52MPG! Which was incredible.

Strangely my friend has one of the new A5 2.0TDI's and he gets 50MPG on average!

Seeing how the 2.0TDI generation before my A5 used to get similar to mine for MPG it's very strange how fuel economy has improved so much over just one generation of cars!