mileage

[loki]

this may have been gone over before but I haven't seen it yet. I seem to be getting pretty poor mileage, have about 1/8th of a tank right now an from full I've only gone around 250km . What are the things I should be looking at or getting looked at? it seems to run perfectly, power is fine, no smoke, starts every time on the first turn or two.

[Green1]

ave about 1/8th of a tank right now an from full I've only gone around 250km

that's a completely useless way of measuring mileage... for any actual advice you'll have to tell us how many km you went on how many litres... anything else is just interpretation of an extremely inaccurate gauge.

[marsgal42]

The Delica fuel gauge is more than a little acrobatic. Get some numbers, please.

FWIW, I get about 15 litres/100 km city, 10 highway. This seems typical.

...laura

[loki]

will do, I noticed that I have actually gotten 300km up to this point (1/8th) but I can wait a bit till I fill her up and see how many liters per km.

[Green1]

I tend to get about 400km to "empty" and then another 200km after that... so don't trust the fuel gauge to be the ultimate authority.

[mattias]

I get about 20 Miles/US Gallon which works out to around 11.7L/100Km. This is a good conversion tool: http://www.1728.com/convmlge.htm

I have also found the fuel gauge needle to do weird things.

[PcSpecialist]

To calculate your miles per gallon in Canadian gallons...

Kilometers driven divided by litres of fuel used X 2.82

Example:

100 Km/12.4 Litres = 8.06 X 2.82 = 22.7 miles per Canadian Gallon.

[marsgal42]

From full (bubbling up in the filler neck, needle pegged above the Full mark) to 1/4 tank is about 350 km around town in Gumdrop. The amount of diesel to refuel at that point (about 40 litres) suggests that the fuel gauge is not calibrated for the 75 litre tank.

Miles? Gallons? What are those?

...laura who is "only" 46

[Schwa]

I consistently hit 250km when the tank reads half full, but my fuel economy varies by the time I'm done... average right now is 11.87L/100km

Here's my data: http://greenhybrid.com/compare/mileage/car.php?cid=5647 (unfortunately it's in US units, it converts to Canadian, but you gotta sign up and change a pref. in the control panel.)

Recent Data:

Code: Select all

L/100km   km     L
12.18 	375 	45.7 	
12.56 	730 	91.7* 	
13.08 	460 	60.2 	
12.18 	686 	83.6* 	
12.92 	490 	63.3 	
12.04 	703 	84.6*
10.96 	583 	63.9 	
12.03 	487 	58.6
12.28 	431 	53.0 	
11.68 	558 	65.2 	
10.88 	568 	61.8 	
12.05 	464 	56.0 	
10.73 	559 	60.0
11.26 	444 	50.0 	
11.96 	594 	71.0* 	

*Compound fill - I put $10-$40 in (kept track of the liters) and then filled it right up later.

[Green1]

My recent data:

Code: Select all

Litres    KM    L/100km
63.145	583	10.8
48.372	437	11.1
64.900	571	11.4
23.870	202	11.8
33.974	290	11.7
45.365	469	9.7
60.420	592	10.2
55.340	482	11.5
36.946	376	9.8
61.280	559	11.0
34.667	294	11.8
61.082	559	10.9
55.890	440	12.7
52.837	437	12.1
30.560	265	11.5
68.736	599	11.5
55.980	449	12.5
66.850	538	12.4

Average = 11.3 L/100km = 22.7 miles/UK Gallon = 18.9 miles/US Gallon

(suspect the recent drop in economy to be due to winter diesel and colder temperatures)

[loki]

63L and 388 KM, 16/100km?

could be better, what are the usual suspects when it comes to fuel economy in deli's?

[Green1]

what are the usual suspects when it comes to fuel economy in deli's?

people who think they drive a sports car... The biggest thing that affects your fuel economy is your right foot, if you try to get acceleration out of a Delica you will both be disappointed, and inefficient.

Beyond that you're talking all the "usual" maintenance things can have an effect, clogged filters, improper fuel mixture, pump timing being out, etc.

Other things that could cause issues would be anything adding friction, brakes that are dragging, or wheel bearings that have issues.
Driving in 4wd or with the hubs locked will also reduce fuel economy.

Excessive idling is also bad for economy ( idling gets you exactly Zero MPG (or Infinite L/100km if you prefer metric))

One other often overlooked issue is the odometer, if it's out then your economy will APPEAR to be out too (L/100km can't be right if you don't know how far 100km really is!)

[loki]

what are the usual suspects when it comes to fuel economy in deli's?

people who think they drive a sports car... The biggest thing that affects your fuel economy is your right foot, if you try to get acceleration out of a Delica you will both be disappointed, and inefficient.

Beyond that you're talking all the "usual" maintenance things can have an effect, clogged filters, improper fuel mixture, pump timing being out, etc.

Other things that could cause issues would be anything adding friction, brakes that are dragging, or wheel bearings that have issues.
Driving in 4wd or with the hubs locked will also reduce fuel economy.

Excessive idling is also bad for economy ( idling gets you exactly Zero MPG (or Infinite L/100km if you prefer metric))

One other often overlooked issue is the odometer, if it's out then your economy will APPEAR to be out too (L/100km can't be right if you don't know how far 100km really is!)

Thanks for the tips, I will when I can afford it get the filters done and the pump timing checked (bit of a catch22 as the poor economy will make it hard to be able to afford to fix the economy). As for the right root thing, I've been driving for 17 years, been a commercial driver for lots of that and I also have an IQ over 40 ;) so I realize that the accelerator has a direct relationship with the amount of fuel consumed. Also, being a systems administrator (geek) I know that sarcasm and humor often don't translate as intended on the internet so if you are reading this and thinking that I'm insulting you in anyway I'm not :)

[mararmeisto]

Another point to the accuracy of the needle meter: a resistively deflected needle, such as the fuel gauge or the temperature gauge, is most accurate only at mid-scale deflection. This is not to say that the reading is completely out-to-lunch at the ends, it just means that whatever inaccuracies exist are usually exaggerated at the extremes.

That being said, these are the numbers for the Moon Machine:

total fuel consumed: 839.44 litres
total distance travelled: 6847 km
efficiency: 8.59 km per litre
OR
13.51 litres per 100km
OR
20.22 mpg

The only thing different with the Moon Machine, as near as I can determine, is the larger tires than original issue: 235/75R15. I think the originals were 215/80R15, which means a narrower or thinner footprint on the ground or less tread on the road. The wider tire means more resistance which means more fuel consumed.

Regardless, it's still getting better fuel economy than our old 3.8 litre Ford Windstar which was somewhere down around the 15mpg mark.

That is mostly city driving, and while I can have a heavy foot from time to time I'm not matting the pedal off every intersection. Also, I put the roof rack back on, so I imagine my aerodynamics went down a bit (not that these are a terribly 'slippery' as an object passing through moving air, but that's a subject for another forum).

[torchard]

For comparison purposes I can confirm similar mileage as quoted in this thread e.g. 10 to 13 litres per 100km after accounting for larger than stock wheel/tire combo.