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Very bad fuel consumption 🥴


BabyBlade
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Another obvious but overlooked thing - if you have only been making short trips these few weeks (e.g. grocery or food runs) you will have very bad fuel consumption because during cold starts, the car ECU map runs rich to get it up to operating temperatures as quickly as possible. 

Idling is another killer of fuel economy - if you're not moving you're effectively doing zero kilometres per litre.

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21 minutes ago, kobayashiGT said:

Koba's tip on fuel economy.

stage 1

  • 5w30 or even lesser weight engine oil.
    • The lesser the weight, the lesser resistance to the engine performance. But the only this is that it will provide lesser engine protection.
    • My go-to liquid gold is Motul 8100 or FK Massimo.
  • A high flow air filter like K&N.
    • Engine consists of suck-squeeze-bang-blow. You make it easier to suck, it is easier to blow. 😛
    • But make sure your right leg maintain the same posture and weight distribution. Heavier legs cause a different result.
  • Spark plugs
    • Need to get all 4 (suck-squeeze-bang-blow) in optimum condition. this is the bang part.
  • Learn to maintain your RPM. Treat your car like a game, if your goal is fuel economy, maintain your RPM at 2,000rpm most of the time when you are driving.
  • Switch off air-con
  • Pump 92 instead of 95. You will be spending the same amount of money to travel further.

Stage 2

  • install a throttle controller. Always keep it in eco mode.
  • Go and get your fuel injector clean.
  • Install an oil catch tank.
    • Because there is no oil catch tank, making all the oil vapor seep back to the intake valve and clog the intake valve.

Stage 3

  • Drop engine and rebuilt.

 

 

I always pump caltex 95 and I like self service, press max $120 until autostop. 

Until recently the petrol price so high tank not yet full already hit $120 and autostop, and I thought my last 2 tanks the fc so tokong... sucks 😂

But I think I still hit close to 12km/l for a 14 y o NA jap car 😬 not bad. 

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Check if engine oil is too thick or overfilled. Perhaps can try changing to thinner engine oil, change spark plugs to new original ones, change air filter, check tyre pressure, like others have mentioned check 02 sensor as well. Techron cleaner can try one more time to see if got some improvements.

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Internal Moderator
4 minutes ago, Phluvcat said:

I always pump caltex 95 and I like self service, press max $120 until autostop. 

Until recently the petrol price so high tank not yet full already hit $120 and autostop, and I thought my last 2 tanks the fc so tokong... sucks 😂

But I think I still hit close to 12km/l for a 14 y o NA jap car 😬 not bad. 

means you maintain your car well! WELL DONE!

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Lust time when I test drove a 3l lpt suv and saw the FC reading...the owner said his city drive everyday contributed to 6.9km/l...

Few weeks after I'd taken over with mainly hw drive also 6.5-6.9...i chua sai thought the car got issue...then I heck care FC and whacked it...returned 9-11km/l on average... 

Some cars are like chicks...love to be driven hard 😁

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Hypersonic
49 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

 

I only got the car for, I think this is the third week. So between my first tank to second tank it took me about two weeks interval because being a law abiding citizen I try my best to stay home as much as possible. And when I first took over on the FC counter it was about 10+km/l. After I took over it plunged to as low as 7km/l after a few days of driving around. Note that at this point I observed the bad FC and went to check on tyre pressure and it was quite low at 170/180 so I pumped it.

I have to admit that I was heavy footed at the start off the line and did hard braking, only because being a 1.5 there's an obvious lack of power from what I was accustomed to. So I changed my driving style but I still ended at 7.5km/l for my first tank.

Second tank as I already mentioned in my top post, I also reset the fc counter and was doing slightly better at 8.2km/l till I went to my workshop to check the car's overall condition, flush my coolant and got some oil leaks fixed. It then dipped at 7.7km/l again cos you know they had to keep the engine running. 

 

ahhh............Ok this may explain it.

petrol evaporate....

2 weeks is a long time to be accurate for FC checking. In fact the longer you take to use up a tank of fuel, the higher the FC, because of evaporation. The car's ECU may also be trying to adjust to the new style of driving, having seated a while with the dealer.  If you had changed the engine oil when you took over the car, FC will also be slightly higher. Take note that new engine oil will cause a slightly higher FC for the first 1-2 weeks as well. And of course other things like tyre pressure, spark plugs, throttle body carbon build up, the route you travel and how often and how long  you idle the engine will affect FC too.. 

If a fuel tank leakage is out of equation,  then I think you are quite safe. Mayb monitor  a few more tanks and see if it gets better,  2 tanks of fuel is too soon too early to estimate avg FC.

And about the fuel tank, dont be stupid to even think of changing it if nothing is wrong. The fuel tank is suppose to last you forever until if it happen to leak, and most of the time it last until car scrap.  Fuel tanks are low in inventory, some stockist dont even carry it in stock, and it cost a few thousand dollars to replace a fuel tank. So leave it alone if it is not leaking. [laugh][laugh][laugh]

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Hypersonic

Even my heavy Forester XT I am averaging 9.6km/l for the past 145k km.

Your 7.5km/l is definitely not OK. 

Did you idle your car at ECP car park every night :XD:

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Supersonic
52 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

No cruise control. Old car hahaha. The only cruise control is my foot. Need the NSHW to clear some carbon.

Great advice actually! Unfortunately because of Heightened Alert and also where I stay and work at, I am mainly stuck at start stop traffic. Never thought of changing the fuel tank before. Maybe I can do a check on that but there's only three years left on the clock so I may not change it after all. We shall see!

I only got the car for, I think this is the third week. So between my first tank to second tank it took me about two weeks interval because being a law abiding citizen I try my best to stay home as much as possible. And when I first took over on the FC counter it was about 10+km/l. After I took over it plunged to as low as 7km/l after a few days of driving around. Note that at this point I observed the bad FC and went to check on tyre pressure and it was quite low at 170/180 so I pumped it.

I have to admit that I was heavy footed at the start off the line and did hard braking, only because being a 1.5 there's an obvious lack of power from what I was accustomed to. So I changed my driving style but I still ended at 7.5km/l for my first tank.

Second tank as I already mentioned in my top post, I also reset the fc counter and was doing slightly better at 8.2km/l till I went to my workshop to check the car's overall condition, flush my coolant and got some oil leaks fixed. It then dipped at 7.7km/l again cos you know they had to keep the engine running. 

No I don't have the CEL light flashing. What are symptoms of a bad 02 censor? The engine runs pretty smooth with minimal noise, no rough idling too. There is of course slight vibration but I think that's expected since it's an old car but nothing out of the ordinary. 

Suzuki Swift 1.5 Auto

Your swift stock or modded? Could also be the engine is running a little rich. Bad O2 sensor will result in incorrect fuel/air mixture

Btw, hv u done an ATF flush & renew? Transmission losses are often overlooked

 

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Turbocharged
54 minutes ago, BabyBlade said:

Spark plugs - one of the suspects on my list too. I am waiting for my next oil change so I can get the plugs changed together. I am on my first bottle of techron, and changed to pumping Caltex because of the bad fc hoping it will make some difference but unlikely. But you know, no harm trying around. Was an Esso user for eight years.

spark plugs if dont fire well you will know straight away. loss of power. engine rough. exhaust smell of running rich.

most petrol in sg is only made by a few majors. some dont make it here and just rebrand other majors petrol as theirs.

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Then most likely is your tire pressure that is too low.

Pump air when the tires are cold. Otherwise the pressure will drop over the night after the tires cool. Then you will repeat the cycle of driving over deflated tires and fuel consumption will stay high.

A tire air pump will be a good thing to get. Leave home a little early to pump up your tires at the carpark.

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2 possibilities

- TS has been idling car engine with aircon at full blast for hours [sly]

- previous owner did some mods to engine.

 

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Turbocharged
38 minutes ago, Macrosszero said:

Another obvious but overlooked thing - if you have only been making short trips these few weeks (e.g. grocery or food runs) you will have very bad fuel consumption because during cold starts, the car ECU map runs rich to get it up to operating temperatures as quickly as possible. 

Idling is another killer of fuel economy - if you're not moving you're effectively doing zero kilometres per litre.

on that note, bb should note the % of urban and highway driving.

https://www.------.com/new-cars/car-fuel-consumption/519/suzuki-swift-1-5gl-vvt-5dr/

compare to the list above. not sure if reported figures are good reference as most many be argak argak the % also

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Turbocharged
28 minutes ago, Tianmo said:

ahhh............Ok this may explain it.

petrol evaporate....

2 weeks is a long time to be accurate for FC checking. In fact the longer you take to use up a tank of fuel, the higher the FC, because of evaporation. The car's ECU may also be trying to adjust to the new style of driving, having seated a while with the dealer.  If you had changed the engine oil when you took over the car, FC will also be slightly higher. Take note that new engine oil will cause a slightly higher FC for the first 1-2 weeks as well. And of course other things like tyre pressure, spark plugs, throttle body carbon build up, the route you travel and how often and how long  you idle the engine will affect FC too.. 

If a fuel tank leakage is out of equation,  then I think you are quite safe. Mayb monitor  a few more tanks and see if it gets better,  2 tanks of fuel is too soon too early to estimate avg FC.

And about the fuel tank, dont be stupid to even think of changing it if nothing is wrong. The fuel tank is suppose to last you forever until if it happen to leak, and most of the time it last until car scrap.  Fuel tanks are low in inventory, some stockist dont even carry it in stock, and it cost a few thousand dollars to replace a fuel tank. So leave it alone if it is not leaking. [laugh][laugh][laugh]

actually the fc computer is not very accurate since it uses an algo and you dont know how it calculates. i still trust the manual way of calculating.

i would pump a full tank and do only highway for about 100km and top off to see how much is used. of cos longer than 100km would be more accurate.

then do the same for urban driving only and get that fc figure.

at least you have 2 benchmarks to compare. the manufaturers stated fc is always impossible to meet.

 

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Hypersonic

Don't accelerate hard and don't brake hard and only do highway miles.

A 1.5 is a relatively big engine for a Swift which is a very light car should get very good fc.

For good fc never brake when you don't have to and especially never brake hard.

I never like braking on a highway, just learn to use the accelerator to accelerate to close the gap to the next car and when he is blocked by road hogs take off your foot before he does.

:D

Last point if all start stop traffic and you love accelerate and braking hard (who doesn't) heck car fc lah.

YOLO. You spent so much on the car, enjoy it to the max.

Its the COE that is killing you not the little bit of extra petrol you use. 

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Hypersonic

Watch your car at night

maybe neighbour cut your fuel lines and steal the petrol.

Then uses a rubber plug to plug the hole up until next time. 

:D

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I think BB should get some MCF members to help check her... I mean her car out to get to the root of the problem! There should be a very long queue of volunteers. 

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Internal Moderator
13 minutes ago, Jamesc said:

Don't accelerate hard and don't brake hard and only do highway miles.

A 1.5 is a relatively big engine for a Swift which is a very light car should get very good fc.

For good fc never brake when you don't have to and especially never brake hard.

I never like braking on a highway, just learn to use the accelerator to accelerate to close the gap to the next car and when he is blocked by road hogs take off your foot before he does.

:D

Last point if all start stop traffic and you love accelerate and braking hard (who doesn't) heck car fc lah.

YOLO. You spent so much on the car, enjoy it to the max.

Its the COE that is killing you not the little bit of extra petrol you use. 

I tot you will preach on the suck-squeeze-bang-blow theory. hahahahahha

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