High fuel consumption

[BabyGoose]

Hi All

This is my first post and hope that someone can pass on some advice/knowledge.

I have just bought a 2nd hand 09 plate 1.8 petrol Titanium and on the face of it am delighted. It looks good and handles well. The downside is the petrol consumption. My driving is mixed urban and motorway. So far, I am averaging 25mpg over 3 tank-fulls and am lucky to get more than 300 miles from a full tank of fuel.

At motorway speeds, the engine revs a constant 3500rpm at 70mph, which seems high and the engine feels like it needs a 6th gear.

At low speeds, the engine races as I disengage the clutch. This is most noticeable in crawling traffic, at 1st gear, when dipping the clutch to come to a stop. It races up to 2500rpm sometimes as I depress the clutch to come to a stop.

The car had a new clutch put in immediately prior to purchase.

Any suggestions as to what may be causing this?

Thanks very much for reading.

[williamweb]

Have a look at the air filter,it may need replacing.You could take the opportunity to upgrade your filter which might improve your mileage and performance but don't forget to inform your insurance company.

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC

[JW1982]

The 1.8 Duratec HE is known to have a pretty bad fuel economy. During normal daily use it generally has the same (or even a higher) fuel condumption than the more powerful 2.0 Duratec HE engine.

The high revs at about 70 Mph are comletely normal for this type of engine. The 1.8 Duratec HE has the same (IB5) gearbox as the 1.4/1.6 Duratec engine. The 2.0 Duratec HE has a different (MTX75) gearbox which has considerably lower revs at the same speed.