Hi all.

Not sure why, but even if I drive my 2014 Focus ST like a girl I can only manage a fuel reading of between 20mpg and 21mpg.

Is this the norm?

I used to get 32-33 mpg in my Mk4 Mondeo (2.0l petrol), now got a Mk5 Mondeo (2.0l 180 Diesel) and get 41-42 mpg.

Depends if that girl is Sabine Schmidt...

Where do you drive?  Weekend B road thrasher?  Daily driver stuck in traffic for hours?  The ST is known to be thirsty but 25-30mpg shouldn't be difficult to achieve. 

9 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Depends if that girl is Sabine Schmidt...

Where do you drive?  Weekend B road thrasher?  Daily driver stuck in traffic for hours?  The ST is known to be thirsty but 25-30mpg shouldn't be difficult to achieve. 

At most I do 8 miles a day, 5 days a week.

Average speed is about 25 mph.

Barring a couple of roundabouts and 3 or 4 sets of traffic lights that's about it.

Can't be right! surely?

Only 8 miles a day!?  That'll explain the poor mpg lol...  You just don't drive far enough to start getting decent mpg, the engine will barely be warm time you reach your destination.

This ST returns 33mpg locally and 41 on the motorway.  'Locally' includes some short journeys like yours.

Hi Tom,

I take your point, but even when I obey the gear shift indicator for virtually the whole of my journey?

As for my engine temp' the gauge reaches the normal position in less than a mile.

I could understand it if I was racing around for most of the time, but that's not the case.

9 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Only 8 miles a day!?  That'll explain the poor mpg lol...  You just don't drive far enough to start getting decent mpg, the engine will barely be warm time you reach your destination.

 

1 hour ago, Freddy42 said:

This ST returns 33mpg locally and 41 on the motorway.  'Locally' includes some short journeys like yours.

Wow, if only I could achieve figures like that.

I think I will have to take her on a long run at the weekend.

35 minutes ago, Dave Kelly said:

Hi Tom,

I take your point, but even when I obey the gear shift indicator for virtually the whole of my journey?

As for my engine temp' the gauge reaches the normal position in less than a mile.

I could understand it if I was racing around for most of the time, but that's not the case.

 

The temp needle isn't live, it sits in the centre anywhere between about 75c-100c.  

It's not just the actual engine being cold either, it takes a while to recharge the battery after its been drained by starting, plus the AC (or heater in winter) uses more power (so more fuel) as it starts than once it's running and got the cabin at the right temp.

Short journeys like that just won't ever do decent mpg I'm afraid...I should know, I do a lot of them lol.  5 mile round trip to Tesco gets me sub 50mpg, 35 mile round trip gets me 70mpg, obviously mines not an ST but the same principles apply.

 

20 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

The temp needle isn't live, it sits in the centre anywhere between about 75c-100c.  

It's not just the actual engine being cold either, it takes a while to recharge the battery after its been drained by starting, plus the AC (or heater in winter) uses more power (so more fuel) as it starts than once it's running and got the cabin at the right temp.

Short journeys like that just won't ever do decent mpg I'm afraid...I should know, I do a lot of them lol.  5 mile round trip to Tesco gets me sub 50mpg, 35 mile round trip gets me 70mpg, obviously mines not an ST but the same principles apply.

 

Hi again Tom, some very valid points there along with some very useful information.. cheers buddy.

While I have been reading up on the KAM feature, (keep alive memory) (something to do with storing and learning from past driving habits and fuel quality), I decided to investigate further.

Apparently, so I have read, if you remove the relative fuse for 30 minutes or so, you can erase any stored bad driving habits from previous owners.

This way you can, after a short while, analyze your own driving habits and your respective MPG.

So, off comes the fuse box cover only to find that the  relative fuse was actually missing!! WTF?

Needless to say, after referring to the  handbook I promptly fitted the correct fuse. Once this was done, I could not resist taking her for a moderate run.

Admittedly this was slightly longer than I would usually do along with the opportunity to cruise a little averaging 30 mph as opposed to 22 mph normally.

Anyway, net result when I arrived home was that my MPG had reached the lofty heights of 32.8mpg. 

It maybe coincidence agreed, I will know more tomorrow when I replicate my daily journey.

Fingers crossed.

2 hours ago, Dave Kelly said:

Needless to say, after referring to the  handbook I promptly fitted the correct fuse.

Which fuse is it, Dave?   I can't find any reference to this in my handbook.

Fuse 26 mate. 

I think it refers to it as something like power control unit. Or something similar. 

I’ll confirm tomorrow. 

 

That's the one, then;  Transmission Control Module 15Amp.  Cheers.

Well, after an identical trip to work and back, my MPG had indeed improved.

Not the 32.8mpg as yesterday's run granted, but a very healthy 26mpg!

Happy bunny.

 

Well nearly a month has passed and my fuel economy is excellent.

Normally I would be looking at £70-£80 a month, now it is less than half that!!

That is bizarre, do we have any feeling as to what change that system will have made? I know those systems often are responsible for compensating for altitude, so maybe it was running on a default/backup and the economy was suffering as a result?

If the fuse for the KAM was missing then the car will likely have been running in "safe" mode i.e. safe but not very efficient settings.

wow, I wonder who took the fuse out.

great fix

From what I understand, the previous owner had some issue with Ford about the Oil service reset light.

After that I believe he took it to a back street garage who just started pulling fuses.

I think another contributing factor was that I fitted a new O2 sensor as I believed the original one had gone lazy,