Adblue and high revs on first drive of day (separate issues!)

[lisaspoon]

Hello

I've had my 21 plate Focus Estate auto (1.5 ecoblue titanium x) for just over 3 weeks now.... and enjoying the car!

This is my first car with adblue and I just had a few questions..

Consumption... from what I've read on internet and on old threads here, I should be expecting around 4k miles on one tank of adblue? I have driven around 700miles since getting the car and I've already gone through (from my calculations) just over 3lts of adblue. The range says 1700 to empty and Ford pass pro shows 67% left. I'm not aggressive with the throttle but my driving in the week is two days of motorway driving and the rest of the days is A road driving (around 7-10miles each trip). My average mpg is about 52mpg and still climbing since I got the car (average 55.5 on this tank of fuel - at half way point)

Is this consumption high? normal? what kind of driving conditions cause high adblue consumption.

Second question....When I drive the car for the first time that day - for the first few minutes driving out my road and estate (10mph climbing up to 30/40mph) the revs feel extremely high (holding up at 2k - 2.5k) before changing gear. only happens on the first trip - no matter what time of day. Is this normal? makes me sound like I cant drive properly!! It then settles and the gears change normally through them.

Other than that I love the car - first automatic and much needed extra space with the estate over the focus hatchback!

Thanks in advance!

 

[iantt]

Was the addblue tank full when you bought the car? 

[lisaspoon]

It had been serviced and the tank infographic showed as full - so I assume yes.

[MarkRS9]

My 2.0D Auto seems to change a bit higher up the rev range (over 2k) when cold, think this is normal.

I get about 4,000 miles to 10 litres of Adblue.

[lisaspoon]

thanks Mark - that makes me feel more comfortable about the revs - I did wonder if it was cold.

 

My adblue range has popped back up to 1800 yesterday - so maybe just fluctuating a bit as I get used to driving the car.....we will see!

[TomsFocus]

The high revs when cold is probably deliberate in order to warm up the engine more quickly to reduce emission's in the long run.  (Will be worse for emissions on a short journey but the car can't predict your journeys!)

On some cars with variable charging (VAG for one) higher revs after startup are also used to charge the battery more quickly when cold, though I can't say I've heard of that with Ford's so may not be the case here.

[RMurphy195]

16 hours ago, MarkRS9 said:

My 2.0D Auto seems to change a bit higher up the rev range (over 2k) when cold, think this is normal.

I get about 4,000 miles to 10 litres of Adblue.

Similar on my 1.5 120ps st-line 2020

[RMurphy195]

1 hour ago, lisaspoon said:

thanks Mark - that makes me feel more comfortable about the revs - I did wonder if it was cold.

 

My adblue range has popped back up to 1800 yesterday - so maybe just fluctuating a bit as I get used to driving the car.....we will see!

What I did was wait until the indicator said I could put some in, then filled it up, and started from there, looking about monthly to see what the indicators said. This is the info I have so far (PDF attached) - as you can tell its a bit tricky to interpret the actual level in the tank!

adblue.pdf

[DaveT70]

Warm up mode for autos creates torque converter slip to protect the internals of the gearbox until the fluid is warm. Should last no more than 5 miles.

Remember, as you are an auto, the transmission keeps the revs low automatically, but the DPF needs revs to keep clear, so once in a while enter manual mode and hold in a gear that holds the car at about 2,500 to 3,000 RPM for a couple of minutes to help the DPF

Or just remember, once in a while, when the car is fully warm (+20 mins driving) to give it some stick

[lisaspoon]

Thanks for the replies - that has made me feel more comfortable about the revs! 

 

As for the adblue... I'll just have to keep an eye on it.. it's still sitting back up at 1800miles so maybe just needed some bedding in with my driving - like with the mpg..

[RMurphy195]

While on the sunject of Adblu range - I've just towed for the first ime with my car and decided to monitor adblue usage to see if it prallels fuel usage.

And I go quite an unwelcome surprise!

Journey was about 150 miles, fule usage was 28mpg (normal day-to-day is double that). On setting out the adblue range was 2100miles, a smidgeon under 2/4full. On arrival the projected range was 1020 miles (!) and the tank was a smidgeon over 1/2 full, so relying on the gauge its used about 2.5 litres of the stuff in 150 miles! Ouch. (Normal projection is 2800 miles/tank)

So when towing  fuel consumption increases almost as expected (OK so we had headwinds most of the way, and it was pretty windy on Tuesday) - but adblue massively increases

[lisaspoon]

Just an update on adblue consumption.

I drove down south (270mile each way)

On the way back up the warning light came on with 870miles left for adblue and I had 90mile left of my journey.

This dropped like a stone and I was left with just under 600miles when home. So it had churned through double the adblue to mileage.

Ok so I had a car full of luggage and 3 people in the car (plus dog) and all motorway driving.

I've filled up the tank (almost 7.5lt) and range again says 2000miles.

Still feel this is very low? 

[unofix]

At a very rough estimate I seem to be getting about 6000 miles to 10 Litres of Adblue

My Focus estate 2.0L holds over 10 litres of Adblue. Only filled twice in 12K miles. Both times I refilled it when I had about 500 miles left. Managed to pour a full 10Lts in without any problem.

[lisaspoon]

9 hours ago, unofix said:

At a very rough estimate I seem to be getting about 6000 miles to 10 Litres of Adblue

My Focus estate 2.0L holds over 10 litres of Adblue. Only filled twice in 12K miles. Both times I refilled it when I had about 500 miles left. Managed to pour a full 10Lts in without any problem.

Just a query on refilling.... does it automatically stop when full? (Like fuel filling). Or do you have to guess? I just went with the info graphic in the car.

Is yours an auto or manual? I don't know if autos use more? (I get slightly more fuel consumption with this one than my manuals)

[unofix]

My car is a 2.0L Automatic. I don't think it makes any difference if it's manual.

I can't say about Adblue pumps and whether they automatically stop when filling up, but I expect they would.

I just bought the 10 litre containers from 'Screwfix' & 'Tool Station'. Both times I poured the whole 10 litres in when the car said it only had a range of 500 miles left.