2005 1.4 zetec only getting 24mpg?

[Rflx95]

From what I can tell this is about half of what it should be, mixture of motorway and town driving. Don't rag the car or anything but it seems to drink fuel, any ideas on this ?

 

Thanks for any help

[unofix]

While 24MPG is indeed poor, you are living the dream if you expect to get 48MPG.

How many miles has the engine done ?   When did it last have a major service ?

[Rflx95]

21 minutes ago, unofix said:

While 24MPG is indeed poor, you are living the dream if you expect to get 48MPG.

How many miles has the engine done ?   When did it last have a major service ?

Yeah I didn't think id get the full 48 but definitely not 24. Engine has covered 92 thousand miles and the last major service was in October 

Edit - service was beginning of November so really not long ago

Edited January 29, 2023 by Rflx95
Got something wrong

[unofix]

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to suggest, maybe @TomsFocus would have some ideas of what to look at.

[StephenFord]

It may sound obvious, but do not rely on any built in MPG fuel consumption meter. The ONLY accurate guide is to brim the tank, drive it, then refuel to brim, and calculate how much fuel lasted how many miles driven...

[Rflx95]

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

It may sound obvious, but do not rely on any built in MPG fuel consumption meter. The ONLY accurate guide is to brim the tank, drive it, then refuel to brim, and calculate how much fuel lasted how many miles driven...

My car doesn't have a consumption meter. The calculation I got was from working it out myself over a week of driving, will try it out with a full tank though as this time it was only half a tank and that got me 100 miles

[StephenFord]

8 hours ago, Rflx95 said:

...The calculation I got was from working it out myself over a week of driving, will try it out with a full tank though as this time it was only half a tank and that got me 100 miles

Aahhh, there's your issue LOL There is now way you can work out fuel consumption unless you fill it to the brim. You need 2 x constant points where you know exactly how much fuel you have put in. Guessing 'half a tank' is pretty much useless!

[Rflx95]

20 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Aahhh, there's your issue LOL There is now way you can work out fuel consumption unless you fill it to the brim. You need 2 x constant points where you know exactly how much fuel you have put in. Guessing 'half a tank' is pretty much useless!

Fair enough, I'll do it with a full tank then and report back. I filled up when it was empty and put in 20L and now it's empty again so just figured that would be fine but I'll fill to the brim as suggested though. I'm hoping it is just bad calculation on my part

[StephenFord]

1 minute ago, Rflx95 said:

...I filled up when it was empty and put in 20L and now it's empty again ...

It's only 'empty' when you are stranded at the roadside and the engine has cut out because of no fuel, the fuel gauge of any car is not that accurate! 

[DaveT70]

go to your normal fuel station

choose a pump

fill tank until first click only

reset trip or write down mileage if no trip meter

drive around, as normal for a few days

go back to EXACTLY the same fuel station and EXACTLY the same pump

fill up until first click again

note hoe many litres to get back to first click

convert that to gallons

read mileage and work out MPG

[hondansxr]

and dont use supermarket fuel esp morrisons .

[StephenFord]

1 minute ago, hondansxr said:

and dont use supermarket fuel esp morrisons .

Why not?

[Eric Bloodaxe]

15 hours ago, StephenFord said:

Why not?

Perhaps because of this sort of thing:

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/dozens-of-motorists-face-cars-being-written-off-after-being-sold-contaminated-petrol-by-morrisons-145051756.html

Far from the only instance I've seen - they even put this in faq's on their website:

"I have had an issue with the petrol I purchased from your petrol station

We're sorry you have had a problem with the fuel you recently purchased, please fill in the contact us form below or chat with one of our agents and we will look into this for you. Please be aware we will require a copy of the receipt for the purchase for us to look into this issue.

Note

Please note: We will require a copy of you receipt in order to look into your issue."

 

 Only problems I've had personally with "bad" fuel over the years have been Morrisons, Asda and that cheap Russian stuff (NAFTA) that was sold here many moons ago.

 

[StephenFord]

2 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Only problems I've had personally with "bad" fuel over the years have been Morrisons,,,

Lucky we don't have Morrisons here in Northern Ireland! I've been driving here for over 40 years and cannot recall a single incident of 'bad fuel' reported in the media. Now, in the 70s, much of the petrol here was transferred in glass milk bottles with a rag sticking out 

Forgot to say, Morrisons last year sold of 10 Million liters of petrol last year, I wouldn't let one incident, caused by a 3rd party, put me off...

[Smartd00d]

I had serious issues with contaminated fuel last summer with my Smax 1.6 Ecoboost. Never found where it was from and it was never 100% conclusive it actually was a one off, however… 

the net result was 4 leaking injectors, engine light initially, poor fuel consumption, pinking then limp mode, stalling and then rough as hell running with tons of smoke out the exhaust.

Obviously not what you’re experiencing, but I do now understand that petrol injection systems clog up over time with carbon and other debris, not helped but E10 petrol etc.

I would personally put a bottle of Cataclean through the tank and see if it improves. That will clean the lines, injectors and cat which could in turn improve efficiency as the engine won’t have to self-adjust the richness of the mixture to keep running normally.
I’d also look for codes related to the power train in Forscan which would indicate whether there are any sensors out of tolerance too.