Hi,

I have a Mark 5 2002 Ford Fiesta 1.25 Freestyle which has been acting very strangely lately.

Its been giving very very poor MPG such as anything between 15-35 MPG which is not right for a car of its size.

My style of driving is excellent, I stick to the speed limits, rev the car no more than 2,000- 3,000 when driving and changing gear and also tend to have good clutch control.

For example, for a 140 mile commute from my house to Dorset, it uses half a tank of fuel and its just frustrating that my fathers car, which is a 1.8 only uses less than a 1/4 and costs less. This car regularly serviced and is maintained and looked after on a regular basis.

What could this be? Your help will be much appreciated.

It may be something you've already looked into but have you thought about a fuel leak somewhere, just a possibility?

15mpg is very poor, a friend of mine has an Astra SRI (2.2 litre) and that thing drinks fuel, but driven carefully he gets 20mpg if not a little more.

I have the same car as you with the same engine and so far I am getting around 35mpg. My Punto used to average 40-45mpg and that was a 1.2 16v 'FIRE' engine.

Check under the vehicle for fuel leaks and under the bonnet, look at all your injection rail which is on top of the inlet manifold - if it is a leak it's probably easily fixed. Other than that, I really don't know..

Could be a leak. Also lift the bonnet when the engine is running, this should, if there is a leak give you an indication of where its coming from. Is the air filter blocked? or when was it last changed. Has the car had any work done on it just before it started with the high consumption?

are there any other symptoms? loss of power, idling rough, trouble starting, strange noises etc? could be one of a hundred things

Could be a leak. Also lift the bonnet when the engine is running, this should, if there is a leak give you an indication of where its coming from. Is the air filter blocked? or when was it last changed. Has the car had any work done on it just before it started with the high consumption?

It hasn't had any work done, the only thing is that it was standing on my drive for a good few months as I went away. I'll have a look at the air filter too, to be honest.

It hasn't had any work done, the only thing is that it was standing on my drive for a good few months as I went away. I'll have a look at the air filter too, to be honest.

orcomma is right it could be 100s of things, but if the car has been sitting for a while then some of the rubber hoses of the system could have deteriorated and split. Just a thought I'm no where near as knowledgable as the other guys on here :D

the first step id have a go at is getting it hooked up to an IDS and check for fault codes. if its clear, id disconnect the battery negative for 30 mins then reconnect to reset the ECU. if those dont solve it i would start on the common stuff and work your way down the list - top of my list would be filters. next would be oil, then the coilpack. luckily the 1.25 is easy to work on for most things and the parts are dead cheap from an independent specialist.