My focus mk 2.5 2008 1.6 zetec seems fine on petrol but computer says my fuel when idling and stationary is terrible and the average drops drastically, but when driving it's fine and gives a realistic mpg of about 35? Is this normal?

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What does it say when idling?

MPG mostly depends on driving conditions, and in most cases, no two people will have the same MPG. But 35 MPG doesn't sound too bad/abnormal.

35 mpg? You lucky sod. I get 35 out of a 1.25 and sometimes 37/38 if im lucky and once I got 40 doing a trip to London and back. I don't rev the nuts off mine either, I accelerate painfully slow and change up at 1800-2000 rpm. Note that's mostly country lanes, dual carriage ways and city centre stop-start. Looks like that's a car I need to start saving up for.

BTW have you worked out your mpg manually yet? (just to check the accuracy of the trip computer).

On my last long distance trip, the computer told me I achieved 39.1MPG, and this was with putting my foot down at some lights, revving to 4000RPM, and with the efficiency losses of the 4 speed auto transmission.

That's the instant MPG, flick it onto the average MPG reading...

Of course 'miles' per gallon will be terrible at idle as you're using gallons but not covering any miles.

THIS ^

@Incontro What am I doing wrong? ughh. Maybe this car would probably get better or same mpg with the 1.6 engine. Perhaps there is too much car to shift for the small engine. I try to hyper mile the living daylights out of it and if I revved it to 2500 or 3000 rpm before changing gears the fuel gauge really does shift (following the same route, under same conditions).

Tom you've made sense of it all for me haha thanks a lot and not worked it out manually yet but I am planning on it soon! Thanks for the replies

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Try it and tell us the results :P

(miles done from fill up/ amount of litres filled up) x 4.5

Worked out my average manually and about 35mpg is accurate 18 litres from my £20 fill up got me around 138 miles! Decent

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@Incontro What am I doing wrong? ughh. Maybe this car would probably get better or same mpg with the 1.6 engine. Perhaps there is too much car to shift for the small engine. I try to hyper mile the living daylights out of it and if I revved it to 2500 or 3000 rpm before changing gears the fuel gauge really does shift (following the same route, under same conditions).

I don't know mate, too many variables involved, we have completely different cars. But looking at consumption data, yours is supposed to get much higher MPG than mine, and I am surprised that it isn't the case. Could be almost anything - your tyres, wheel alignment, engine condition, electrics etc.

(double post)

The fact that to get out of village either way is up hill and 60mph roads, down to 40 and up to 50 . Meh. Still in saving mode, definitely need a bigger engine for motorway that's for sure. Its a little twitchy with bumps and speeds at 70 and 75-80 is very sketchy - not that I ever break the speed limit ofcourse ;).

mine 2006 1.6 focus gets average

38 mpg - 30 miles a day on A roads mostly 40 mph and goes up to 40 mpg when I start doing motorway runs in the same month.

47 mpg on the motorway (that's driving for 3 hours with 2 breaks), which fell to 45 mpg on the way back using country roads in wales :)

Usually get around 400 miles from 46 litres of fuel

Though its a ti vct mines a 1.6 and I'm kind of getting where you're coming from it does naturally use a lot more fuel to go uphill so the mpg will drop when idling all cars fuel readings will drop but I do 10 miles to and from work some of that uphill and i get 36mpg that's computer actually working it out its 37.2 mpg . So many factors to consider try some forte fuel treatment check the air filters clean

Hmm you're right. This car does need a mini-service. Didn't have any books with it, any idea what engine oil it uses?

Hmm you're right. This car does need a mini-service. Didn't have any books with it, any idea what engine oil it uses?

if its the fiesta 1.25 zetec it will use 5w30 fully synthetic.

Cheers matey

Cheers matey

Your welcome. Hope it's of some help to you.

Changed the plugs Friday as I suspected the old ones were from new, now getting 40 mpg instead of the 35-36 I was getting before! Happy with that, they were only standard NGKs aswell

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Changed the plugs Friday as I suspected the old ones were from new, now getting 40 mpg instead of the 35-36 I was getting before! Happy with that, they were only standard NGKs aswell

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Good job fella.

Getting between 58 and 60 mpg on my MK3 1.6TDCi Zetec. Mostly A and B roads and some town driving very little Motorway driving. Happy enough with that.