Fuel consumption is really high

Hey

So I have a Webber carb, but I've noticed my fuel consumption is ridiculous. Every time I do 8 miles my fuel tank is at half……….is this normal because of the car being relatively old?

Would be good to know what others get for their consumption.

your saying you use 1/2 tank of fuel to do 8mile
what you got in it a v8??
you should be getting 150miles on half tank I reckon

vwoldmad1 said

your saying you use 1/2 tank of fuel to do 8mile
what you got in it a v8??
you should be getting 150miles on half tank I reckon

Lol. That's exactly what I'm saying. It's a standard 1.8 Weber carb mate I don't get it. The petrol isn't leaking anywhere. It was from the fuel sender unit and I have replaced it. Resealed it.

When you had it apart did you verify that at full up, the gauge was full and half way it was half, and bottomed out it was empty?

I could be that your float is off, but have you verified that you are getting MPK.

The other day I filled my Autotragic 1.8 Digi, I got 27MPG on twisty turny Hilly roads viewing the Leaves changing… I was usually doing 80-85mph on the interstate…

An F1 car probably does more to the gallon than that!
I have a 1.8GTI and I get about 250 miles to the tank and I fill up with about 7 1/2 gallons.
It must be leaking fuel when your driving or just literally pouring it into the engine through the carb. Does it puff much black smoke and have you taken out the spark plugs to see what they look like? Is the engine flooding through the float chamber breather when idling?
Either that or your gauge is way out and reading totally different to what you have in the tank.

its gotta be the gauge       

You need to fill up, zero the trip and when tank shows empty refill to top again noting the litres added. Divide by 4.54 and then divide miles covered by that fig.

Trying to guess from "half" empty on gauge is a fools errand.

When you know exactly what its dong then you can decide what to do.

Does it start and run OK otherwise? Does it have a manual choke? (are you shoving it back in???)

Even on short journeys in mid-winter you should be getting 25mpg+ and 40mpg+ on a long summer cruise.

 

Check your choke is adjusted properly and not on all the time.

You don't need to empty the tank to get your MPG, I would not go much lower than 1/4 tank then fill it up, drive it about and when at 1/4 tank again fill the car up and keep the receipt and write down the mileage you have covered.

Use the MPG calculator to work out your mpg.

http://www.mpg-calculator.co.uk

Doing the same sort of journey in my two cars I do find the Mk1 Scirocco 1.6 Webber carb does use more petrol than my Mk1 Golf cabriolet 1.8 Gti.
Scirocco about 35 mpg and Golf is about 39 mpg, if I drive like a nun on the way to church I can get 44 mpg out of the Golf…. 

mpg = Distance/Liters or Gallons don't need a calculator,  

Distance (divided by) Liters/Gallons = Miles per Gallon or Kilometers per Liter.

Don't forget that if you are driving into a headwind, then your mpg or lpk is going to go down, but then Leadfooting also decreases the kpl or mpg, but then I have my nice driving days, and my drive it like I stole it ones as well… Ownership has it's privileges…

Briano1234 said

mpg = Distance/Liters or Gallons don't need a calculator,

Distance (divided by) Liters/Gallons = Miles per Gallon or Kilometers per Liter.

Don't forget that if you are driving into a headwind, then your mpg or lpk is going to go down, but then Leadfooting also decreases the kpl or mpg, but then I have my nice driving days, and my drive it like I stole it ones as well… Ownership has it's privileges…

It's a bit more complicated here in dear old blighty. Although we are metric and fuel is sold in litres, consumption/economy is still in imperial miles and gals not KM per Litre or the continental L/100KM which you would expect with us being metric!

So you have to 1st convert litres to gals. You don't have to convert the cars mileage from KM to miles as all UK cars count miles….

As you already probably know US gals are larger than imperial ones so the MPG are @20%(?) better if stated in US gals.

We also drink beer in pints but buy milk in litres.  

WEll Imperial, US, Liters.. Too much, no wonder you drink in pints……

Briano1234 said

WEll Imperial, US, Liters.. Too much, no wonder you drink in pints……

     

Back on subject with our feet firmly planted to plant earth. 😂

So all you did is what?
Change X for a Weber Carburettor and nothing else?

Oh and don't worry about your Golf Mk1 being old mate because most of us have one, one way or another! 😉 👍🏼

Sent from my Smartphone 📱

Hey guys

Apologies for the late response. Thank you for all the feedback.

Whenever the petrols gauge is half full, I would normally fill up then. Usually up to 24/5 litres I believe. Naively, I used the km/h on the instrument panel. Suffice to say I was shocked as well and very bemused that it recorded 8 miles and my tank went from full to half full.

Anyways it turns out that the km/h reading is temperamental and moody. It works when it wants to….then it gets "stuck". Then later on it will work again.

Definitely get more mpg than 8.

I do have the choke back in once the car settles after few minutes, the engine sounds fine when it is warm. Initially sounds a bit like the engine is panting but few revs tends to sort it out eventually.

So I guess my next question is…..is there an easy fix for km/h? Also the hook on the right side of the instrument panel is broken. Is there an easy fix for this? ……or better to source an instrument panel from somewhere?

Briano1234 said

mpg = Distance/Liters or Gallons don't need a calculator,  

Distance (divided by) Liters/Gallons = Miles per Gallon or Kilometers per Liter.

Don't forget that if you are driving into a headwind, then your mpg or lpk is going to go down, but then Leadfooting also decreases the kpl or mpg, but then I have my nice driving days, and my drive it like I stole it ones as well… Ownership has it's privileges…

Briano1234 hahaha. Admittedly since the Webber conversion the MK1 defo has more zip about it, can't help but feel I have a heavier foot (especially as the   accelerator pedal feels so much softer!) …..been stopped by police once so far for speeding (luckily no fine was issued!) Can't help but feel like I'm in the GTA video game!