Not off to a good start

JimGallaher

Active Member
Sep 26, 2012
28
0
N.Ireland
Ive had my 2011 Seat Exeo 2 weeks now and I've had a few issues. Firstly the dealer told me the car had been fully serviced and would not need another service for a year. While I was cleaning the car I dipped the oil and it was jet black. Pulled out the air filter and removed about a half of bale of hay and about 100 dead insects ! All the fluid levels were just above minimum. And do cap it all off the drivers side wing mirror cover fell off whilst driving on the motorway.
I brought it back to the dealer today, and have to leave it with them Monday. I also asked them to check the car out as I'm only getting 44.3 mpg, thats motorway driving, sitting in cruise control on at 60mph 25 miles to work and back. I'd taken the car out for an extended test drive before I bought it and on the same route, same speed I was getting 58mpg.
I dunno whats changed between then and now ?
What are you guys getting mpg wise ? Its a 2011 reg sport tech 170 with 11k on clock. Its a really nice car to drive, I was expecting way better economy though.
 

Deleted member 74601

Guest
Regarding MPG, go out and give it a good rag to clear the DPF. Around town, don't drive at too low revs, the CR engines do not like really low revs like the old PD engines did, so drive as though it's halfway between an old diesel and a petrol.

Driving at low revs around town will start to fill the DPF, and sitting at 60mph all the time will not be incredibly great for the DPF.

For some reason, my car gets better MPGs when I do 70mph on the motorway than 60mph (I think it's to do with the DPF).
 

JimGallaher

Active Member
Sep 26, 2012
28
0
N.Ireland
This DPF stuff confuses me, I thought the economy of a diesel was the net effect of driving at lower revs ? I had a diesel Astra H 1.9 cdti a few years back and drove it at a constant 55-60 for 30 miles twice a day and it gave me 61mpg . Don't think it had a DPF tho. I'll change my driving style when I get the car back, sit at 70 to and from work and see what effect that has, the car revs at about 2200 rpm at 70.
Thanks for the info.
 

Deleted member 74601

Guest
DPFs are solely because of the EU wanting to lower emissions, manufacturers don't have a choice, but if they did, they'd forget about them. They make it harder to achieve good mpg.
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
It may well have been service, diesels black the oil with soot very quickly, and if you check your service book for the service schedule the air filters not changed until 40k iirc, I agreed its pants but to the letter of the book that's what it is.

Mpg wise that's not too bad, cruise is not the best for mpg, also how you start your trip makes a huge difference! My ride to work is 35 miles, 8 miles of town, 15 of motorway and the rest a road, if I pick my mat up enroute a 0.5 mile detour in town it knocks a couple mpg off because I have to turn round, stop start the car again, accelelerate out of the side street back round the island and back onto my normal route but the couple of extra accels makes all the difference!

Don't believe the oe data, I witness emissions and fuel econ testing for approval which makes the official figures and there's lots of legal ways to stack the odds in your favour if your the manufacturer,
 

andycupra

status subject to change
i know a fair bit about DPFs... and i cant say i understand why you think this would be reducing mpg.

If effect, they are a CAT, but rather than a flow through the exhaust gases have to flow through the inner walls of the filter, which traps the particulates.
These particulates burn off when the CAT is fully up to temperature. And so yes, the DPF works better when on a longer / hard drive as the CAT temperature increases and allows the particulates to burn off.
Regen is when the particulates build up but due to lots of short journey or the CAT not getting up to temp fully so fuel is added to the cycle to increase the CAT temp to burn off the particulates. I guess this is the only time it may decrease mpg, however with longer journies this shouldnt be an issue.
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
Sort of true.... If your doing long journeys your fine, crusing at part throttle at 2k for more than 15 min will raise the cat temp high enough to burn off the soot trapped, however if the car isn't driven like this the dpf will clog up raising back pressure and hence increasing mpg, even when clean they raise mpg due to them being restrictive vs not being there.... Fuel quality and driving style plus type of driving or town not up to temp etc all affects how fast the dpf clogs up.., once it reaches 45% clogged the car will force a regen, by adding extra fuel to raise the exhaust temps around town..
 

JimGallaher

Active Member
Sep 26, 2012
28
0
N.Ireland
It may well have been service, diesels black the oil with soot very quickly, and if you check your service book for the service schedule the air filters not changed until 40k iirc, I agreed its pants but to the letter of the book that's what it is.

Mpg wise that's not too bad, cruise is not the best for mpg, also how you start your trip makes a huge difference! My ride to work is 35 miles, 8 miles of town, 15 of motorway and the rest a road, if I pick my mat up enroute a 0.5 mile detour in town it knocks a couple mpg off because I have to turn round, stop start the car again, accelelerate out of the side street back round the island and back onto my normal route but the couple of extra accels makes all the difference!

Don't believe the oe data, I witness emissions and fuel econ testing for approval which makes the official figures and there's lots of legal ways to stack the odds in your favour if your the manufacturer,
When you say not too bad, what are you getting ? My daily commute is very similar to yours, 3.5 miles of town onto motorway for 18 miles then 4 miles of A road.
So far I've been using Tesco diesel, is it better to go with a branded fuel ?
I know when I had my Astra, it ran like a dog with Sainsbury diesel.

On subject of air filters, I have been led to believe that a good airflow is essential for a TDI engine, I was going to try and get a K&N filter, I fitted 2 of these to my 350Z and they made a noticeable difference to the car, more responsive and nicer to drive.
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
The wife's is a 12model year which came with marginally improved economy due to a change in gearing and a tweak of engine calibration over earlier cars, but still if I take the wife's car which has 9k on the clock now the first run I get 48 mpg give or take 1, if I use it 2 or 3 days in a row and I am very careful... Ie slow down in gear by coasting not braking, lifting off early rather than braking, in 5th at 31mph etc, accelerating like a vicar, not really slow but not using all 170bhp I have seen 51mpg by the time I reached work... Once! The rest of the time for 12 days out of 14 the car does town trips... The wife's drive to work is 4 miles in stop start traffic... She's doing we'll to see 40mpg!

As for filter.... Oe is best, kn oil will kill a hot film maf, used one on my old mk4... Now I just use oe filters and put my cars on fixed life 10k or 1 year services and change all filters at each service, never done me wrong and my last pd tdi was on 140k and never missed a beat, my 1.9 before that was on 200k when I sold it and never missed a beat... My current drive is a mk4 1.9 tdi 130 just hit 100k and again does mid 50s all day long... Did 60 the other evening on way back as I had a good run!

I normall use asda diesel... But use millers Eco max every 6k to help clean things through. Well worth it!
 
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JimGallaher

Active Member
Sep 26, 2012
28
0
N.Ireland
And it gets worse :cry: I ordered a DTUK crd-t stage 2, which was reportedly delivered and signed for on Friday, problem is, I never received it, there was no one home Friday until the evening ! Hopefully this is the end of the bad luck !
 

DWaldie

Active Member
Aug 21, 2012
103
0
My Sport Tech 170 gets 45mpg during mixed driving. And it stays constant no matter what I do (well, as long as I'm not having too much fun).
 

Irksome

Active Member
Feb 27, 2011
158
0
I did a 320 mile trip last night, at an average speed of 56 mph and got a reported 43.9mpg in my MY11 170ST Sports Tech. The trip took 5hrs 45 mins and the only stop was for fuel about 1 hr in. Most of the motorway work was done at 2.5K revs in top ( thats 77MPH obviously officer ). We didn't see the Loch Ness monster on our way past (still it was dark!).

Thats the best fuel economy I've seen yet, so it does take 12 - 13K for the engine to loosen up and start to give decent mpg.

Irksome
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
how you drive makes a massive difference to fuel ecocnomy!

the wifes is just shy of 10k now, and if i drive smooth and to the speed limits on my 30 mile trip home I get 49-54mpg now (I was getting 43-47 when it had 8k on it)

however up the speed a little or have a few more blasts on the loud pedal to overtake things and I can kiss good buy to 50+mpg.
 

Dave_

Active Member
Jul 7, 2011
286
0
Hertfordshire
I've had 62mpg before - that was a gentle run down to Southend on a clear M25/A127. 143 engine though.

Cruising just under 70 does make a difference.

Also your MPG will appear to worsen as the weather cools down.
 

M7R

Nerd...
Mar 27, 2008
327
2
Nottingjam
we also go to winter fuel around now untill march time (I have the offical date saome where on a fuel calibration cert - yes for emission and engine power you have to use calibrated fuel... basically pump fuel that has been tested and costs silly amounts per gallon!!!) winter fuel robs a little of your mpg too as its not as efficent... but its marginal
 

JimGallaher

Active Member
Sep 26, 2012
28
0
N.Ireland
I did a 320 mile trip last night, at an average speed of 56 mph and got a reported 43.9mpg in my MY11 170ST Sports Tech. The trip took 5hrs 45 mins and the only stop was for fuel about 1 hr in. Most of the motorway work was done at 2.5K revs in top ( thats 77MPH obviously officer ). We didn't see the Loch Ness monster on our way past (still it was dark!).

Thats the best fuel economy I've seen yet, so it does take 12 - 13K for the engine to loosen up and start to give decent mpg.

Irksome
Yeah mine seems to be sitting steady around 43.5mpg ,mixed driving, roughly 85% motorway, and 15% short runs, not what I was expecting. Just fitted my crd-t 2 so I gotta experiment over the next few days and see what settings give me the best mix of economy and performance. I've it set on quite a ballsy map ATM and its made me realise how laggy the standard drive is
 

Irksome

Active Member
Feb 27, 2011
158
0
I think some may be misinterpreting my earlier post, doing 320 miles of which about 1/3rd was motorway miles and at that overall average speed and yet still getting 44mpg was pretty impressive.

Anyway, I've ordered a bluefin tonight - am going to give it a 7 day trial to see whether it really improves things (performance wise and with some regard to economy).
 

Irksome

Active Member
Feb 27, 2011
158
0
Yes indeed - but they say its compatible on their website, so I ordered one, if it doesn't work it goes back for a full refund.
 

AnthonyDi

Active Member
Sep 21, 2009
67
0
Just wanted to add my input on the exeo and mpg results.

Its a 12 plate 143 SE Tech manual
Ive had mine for a few weeks now and its just coming up to 1500 miles so slowly bedding in.

The car really doesnt like stop/start traffic for starters, im lucky to see the high end of 20mpg in rush hour traffic on a 3 mile commute ( i know its short, too short really for a CR engine )

Long commutes can be a bit random on mpg.
Ive done a 120 return trip to canterbury one day, and got average 52mpg, the next time i got 44mpg.

The best estimated mileage i've had so far according to the trip computer was 700 miles until refill, that was after 130 miles of travel from filling the tank, so 830 mile total range.
That was around 20% town 80% motorway.

I guess time will tell if ill ever get near the 60mpg mark which is what i would of hoped for.
I used to get 59mpg easily from a leon fr 170 cr i don't understand why the exeo's engine seems so bad.
 
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