V50 Engine 2.0D : V50 fuel consumption and tank size!

[Heppy1970]

I brought my car last month. I had the pleasure of driving it to Norfolk and back. I did 56mpg on this trip, around town I get 34mpg on average.

[Phil6]

I have got S40 2.0D(2005) and drive 70/30 motoway/town.Mine does 43mpg.
I am not a slow driver, need to drive over 30 miles to work. My driving is between 60-110ish, so I am quite happy with 43mpg. I also have dpf removed and engine is mapped.

[askim98]

hi my average it is around 47 (this is manual calculation) and recently I am doing a lot surrey to Yorkshire and back and I am getting around 57-58.

only use shell v power ( now called nitro+)

[x DTR x]

Originally Posted by chrisdc

Am only just beginning to appreciate the significance of the "no DPF" part of your reply.

Would you mind answering a few questions about your car?

Was wondering if you ever see a puff of black smoke in your rear-view mirror when you accelerate? Perhaps you've had occasion to view your car from the rear while someone else is driving it? See any emission’s from the exhaust? Have you ever had problems with the EGR valve? How much mileage have you done?

Diesels have been getting cleaner and cleaner over the years - I think the DPFs have a lot to do with this. But they do seem to be more trouble than they are worth in certain applications. I'll remove mine as a last resort but I want to be sure there aren't any other problems first - like a bad EGR.

The car has just clocked up 136k, i blanked off the EGR valve not long after purchasing it at about 127k on the clock. I have never seen any black smoke from the rear of the car but i think that is because the EGR is capped, i am also getting slightly better fuel consumption at around 44mpg now as maybe because the weather has warmed up a bit and i am not using heaters and such anymore! I am also adding 250ml 2 stroke to every 2nd fill up which helps lubricate injectors a bit.

[chrisdc]

Originally Posted by x DTR x

The car has just clocked up 136k, i blanked off the EGR valve not long after purchasing it at about 127k on the clock. I have never seen any black smoke from the rear of the car but i think that is because the EGR is capped, i am also getting slightly better fuel consumption at around 44mpg now as maybe because the weather has warmed up a bit and i am not using heaters and such anymore! I am also adding 250ml 2 stroke to every 2nd fill up which helps lubricate injectors a bit.

Thanks for that. I've been keeping a low profile and hardly using my car as the dealer decides what to do about my DPF. Last i heard, pending "authorisation", they were going to replace the whole thing incl. sensors. That was over two months ago. I can't wait any longer because my service plan expires in a couple of weeks and there are other issues to be sorted. Car is now booked in at another dealer for the 28th. After that, one way or the other, i can start to do my own thing without invalidating my warranty. But not yet. Latest development is an "Engine system service required" message which appeared today.

[chrisdc]

Right, an update as promised. (I've posted this elsewhere but am putting it here too as it's relevant)

The second dealer has looked at the car and the diagnostics has yielded an error code - apparently the same one I got at dealer one which had them doing the 100,000km service at 96,000km. The fault code relates to deteriorated oil quality.

But they didn't just take the car sensors word for it. An oil sample was sent for analysis and it turns out 10% of the oil is made up of diesel. I forgot to mention that on the day of the service, they told me they wanted to drain a litre of oil from the sump and give the car back to me as it was. Needless to say I refused to accept the car under those conditions, especially as the oil had been changed less than 4000km ago. If the manufactures specify a 10,000km service interval, and the oil is “shot” in less than 4000km, then something’s wrong, correct? I'm not nit-picking am I? The cars owns engine management is saying “Stop, the oil is buggered”. Right? Draining a litre of oil is not going to improve the quality of what's left. And at the rate it's going, the quality will have deteriorated by the same margin again by the time 8000km are reached – still 2000km short of the next scheduled oil change.

Anyway, 14 days later the car is still there. No one seems really sure what to do. Now there's talk of taking out the injectors and having them tested. From my reading on these forums, it seems I know more about the car than they do. I've mentioned my forum findings several times and during my last chat with the service manager he asked me for the name of this forum and undertook to do some reading here.

So, to recap:

I bought the car end of last year with approx 95,000km covered. The car has been beautifully maintained with services done on the dot every 10,000km. Full franchise service history.

I was getting "Soot particle filter full" messages about once every fill up. The first one appeared at the end of a 75km drive on, if memory serves, my second day of ownership.

This was followed soon after by "Book service" messages. I called personally at Volvo to query this as previous services had always been done at 10,000km intervals. I was told in no uncertain terms that if the car was asking for a service, then it needed a service.

By the time the first available service date arrived (10 days backlog) the "Engine system service required" message had appeared as well.

Upon arrival at Volvo, I was told by a different service advisor that I shouldn't have brought the car in as it was too soon to do the 100,000km service and that Volvo HQ wouldn't pay. (My car has a 5 year 100,000km maintenance plan which covers scheduled and unscheduled service and repair work)

After some discussion amongst the Volvo staff it was decided to do the service. The service was paid for by Volvo HQ.

I continued to get the "Soot particle filter full" messages.

Subsequent trips to Volvo saw the following work carried out;

3 deadlocks replaced
1 turbo control valve replaced
1 headlight bulb replaced
A forced regen of the DPF
Capturing of error codes to motivate for DPF filter and sensor replacement.

Paperwork submitted and more than 2 months later still no authorisation from Volvo HQ.

At 99,500km (estimated) the “Book service message is back” (less than 4000km and 4/5 months since the last service) and the other headlight bulb has blown.

I finally loose patience and book the car in at another dealer.

By the time the service date comes up, the “Engine system service required” message is back.

The rest is documented at the beginning of this post. I can add that in the two weeks the car has been at the second dealer, the first dealer finally came back with Volvo HQ's response on the request for authorisation. Denied on the grounds that the problems I’m having do not warrant DPF replacement.

As it stands right now, the car is still less than 5 years old and still has less than 100,000km on the clock.

What I like:
I think the car's great and I was very impressed with the service I got from Volvo with regard to the door locks, turbo sensor, bulb etc.

What I don't like:

That authorisation for anything can take up to 3 months. Just before I bought my car it waited for about this period for authorisation for the Powershift “clutch pack” that needed to be replaced. As I wasn't the owner yet, I couldn't do anything about that but the dealer selling the car sure wasn't happy about the delay either.

That the cars “tech” seems to exceed the ability of Volvo's service personnel to understand and fix - at least not quickly and efficiently at any rate.

That there seems to be very little cooperation and / or poor communication between the various members of the Volvo franchise body. Conflicting info regarding when a service is due would be a good example of this.

That I hardly get to use my beautiful car because it's always broken or about to break. This is also partly due to me trying to eke out the remaining warranty by keeping the km's down – but only because I’m so busy trying to get things fixed!

Should I just cut my losses and run?

[fenton_jd]

I'd say stick with it.

I bought a 2.0d (EGR and DPF model) with 100,000 miles on the clock. I then did a further 45,000 miles and hardly performed any servicing. The odd oil top up now and again but that's it.

The only unavoidable money spent was:

A) DPF regen additive tank top-up. The car wouldnt stop going into limp-home mode without this.

B) New fuel filter + Housing. The old filter was letting huge bubbles of air into the fuel lines, causing an awful misfire under hard acceleration.

I always made a habit of regularly cruising down the motorway at high revs for 5 minutes to allow the engine and exhaust to reach very hot temperatures, helps burn all the crap out.

When I eventually traded that car in, the suspension was worn and the interior was starting to look a bit "used", but the gearbox, clutch and engine were tight as a drum.

Stick with your motor.

[chrisdc]

Originally Posted by fenton_jd

I'd say stick with it.

I bought a 2.0d (EGR and DPF model) with 100,000 miles on the clock. I then did a further 45,000 miles and hardly performed any servicing. The odd oil top up now and again but that's it.

The only unavoidable money spent was:

A) DPF regen additive tank top-up. The car wouldnt stop going into limp-home mode without this.

B) New fuel filter + Housing. The old filter was letting huge bubbles of air into the fuel lines, causing an awful misfire under hard acceleration.

I always made a habit of regularly cruising down the motorway at high revs for 5 minutes to allow the engine and exhaust to reach very hot temperatures, helps burn all the crap out.

When I eventually traded that car in, the suspension was worn and the interior was starting to look a bit "used", but the gearbox, clutch and engine were tight as a drum.

Stick with your motor.

Thanks Fenton_jd,

One of the reasons I bought a diesel is that they are known to be tough and capable of very high mileages. I helped my girlfriend (at that time) buy a petrol 2.4i V50 and liked it enough to buy a second V50 after we went our separate ways.

If it wasn't for the warranty, I’d have sorted this out myself by now. Thing is, at heart I’m a greenie, so I like the concept of trying to keep the air clean. And in these difficult economic times, why foot the bill for a new DPF yourself if the warranty is supposed to cover it? These 5 year 100,000km warranties are mandatory by the way. We don't have a choice when we buy the vehicles and of course it's all worked into the purchase price.

The kind of expenditure you've had is what I would expect. In my case I don't even have to worry about the additive tank because I don't have one. The PowerShift equipped V50's use the same system as the D5.In spite of all this, I still love the car. I really like the look of it, it has all the gadgets, has a super aircon and sound system, it's strong and safe and goes like the clappers too.

In South Africa Volvo doesn't sell very well and now I know why. Dealer backup can make or break a brand, and people will vote with their feet.

[akerr1997]

got my first volvo last week and she puts out a happy 46-50mpg on a roads if im not up and down the gears and about 40-45mpg on the twists. i dont drive slow but i find that consumtion fine and hat i expected

my volvo's a V50 2.0D euro4 from 2007

[Montana]

Originally Posted by akerr1997

got my first volvo last week and she puts out a happy 46-50mpg on a roads if im not up and down the gears and about 40-45mpg on the twists. i dont drive slow but i find that consumtion fine and hat i expected

my volvo's a V50 2.0D euro4 from 2007

Same engine, 2008 model, i get 40mpg from mine - mixed driving, although thats only over 800 miles or so. I find fuelly a good tool for tracking rather than the trip (which some wont have - me included). I would have hoped for more than 40mpg really - i am sure consumption in a 200bhp 330D wouldnt be much less.