D5 (2005 on) Fuel Consumption

[Pete-V70 D5 2003]

Originally Posted by brumgav

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone has made any progress on the topic of the D5 poor economy subject.

A few years ago I had a new S40 2.0D Manual (with about 9k miles on the clock) which was getting about 36 MPG combined which was really poor, but I swiftly traded that in for a different car (BMW).

Anyway, last year I purchased 2005 Range Rover 4.4 Petrol which would achieve 18mpg combined (which was good as they quote 17.8 combined) but recently I have started doing alot more mileage so I was spending £450+ per month on petrol. So I decided to trade in for an S80, nice, big, comfortable car and looking at the official figures looked like a good idea with the combined quoted at 38mpg.

Since picking up the S80 last week, its a 2007 D5 SE Lux Geartronic with 40k miles on the clock) I have done 392 miles on 59.58 litres which equates to about 29mpg. The computer states average speed of 34 mph and average consumption 32.8mpg!!!!


I would say a good 75% of those miles were done on motorways/dual carriageways at 70 mph with the other 25% a mixture of rural and town driving but no real stop start driving.
So I'm not really all that impressed as this car was supposed to be saving me money on fuel, but with Diesel fuel being slighly more expensive it makes the gap from 18 mpg in the Range Rover to 29mpg in the volvo even smaller.

So really, I wanted to know what people have done to get their consumption sorted?

I have read on here some people getting really good economy in the D5 so its not like all the D5 engines are rubbish.

Maybe we should collate a list with the engine number and chassis number of those who feel their consumption is more than it should be, I would be happy to collate this list if everyone can send me their details (use ### to hind the important digits in your VIN so noone can clone your car, maybe someone can let us know which digits refer to the build date or something like that)

Maybe a pattern will emerge and collectively we might be able to get our cars sorted but with consumption figures so far out (like mine) we should get together to get something sorted.

Hope to hear from you all soon.

Gavin

The problem seems to relate to post 2003/4 models of D5 and likely the exhaust emmissions recurculation thingy bob. Basically just dont buy anything post 2004. No doubt it has lots to do with the fact FORD took over then as well!! Mine has been reading around 52 mpg on the computer over the last ful tank, never dropped below that and occasional blips in to 58+...in reality for that tankful I actually got around 45MPG which is still not bad. I reckon 50 is easily attainable on a motorway.

[Mackay]

Sounds like some heavy boots about! My V70 D5 (163) is averaging 49 mpg (computer) which on full tank to full tank fill up is usually about 2/3 mpg optimistic - so I'm achieving about 46 mpg on mixed motorway, A road and town driving - and not all at 30 mph in 5th gear!

I tend to use stanard Shell diesel and Castrol 0W30 oils.

[keithC70]

After buying my '03 86,000 S80 D5 Auto recently, I filled to brim and drove home gently, mainly motorway at 70 and when I filled up again it worked out at only 32 mpg! The trip computer was scrambled so you couldn't read the figure from it. My wife has a similar car and we regularly get 47mpg from it on a long run, and 37 round town, so I was very disappointed.

The engine is clean with no leaks and starts and runs perfectly and accelerates rapidly with no smoke, hesitation, etc.

Since then I've cleaned the egr mixer and blanked it off, changed all the filters, changed the pads and checked for brake binding, re-soldered the dim so I can now read the trip computer, added some injector lubricant, etc. After doing that the computer showed up to 53mpg at 70mph on a short trip on the motorway.

Yesterday I brimmed the tank and did a 350 mile trip, mainly motorway at 70mph and the computer showed 47.3mpg at the end of the trip. I've just re-filled and consumption works out at 42.5mpg which is not bad for a big car but even so I had expected better.

I don't think I'll have the patience to achieve that figure again though!

I know the previous owner lived in a rural area and it's possible that he didn't do much high speed mileage so I wonder whether the exhaust system is all coked up? The egr mixer was bad so I think the plenum will be as well.

So does anyone have any record of fuel consumption before and after changing the exhaust system?