S80 fuel consumption

[Kev0607]

I have a 2007 S80 2.4D 163bhp auto with just over 102,000 miles - I've owned now for nearly six months. Its a lovely car, I always wanted a Volvo & decided to buy this one. I've been monitoring the fuel consumption for a while & I'm wondering if there's something wrong, or whether these are actually generally thirsty cars.

I'm not expecting it to be 'economical' as such, as its a big/heavy car, but I don't think its great all the same. My Brother used it the other day & I said before he left that there wasn't a great amount of Diesel in it, so he put £10 in it to toddle about in, as he wasn't going far. He reset the trip computer after adding fuel & the fuel warning light come on again today at 30 miles. Does this seem excessive - 30 miles for £10, around town driving?

I only do short journeys around town, so maybe the engine isn't getting to full operating temperature, therefore using more fuel? I had the car serviced at a Volvo Independent Specialist shortly after I purchased it, but I only got the oil changed because it had a major service in 2018. I was thinking of changing the fuel filter & air filter, just to see if that makes a difference?

Your comments are appreciated.

[Ukwide]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

I have a 2007 S80 2.4D 163bhp auto with just over 102,000 miles - I've owned now for nearly six months. Its a lovely car, I always wanted a Volvo & decided to buy this one. I've been monitoring the fuel consumption for a while & I'm wondering if there's something wrong, or whether these are actually generally thirsty cars.

I'm not expecting it to be 'economical' as such, as its a big/heavy car, but I don't think its great all the same. My Brother used it the other day & I said before he left that there wasn't a great amount of Diesel in it, so he put £10 in it to toddle about in, as he wasn't going far. He reset the trip computer after adding fuel & the fuel warning light come on again today at 30 miles. Does this seem excessive - 30 miles for £10, around town driving?

I only do short journeys around town, so maybe the engine isn't getting to full operating temperature, therefore using more fuel? I had the car serviced at a Volvo Independent Specialist shortly after I purchased it, but I only got the oil changed because it had a major service in 2018. I was thinking of changing the fuel filter & air filter, just to see if that makes a difference?

Your comments are appreciated.

Hi, £10 is only going to get you 1.5 gallons of diesel and you’re right, pottering around town will probably return you a lotless than 30 mpg, so I wouldn’t panic too much mate..

[SignumGB]

Take on the motorway (fairly flat) and drive at 60mph and see what you get average.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by SignumGB

Take on the motorway (fairly flat) and drive at 60mph and see what you get average.

I'll give this a go this weekend. How long do I need to drive it for in terms of time?

[ferg55]

Around town the economy on these 5 cyl engines with the autobox does drop significantly. They are really more suited to higher speeds where the torque of the engine allows to 'box to sit in a gear with the engine just ticking over. I use my '07 D5 auto on an 80 mile round trip commute each day, and it averages about 40mpg. That's about 1/3 of the commute on single track country lanes where the box is chopping and changing all the time, the remaining 2/3 motorway where it just sits in 6th.

If the air filter was changed any time in the last 50k miles, although not ideal, it will be clean enough not to make much of a difference. The fuel filter doesn't affect economy, the injectors meter the fuel regardless of how clogged the filter is (until the filter is clogged to the point of restricting the fuel entirely but this would be an extreme scenario and would result in other symptoms e.g. hesitation or flat spots).

[Spike56]

I don't trust the fuel warning light either. Known quantity in, drive and refill, brim to brim preferably.

[richardt1994]

Hello All,

I have a 2009 V70 with the same engine, and I think the same gearbox. As suggested by others, the "town" MPG of this engine/gearbox combination is not very good at all.

Over the 5 years and 60,000 miles that I have owned this car, I average 36.4 MPG. My journeys are a mix of town driving (shops, school etc), steady 65-70MPH motorway journeys and 150 mile single carriageway A road trips to West Wales, (once you are off the A5).

Cheers,

[krzemien]

Take a look at my Fuelly stats (click my signature) - it spans across 9 years now so should be quite telling.

When you get to the details you will no doubt see rather obvious pattern:

* better consumption in Summer (+holidays / long journeys across Europe) - reaching low 40s (mpg)
* worse consumption in Winter (+lots of short journeys) - dropping to low 30s (mpg)

Also, I've stopped using the car daily since early 2014 - prior to that there was daily 'commute' (uh, 2.5 miles each way, but hey!).

Forgot to add: my engine is 2.4 175bhp and I tend to stick to speed limits, although rather promptly.

[ferg55]

Originally Posted by ferg55

I use my '07 D5 auto on an 80 mile round trip commute each day, and it averages about 40mpg.

Just to clarify, that's calculated mpg, not indicated

[Kev0607]

I'm going to change the fuel filter & add some "Liqui Moly Super Diesel Additive" to the fuel to clean the injectors etc. I don't know when the fuel filter was changed last unfortunately. The service book is fully stamped by Volvo, but I have no supporting paperwork to show what was done on each service prior to me purchasing the vehicle. Volvo said they have the service records stored on their system, but they couldn't give me them because of data protection.