Volvo Community Forum. The Forums of the Volvo Owners Club

Forum Rules Volvo Owners Club About VOC Volvo Gallery Links Volvo History Volvo Press
Go Back   Volvo Owners Club Forum > "Technical Topics" > S40 / V40 '96-'04 General

Notices

S40 / V40 '96-'04 General Forum for the Volvo S40 and V40 (Classic) Series from 1995-2004.

Information
  • VOC Members: There is no login facility using your VOC membership number or the details from page 3 of the club magazine. You need to register in the normal way
  • AOL Customers: Make sure you check the 'Remember me' check box otherwise the AOL system may log you out during the session. This is a known issue with AOL.
  • AOL, Yahoo and Plus.net users. Forum owners such as us are finding that AOL, Yahoo and Plus.net are blocking a lot of email generated from forums. This may mean your registration activation and other emails will not get to you, or they may appear in your spam mailbox

Thread Informations

Is Trip Computer Accurate??

Views : 1639

Replies : 15

Users Viewing This Thread :  

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old Dec 9th, 2017, 13:16   #11
skyship007
Premier Member
 
skyship007's Avatar
 

Last Online: May 2nd, 2018 09:14
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: DownSouth
Cool

Quote:
Originally Posted by Volvophile View Post
My driving is mostly urban short journeys, which I know are never good for a car's fuel economy anyhow in the first place. It's just my average economy reading lately has been 22 mpg and I have struggled to better it. I would expect this sort of consumption from the larger and heavier five bangers, but not the 1.8 straight four in a car as light as the old S40.

I have changed the thermostat in the past and maintain the car to a very high standard.

Could there be something wrong?
On a cold day if you short trip your mpg figures will be worse and if you fit the wrong size tyres that are not in diameter spec they will also be off. Even if you have tyres that are listed in your owners handbook cos you like valid insurance, it can still be in error by upto 5% in trip computer or mpg.
__________________
2003 V40 1.9TD Mods: Scratches, bent bumpers, raised REAR mats & internal mud guards.
SHELL ULTRA 5/40 & LIQUI MOLY CERATEC.

Everyone should DYOR (Do Your Own Research)
skyship007 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old Jul 14th, 2018, 11:15   #12
samball
New Member
 

Last Online: Today 16:31
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Isle of Skye
Default

I live in a rural area and the trip computer on my 12 year old S40 consistently shows fuel consumption between 36.0 MPG to 36.6 MPG.
Lower figure is for short journeys and the higher figure relates to longer journeys in excess of 100 miles.
I use these figures for budget purposes and found them to be accurate.
samball is online now   Reply With Quote
Old Jul 15th, 2018, 00:13   #13
martin93
Member
 

Last Online: Aug 1st, 2019 20:17
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Dorset
Default

Mine has always been pretty accurate, and it's the older digital readout with the virtual fuel gauge and the bars. I commute an hour each way every day on rural and main roads, and currently get a consistent 37mpg with a mixture of aircon use.

As has been stated though, it is KEY that you reset the average fuel consumption counter every now and again. Ideally at each fill up. Otherwise it just eventually seems to stick.

Quote:
Originally Posted by tutike View Post
Appologies for the necro, but just wanted to share my experience with the fuel estimate:

In my tests the displayed value is at least 2x higher than the actual fuel use - it's displaying 35 mpg, but at the pump I've calculated somewhere around 16mpg.
(Using my 1.8 petrol for about 5-10 minutes at a time, almost constantly cold engine, mostly city driving)


Is it normal that the displayed value can vary that much? Sometimes climbing a hill, flooring it in 3rd gear the instant reading shows 30mpg, that can't possibly be right.
Yeah I don't think that's right. If I floor mine, the instantaneous reading tends to go down to around 8 to 11mpg. Again though, have you reset the counter recently?
__________________
Current: 2003 VW Passat 1.9TDI, 1979 Saab 99 turbo, 1968 MGB GT,
martin93 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old Jul 15th, 2018, 00:18   #14
martin93
Member
 

Last Online: Aug 1st, 2019 20:17
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Dorset
Default

AAND, avoiding the risk of starting an MPG war and hijacking the thread, this actually happened once after a 300 mile trip. And it was correct(ish). Not bad for a 1.8 Volvo engine.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg IMG_1338 (2).jpg (48.1 KB, 11 views)
__________________
Current: 2003 VW Passat 1.9TDI, 1979 Saab 99 turbo, 1968 MGB GT,
martin93 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old Jul 15th, 2018, 02:41   #15
Sysyphus
Senior Member
 

Last Online: Mar 31st, 2021 00:19
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Suburban Philly
Default

Just wondering where you can drive 300 miles all downhill

My favorite is hitting the highway with a full tank on Friday night after a week of commuting... the miles to empty keeps going up for the first hour
Sysyphus is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to Sysyphus For This Useful Post:
Old Jul 15th, 2018, 09:49   #16
clarkey1984
Premier Member
 
clarkey1984's Avatar
 

Last Online: Apr 13th, 2022 10:41
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Beccles
Default

Mine usually shows about 3mpg worse than it really is, on a long run a few weeks ago the trip said 33 but when I filled up again and did the sums it equated to around 37, and that's with the engine light on for half the time (although it's now gone off again on its own 🤷*♂️) so obviously O2 sensor errors don't screw the mpg up.
__________________
02 V40 T4 S, "Sargent silver" she's back!
clarkey1984 is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 16:36.


Powered by vBulletin
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.