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

[Marcus2526]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie, I have to say I've been averaging 45/46 MPG. However, I do a lot of motorway mile. I do however, always have the Aircon on, and drive we a heavy right foot.

While I was disappointed with the MPG (compared to by TDI Golf) I think the car as a whole more than makes up for it.

[fitfurnowt]

For what it's worth, heres what I'm getting.
My V50 2.0D has just gone through 1800 miles today. I've kept a log of fuel / mileage and worked out that I'm getting 39.5mpg. I've been careful (new car) keeping it below 2500 rpm when accelerating and stick to about 80mph on the motorways which I spend a lot of time on (1800 miles over two weeks). The 1.9 Bora I had before was giving about 49mpg if I was careful'ish or 42 if I really booted it. The Volvo is a bigger car and as more power (105 - 136) but I'm still disappointed with MPG. I use Esso fuel.

[Wakeyman]

I achieve an average of 43mpg from by 56 plate S40 2.0D SE which has now just reached 12K. Majority of my driving is a 40 mile round trip commute, 32 miles of which are on the M1/M62/M606 car park. Fuel I've found to best suit the engine is Shell diesel Extra (not V Power) & this has ironed out the uneven tick-over when on ideal (you do need to fill up a couple of times before you see the improvement & at least once a day take it up to the rev limiter in 3rd gear to help clean the DPF). Not worth paying the extra for BP Ultimate diesel as there's no marked improvement in economy & I found the self clean mechanism on the DPF was kicking in much more frequently & reducing economy. Best mpg to date has been 54mpg at a steady 65mph. Only other advice I'd give is don't labour the engine in 6th gear. Okay in 6th at 65mph on the flat but otherwise use 5th. Finally, avoid cheap supermarket fuel & additive/cleaners like the plaugue - you've only got to look at the problems 2.0 TDCI 136 Ford Mondeo's have with EGR values through running on cheap fuel. In addition, Volvo frowns on the use of fuel additives.

[Griffsters]

Interesting wakeyman, i've got the lumpy idle and have been pondering using Millers diesel additive. I've used it previously and it comes highly rated - it does seem to improve MPG and engine refinement. I'm only on my 2nd full tank, first was Shell V-Power and this tank is Shell diesel extra. I like to use Shell Diesel but its likely the previous fleet owner bunged in any old supemarket stuff.

What are the tell tale signs of the DPF kicking in and roughly how often should I expect it?

Cheers

NB: I cant be the only EuroIV owner more than slightly miffed that our 'environmentally friendly' cars are not treated as such by Gordon Brown.. arrgghh

[Wakeyman]

Griffsters

Tell tale signs that DPF self cleaning is reduction in power, especially under acceleration, & general 'lumpiness' of engine.

Frequency of DPF self clean mechanism kicking-in depends on your driving style/use. Short trips of under 10 miles & cheap fuel you can expect every 1000-1500 miles. Longer trips where the engine is getting hot & working efficiently then anything between 3000 - 7000 miles. Also, if you tend to use high gears at low revs this leads to more frequent activation. Make sure you use high revs in low gears frequently but only once the engine is throughly warm (minimum of 10 miles). Problem is that people migrate from petrol engines to diesel engines but don't adjust their driving styles accordingly which leads to the engine & DPF 'gumming' up! How many diesel vehicles do you see emitting a cloud of black smoke under hard acceleration which is due to a build up of diesel particulates. By using high revs more frequently you avoid this build up & the engine works more efficiently & economically.

[Griffsters]

Thanks for that - very useful info.

[v50Dom]

Thanks for that Wakeyman.

I noticed a slow down in the car's performance recently and was about to ring the dealer. It then returned to normal shortly after. Now I know what it is.

For the record, I'm still getting between 43-47mpg depending on how heavy the right foot is. I do a 100 mile round trip on A roads as a daily commute.

Do I need to get out more or am I the only V50 owner happy with the car?

Dom

[Wakeyman]

V50Dom

Your MPG sounds about spot-on. As indicated in my earlier posting, I average 43mpg (manually recorded rather than rely on the onboard computer which I find is about 5% optimistic) although have achieved mid 50's at an indicated 65mph. Speedometer over-reads by 3mph when at a calibrated 60mph so I guess my 54mpg was achieved at around a steady 61-62mph.

[treidlia]

43 mpg is what my 2.0d did, before I tired of problems with it.

Whilst driving at high revs every now and then is advice I'd agree with.There's a lot of stuff here that I disagree about on the dpf.


High revs don't 'clear out' the dpf. The dpf traps the particulates, if higher revs cleared it out then it wouldn't be a very effective trap. When a certain level of back pressure is sensed,the dpf enters a 'regeneration' phase whereby it burns off the trapped particualtes. This involves injection of the catalyst into the fuel mix, and a late injection phase of fuel during the combustion cycle to increase exhaust temperature to the temp whereby the catalyst can induce burn-off.
High revs lay-down more particulates, arguably inducing more frequent regeneration, but its somewhat flawed to try to drive dpf into more frequent burn-off like that.

Black smoke from dpf diesels is a very rare event which arises when the exhaust pressure and partiiculate production exceed the ability of the dpf to trap them, typically very high revs.

Black smoke from non-dpf diesels can certainly arise with high-rev exhaust pressures loosening caked on particulates. But again thats hardly the normal diese driving method. The most common cause of black smoke is the over-fuelling built into turbo diesels on initial acceleration, in order to overcome the turbo lag. Put foot down, fuelling increases, not enough air to burn efficiently, balck smoke, enigne work increases, exhaust pressure increases, turbo boost increases, plenty air for fuel, black smoke goes. That would also be present in ddpf diesels, but the dpf hides it.
As to the black smoke out of non-dpf diesels thats a separate thing

[Clan]

There cant be any black smoke at all out of a properly running euro 4 D4204T because the inside of the tail pipe after 18000 miles is absolutly clean as new , no soot whatsoever on a properly running engine ... It's quite remarkable . and it regenerates every 200 - 300 miles . It has an external additive tank which is injected into the main tank every time you fill up . with the special injection circumstances explained above thes results in 600 C exhaust gas temperature which burns off the soot particles from the particle filter , but this particle filter needs changing at the 72000 mile service . But not on the D5 version as the management system is much better .