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Ok - Fuel Consumption - Lets Get Weird....again.


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#1 happydude2012

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Posted 20 August 2018 - 05:34 PM

So i fill up my tank  - costs about £22 right to the top.

 

I drive 30 mile round trip to the Hospital 3 days a week - so i recon 90 miles, plus this and that -  and that fuel is gone, glug glug glug.

 

I reckon 120 miles tops for a full tank.

Whats that work out at? about 18 miles to the gallon?

 

My friend, whos a poser, drives a rangerover, and gets the same mileage.

 

Im assuming this is appalling for a mini, even in a very moderately uprated engine like mine - im told that super tuned mega engines do better mileage.

 

so what gives? any experience with fuel guzzling?



#2 GraemeC

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Posted 20 August 2018 - 05:48 PM

At £1.27/litre that's about 3.8 gallons

So for 120 miles on that amount of fuel = 31.6mpg

 

If you're only getting £22 in then you are filling up from about 1/2 tank, assuming you have the later 7.5 gallon tank.



#3 happydude2012

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Posted 20 August 2018 - 06:15 PM

ah! but the guage is at bottom when i fill up.just below red line sometimes.

you think the gauge might be screwed? - its an old double binnacle. 


Edited by happydude2012, 20 August 2018 - 06:16 PM.


#4 happydude2012

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Posted 20 August 2018 - 06:15 PM

the more into this stuff i get - the more weird this car becomes



#5 GraemeC

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Posted 20 August 2018 - 06:52 PM

Don’t rely on the gauge - use a torch and peer down the filler neck when you think it’s empty and see him fuel is in there.

Perfectly normal for Mini fuel gauges to be ‘rough guess’ your Mini is nothing special :D

#6 absx2

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Posted 20 August 2018 - 08:33 PM

The only way to check fuel consumption is to fill it up to the neck, take the odometer reading, then do a few miles, fill it up again to the neck. See how many liters you used and divide it by 4.544. That will give you how many gallons used so divide your mileage by that.

My 998 gives around 46 mpg and has 3 gallons left in the tank when it shows empty :)



#7 luismx123

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 05:56 AM

Had the same issue when I picked up my mini a few weeks back. Guage was off by quite a bit. It would show full, and empty in about half a tank as the amrking behind were messed up/turned/I don't even know.
Did the basic: drive and tank and calculated my km/l to around 5.7-6. then I pushed the tank down for a couple hundred km, tanked up,saw it took 30ish litters... Walked away calmly

#8 happydude2012

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 06:09 AM

The only way to check fuel consumption is to fill it up to the neck, take the odometer reading, then do a few miles, fill it up again to the neck. See how many liters you used and divide it by 4.544. That will give you how many gallons used so divide your mileage by that.

My 998 gives around 46 mpg and has 3 gallons left in the tank when it shows empty :)

thats exactly what i did - got 18mpg, i suppose the only thing i can do is check odometer at full tank, and run out of petrol. see what the miles say.



#9 Dusky

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 06:37 AM


The only way to check fuel consumption is to fill it up to the neck, take the odometer reading, then do a few miles, fill it up again to the neck. See how many liters you used and divide it by 4.544. That will give you how many gallons used so divide your mileage by that.
My 998 gives around 46 mpg and has 3 gallons left in the tank when it shows empty :)

thats exactly what i did - got 18mpg, i suppose the only thing i can do is check odometer at full tank, and run out of petrol. see what the miles say.


The only thing you can do is fill up again and see how much fuel you have used actualy used.

#10 harrythehat

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 06:46 AM

Two pence worth as were decimal nowadays

Essential thing with a mini

 

CARRY A CAN! preferably full up.



#11 timmy850

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 07:06 AM

Get a dipstick for your tank and carry it in the boot. Poke it in and see what the level is like

 

Your first post is exceedingly vague too,

How big is your tank

How much volume does £22 equate to 

How many miles are you actually going and is your odometer accurate

 

Fill up

Write down the miles

Fill up again

Write down the miles and the volume

Easy peasy



#12 Bat

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 07:28 AM

Hi,

Best to assume your odometer isn't accurate too!

Check your journey distance with Google maps or sat nav add up your journeys and check the odo against that.

Cheers  :proud:

 



#13 MatthewsDad

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 11:31 AM

Don't rely on the sender unit / gauge. As above, fill up, drive, fill up again, do the sums with cross ref to Google maps if you have doubts about the odo. 18 mpg too low IMO for either a carb or injection mini, unless you have a leak, someone is siphoning it off, or the engine is way out of tune.

#14 happydude2012

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 02:12 PM

Get a dipstick for your tank and carry it in the boot. Poke it in and see what the level is like

 

Your first post is exceedingly vague too,

How big is your tank

How much volume does £22 equate to 

How many miles are you actually going and is your odometer accurate

 

Fill up

Write down the miles

Fill up again

Write down the miles and the volume

Easy peasy

 

Ok so there are a few variable here - 

My double binnacle is largely a mystery on several fronts, firstly, the speedo is wrong, i got 2 speeding tickets in a week about 5 years ago when i was sure i was doing 30mph, only to find out on the rolling road i was 10mph out at true 70.

so i changed the numbers on the gauge according to the speeds on the rolling road.

So the mileage is likely also bullsh*t as the speedometer isn't accurate.

 

this may render my entire question invalid from the outset. Hands up, i admit it. But sometimes you need a forum full of other people to help you see the idiotic errors youre making.

 

its a 7.5 gallon tank.....so if we go off the gauge, which apparently was calibrated in rainbow pixie land like everything else on this car of mine,  £22 equates to 7.5 gallons - i should be spending £43 some odd in real life. 

Definitely something fishy goin on - and theres no way my car is that badly tuned its doubling up on fuel.

 

ive done the odometer thing, full tank (according to the magical mystery gauge) to red line and its 120 miles - ive done it several times over the last few years - it did it when the engine was rolling road tuned and did it before it was rolling road tuned and it was virtually the same every time.

 

What i have not done - is ever run out of petrol. Even when ive been biting my nails just below the red line, ive never conked out.

Maybe, just maybe, theres another magical 50% fuel left.

 

is there not an accurate aftermarket gauge i could fit that works? or is this a general mini thing.

frankly, all i need to know is how fast im going, how hot the engine is, and how much petrol ive got. surely such a device exists without having to spend £50,000 on shiney smiths gauges.

 

Also, it would help enormously if it were retard proof so i could fit it - if not, id happily pay for someone to fit it locally because electrics are out for me - but no auto electrical people will touch a mini apparently in my local vicinity - not enough money in it was the last response i had.



#15 GraemeC

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Posted 21 August 2018 - 05:57 PM

Stop using the tank capacity and what the gauge tells you in your calcs and estimations.
£22 is a very set volume of fuel from the petrol station - the capacity of the tank is irrelevant to that.

So if you are doing 120 miles on £22 of fuel, you know EXACTLY how much fuel you have used. If the tank was brimmed before hand, you also know EXACTLY how much is left in the tank after those 120 miles. As per my earlier answer - about half a tank.

However - you do need an accurate way of assessing the distance travelled if your speedo is out. If it’s 10mph out at 70 then it’s about 14% off.

Edited by GraemeC, 21 August 2018 - 06:00 PM.





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