Mileage 1.6 NA

[JGVWDiesel]

Hey all, I'm just going to ask if this is reasonable mileage given my conditions. I'm getting about 35 mpg in the city (I only drive city right now) and I go up several very large grade hills everyday as well as having to go down them. I have a lot of stop and go because all the lights, as well. The engine is a 1.6 NA with 363k on it with what seems to be original injectors and pump. It smokes a fair bit above 75%ish throttle. All the wheels spin pretty freely when lifted, so they're not an issue. The biggest and longest hill I have to climb is a 10% grade over just under 2 kilometers. There's a couple more small ones between 7 - 10% as well.

Just wanted to see what others thought about my mileage given what I have to drive each day.

[Wayland]

That seems really low to me. I'm assuming your mpg figures are calculated using imperial gallons, not US? My Jetta still got 53mpg, albeit mostly highway when the injectors were really bad.

[JGVWDiesel]

No I was using US MPG. In imperial MPG I'm getting 42.2 MPG. Are most people using imperial on here or something?

[Wayland]

I live in Canada, so I use imperial gallons. I assumed that since you also live in Canada, you would too.

[rabbitman]

No I was using US MPG. In imperial MPG I'm getting 42.2 MPG. Are most people using imperial on here or something?

AFAIK US mpg is used most.

I'd say that's a bit low, what year/car is this? If it's a mk1 style then the odometer is known to slip and miss about a .1mi per mile causing it to show lower mpg than you're really getting.

[JGVWDiesel]

86' american built golf 1.6 NA. The speedo does tend to bounce around a bit in the lower speeds, if that can count for much.

[clbanman]

91 Golf 1.6 NA 5spd.  I have averaged 46.64 mpg (Imp) or 5.81 l/100km since Sept. 2009  (7550 km).    514,000 km, only modification that I know about is 2.25" exhaust.  Not sure which tranny I have but it is geared much lower than my 86 Golf and gets about 200 km per tank less.    I beat on it a fair bit which makes a difference too.

[burn_your_money]

I was getting around 5.4-5.2l/100kms in my mk2 NA. That was about 50/50 highway/city.

When you drive do you keep the RPMs up or put it in the tallest gear you can without lugging it?

[JGVWDiesel]

i try to hit the tallest gears I can without having to lug it around. i'm also a heavy guy and I'm also usually with my gf as well.

[8v-of-fury]

I can still hit ridiculous numbers with a fully loaded car (four people and our stuff in the trunk... packed full, have to sit on the trunk to close).. I usually try and keep it up there around what feels like 30-3500 rpm if I need any power, but if not its the tallest gear.

[JGVWDiesel]

Its also hard to tell but it SEEMs like I get a slight bit more grunt with the cold advance lever pulled out. You can definetely hear the difference when it's cold but its harder when warm. I wonder if that means my inj pump should be advanced some??

[8v-of-fury]

A little more advance is never a bad thing, especially if your still sitting at stock numbers. I have my n/a timed to 1.03mm

[burn_your_money]

Since you are mainly in town try and keep the RPMs one gear higher (if it sounds realistic) for a tank and see if that effects your mileage any.

[JGVWDiesel]

Ok, I'll be coming up to my next tank in a bit here. ( really odd going over 2 weeks on a tank, im not used to it haha.)

One thing I'm curious about with these kind of fuel injection systems is do they cut fuel in decel like a efi gas engine does or something else? I tend to use my engine braking just about every hill I get to, could this be adversely affecting my mileage?

Next tank I want to try to introduce a few different things to my driving style to see how it changes it.

Also, what size would my fuel tank be if it's an american built 86 diesel golf?

[JGVWDiesel]

i often forget this, but thanks for all your guys help so far. it's kind of odd that i'm driving to get the most fuel as I can where as before in my previous vehicle I was tuning it to get the most power out of it as I could but was getting a pathetic 17 mpg