VS fuel economy problems

[Don Sutton]

when you guys say " per full tank " how empty does your fuel gauge show when you refill? i only got 395kms and my gauge was just below the last white line. i had no fuel light on, does the VR2 Acclaim have a fuel light? i swear it does and i never got it on so i probably could of gotten a bit more millage outta the tank. hey when the fuel light does come on, how much fuel would i have left?

Using the low fuel light or the gauge to indicate when the tank is truly empty will be different for each individual vehicle. The temperature of the fuel in the tank alone will contribute to error as the gauge float will ride at a different height in the petrol according to the temperature. The warmer the fuel the lower the float sits in the petrol. The size of the tank and manufacturing tolerances will mean that on some tanks the bottom will be a little flatter and the sender unit will have a different installation angle on others. It does not take much of an angle change to make a big difference by the time this projects to the float. If you want to find out, be prepared to risk sucking up sediment in the tank but drive it till it runs out noting the kms when the low fuel light comes on. Carry a jerry can of fuel with you and funnel in case it runs out some distance from a petrol bowser. The VS is also sensitive to vehicle angle and parked up hill with the righthand side high can cause the engine to not start with the fuel pump whinning away picking up air at just below 1/4 tank on my VS wagon.

 

[gnol]

Hi all,
Noob to the forum. Some great info here.
Thought I would post in this thread as I too have a 95 VS with 109,000 k's on the clock.
I do only city driving and have only done about 17,000 k's in the 3 years that I have had it.
Problem is I am only getting about 280 k's to a tank. When I fill it, it takes 56-58 litres so I reckon it is using nearly the whole tank.

I'll have to take it in and ask them to look at it as petrol is realy expensive now.

Cheers
gnol

 

[boojak87]

Ok guys, update on my situation. Had the car in for a major service, replaced o2 sensors, cleaned throttle body and IAC, had complete check of fuel system for leaks (none found) and yet my fuel consumption was still sitting at 15.5 litres per 100km. The other day before i filled up i decided to try a bottle of Injector Cleaner. Noticed the difference after 3 drives! After doing 100kms on this current tank, the car feels stronger, goes better and i've only done 1 line on my fuel tank guage! (100kms on 1 line is pretty good considering i could only JUST manage 300kms before the fuel warning light used to come on at the final line!) Soooo i've come to the conclusion that Injectors are ratshit or full of ratshit, either of the two!!! Will keep you updated in the following week to let you know how the rest of my tank spanned out and if there was any increase in economy. I will be taking it into the mechanics soon though for a complete once over of engine sensors, check memcal and ecu timing, check for exhaust leak at manifold and catalytic converter etc. One quick question, would anyone have any idea how much it would cost for a diagnosis like that (checking all sensors and exhaust and cat etc)???

Will keep you informed,
Thanks all, Boojakz.

 

[boojak87]

Well, she's still running like a dream and the fuel guage is reading half way between half way line and the next line up. I've currently done 215kms on this tank, so i think it's going to be a VAST improvement. I cannot believe how much of an improvement that one bottle of injector cleaner has made on this tank. The car runs smooth, has plenty of pickup and is 'so far' extremely economic! Will look at getting injectors either changed or rebuilt soon though to see how much better i can get it going! Will keep you's updated again when i near empty the tank.

Current status : 215kms travelled, half a line over half way (on guage) left in the tank.

Cheers, Boojakz

 

[boojak87]

Ok just decided to fill up still haven't hit fuel warning light yet. End economy was 14.5L per 100kms which is a whole 1L better than previous tank :whistling . Haha hopefully i should be able to improve economy again this tank seeing as i didn't put injector cleaner in the tank until i had driven 10kms (I KNOW I KNOW, meant to put it in before the fuel but ahh well, still did the job). So yeahhh...aiming for between 13.8 and 14L per 100kms for next tank. On the basis of my little experiment do you guys reckon i should get new injectors/clean these ones already in? or just not bother as there could be other factors for poor economy??? Oh yeah haha took the car back to mechanics who did the lowering over a year ago and finally said to them that i wasn't happy with how high the ass end was sitting up so they replaced the springs with lower ones for nothing...even though it was outa warranty! She sits 20mm lower than before Kings...KHPR 20SL and should hopefully settle to even a little lower height which will be awesome! Still not rubbing on bumps or anything thanks to the fat tyres on the WH Caprice rims i gotst on it...gotta love those 50's on a 17'' rim!

Anyways guys, again just regarding injectors, any input would be awesome,
Thanks all,
Boojakz

 

[CommyLover]

some people have stated 11l/100kms whilst others are happy with 14.
im getting about 13.5 atm and im really conscious of how much fuel im using, therefore using cruise conrol all teh time etc

ive noticed that whilst a lead foot will use more petrol, the use of the throttle can improve ur econmy. for instance, accelerate from lights to 80 km/h, if u maintain same throttle postion teh car will change approx 2600 revs, then 2400 then will still be pulling +2000 revs when ur doing 70ish and slowly pull up to 80 kms. whereas if u release throttle slightly, u can force 2nd gear to come on earlier, then reapply, taking ti to a bit over 2000, relasing to get 3rd gear and tehn accelerating quite hard (not enough to cause kickdown) to get to 80km/s where u can releas throttle/apply cruise control and get engine sitting on just over 1000 revs much before u would normally and havnt left teh car pulling many revs for a lenghty period of time at all.

im jsut wondering, when your fuel light comes on, and u fil up, how much fuel cna u fit? coz my distance to empty drops quickly form 80 kms, as well as my fuel gauge drops form 1/4 to empty really quickly and when its showing empty and 0 kms to empty, im only able to get 43 or so litres in teh tank. is this a safety precautioin so i dont suck up **** form tank? or is there so much **** in there that 1/3 of teh tank has crap in it and so i cna only get 43 ish itres into it?

 

[Harvs82]

some people have stated 11l/100kms whilst others are happy with 14.
im getting about 13.5 atm and im really conscious of how much fuel im using, therefore using cruise conrol all teh time etc

ive noticed that whilst a lead foot will use more petrol, the use of the throttle can improve ur econmy. for instance, accelerate from lights to 80 km/h, if u maintain same throttle postion teh car will change approx 2600 revs, then 2400 then will still be pulling +2000 revs when ur doing 70ish and slowly pull up to 80 kms. whereas if u release throttle slightly, u can force 2nd gear to come on earlier, then reapply, taking ti to a bit over 2000, relasing to get 3rd gear and tehn accelerating quite hard (not enough to cause kickdown) to get to 80km/s where u can releas throttle/apply cruise control and get engine sitting on just over 1000 revs much before u would normally and havnt left teh car pulling many revs for a lenghty period of time at all.

im jsut wondering, when your fuel light comes on, and u fil up, how much fuel cna u fit? coz my distance to empty drops quickly form 80 kms, as well as my fuel gauge drops form 1/4 to empty really quickly and when its showing empty and 0 kms to empty, im only able to get 43 or so litres in teh tank. is this a safety precautioin so i dont suck up **** form tank? or is there so much **** in there that 1/3 of teh tank has crap in it and so i cna only get 43 ish itres into it?

Fuel Light comes on when there is about 8 litres left in the tank. Usually when this light comes on I can fit anywhere between 53 to 55 litres in. The most I have ever been able to put in is 59.8 litres, and that was with distance to empty showing 4kms. I don't really trust the figure it shows, as I have seen it drop from 50kms down to 16km within a couple of mins, with no difference in driving speeds etc

 

[arcronis]

Hi i tried your link not working ....... agloco.com/r/BBDB3431

Russ