Tips to improve Adventra fuel economy?

[JeremyF50]

Hi guys,

I'm looking to improve my VZ Adventra's fuel economy. It's just about to hit 180,000km. I've changed my driving habbits and got it down from high 22's down to low 17's L/100kph. I'm going to start with the following:

- some injector cleaner fluid
- K&N air filter
- running ron98
- pumping up my tyres as I haven't checked them in ages

Any other cheap/easy tips I can start off with? before moving to whatever more expensive/harder things I can't do myself.

Extractors seems overkill for the price and I'd have to get someone else to fit them for me. Is the stock VZ OTR air intake sufficient?

Thanks very much.

Jeremy

 

[franklinfrog]

Jeez I hope this is the V8 doing those figures, that is high. V8? Definitely check tyres, I run 40psi. Injector cleaner good.

Other items you list may or may not help at all.
I don't know much about the Adventra but with fuel usage that high I'd be recommending to change O2 sensors if they haven't been done recently. They can be pretty much stuffed and not throw an error code. If stuffed they'll be telling the computer to put in heaps of fuel. Might see some come out as black smoke, good indicator they're stuffed.

Also give your whole throttle body, maf sensor and intake pipes a very good clean and polish on the inside.

OTR will help, but you're way above factory (I'm guessing) so try to get it to factory figures first then go better. All depends on where you drive and amount of stop starting of course.

 

[Kiddo]

Weight+AWD is the problem.

Best i could get from our Avalance was 19lts/100kms.

 

[figjam]

Depends on where you are driving it, and how heavy your right foot is.
I’ve just done 4,100km trip to Cameron Corner and back in my Cross 6 Crewman, ( Ok, so it’s a V6 ) with 9.9 l/100km at an average speed of 70km/h of mostly country driving on dirt and sealed, with stock tyres at 35 psi. Around town I get about 11.5 l/100km.
I’d suggest some good injector cleaner, new spark plugs ( pretty cheap on a V8 ) and a highway run at a steady 100km /h for it to relearn its driving memory before spending dollars on a bigger fix.

 

[JeremyF50]

It is a V6 so the numbers are terrible. I'm pretty sure most of the reason was my right foot and the tyre pressure. Just changing my driving alone got it from about 22.6 to 17.2 in the course of a week (including a trip computer reset).

This arvo I pumped up the tyres. The lowest reading was 22psi. Absolutely shocking neglect on my behalf and I'm sure this has had a huge impact on economy.

Now the car feels a lot better to drive, is using less fuel according to the instant and it even seems to be sitting slightly higher lol.

A lesson learnt. I'm not very mechanically minded at all.

I also put in some fuel injector cleaner. Almost a whole bottle (300ml) but it's difficult to put it in because you've gotta sit the bottle upside down in the tank and push the opening into the open position, all while it's pouring out. The bottle says too much won't hurt and I'd just put a full tank of BP Ultimate in so meh.

Also put in a K&N air filter. Reset the trip meter again, should be interesting to see the numbers in a week.

Almost all of my driving is town driving so this will get my fuel figures up a little. I've got to drive 600-700km this weekend to Brisbane and back. Some highway kays mixed in with town driving to work next week should give a decent idea in a week or two with the average reading.

I feel like I've wasted everyone's time with this thread due to my ridiculously low tyre pressure likely being the majority of the culprit here. I definitely agree with weight+AWD being a fuel guzzler though.

Thanks for the responses, guys. I might look at spark plugs next. Would thicker leads be worthwhile at the same time? Should I get a higher spark count plug?

I don't know how to clean a MAF sensor, or where it is. Same goes for intake pipes? Is that the pipe between the air box and throttle box? No idea how to clean the throttle body either.

 

[Munz]

What is the average speed at those figures?

You can reset the L-100km/average speed when driving by pressing the set button. try this at 100km/h (this will be your average) then let us know what the L/100 is.

 

[MYVESSV8]

get proper maf cleaner (not anything else) yes between airbox and throttle body, black cylinder type thing with a elec plug in it, dont be too rough with it as the wires inside dont like mistreatment, undo plug (make sure keys out of ign) on maf, undo all hose clamps and remove piping etc, spray clean maf let dry, spray and clean wipe out pipework and wipe clean. put all back together (make sure maf is in right way-has arrow for airflow direction) put in plug (check twice- if a bit new at this) and then you can turn on and go for a ride. leads dont need to be thicker it's a road car not a racer, and a lot of performance guys (if you read up on it will tell you that holden leads, coils, etc are good for high horsepower and very reliable)

 

[JeremyF50]

get proper maf cleaner (not anything else) yes between airbox and throttle body, black cylinder type thing with a elec plug in it, dont be too rough with it as the wires inside dont like mistreatment, undo plug (make sure keys out of ign) on maf, undo all hose clamps and remove piping etc, spray clean maf let dry, spray and clean wipe out pipework and wipe clean. put all back together (make sure maf is in right way-has arrow for airflow direction) put in plug (check twice- if a bit new at this) and then you can turn on and go for a ride. leads dont need to be thicker it's a road car not a racer, and a lot of performance guys (if you read up on it will tell you that holden leads, coils, etc are good for high horsepower and very reliable)

Thanks I might give this a try in the coming week Do i remove the intake pipe to clean it? Do i clean the throttle body when that happens, while it's still attached to the engine thingy? (lol).

Just did 30-40km on the highway. Recorded ~10L (though I can't remember if this is L/hr or L/100km) in the instant fuel usage. I didn't want to reset the average trip L/100km counter as I'm now recording since my last top-up. It varied between 9.5 and 10.5 though i saw high 8's and low 12's depending on incline and decline. I think it was mainly between 9.5 and 10.5 most of the time though.

 

[franklinfrog]

Cleaning a maf sensor:
https://forums.justcommodores.com.au/threads/cleaning-maf-sensor-replacing-air-filter.137294

 

[Munz]

Thanks I might give this a try in the coming week Do i remove the intake pipe to clean it? Do i clean the throttle body when that happens, while it's still attached to the engine thingy? (lol).

Just did 30-40km on the highway. Recorded ~10L (though I can't remember if this is L/hr or L/100km) in the instant fuel usage. I didn't want to reset the average trip L/100km counter as I'm now recording since my last top-up. It varied between 9.5 and 10.5 though i saw high 8's and low 12's depending on incline and decline. I think it was mainly between 9.5 and 10.5 most of the time though.

I'd say your average speed was low around 30-40km/h hense the high reading, once average speed sits around 100km/h mark your L/per100km will reduce significantly.

There's also apps for iphone/android that can help too.