VE SV6 Fuel Consumption...?

Don't use E10.

 

Hi there and welcome.

Anyway a few questions.

Is your VE stock or might the previous owner have added modifications?
When was it last serviced?
How long ago was the air filter replaced?

 

How many k's on it? If the spark plugs are overdue for a change it will be low on power and have excessive fuel consumption.

 

I did 650km today with an average 7.8L/100km highway driving

Air filter makes the biggest difference for me

 

As showbags said, don't use E10. **** fuel. I don't even put 95 in it, although the misses has a couple of times and I could tell, so I always put BP Ultimate in. I generally keep it above half full, so I couldn't really say how many k's I get out of a tank, but around town consumption reads around 11.5-12L/100km.

 

I have always found full to empty is the best fuel consumption ever with the HQ better miles per gallon than topping up.

 

E10 is a horrible fuel, it isn't monitored so the ethanol content can get up to 30%. The ECU will just end up pumping in heaps of fuel as the O2 sensors will be reading 30% less. So there for you will be going through lots of petrol, be down on power. Clogging up spark plugs and O2 sensors.

Simply putting 98 in it will not fix the fuel consumption problem. Will you need to wait till you have had 3 or 4 tanks of 98 so all the ethanol is out of the system. Then change spark plugs. Then I wouldn't be surprised if the engine light comes on in the next 5,000ks reading an O2 sensor fault. So you'll need to get them replaced too.

 

i use 98 and i have my moments of hooning around and i still get around 500ks per tank and it cost me $108 to fill up roughly on $1.63 ish?, unless thats the sidi helping out?

 

Then don't whinge or ask bout economy.

You bought a 6 cylinder car, don't want to put any decent fuel in the car and yet expected same as a 4 cylinder?

Ain't gonna happen



Sent from my HTC Liberty

 

To reiterate what we've all said, steer clear of E10. It is not worth the 15c or whatever it is difference to 98.

98 cleans your engine, and is much more economical. E10 clogs your fuel system, and makes your car run like a pig in comparison.

 

e10 is bad as per everyone here as stated, although 98 isnt that great either. I have noticed a much better power increase with 98 although the economy was similar to 91. 95 on the other hand had the same kick as 98 although L/100 was much better. sv6's arnt performance machines, 98 wont do jack compared to a dedicated sports car.

also the way these fuel rating systems work is based on how much the fuel/air mixture can be compressed before combusting (due to ethanol content and the carbonic bonds within the fuel). 98 has less ethanol and stronger carbonic bonds in it compared to 91 therefore can be compressed more in the combustion chamber without self igniting... although the sv6's compression ratio isnt that high compared to race cars etc therefore your not really getting the full power stored in the 98 ron fuel.....

so my point is 95 will do and you will get much better mileage, I have experimented alot with fuel in my car. i went from 13 - 14 L/100 on 91 and 98 ron to 10 - 11 l/100 with mostly city and traffic km.

 

Here's a tip. Change that air filter anyway.

The filters can fool you and look really clean. But if you hold a new and used filter up to the light next to each other you'll usually see a difference.
The new ones let some light filter through.
And if you're chasing fuel economy it is best to be systematic in your approach and rule out all possible causes of your problem one by one.
Starting with the cheapest and most obvious solutions.

 

E10 is on average 2-3c cheaper than 91RON. Assuming 3c per litre more, over a 75L tank (which you'd never get that low obviously), it costs roughly $2.25 more at the price you listed your E10. If you fill up, from stone dead empty every week, you're looking at $117 more per year in fuel if you fill up with exclusively 91 RON.
In a car worth at least $20,000.
When E10 offers less range.
And damages your injection system.

Mathematics is your friend, just fill up with 91 RON, it is by far the most cost effective solution over the long term (i.e. more than 1 week).

It is a High output V6 engine, pulling a car weighing near on 2 tonnes - it's gonna burn fuel.

 

Hi,

Ethanol has a 30% lower calorific value than ULP. Thus E10 will give around 3% worse fuel consumption; in fact the NRMA did a highway test where the difference was around 4.2% on a Camry.

On a purely financial account, at $1.33 a litre, the E10 would have to be at least 4c per litre cheaper to break even.

I have mostly used ULP in both my VE SV6, and have been perfectly happy. We still have some sources of ULP where I live. My Series II manual has just past 20K, and has averaged better than 10.7L/100Km so far. That figure is calculated, not taken from the trip computer, which for the first time ever in a car that I have owned is actually worse that actual by about 5%.

One possible cause is that the difference between how much fuel you get in on a refill can be very significant. Did you fill the car up at the same pump? Did you stop at the first click, or drip feed? there is one pump that I fill up at where the lateral and longitudinal slope are conducive to refilling, and the car takes more fuel easily at this pump than at others I use.

Accurate fuel consumption needs to be conducted over a number of refills, with the first and last being at the same pump. It might not be as bad as it seems.

 

can't really say that if you just bought a commodore instead of a prius...

 

Obviously you didn't see petrol prices in 2008.