Hello.
I have had a 1.6 petrol Ford Focus since September (brand new).
I find the fuel consumption fairly heavy on this car: It's just reached 5000 miles and it's still only returning just under 30 mpg at best.
It's got Leather heated seats and Air con etc: But even if it's driven gently with all of the electric gooodies switched off, it's still quite thirsty!
Does anyone have similar experiences with this engine?
Cheers - Jon S
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I think the one weak point with newer Fords today is their fuel consumption compared to similar sized engined rivals.
My 1.8 (Mk2) Mondeo only returns around 27-28mpg even when driven gently.
Im a loser baby....so why don't you kill me?!
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Does seem pretty poor for a medium sized car. My petrol 1.8 ford sierra LX 98k miles always returns 38 mpg...i reckon all the catalytic converters and other emissions conrol stuff they put on these days makes more modern petrol cars thirsty.
steve
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Many cars weigh twice as much as their equivalents from twenty-odd years ago. How much more do leather seats weigh over cloth? How much does your a/c system weigh? How much extra weight is there in safety cages, airbags, and side impact beams? To get all that weight moving efficiently you need an engine with a lot of torque at low revs. Your little petrol engine can't give you that.
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Switching these goodies on isn't the problem - you still have to lug the aircon system around with you even when you're not using it, but it should be able to do more than 30. How are you working out the mpg figure?
Andy
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Take it back something is wrong, the O2 sensor and Raw ( Pre Cat ) exhaust gasses need to be checked for over fuelling. Peter
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I've driven two different hire Ford Focus's one with a 1.6 and one with a 1.8 both only did about 30mpg, however when I used a new, last of the old shape Mondeo 2.0 it did 40mpg! Strange....
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My Vectra 1.8 returns 44-45mpg on a mixture of motorway, town & country roads, well pleased.
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Jon,
I think Miller and dieselhead are spot on with their views.
I bought a 2.0 Focus last summer expecting that it would be more economical than the Astra 2.0 8V SRi I had before. How wrong I was, over the summer it was slightly worse. When the really cold weather arrived it seemed to plummet. I did a brim to brim over 3 tanks and it managed only 25.99mpg. My daily trip to work and back is 2 x 6.5 miles and it takes 4 miles to get up to full operating temp. On longer journeys it seems to use much less fuel so I blame the cold start system (it holds the engine at 3,000 revs for the first mile or so when you change gear, good for the cat, bad for economy).
Your 1.6 is supposed to do 30.7 mpg urban and 51.4 mpg(!!) extra urban.
For this reason (and to try to get the engine to last longer) I have ordered a Kenlowe Hotstart. Will let you know if things improve.
Chris
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I'd be interested in how/where you fit the hotstart to a Focus .......
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I have read that one of the reasons GM/Vauxhall vehicles are so fuel efficient, is that their total cooling capacity is lower, which enables the engine to reach operating temperature much more quickly, and so is far more fuel efficient than the equivalent Ford. This would be particularly noticeable in cold winter conditions on short journeys.
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Robert,
I'm not sure how specific an answer you want to that question, (there appears to be more room under the bonnet on the Zetec-E models- 1.8 & 2.0, than the Zetec-SE-1.4 & 1.6, and much more than on the diesel).
I haven't seen and pictures of the new Hotstart, but Kenlowe told me that it now comes as 2 units making it easier to fit than the old larger one. It seems it is possible to fit the two units in-line in the heater return hose rather than screwing to the bulkhead. On the 2.0 there appears to be enough space below the large pipe from the air cleaner to the inlet manifold.
If you want any more details I could update you when the thing is finally fitted( I am expecting the delivery mid Feb).
Chris
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I bought a 2.0 Focus last summer expecting that it would be more economical than the Astra 2.0 8V SRi I had before. How wrong I was, over the summer it was slightly worse. When the really cold weather arrived it seemed to plummet. I did a brim to brim over 3 tanks and it managed only 25.99mpg...........it holds the engine at 3,000 revs for the first mile or so when you change gear
I've done 63k over 4 years in my 2 litre Focus and I get 36-40 mpg (recording every single gallon that has ever been put in it and calculating the average consumption over each month), and it doesn't hold the engine speed as you describe. Doesn't this tell you something ?
L'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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I have run a S reg 1.6 Focus for 3 years, from 10000 miles to the current 42000 miles. The fuel consumption has always been 41mpg, plus or minus 1mpg. I usually drive at an indicated 80 on motorways, and use the acceleration fully. So why the difference? OK, I don't have air conditioning or heated seats, but they can't make that much difference.
Pete Mansell
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I've had similar experience of a 1.6 Focus. Fuel consumption is dire until about 10k. Just the engine bedding in.
Don't be shy about thrashing its bo11ocks off - driving it gently may well cost you more in the long run, as the engine won't wear in properly.
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Thanks one and all for your input.
The engine doesn't feel particularly tight, but I'm one for gently 'running a car in'. Perhaps as Robert suggests, I should start extending it beyond 3000 revs on the rev counter to loosen her up a bit more.
It's logical that all of the emissions kit will worsen MPG. My other car is a Diesel which I love. We only went for the petrol Focus due to the kit and the lack of mileage we'll be doing in it. Diesel consumption just gets better and better and petrol consumption just gets worse and worse.
Not good for the petrol cause; at at the present time, I wish we'd have paid the inflated price for the TDCI.
I suppose a trip to the Ford dealer for them to check the engine settings wouldn't do any harm either.
If anybody else has any suggestions, they will be welcome
Cheers - Jon S
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I just had a thought.. I think your car may be in 'limp home mode'..I might be completely wrong here but..my understanding is if their is an engine sensor fault, the engines control of fueling and ignition is made by preset values that allow the car to be driven, albeit with inferior performance/fuel economy..perhaps something to ask your dealer about..
steve
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Steve (Dieselhead)
Thanks for this. Another one to bear in mind!
I think the performance is too damn good to be in limp home mode, but anything is worth a go.
Thanks again
Cheers - Jon S
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There's definitely something wrong with the petrol consumption. I rented a 1.6 LX from Edinburgh airport last summer and it returned 40-50 mpg when driven mainly on open roads outside town. It was a newish Focus with around 5,000 miles on the clock.
Alex
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30 mpg sounds bad Jon S - I even manage that out of my 2.2 (petrol) Vectra and I think that's bad. My ex-flatmate in London has a 1.6 Ghia Saloon and the economy on his is nothing short of very good - approx 38 to 44 mpg depending on town/motorway driving. Great for a petrol.
These engines, like other recent Ford offerings (Mondeo diesel anybody?) seem to be extremely variable as to their fuel consumption. Personally I'd be very upset with this level of fuel use but I'd bet a pint that if you took it to the dealer they'd say it was "within tolerance levels".
All the same and taking on other's comments on board, perhaps it may be worthwhile taking it to the dealer and asking them about it? Good tack to take is tell them you have a family member (or whatever) who is a fleet manager and "all of their cars do 37mpg plus". Small lie but dealers often love to fob you off with the old "that's normal" routine when they know there is clearly an issue with the car.
Do let us know the outcome if you do!
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I've got a 1.6 Fiesta .. 2001 with same engine. 4k miles when I bought it and fuel consumption averaged 38mpg. I was not happy with this and have since regularly revved to 5500rpm in the gears and driven it hardish.
Now it averages 41 mpg after 6.5k miles.
Still more room for improvement imo.. so I'll have to thrash it harder:-)
Seriously I suspect it needs to be revved to make it all bed down.. and gentle treatment is exactly what it does not need..
madf
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All,
I've resurrected this as I have more news for you about the car in question.
The fuel guage has got a bad fault on it. When I fill it up to the full point now, the gauge registers empty for about 40 miles and then just magically jumps into life.
It is now booked into my local Ford dealership now for investigation and replaceement of parts under warranty.
I suspect it's sender problem. I have been extending the revs a bit though and it has liberated more power from it, so thanks for the suggestions to rev the bits off of it.
Thanks again all, I'll let you know how I get on.
Cheers - Jon S
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Since I hire cars frequently I have some experience of fuel consumption. We once hired a Ford Mondeo 1996 model 1.8, drove from South London (Wimbledon) to Bradford and then onto Lake Windermere in the north, due to very heavy traffic and then fast driving to compenstate ie 80/90mph it used alsmost a complete tank of fuel to get back. On our return journey it used half a tank of fuel to London that is a start to finsih motorway trip of approx 270 miles on a guage indicated half a tank at an avg speed of 75mph ( i reckon it was averaging 40-44mpg). Return trip filled up with Shell fuel.
Have hired Vauxhalls and fords find vauxhals more economical than fords, hired a fcous recently and found that heavy on fuel. As its a hire car it must be fairly loose in terms opf engine run in. I think fuel quality makes a big difference to mpg.
Before you think your car is heavy on fuel undertke some simple checks on your car such as tyre pressures, engine temp when warm, make of fuel used and air filter qulaity (clean or dirty). Also get some body to note your driving style, use of gears etc etc..
use of the a/c should add 10% to fuel consumption.
if its still heavy then scream at the dealer..........
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I agree with all that has been said, in particular the reccomendation that you get someone to look at your driving style, try SAFED,( safeconomicaldriving) they showed me how to do 9 miles on 1 litre of fuel mixed driving in a mazda 6 hard to beleive but true. Regards Chris.
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My contribution:
I hired one from Swindon to Stamford and back. I too noticed how bad the economy was. Only got about 36mpg. It was an 03 plate with about 10,000 miles on it. The official figures are always inflated and I don't think you're going to get much better mpg from it. Sorry!
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My 1.8 (Mk2) Mondeo only returns around 27-28mpg even when driven gently.
I had a 54 plate 1.8 mondeo estate over 10,000 miles it averaged 34 was used every week day with a mixture of heavy city traffic and on congested motorways.
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