1.4 206 HDi mpg and low revs

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Fri 1 Apr 2005 08:27
1.4 206 HDi mpg and low revs - 206Hdi
Hi all

6 months ago I bought a new 206 1.4 HDi (the one with the green i if that makes a difference). I have since done 3500 miles but am surprised that during that time I have never got better than 55mpg (brim to brim checking)- is this normal for this car? I have driven a Focus 1.6 TDCi and got over 60mpg so was expecting better from this car, certinaly high 60's on a run!

Can I really expect fuel consumption to increase by 10-15mpg as the engine loosens up to start getting even close to the manufacturers figures?

Many of my journeys have been long and I have delibertaely tried to keep the engines revs low and just stretch the car from time to time to clean the injectors. However this brings me to my next point. At low revs I seem to have very little torque and the engine seems to labour. By low I mean anything less than 1600rpm which means at 30mph I have to be in third and at 40mph I have to be in fourth if I change up any earlier the engine feels very unhappy - is this normal? I would have expected to be in fourth at 30mph and 5th at 40mph. Obviously having to be in the highers gears doesn't help my fuel consumption problem!

I would appreciate any thoughts/advice

Many thanks
Jon
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Fri 1 Apr 2005 09:21
1.4 206 HDi mpg and low revs - RichardW
3.5k? It will still be as tight as a water tight part of a Duck's anatomy! Make sure you are exercising the full rev range occasionally (after it has warmed up of course!).

Plus, low revs do NOT necessarily equal best fuel economy. Peak torque on this engine will be around 1800 rpm, and this is where best fuel economy will occur - so always try and stick to this rev figure by careful gear selection - you'll soon get used to it, and it's probably something easy like 3rd for 30, 4th for 40, 5th for 50 or higher. If the engine is labouring, change down - it's the worst thing you can do to an engine whilst running it in. I wouldn't expect max economy to be reached until after the first service, and even then only if you tweak your driving to suit the engine.
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RichardW

Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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