R36 (wagon) fuel consumption

[kleung]

I have been using Shell. Reading some of the other posts BP is apparently the way to go, so I think I will be switching. Do you drive for longer periods? 70% of my trips are 5-10mins. As per Lance's comment above, I am wondering whether that is where I am getting it wrong?!

The short drives certainly won't help. 5-10 minutes isn't long enough for the engine to get up to operating temp properly. Have you got any decent long driving trips coming up that involve significant highway miles? Maybe try taking a day trip somewhere on the weekend to see how the fuel economy goes? Where you fill up can certainly have an impact on fuel economy, but, barring anything unusual about the fuel, I suspect that how and where you use your car and your driving style will have a much bigger impact on the fuel economy.

Once you've done a few tests for yourself, it should give you a better idea of why the fuel consumption is so high.

Oh and on the first car bit, yes this one is my first. I always said I would wait until i could afford a Porsche. Then I got married and just had my first kid, so there went the Porsche and here is the R36. One day...

Congrats on the newest addition to your family.

Well, let's face it. The R36 is a lot more practical than the stereotypical Porsche.

[Yevvy]

20l/100kms in a proper morning stop-start is about right, especially on the short runs. no idea why you need a heavy awd 3.6 litre car to drive 20mins a day but i guess you wanted a performance vehicle, so the thurst is the price you pay.

anyway congrats on the purchase

[R36FTW]

I get around 15/L in heavy traffic. I've noticed though if you crawl along at around 10-20kmh the consumption is horrendous on the MFD, if you stop/start its better, which seems odd.

I got 9.0L/100km when driving to Adelaide full highway with a pretty new engine (just over 1000 kms) and seem to get 11.5-12.5L/100km around town in free flowing traffic.

[Wolfman_36]

Felix

If you are concerned about consumption, you may want to consider the following:
(1) Record the kms (odometer) and litres added at each fill
(2) Concurrently record the ave speed and ave consumption (#2 averages on the display) when you fill
(3) Reset the averages

With this data you can:
(a) Correlate fuel consumption with average speed - over a number of tankfuls.
(b) Check the calibration of the in-dash display.

I do this and over 33000 kms on my R36 sedan I have:
- Overall Average economy from tank fills = 13.2 lit/100kms
- Overall Average economy from Trip Comp = 12.55 lit/100kms
- Average of average speeds = 38.86 km/hr
- Always fill with premium unleaded (9

Unless there is something wrong with your car, some influences would be:
* Driving Style
* Traffic conditions and average speed.
* Trip length
* Tyre pressure

FYI I live in North Fitzroy and commute to Port Melbourne every day. The engine temperature is up to normal within about 5 minutes, so a fair part of my driving is with the engine at operating temperature.

My correlation of economy vs speed looks like this....



Note my driving is generally 80% "sedate" and 20% "brisk"

[kleung]

(2) Concurrently record the ave speed and ave consumption (#2 averages on the display) when you fill

I never thought to record my average speeds per tank...what a good idea.

FYI I live in North Fitzroy and commute to Port Melbourne every day. The engine temperature is up to normal within about 5 minutes, so a fair part of my driving is with the engine at operating temperature.

What is your oil temp reading after that 5 minutes? I'm not convinced that the engine is at 'normal operating temperature' while the engine oil is still <50C (no reading on the oil temp readout). In my R36, the coolant temp is up to the middle of the dial within about 5 minutes from a cold start too, but the oil temp usually takes at least 10-12km before it gets up over 80C (stabilizes around 90C +/- 5C).

[Wolfman_36]

What is your oil temp reading after that 5 minutes? I'm not convinced that the engine is at 'normal operating temperature' while the engine oil is still <50C (no reading on the oil temp readout). In my R36, the coolant temp is up to the middle of the dial within about 5 minutes from a cold start too, but the oil temp usually takes at least 10-12km before it gets up over 80C (stabilizes around 90C +/- 5C).

You got me there - I have never though to check oil temp. I had assumed that if the water was up to temp the block was warm and the mixture would be at normal operating AFR. I would be fascinated to see AFR vs temps (oil, water) from a cold start to see when it stabilised. I do not have the facility to log, but I am sure someone could do it via the OBD port.........

[kimmik]

wow, i applaud the scientific approach and the meticulous care you have taken. thanks for sharing

[stephen8512]

slightly off topic here..

Would this figure be the same (more or less) for the sedan R36 as well? approx 400km per tank?

And it would be the same too for the V6 Passat CC Im assuming?

[kleung]

Would this figure be the same (more or less) for the sedan R36 as well? approx 400km per tank?

And it would be the same too for the V6 Passat CC Im assuming?

I'm not sure what to believe - the figures in the VW brochures don't really make a whole lot of sense logically:

(from the 2010 CC/Passat brochures)

Model	R36 sedan	R36 wagon	CC V6
Weight	1681kg	1747kg	1656kg
Combined economy	10.0l/100km	9.9l/100km	10.5l/100km
Urban cycle	13.0/100km	13.6/100km	15.5/100km
Extraurban cycle	8.2/100km	7.7/100km	7.7/100km
CO2 emissions	233g	231g	254g

So the heaviest car out of the three has the best overall fuel consumption, but the CC has taller gearing and weighs less than either R36 (and probably better aerodynamics) which should give it better overall fuel economy.

[PASHN8]

Just adding to this thread as a new R36 wagon owner

Getting around 500-550km's per tank as well and it ain't cheap to fill! I can't help but feel these things run insanely rich judging by the fuel consumption, colour of the exhaust tips and fuel smoke on WOT.
If only there was a ECU flash to pull fueling out of the low/mid rev range, it would be a better car I think.