heaps better fuel economy after a trip

[barryogen]

ok, so it's not a toyota, but still.

My Mrs Kia Picanto(1100cc Automatic, 57kw) used to get ~400km/30L which slowly got worse and worse to the point that it got to ~330km/30L. Then, after taking it for a trip to chch(4hrs at 100km/h), it is better than ever at ~440km/30L

Any ideas on what would cause this?

[Rob]

When you drive it round town do you you drive it like its 1100cc or do you thrash sh1t out of it?

I imagine it would have been running at higher revs at 100k's than at 50 or 60, and probably for longer periods there fore burng more carbon from the extra heat.

You may have even extended the live of the beast by taking it on a long trip.

As opposed to popular belief the amount of kms on a car doesn't give an indication of its condition, its how many of those k's were done while the car was at operating temperature.(A car thats done 40000k's in town could be in worse condition than car thats done 300000kms on country roads).

[barryogen]

It's the mrs car, it doesn't really ever get thrashed other than the occasional time I drive it, it is "peppy", but not quick.

Revs at 50km are are pretty much the same as at 100km/h, 2500-2800rpm

The thing has just ticked over 23000kms, she got it with 6000 on it about a year ago.

[pidge]

Asusming you are reporting the milage on a single fill that included the trip (or two fills that covered the trip), open road driving at a consistant speed will always give you better milage on those fills. Lots of start/stop driving and idling kills fuel consumption, unless you have a hybrid car.


If the fuel consumption has stayed better on the fills after the trip, it's possible with lots of short trips the engine was not really getting up to temperature (and it's been fscking cold this winter, too), and running the warm-up enriched mixture for longer (+ cold start etc).

Then again, I could be talking crap myself

[pidge]

When you drive it round town do you you drive it like its 1100cc or do you thrash sh1t out of it?

I imagine it would have been running at higher revs at 100k's than at 50 or 60, and probably for longer periods there fore burng more carbon from the extra heat.

You may have even extended the live of the beast by taking it on a long trip.

As opposed to popular belief the amount of kms on a car doesn't give an indication of its condition, its how many of those k's were done while the car was at operating temperature.(A car thats done 40000k's in town could be in worse condition than car thats done 300000kms on country roads).

waaaay back in the day, my parents bought a Holden Kingwood that used to do the ChCh - Nelson run to deliver the The Press. It had a bucket load of milage on it when they bought it, but it ran beautifully.

[barryogen]

The milage I suggested above is pretty much a full tank, it only holds 35L from empty.

On a trip it gets somewhere in excess of 550, but we've never gone much further than that preferring to take a bigger car(my Altezza).

I guess it could be that it is just overly excessive on cold running, as I guess timing would be around as it got colder, so maybe it is just running rich a lot.

The weather has been considerably better/warmer since we got back from chch, so I guess that would make sense.

Oh well, any other potential answers welcome. Otherwise, I'll just take it for a road trip every 3 or so months.

[nz_climber]

I dunno if this would affect it, just a guess really. But the long drive would have caused the engine to run at operating temp for a long time, therefore burning off any carbon built up on 02 sensor (due to normal short distance traveling - not at operating temp etc)

[drift-monkey]

ive noticed with my 1200cc ep starlet runabout that it uses a hell of alot less gas sitting on lite throttle on the motorway than driving about town, who knows

[79rolla]

does it get reguler surveces?? do you do long or shortish trips in it normaly?

the long trip may have "freed it up" from being run constantly and properly cars actuly like it (thats why hi k's doesint alwase mean its screwd)

constant rinning could have cleard spark plugs and goten rid of any moisture buld up in the oil. gotten rid of any slight buldup pn pistens or bores ect..

just be happy that its life has been renewd

[barryogen]

oh don't get me wrong, I'm stoked, very pleased that it is back to better than when she got it. I mean even when it was bad, it was getting pretty good milage compared to most cars.

[jondee86]

I dunno if this would affect it, just a guess really. But the long drive would have caused the engine to run at operating temp for a long time, therefore burning off any carbon built up on 02 sensor (due to normal short distance traveling - not at operating temp etc)

What he said

Cheers... jondee86