Drinking Habit!

[Lima]

My S1 Fulvia was put on the road after a lengthy rest in time for the Turin celebrations in '06.  She got there and back with no problems but the heater matrix gave up the ghost a week after getting back and then the lights went a bit screwy.  So I let the Sept 07 MOT slip by and let her rest for the winter.  Now, with lights fixed and the matrix re-cored, she has just acquired another year of MOT, and I've enjoyed the last few weeks... to a degree.

The only problem is that during her time inside my parent's garage, sat alongside such mundane machinery as a Flymo and a Homebase strimmer, the old girl has got a bit depressed and now has a chronic drinking habit.  The last two times I've gone to the petrol station I've put £15 of fuel in (good for half a tank) but only managed 80 miles.  You can practically see the gauge moving toward empty.  What's going on?  The choke isn't on (and I know this because when it is on it makes a noise like a miniature steam train), I'm not driving like I'm being chased by the fuzz, the fuel hoses are new, the tank looks okay, there's no smell of fuel in the garage and no fuel sitting in the tray under the solex carbs.

Does anyone have any pointers?  Could it be fuel thieves syphoning a little each journey to avoid detection?  I was planning to drive the Fulvia to Portugal at Christmas, but I'd have to sell my parent's house to afford the likely fuel bill to do it!

[fay66]

Blimy Mark,
 I wish I could half fill my tank for £15! working it out in my head (I can't find my calculator) I think that works out at about 13 litres, say 3 gallons, or about 22mpg which is a bit on the low side,  even my 2c who is a bit of a weighty girl does better than that at about 25 mpg, sure the brakes aren't rubbing? are the tyres up to pressure, air cleaner ok?
Driving to Portugal, Oh what memories of 2004 & Esphino on one of Frank Dehlers European Tours

Brian
8227

[lanciab20]

Mark,
You might have a fuel leak which only occurs under pressure, ie when the engine is running, so between pump and carbs.  This seems more likely than the conspiracy theory involving the lawnmower and the strimmer, and is the sort of problem that could develop during a long lay-up when a hose deteriorates.  22 mpg in normal driving is certainly heavy, and if that much fuel was actually being fed through the carbs you would feel and smell it.
Stuart Wilkinson

[j886atv]

Mark

Not sure I agree with the calculations of mpg so far - £15 of petrol @ £1.17 per litre is 12.82 litres.

There are roughly 4.54 litres in a gallon - so thats 2.82 gallons.   80 miles to 2.82 gallons is 28 mpg.....

Can anyone see any errors in my logic?

Duncan

[ncundy]

Duncan,
My thoughts exactly. The Fulvia tank is a about 40 Litres from memory so filling it half full would be about £25, £15 is only about a 3rd of a tank now. 28 mpg seems ok to me for a 1.6 (?) 
Neil

[rogerelias]

Hey .You think you have a problem, try an MGC Roadster, normal driving around here is 17mpg    My 1600hf does around 22 25 mpg sensible ish driving.

[fay66]

Mark

Not sure I agree with the calculations of mpg so far - £15 of petrol @ £1.17 per litre is 12.82 litres.

There are roughly 4.54 litres in a gallon - so thats 2.82 gallons.   80 miles to 2.82 gallons is 28 mpg.....

Can anyone see any errors in my logic?

Duncan

Did you work it out with a calculator?
Wasn't meant to be exact, but on reflection I can see that 80 divided by 3 doesn't equal 22 my old brain doesn't work too well in litres, but my maths normally aren't that bad

Brian
8227

[j886atv]

[/quote]

Did you work it out with a calculator?
Wasn't meant to be exact, but on reflection I can see that 80 divided by 3 doesn't equal 22 my old brain doesn't work too well in litres, but my maths normally aren't that bad

Brian
8227
[/quote]

What makes you think that!  - nothing wrong with a set of log tables / slide rule.................. 

[fay66]

Just as well I didn't use a slide rule as I would have probably made it -50mpg

Brian
8227

[Lima]

Wow chaps - thanks for the responses 

Firstly, the local morrisons petrol station sells at 1.15 (or it was a week ago) and that got the indicator to a gnat's whisker under the 1/2 full marker.  the tank is 38 litres, but I've never managed to put that much in.

Regardless of where the marker goes, the cals you guys made paints a truer picture... 28mpg.  (BTW, calculator or not, your maths skills are better than mine).  28mpg is the same as my Barchetta which is a 1.75 litre variable valve rev-lover which spends all it's life on the red line - the Fulvia is a 1.3.

Given that the fuel hoses are new (new for Turin trip) I might investigate the clips - the loss of fuel under pressure might well be the culprit.

However, given that I haven't filled her up completely, perhaps I ought to do so and see what I get... she used to manage more than the Barchetta (250 miles from a tank)

Thanks again guys

[Neil Lewis]

When I used to rally my series 3 it did about 27mpg going to work but a tankful of petrol was all gone in ninety miles during a rally.  If the organisers said that i should carry enough fuel to do 100 miles (or more) I had to stow a petrol can in the boot (most against the regulations).

The tank only ever once got empty, the red (or was it yellow) light used to come on with more than a gallon still in.

BTW I would have thought you'd smell a petrol leak.  Perhaps not when driving but whenever you came to a halt for a junction or traffic lights.  But maybe my nose is more sensitive to the smell of octane...

Neil

[eyore]

I generally average around 30mpg in the 1.6 hf Fulvia,28mpg in the Monte and about 22mpg in the 16v Integrale.

[sparehead3]

I was just thinking that this would be a useful matrix to put on the web site / wiki site at some point in the future : roughly how many miles / kms you'd expect to get from a tankful when driving sensibly or enthusiastically for each model of car.

Useful thought for the day !

400KM from the integrale on French motorways ...

(400 kilometers = 248.548477 miles according to Google)

(Type in "400 km in miles" in a Google search box and you'll see what I mean - REALLY useful feature !!!!)

[Lima]

A matrix would be very useful indeed, listing each car derivative with 'lead foot', 'everyday' and 'long cruise' entries - I nominate Sparehead 3 to compile the spreadsheet for the Forum

[sparehead3]

Thank you Marky - I'll create a separate topic and everyone can contribute ... then I can compile a spreadsheet (which I'll pop back into the thread) ... watch this (cyber)space