New Owner - Shocking Fuel Consumption...

[dttsou]

Hi All,

First of all, I'd like to introduce myself as a Aurion newbie. Just got back to Australia, and bought myself a 2007 Aurion AT-X second hand about around 2 weeks ago.

So far, I have been very happy with most aspects of the AT-X model, except for the stereo, which I've already replaced with an ES866 model from Esrin.

However, over the past 2 weeks, I've noticed that my fuel guage goes down rather quickly for a car which apparently has pretty good fuel economy. Today, I fueled up for the 2nd time and got my proof. It turns out that on the last tank of fuel, I averaged 15L/100km!

The driving I've been doing has been 99% of the time just light cruising around the city (70% of the time), and 30% of the time on highways. Definitely have not stomped on the accelerator all that much. So I was very surprised by the poor fuel economy.

So, just a question to everyone, does this 15L / 100km figure sound normal or could there be something wrong with my new purchase? By the way, it has 98000km on the clock.

Thanks in advance for your inputs.

Cheers,

Dean

[jeffy]

welcome to the club dude :] !

could it be the petrol that you pour in ?

would injector cleaners work ?

[william777]

So, just a question to everyone, does this 15L / 100km figure sound normal or could there be something wrong with my new purchase? By the way, it has 98000km on the clock.

Dean, welcome to the TOC.

I think 15L/100Km is high. My average is 10L/100Km in similar conditions.

[Shadow_]

far as i know this is normal i drove my car to work everyday distance 30km+ 6 or 7 day per week i drive like a nuthead+aftermarket exhaust on my display i see 17 to 25 litters/100kms. i fill up my tank every 9 days. not full only 70%

Edited December 22, 2011 by Shadow_

[Buff Hamster]

It's hard to tell what your fuel ecc is just by looking at your fuel gauge. Many factors play into your fuel ecc. Where you driver, how fast you accelerate, tyre pressure, fuel type, etc.

Best way to work out your fuel ecc is to refuel and work out how many KMs you driven in those amount of Litres to work out L/100km.

Edited December 22, 2011 by A Buff Hamster

[dttsou]

Thanks all, I've been secretly shadowing this club for a little while now doing research about the car, so newbie at posting, but not such newbie at looking around. :-)

There seems to be quite a bit of variance between the fuel consumption people are getting.

@jeffy: yeah, I thought about trying that, checking the MAF, getting the injectors cleaned and flow tested and checking spark plugs, checking air filters, checking tyre pressure... its obviously a rather long list of things to check, but just out of curiosity, are there things in the Aurion that typically causes poor fuel consumption?

@william: thanks! That seems to be the typical fuel consumption most people get...

@shadow: yep, this is the kind of fuel consumption I don't want to get! :-) Although, with the last tank, what surprised me was that I didn't drive like a nut head, but still got 15L/100km!

@buff hamster: exactly, I worked out my L/100km numbers based on my recently visit to the petrol station. I had reset the trip counter to 0 immediatley after the time before this one to count the number of kms I had done... I do use Shell's 91 RON fuel... wonder if that normally has such poor economy?

[jeffy]

I do use Shell's 91 RON fuel... wonder if that normally has such poor economy?

try using V-power,

ive used 91 before and switched to 95 (bp) , and noticed id get about 100-150kms more to the tank,

edit: thinking of using 98 to see if there really is a difference ..

[dwee.]

I'm guessing you have already resetted the ecu?

Maybe do an engine flush and use a thinner oil (if you have a thicker oil at present), that might reduce your fuel consumption. $12-17 for an engine flush additive, $40ish for new decent oil otherwise you can always do it before the next service.

I have also found using at least 95 octane helps with better fuel consumption.

[nicka]

Hi All,

Looks like I have the same bad fuel consumption - between 14 and 18 l/100 km. I tried to drive my car as grandmom but it did not really help but one time It was about 10 L /100km for the first 20-25 km after I refilled.

I am driving another Aurion Touring which is similar to mine (difference is +4000 km and different colour). My friends gave it to me because I am on Gold Coast now for a couple of weeks. What I found for last two days that the fuel consumption is about 8-10 L! Yesterday it was even 7.5 on freeway. I did not change my driving style to drive this car.

91 fuel is used in both cars but consumption is very different.

So, I think the problem is not in your fuel or driving style. The problem is in your car (and mine as well). I think we should visit Toyota service center to check what can cause this high fuel consumption. If you do not believe me find another Aurion and drive it for 10 km and you will notice the difference.

I also noticed that average fuel consumption per tank in my car is updated not so quickly as in my friend's car. Maybe the problem is in the computer.

[sAmMy-sX6]

hi guys,

i have had my sx6 2007 for around 3 weeks now full tank from empty cost me $80 using premium 98 feul bp..

only got 470km

when i drive the car i get it down to about 12 to 12.7 L/100km

after my wife has drove the car its only atleast 14.5 /100km (i drive a lot harder than her)

but i usually take off from stop start very soft untill about 50km

she tends to take off quite hard and then eases off once she hits the speed limit

thats the only reasoning i can find in the big diffrence from each driver.

*its really odd becuase after i put petrol it allways drops down very low

just last night i filled up and was on the freeway and apparently i was getting 7.5 /100km mmmmm yeahh right

[DJKOR]

How are you guys calculating your fuel consumption? Are you using the following method:

Litres filled / distance travelled since last fill x 100

or are you simply working it out from your dash cluster display?

Even though the dash cluster display provides a reasonable figure, it isn't as accurate as calculating it yourself. Also, you need to remember that when you only get something like 500km or so to a 'full tank', be aware that the fuel gauge only really measures 60 of the 70 litres in the tank. Therefore, your cruising range etc is based on about 60 litres of fuel.

If you are indeed getting 12l/100km + for your fuel consumption, something is definitely not healthy with your Aurion. My old Aurion Sportivo and now TRD Aurion (as well as others here) average less than 10l/100km with mixed driving and I don't exactly drive sedately.

[Pah]

I have been keeping record of mine since May, started out using V-Power and changed back to 91ron. I havent seen a dramatic change in consumption between the different fuels to offset the price difference so I have stuck to 91ron. I dont do a great deal of kilometers as I work close to home. I have used 693.93 litres of fuel and travelled 6438 kilometers for an average of 10.778 L/100km which is great for such a large car in my opinion

[nicka]

How are you guys calculating your fuel consumption? Are you using the following method:

Litres filled / distance travelled since last fill x 100

or are you simply working it out from your dash cluster display?

I used two methods - looking at dashboard and liters filled/distance travelled. Both methods give the same result. So, when I see bad numbers on dashboard as the result the distance is short. On my friends Aurion I see good numbers and as the result the distance is long.

So, I am sure 100% - the problem is in our cars, not because of our "bad" driving style or quality of the petrol. We definitely must contact Toyota Service and check our cars. I will be back in 3-4 weeks and will contact the service at that time. Who else can go and check his\her car to figure out how much it might cost to repair?

P.s. Do not reinvent a wheel changing you driving style or using 95 or V-Power. Go and check your car.

[Buff Hamster]

What tyre pressure are you using then? Or you don't know?

I say reset the ECU but disconnecting the battery for a while and see what happens then.

[nicka]

What tyre pressure are you using then? Or you don't know?

I say reset the ECU but disconnecting the battery for a while and see what happens then.

1) Actually I did not check tyre pressure after I bought my Aurion 2 weeks ago. What is the recommended pressure (as I know it should be somewhere on a sticker on door)?

2) I will do it as well when I come back to Melbourne but actually I did it 1 week ago when I worked on AUX mod. I did not notice big changes after that.

[Silver-Aurion]

Even with spirited driving the highest I can ever push is 13 but average is 11 give or take. Last time my fuel consumption was as high as the OP's was when I drove the car out of the car dealer.

[DJKOR]

1) Actually I did not check tyre pressure after I bought my Aurion 2 weeks ago. What is the recommended pressure (as I know it should be somewhere on a sticker on door)?

I wouldn't run any lower than 34 PSI for the 16/17 inch wheels and 36 for the 18/19 inch wheels. Any lower than 2 PSI below that and you are bound to increase wear and fuel consumption.

[450HP/tonne]

In 2 years I have never filled up with more than 9.9L / 100km. This has included driving ranging from bad peak hour traffic, spirited driving (ie set of tyres worn out in 45,000km) and highway miles.

Tyre pressures at 38 front and 36 rear were typically used, but were adjusted based on driving pattern, tyre age and tyre wear.

Not sure the dealer will be able to help very much with new information not mentioned above. As the dash always reads high numbers after refuelling, it may be suggest you to refuel (to 3 clicks of the bowser for example), drive 300 km on a 100km/h highway, with no load, and refuel again to the same number of clicks.

[dttsou]

So how do we reset the ECU? Unplugging the battery is enough?

I assume by resetting the ECU, the ECU will relearn the fuel trims and potentially "unlearn" some of the fuel consuming behaviours? :-)

[nicka]

I think the problem is not in ECU and its reset will not help (at least in several hundreds kms the dashboard will display the same high consumption). I googled a lot and looks like that either air filter/sensor or oxygen/O2 sensor not working correctly (I am not sure but probably there two O2 sensors). Question - who has equipment to connect to ECU and monitor O2?

[nswnotill]

I think the problem is not in ECU and its reset will not help (at least in several hundreds kms the dashboard will display the same high consumption). I googled a lot and looks like that either air filter/sensor or oxygen/O2 sensor not working correctly (I am not sure but probably there two O2 sensors). Question - who has equipment to connect to ECU and monitor O2?

I would take the car to a reputable workshop (not necessarily a Toyota dealer) who can do a full diagnostic test on all of the electronic functions of the motor in your car. He will tell you whether any of the various sensors on the motor are out of spec.

Maybe it is the O2 sensor. I used to have a Magna and Mitsubishi recommended replacing the O2 sensor every 100,000 Km. as they gradually wear out. Not sure about Aurions though.

[nicka]

I would take the car to a reputable workshop (not necessarily a Toyota dealer) who can do a full diagnostic test on all of the electronic functions of the motor in your car. He will tell you whether any of the various sensors on the motor are out of spec.

Maybe it is the O2 sensor. I used to have a Magna and Mitsubishi recommended replacing the O2 sensor every 100,000 Km. as they gradually wear out. Not sure about Aurions though.

I read somewhere that it is recommended to change O2 sensor on Aurion every 75k.

Who can recommend not very expansive but reputable workshop in Melbourne eastern suburbs? Prices of Toyota dealers can be crazy to do full diagnostic test. But if they start searching and cannot not find anything then next time you can talk to their manager, complain about bad service and receive another diagnostic for free until they find what causes the problem. One my friend did something like this when Toyota dealer did not fix some problem.

[Philb2011]

Hi guys,

I've noticed since i've been blasting the aircon i've dropped 100km out of my tank I don't know if was maybe I did some shorter extra trips but noticed this forum wondering

how much of a difference does it actually make as warmer weather lately hitting melb i've been cranking hard n I drive usually firm usually around 600-650km marker to tank this time 500

Don't recall doing more short stop start trips but might be wrong might keep n eye on it.

Maybe it was just a odd ball thing I did also change fuel to v power usually using BP as well. I don't know if that's something to take into consideration.

Thanks Phil

[nswnotill]

Regarding 'reputable' car service centres- I have had a good deal in recent years from workshops that are affiliated with Repco.

My local guy (NW NSW) has an electronic analyser which has all of the specs for all popular cars stored in it.

This database is upgraded every year.

He can quickly check out most popular cars and let you know how it fares on his machine.

Maybe I am misguided, but check this group out.

^_^

[dttsou]

So I did a small check of the more easily accessible spark plugs yesterday to see if any of the plugs looked bad... they all looked clean, but to my surprise, these plugs were not torqued on at all, and were only finger tight...

Could this be a possible cause of my poor fuel consumption? I did torque up the front side spark plugs, but the back side spark plugs (the ones closer to the firewall) was just not accessible without needing to remove the air surge tank assembly (which looks like a big task).