Thirsty Almera

S

smudbuoy

Hi everyone,

I have joined up in order to try and get some answers to my almera queries, please help:)
My girlfriend has a 1995 (N15) Almera SLX, it has the 1.6 twin cam engine and the auto box, could anyone advise me of the mpg and CO2 emmissions data for this vehicle. I ask because I drove it the othere day and it just seems to guzzle fuel, even when continually left in overdrive mode, for example, I drove 60 miles on a mix of motorway and A roads with a few roundabouts and junctions thrown in for good measure and I went through a 1/4 tank of fuel :(, now I'm not sure what the capacity of the tank is but a 1/4 tank in 60 miles for any car seems a tad excessive :confused:. I will admit that I am comparing the auto almera unit to the manual 130 bhp 1.6 16v powerplant I had in a 1991 honda civic :roll: that did well over 40 mpg - even when put through the revs, but I just don't understand why the mpg is so bad, is a 1.6 with the auto box just a bad combo, is it the engine or the box that's the problem, is the manual just as thirsty!

Any ideas anyone

thanks
 
my 2.0 does about 30 when i'm going slower than a snail, and a friends 1.4 wasn't much better than that either lol

autos always seem to use more fuel tho maybe cos it has 1 less gear?
 
Thanks, guys

I agree, it is probably a combo of all those things; age/auto box etc, it will all have an affect on the cars performance and I guess it is 13 yrs old, it does get a full service annually, last one about 3 months ago, mpg lets the car down really, cos otherwise it one of the most useful/hardy/reliable cars I 've known - beats the honda hand over fist for reliability!

To update to a newer almera, any recommendation on what model to go for - taking into consideration thread topic, are the diesels any good?
 
As someone mentioned age is likely to be the key factor in this. When I first started to drive mine i could not stop moaning about how much fuel the car sucks! Is it true if your gearbox is on its last legs your car will consume more fuel??
 
Almera bandit said:
As someone mentioned age is likely to be the key factor in this. When I first started to drive mine i could not stop moaning about how much fuel the car sucks! Is it true if your gearbox is on its last legs your car will consume more fuel??
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If that's true that may explain my shocking economy! My box doesn't sound too healthy!
 
ive been told that 'older' auto's use more petrol,

the petrolguage needles on almeras are not the most accurate by the way!
the more you have your foot down the more the needle moves but when you drive calm again it will probs only used a little bit, if you know wat i mean!?

i get 310 out of a tank in my 1.4 and its 10yrs old , idont think age has affested it much!
 
Chris180 said:
Seems the same as what I got with my 1.4 and my GTi
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It sucks! lol

I've got a vacuum gauge installed now and I'm trying to restrict my lead foot, keeping the reading between 5 and 15 inHg! Hopefully that should help, if it doesn't then I'll just floor it everywhere again!
 
My 1.6 SRi was always fairly good on fuel, I used to get 80miles for every tenner for daily driving :)
Wasn't too good on the motorway though, felt like it needed a 6th gear as it was revving fairly high in 5th at normal motorway speeds.
Got just under 300miles to a full tank (that was £40 at the time).
Overall I think it was pretty good considering I had some mods on there aswell.
Joe
 
300 miles to a tank is nothing, when I managed to do 294 miles to a tank that still only got me 31 mpg which I still don't think is anywhere near good enough! lol
 
Older design autos can be pretty damned bad for the mileage, yeah. And if it's actually physically quite old itself, like yours is getting, that can just compound it. May be worth changing the hydraulic fluid in the torque converter? And while you're there, maybe the oil in the box itself, although that shouldn't be an issue really.

The point above about the fuel needle moving in weird ways is also very true, after a quarter tank, it may move the rest of the way slowly, and the reverse is true, it also may take a while to get to the last quarter, but the last quarter my sink away really fast.

I usually got more than 300 from a tank from my GTI just for short journeys, both thrashing it and driving it calmly. It would get much better if I went on a longer run, too....
 
a torque converter transfers rotating power from a prime mover (ie. your engine) to a rotating driven load. It usually replaces a mechanical clutch and they also multiply torque when there is a substantial difference between input and output rotational speed, thus providing the equivalent of a reduction gear.

some random information on a torque convertor
 
My 1.6 seems quite thirsty around town but is really quite economical on the motorway, managed 40mpg on a run before.

I also know however that the damn approximate fuel gauge is useless, it drops loads if you floor it but then rises up when you sit at idle.
 
The reason that the guage drops when you give it some heavey right foot is cause the fuel in the tank moves around alot during hard acceleration etc, the float in the fuel tank therfore moves up and down alot but the guage is slow to respond as i think they use a biametalic strip to move the gauge, this then gives the illusion of a low fuel level.

Also were not getting as much fuel from a tenner so therefore not as many miles nowadays:lol:
 
Almeraraje said:
james... how did you get 60 litres of fuel into a 50 litre tank?
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I wondered when someone would notice that!

I have an explanation, I was driving back from Santa Pod and didn't want to fill it up to the brim with motorway priced petrol, so I only put 15 litres in, then filled it up when I got back home :)
 
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