Metro returning 30mpg? :-(

PS The fuel gauge was on about 1/4 when I first filled it up and it was near enough the same just before I filled it up again, and the first fill-up cost about 15 quid, so the 16.7 litres consumed figure sounds not unreasonable. Stated tank capacity is 30 litres, so allowing for some reserve at the bottom of the tank when the needle is at zero, showing 1/4 of a tank after

I ran a 10 year old 1.3 Metro standard a few years back with no fuel gauge. I was reckoning at 30 mpg and so pulled in to fill up one time, now we are talking year 2000 so it'll take some back tracking to compare fuel prices. I was thinking about a fill up, but it took about seven quid, and I was so shocked I ended up with fuel all over the filling station forecourt. This paragraph is likely of no use.

Can't remember the fill up figures right but I sat back and reckoned I must be doing at or just under 40 mpg, they will do that, and better. We had our Metros set up on the street by ear, and a tweak if we had a problem with cold starts.

You'll probably get 42 mpg, maybe more. I used to run around town and nudge

oops

Mine was a 1.3, don't know if you make the comparison.

Same engines as the Mini's I believe.

It's manual choke and I'm using the choke normally/properly. The engine isn't over revving.

Will do.

I should stress that the 9 mile journeys I were talking about, were 90% cruising steadily at 50-60mph in 5th gear, so fairly ideal for low consumption. Weather hasn't been that cold around here, no frost all week.

"Vim Fuego" wrote in news:g8G9h.60675$ snipped-for-privacy@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net:

I know it's a different engine, but I had a 1 litre Metro with contact breaker ignition. When I got it at 9000 miles on the clock it drove ok but felt untuned, flat. I got hold of the HBOL for it and found that it had a high compression engine but was tuned for the low compression engine. After sorting the plug gaps, contact breaker gap, dwell angle and timing (which went from it's 14 BTDC to 8 BTDC or thereabouts, it was a while ago), it turned into a right nippy beast and returned around

I have a 1.4 "K" Series single point injection 214 and it returns 30~34mpg. I had one a few years back and it returned the same figures. So I would think a 1.1 should at least match that, but if it is an SU carb I'm not surprised at the piss poor consumption.

It was mine that does 40 but mine is injected, the old SU is a bit less efficient, when correctly fettled you should get closer to 40 than 30.

mrcheerful

For a small car - No.

For a 10+ year old shagbat carbed Metro - Not unusual.

They're just shit cars, built with the finest of 1950s technology and

I was running from Liverpool to Leeds ten years ago, in another metro, a 1 litre. It was doing that on aprox a fiver's petrol.

No point in doing measurements like this. Fill it up and use it, then fill it up again to find the fuel used. estimates on a quarter tank etc are not accurate at all.

Vim Fuego wrote:

He knows that, he's just being rude!!

Read his post again, slowly.

You'll realise that's exactly what he's doing.

Out of interest, how much variation is there in cut-off points between different petrol pumps? I.e. what sort of variation can you expect in fill-up volume between different pumps if you fill all the way to the cut-off point, holding the nozzle in approximately the same position? A standard deviation expressed to two decimal places would be sufficient for my needs ;-)

Guess: of the order of the volume of the filler pipe between petrol cap and tank, so maybe plus/minus a litre?

Manual choke, mate.

Oh, the shame...it's been that long since I've had a carb'ed vehicle, I can't find the bloody dashpot. Haynes manual isn't helping. Help!

you must be into a few percent of your overall estimate.

Isn't it more accurate to read off the dial for the number of litres you have pumped in at the forecourt?

That last point may be such a dense suggestion!!

But the thinking goes like this; if you reset your clock, fill up until the pump stops. Run a hundred miles, fill up to the stop again. Check pump's litres reading. Run another hundred and fill up to stop again and check litres reading. You'd get a comparison between pump stops and of your fuel efficiency.

The message from Conor contains these words:

When I had a 1.1 Metro the choke was off withing 100 yards!

The message from "Vim Fuego" contains these words:

Black knob on top of the carburettor. Mind how you screw it back in as it's easy to cross the threads.