Put this on here because I'm desperate, and can't afford extortionate Rover dealer service prices (prefer spend it on my locost )

Basically over the last few months the fuel consumption on my day-to-day car ('99 Rover 214 16v 105ps) has deteriorated to the point where I'm now getting 25mpg average. It should be around 40! I have looked (and smelt) for obvious signs of leaks, but no joy.

Any ideas??

TIA

Steve

i'd guess a dodgy sensor or something ecu wise if it performing as normal but just getting worse consumption. Is there a way of reseting the ecu by disconnecting battery or something or am i thinking of a different car...

Ned.

Have you tried the obvious things?

For starters, is it running OK, pulling well up hills, etc.? If it's running as well as it ever has, then a leak is a possibility.

However, if it's not performing too well then consider fuel and air filters, plugs, plug leads, and so on - the cheap and easy things to try. All will knock your mpg if they're not up to scratch.

If that's not it, consider engine tune and timing. Any little local garage can shove an exhaust analyser up the spout and tell you if you're in the right ball park.

Finally, is your clutch slipping a bit?

anyone else got some ideas?

David

if the engine temp sensor has gone t.u.
then it will constantly be running 'on choke' so to speak which will do your fuel comsumption figs no good at all

Wow, amazing response.

Performance wise the car seems the same as before. But one thing I have noticed of late is even when the engines warm, there's still a lot of white smoke/steam when I stop at traffic lights etc. This well indicate the choke is staying on, as it doesn't smell like coolant or oil.

timf - I take it the engine temp sensor you refer to is different from the water temp sender, as the gauge reads fine?

Where would the temp sensor be located?

Thanks again,

Steve

Hmm, my car has the same engine and I suspect it's consumption may be a bit high. I may check it out too as it too gives off quite a lot of vapour, even when warm.
If the "choke" was staying on wouldn't the idle be faster or is that unrelated? It settles to a normal idle and emissions are fine, it recently had it's MoT and 60k service. I'm probably worried about nothing.

If your lambda sensor has gone (on the down pipe after the exhaust manifold normally) The engine normally runs too rich. Happened to my mates rover and you could smell it at first. Not sure how to check if its working, but its another thing to investigate.

a mechanical choke has a fast idle setting as well as a richer fuel - so that why engine goes faster.

efi cars have a temp sensor to measure engine - and often air - temp. its different from the gauge one

atb

steve

i think an emmisions test would reveal if the lambda had gone west, plus most other problems as well.

Well, thanks for the replys chaps, gives me a few pointers. Think I'll start with an emissions test...

Steve

Hi,
I've just sold my Wife's old 214Si 16v (105ps) and we never got more than about 36MPG from it. More recently it went down to about 30/31MPG which is part of the reason we got rid of it. MOT emission's were always fine but bear in mind that half the MOT tester's don't use them properly (in my experience anyway).

One thing though, the Lambda sensor might be worth checking as I did notice on our old car that if you held the engine revs at, say, 2500RPM and just held your foot perfectly still, the revs would rise up and fall down +/- 200 RPM every couple of seconds or so. This might indicate a slow acting Lambda sensor as the Lambda sensor is designed (IIRC) to provide a digital on/off pulse to the ECU every 0.3 seconds or so. If its response slows down then it may not be keeping up with changing engine conditions.

Check out this website for some details.

Cheers,
Craig.

I don't know about this engine specifically but it might be worth a rummage in the haynes book of lies. In the rover v8 manual EFI section it describes how to check all your EFI sensors with a multimeter and what the readings should be.

Hi again,
Here is a much better website which details exactly how to diagnose the Lambda sensor.

It says that they only have a 30-50k mile lifetime!

Cheers,
Craig.

[Edited on 19/2/2004 by craig1410]