Hello from Finland

[svc]

Another european with diesel.
Driving almost 30000 miles a year, trying to save some fuel seems to be a good hobby. Especially when the price of diesel fuel is around $6.5 / gallon.

[slowmover]

Welcome. Look forward to your contributions. Hopefully we won't have to drink as hard as I once tried in order to keep pace with the American-based Finnair representative some decades back. Your country is much admired, here, for many reasons.

[Vekke]

Tervetuloa,

Olet löytänyt perille tiedon mekkaan mistä löytyy kaikki mahdollinen mitä voi ja tarvitsee tietää polttoaineen kulutuksen laskemisesta. Jos tarvitset apua joidenkin osien tai muutosten kanssa voin auttaa.

T:Vesa

[Daox]

Welcome to the site. That is a lot of miles a year. You'll learn what works quickly.

[euromodder]

Welcome to ecomodder, SVC .

Was it easy to put in the hotter thermostat, and did it help much ?
It's one of the mods I'm considering - if I keep my Volvo (1.6 HDi in there)

[svc]

Thank you all.
I've been following the costs of my cars quite thoroughly already few years.
Fuel is always the greatest cost and therefore easiest to cut. So my point is not so environmental but more about money. Of course reducing fuel consumption lowers also relative emissions.

This also leads to a bit selfish conclusion that the costs of all modifications need to be paid by the mod itself in reasonable time.

PSA's DW10 ATED engine used in my car is already quite economical considering it's design age, so it's not easy to better the economy with very dramatic numbers. It seems that best ecomod is to let my wife to drive. She clocks easily around 51 to 52 mpg.

And naturally Nordic winter is a challenge. At -20 C fuel economy is anyway something else than ECE or EPA numbers. Modern diesels tend to need an auxiliary heaters to keep the cabin warm which also raises the fuel consumption even 0.5 liters / 100 km. That's around 10% worse in all measures.

One mod could be to make another fuel tank for the heater which would also allow to use regular heating oil instead of more heavily taxed diesel fuel.

Hotter thermostat is possible in cooler climates. Ease and cost of change depends much of the engine itself. Some manufacturers do not use standard thermostats and in that case the price can be easily 100-200 euros. Raising the engine temperature betters the economy via better thermal efficiency at least in theory. How much, it's difficult to say. My estimate is less than 1%. Then again it may help to keep the cabin warmer without auxiliary heater.

[Geo4k]

Welcome - good luck with your fuel economy

[Daox]

Sounds like you could use a pretty large grill block.

[svc]

Citroen Xantia came with a standard grill block for Nordics mainly to protect the fans from snow. The standard cover is for lower grill between fog lamps.

I'm not yet allowed to post links but if you use google image search with "citroen-xantia-e6.jpg" you'll see that grill.

[Vekke]

Do you have any fuel consumtion gauge in your xantia? Anyway it is wise to install aftermarket gauge because you can see lots of vital data from your computer.

Cars underside paneling and smooth hubcaps are also modifications which usually pay themselfs back in one year time. Specially if you do the work yourself.

UG ultragauge testing is possible at uusimaa region through me. So you will know for surethat the meter will work.

With new fuel consumtion gauge you start learning the new driving methods specially for the turbo diesel. You see instant results and learn fast which techinques work in your car best and which are not suited for you.