New Owner of a 1981 4door VW Rabbit Diesel**47.5MPG**Baseline

[bigchelis]

My gas tank fills up with just 8gallons, I though it was suppose to be 10gallons.

So, with 8 gallons of fuel I drove 380 miles this weekend. This is 60% freeway and 40% street. The needle hit the first redline of 4. So, I figured I had another dozens of miles left to go before fillling up. NOPE.

As soon as it hit the first redline it ran out of Diesel and stalled on me then came to a slow stop....fortunately my brother was riding his F350 King Ranch in the caravan and gave me 2 gallons of diesel on the side of the road. These plus 6gallons more at the next gas station and my tank was full again. The car took about 4~5 tries to turn on, so very scary to run out of fuel on a Diesel.

The Good News is I now have a baseline of 47.5 MPG. Honestly; I didnt think it would be that good and this is with running out of gas so, the MPG is exact, not an estimate.


Now the mods begin.
I have installed an interior antena already, next I will fill up those 35PSI tires to 45 PSI and fill up the tank. Then remove the passenger mirror and passenger antena. Then see if it brakes 50MPG.



Thank you all,
bigC

[deejaaa]

i know the feeling. i ran the 02 tdi dry. after cracking an injector line, it still took at least 10 mins to get started.

[bigchelis]

I have some new pictures on my Nikon D3200, but for now another crappy pictures

[sarguy01]

Wow, that is a cool car with great mileage numbers. That was just regular driving??

[bigchelis]

Originally Posted by sarguy01

Wow, that is a cool car with great mileage numbers. That was just regular driving??

Thank you.

50% of the miles were fast 70ish MPH on the freeway...not bueno.
15% of the other Freeway miles I went 60MPH consistant.
35% regular street driving, but taking off normally. Not driving conservative yet or as I hope to do so.

So, I know with some effort I should see 50MPG~60MPG easily. Heck, I havent even used my Oil heater which is already installed. lol

bigC

[Cobb]

Better replace the fuel filter and drain the fuel separator while you are at it. Thats assuming you want to continue driving your new toy, I mean vw.

The top part of the pump handles the pumping of fluid from the tank to the pump, the bottom and rear part handles pushing it into the engine. THe veins in the top part are easily soiled by the wax and sludge that comes with diesel powered vehicles. You can over come this by using an external fuel transfer pump. The lower end when its worn just needs remachining.

Your mpg is low. You should see no less than 49 driving it like a rental car. 60mpg doing all the eco stuff here. Of course back in the day the top speed limit was 55 in VA.

[bigchelis]

wow, you guys are throwing a lot of great ideas....

As of last night. I have it ready to do my 2nd MPG test. Of course this time I will actually try and drive conservatively. I plugged my Oil heater and it appears to not be working...arghhhh

• removed passenger mirror
• removed passenger winshield wiper
• filled up the tires from 30PSI to 45PSI. Tires say max of 35PSI on sidewall
• exterior antena is removed
• front bumper is pushed in 2inches

results comming soon

[deejaaa]

i would try 50 psi.

[sarguy01]

Originally Posted by deejaaa

i would try 50 psi.

I know there are people on here that go above sidewall max (not even sure what OP's tire's max is...), but I personally am not comfortable with it. I pumped mine to sidewall max of 44, but even then I went to 38 psi first, drove a few hundred miles, then went to max. I did it slowly to get used to the car bouncing around after hitting potholes and to see how it would handle in the rain. In fact, some potholes I hit sound like the struts are going to come through the hood of the car!

But, thats just me. It is really up to each driver.

[LeanBurn]

If you can help it, never run a diesel dry of fuel. It hurts the VE pump.

Probably wouldn't hurt to run some reputable name brand diesel fuel injector cleaner right from the can (eg Stanadyne, Powerservice, Liquimoly Diesel Purge) to make sure that fuel delivery is running as well as it can.