The nova's terrible on petrol

[NovaBoi92]

i put £10 in it, and it doesnt even last a day. £5 lasts a few hours. now i dont know if this is normal because this is the only car ive ever been driving? its a 1.2, did have a corsa top box on it but now i have the standard bin lid with the front bit off. would that make a difference to fuel consumption? it has the stanadard exhaust on it by the way with the cat (put it back to standard because the one i had on there was too loud) ive looked all over the engine, there's no vacuum pipes off anywhere, its all as it should be. any ideas people? thanks

[mowgli]

well, under normal driving conditions, a std 1.2 spi nova should do 30-35mpg round town, & at current fuel costs, that tenner will get you about 50 miles.
now, if you are giving it some welly, that comes down to about 35-40 miles.

if you can't smell fuel, then there isn't a fuel leak, so its either running really rich, check the plugs & look in the haynes book picture, or its just using the fuel normally.

[L14MNP]

Depends on mileage covered, the roads you're on such as low gears/changing all the time and your driving style mate. Also how fit is the engine. no vaccuum leaks, fuel weeping etc I assume?

If a fiver lasted a few hours for me I'd be well happy.

For example, stuck £20 in the Volvo yesterday, had about 2 hours worth of wet corner/roundabout fun with a bit of motorway in between (sensible speeds/RPM) and 63 miles later the light was on again!

Wanna swap? lol

[NovaBoi92]

i sometimes get a smell of petrol. so its worth checking over for a fuel leak then, and a tenner definately doesnt give me 50 miles lol, nor 35. ill have a check over the plugs also, its an spi by the way so how would i adjust the fuel mixture? or is it only on carbs you can do that

[NovaBoi92]

Depends on mileage covered, the roads you're on such as low gears/changing all the time and your driving style mate. Also how fit is the engine. no vaccuum leaks, fuel weeping etc I assume?

If a fiver lasted a few hours for me I'd be well happy.

For example, stuck £20 in the Volvo yesterday, had about 2 hours worth of wet corner/roundabout fun with a bit of motorway in between (sensible speeds/RPM) and 63 miles later the light was on again!

Wanna swap? lol

no

lol even driving around normally, not revving the f*ck out of each gear, as you said sensible rpm, and its just terrible

[mowgli]

it can be adjusted, but i don't do mk2's, so i can't help on how to do it.

[General Baxter]

remember hes young, lead foot ?

lol it cost me £5 a day to get to work, 2 mile round trip lol

[NovaBoi92]

lol as i said i usually drive with sensible revs, changing gear at about 3000 for example, but it seems to make no difference

[stevie-p]

i drive like a complete tool quite a bit in a 1.2l carbed lol a tenner will last me 3 days still, at the least i do 4 trips a day at about 30miles in total and then wearever the missus wants to go rarely use 4th:roll: ticks over at around 1200rpm and the timing been messed with

could be lamda sensor or as said before running rich or fuel leak?

[NovaBoi92]

so how would i adjust it on an spi then?

[Jack]

Wanna swap? lol
BAAHAH!

[General Baxter]

BAAHAH!


i know these kids with small engines, dont have a clue jack, 10-15mpg FTW eh lol

[NovaBoi92]

so everybody thinks its fairly normal then? my mate has a 1.1 fezzie, and petrol seems to last for ever in that :-(

oh, and he drives like a muppet lol

[paul james]

You should be getting around 30mpg even driving with a heavy foot, the 1.2spi is just 45bhp. The ECU controls the fuelling, so theres no adjustment to be made there.

[Mike]

i put £10 in it, and it doesnt even last a day. £5 lasts a few hours. now i dont know if this is normal because this is the only car ive ever been driving? its a 1.2, did have a corsa top box on it but now i have the standard bin lid with the front bit off. would that make a difference to fuel consumption? it has the stanadard exhaust on it by the way with the cat (put it back to standard because the one i had on there was too loud) ive looked all over the engine, there's no vacuum pipes off anywhere, its all as it should be. any ideas people? thanks

You must have one hell of a fuel leak lol lol

[Spudly]

But were all forgetting that these days a tenner gets you about four pitiful litres of fuel with our horrific fuel prices, so youre probably only driving about with a couple of litres in and thats why youre using your "tenner" up so fast lol

[paul james]

Thats true, £10 probably bought quite a bit more petrol when I had my 1.2

Anyway, why put just £10 in at a time - you just waste more petrol having to drive to the petrol station all the time.

[krobinson]

Fit a C20LET. I got 39.49 MPG on the way to billing.

[NovaBoi92]

Fit a C20LET. I got 39.49 MPG on the way to billing.

probably because you dont need to floor it for about 10 minutes to get to 50... lol

[jimbob-mcgrew]

it running rough at all ?

1.2 spi's are prob the most economical of nova's, there slow as hell and use next to no petrol. you said you put the exhaust back to standard with a cat on, did u plug in the lamda sensor on the downpipe of the exhaust ? (if its got one that is) that would probably effect fueling. could also be a blowing exhaust, loss of power causes the engine to use more fuel to get it around.

it could be a number of things tho, like a loose jubilee clip on your feed or return fuel lines, and fuels gradually evapourating, could have a leak tankside or the engine just could be knakered and burning alot of fuel.

you dont have 200 kilo's of subs etc in the boot do ya ?

[Ernie]

I filled mine up yesterday on shell optimax stuff (£28 from the red line) and did a hole track session yesterday at full chat.
It cost £8 to fill back up and thats with a 197bhp t/b xe.
I also drove it the 30 mile round trip there and back aswell.

[NovaBoi92]

the lambda is plugged in, and it starts reading when engine gets to around normal temp doesnt it? and if it isnt working, EM light would turn on? i have sub + amp in the boot although its not too heavy, only a little one. and i think i remember noticing thatt there WAS no clip on either of the fuel pipes going into the TB, but me stupidly didnt think anything of it, so could that be why? and maybe why im getting the smell of fuel sometimes

[NovaBoi92]

could it be that then? that there are not any clips securing the fuel pipes? i only noticed it the other day

[JordyzNova]

put some hose clips round the pipes and try it only thing you can do
( oh yh 1.0's are better ) :d

[General Baxter]

comming back from pv, i managed to loose 1/4 tank in about 5 seconds, with a split pipe

[burgo]

i would put money on it being the fuel pipes from the tank to the plastic lines. they always perish and leak

[MattBrown]

My 1.0 does about 25-30mpg, ohh well:D

Best put an xe in for some economy lol lol lol

[burgo]

oh and my 1.2 does 30mpg even when hooning it

[mowgli]

oh and my 1.2 does 30mpg even when hooning it

yeah, but leading a funeral procession at about 20mph more than makes up for it....

[skidmarkz]

lol ^^^

[Rysee]

I smell petrol everytime i start the car and i still get atleast 80 miles to a "tenner" if its the end of the month

Billing i did 198 miles to £23 i reckon

1.2 carb

[Guderian]

Novaboi, i say stick the intake pipe back on the front of the air cleaner to return the car to standard trim, then monitor your mpg by setting the mileage trip,brimming the tank, running it down to 1/4 full then brimming it again. Divide litres by 4.546, you get the idea.

Petrol fumes are heavier than air so often you need to be actually under the car to detect a minor leak! Those rubber hoses do perish and all traces evaporate quite quickly when you stop driving, so a leak is possible.

[brake-dust]

a tenner in my spi lasts about 20 mile, but young lead foot ;)

[Ernie]

is the sender unit working ok ?

[NovaBoi92]

sorry, what sender unit?

[AlexW]

Fuel gauge sender.

[NovaBoi92]

is that which is on thet fuel tank?the fuel guage does work, but as i was saying to you alex depending on what type of hill you're determines how much petrol you have lol the needle is always moving slowly, going up and down when your on a hill etc. so would that be a faulty sender?

and what could that have to do with fuel consumption?

[AlexW]

If the sender was faulty it could cause you to think you have less fuel than you do, or w.e, and the movment of such a small amount of fuel will cause the gauge to move a bit.

I still say its nothing, its just a nova, get over it lol

[NovaBoi92]

but it isnt just abit that the guage moves, it moves so much that im never sure how much petrol i have in there. but it never used to do it? so its not normal?

[AlexW]

change everything then.

[Stuart]

I'd take the coolant temp sensor out, clean it up and refit. Should help a lot.

[NovaBoi92]

cheers, ill have a go. why would it make a difference stuart?

[Stuart]

if it thinks its cold all the time it will be dumping fuel in like there is no tomorrow

[Rysee]

a tenner in my spi lasts about 20 mile, but young lead foot ;)


I don't drive like a granny but seriously 20 miles that's cause to look at fitting a redtop, you'l get the cash back