Fuel Consumption VX SS

[clarky]

Hi All,

Just wondering how many km's you guys get out of your LS1 on premium. I am currently getting around 350km per tank and thats driving it like a baby, seems it is chewing more juice. Its just been serviced, changed oil, fuel air filters etc, injectors cleaned etc.

Was just curious as to how many km's you are all getting out of a tank. The only change has been the oil, which could be a contributing factor, it has 15/50w Mobil 1, it was on 10/40 Castrol Magnatec.

Any ideas on what else could be causing excessive fuel consumption?

[chev]

Hi All,

Just wondering how many km's you guys get out of your LS1 on premium. I am currently getting around 350km per tank and thats driving it like a baby, seems it is chewing more juice. Its just been serviced, changed oil, fuel air filters etc, injectors cleaned etc.

Was just curious as to how many km's you are all getting out of a tank. The only change has been the oil, which could be a contributing factor, it has 15/50w Mobil 1, it was on 10/40 Castrol Magnatec.

Any ideas on what else could be causing excessive fuel consumption?
Goodaye clarky. How many km has the engine done? You should get approx 450-500km out of a tank depending of course on how it's driven. New set of NGK spark plugs/hp tuners vcm tune and some good BP ultimate should do the trick

[SS_Fury]

when i fill the tank, the reading i get is 600km till empty, sometimes 620....if your getting only 350 theres definately something wrong...sorry im not mechanically minded like most here so cant give you much of an antidote, but its a figure that i would be pissed at too!

[clarky]

Sounds like there is definitely something wrong. I filled the car up the other day with BP ultimate, drive it like a baby, dont have the power button on either. The fuel light come on tonight at 317km.

It always has BP ultimate or shell optimax through it, has no modifications except for the k&N Air filter. It already has NGK Iridiums in it. The motor has done 122,000km. But 350km is a bit crazy, seems I am always at the servo, no way I would get 450km out of mine, no way known.

Any suggestions, it was serviced at 117,000 had the fuel filter, oil etc all changed, seems to run really well, just loves chewing the juice. Any other things I should look at. Like I said only change has been the oil from Castrol Magnatec 10/40 to Mobil 1 15/50. Should not make that much difference, but I dont think I ever got over 400km let alone 450-500 km per tank?

[chev]

Sounds like there is definitely something wrong. I filled the car up the other day with BP ultimate, drive it like a baby, dont have the power button on either. The fuel light come on tonight at 317km.

It always has BP ultimate or shell optimax through it, has no modifications except for the k&N Air filter. It already has NGK Iridiums in it. The motor has done 122,000km. But 350km is a bit crazy, seems I am always at the servo, no way I would get 450km out of mine, no way known.

Any suggestions, it was serviced at 117,000 had the fuel filter, oil etc all changed, seems to run really well, just loves chewing the juice. Any other things I should look at. Like I said only change has been the oil from Castrol Magnatec 10/40 to Mobil 1 15/50. Should not make that much difference, but I dont think I ever got over 400km let alone 450-500 km per tank?
Clarky. Call in at my workshop and I will run the scanner over it to see if any codes are in the PCM. Could be faulty oxy sensors

[chillicatqld]

mate I get average of 320klms from 55 litres round town - average speed is round 35klm/hr. My edit only fixed very slightly. I think check ya average speed - if it is below 40 klms/hr then expect approx 15-17litres/100k.

[OakenShield]

When you fill it up, does it take 70+ litres? Just thinking your guage might be out which is a common problem from the VX.

Depends what you classify as babying as well. If I baby my car, which I have to at the moment as it is temporarily a daily driver, I get 500K's to the tank at a push. By me babying that is not going over 2000RPM and basically having a featherfoot. It is bloody hard work to do this and I haven't been able to do it this tank, so I'll probably get it to 400 k's and thats with around 3g's max with the occasional thumping to 5500RPM

When I do baby it my fuel guage is deadly accurate however, If I drive it "Normally" I can only ever get 65 Litres in the tank. Don't believe the DTE on the trip computers as they are full of sh!t I find.

Oh and this is using nothing but BP ultimate.

Just food for thought

Cheers

[mavss]

If you do 100% city driving, then 350 km may be palatable.

Otherwise, you should be sitting on around 400-450 km when you get the fuel warning.

I'd definitely get it looked at.

[VXSS346]

Might be a long shot but,
It could be that your fuel guage is not accurate.
Mines like that, I'd only get 400 kays a tank in the city if I believe the fuel guage as well, but when I fill up, it only takes 55-60 Litres.

Might be worth checking.

[clarky]

I think you guys may have nailed it seems like an in-accurate or faulty fuel gauge, I know the light comes on around 320km or so, usually around 350km, it will start flashing, I never usually let it go this low, but last week it occured, so I called into BP, and the tank only took 55 litres, which I foujd strange as I know the tank is 71 or so litres. So I wondered what the story was. If its a common problem on the VX whats the answer to resolve this, get it fixed or recalibrated, and if so where can I get this done.
Cheers guys, it all makes sense now that I come to think of it.

[SS_Fury]

try our new sponser, Chev, see how ya go :)

[andrewdisco]

I think my average speed is around 30ish.. my HSV and SS were both edited and never really seen much more than 330km per tank.

[Angelo_XLR8]

my vx ss got me around 300 maybe 290 , it all depends on your driving style. if i had just watched the v8's at bathurst and went for a drive, my tank would drain alot quicker than usual.

[Dane VN V8]

I use BP Ultimate and it always comes up 420k's to empty sometimes 480, I don't baby the car either and I always get 300k's though I do not let the fuel light come on as I never want it to get that low ;)

[Hubble80]

Maybe even try a PCM Reset. Might help a little. You will find the procedure on the forums using the Search Button!

[IH8WRX]

600km on highway cycle in 6th gear. My sister just told me it cost her $800 in fuel to travel from Darwin to Towoomba, albeit hers is an A4, and she spent a considerable time at speeds of 180-200km/hr in the NT on those open speed limit roads.

I drove a customers VZ Clubsport from Brisbane to Sydney on Monday and it cost $90 in fuel. It's an M6 and most of it was in 6th gear

[muli]

thats pretty good, i drove down in a 03 magna in september from brisbane to sydney and it was about $76

[klink]

i was getting 450-500 after edit now the last 2 months i jump for joy if i get 350 out of it for 55l think i might have o2 prob not sure it due for 60k service so i'll get them to check for error codes.

Any thoughts greatly appreciated

[swingtan]

In my stock VX-SS I would get between 400km and 460km to a tank around town. A normal fill was 60lt to 65lt an I drove from Ferntree Gully to Melbourne each day. Trip in was on the Sth Eastern, trip home was the Eastern and Burwood Hwy ( that bit's for the Melbournites ).

The only time my economy went down a long way was when I had a faulty thermostat that was stuck partially open. It would take longer than normal to warm up but would actually get cold on the freeway. At that time I got close to 18lt/100KM.

As for the other differences in economy like klink is seeing, my theory is that the petrol companies are stock piling cheap fuel and releasing it when the price goes up... like it has in the past month. My understanding is that 98RON fuel goes "off" after a month or 2 so we could be getting "less than first quality" fuel. That's only my opinion though.

[02vxss]

i'm only getting late 200's to early 300's around town, thats in stop-start stuff in my 10kay round trip a day, and when i fill up she only reads 350kays to go, however once on a trip both figures increase significantly.
in a recent trip from bris-townsville-charters-brisbane, we were getting 600kays out of a tank and got down as low as 10.1/100km with the whole 2900kay trip only using about $400 worth of fuel!

[BLOWN_VXSS]

Around the 300-350 mark seems about right for city driving especially if it's peak hour driving and just sitting in traffice. Out on the freeway it's a better story.....

[Souljah]

Last tank i got 355kms from 49.99 Litres doing about 50/50 highway-city. The guage was still sitting at the start of the "red zone" so i rekon 400kms would be within easy reach.
This was acheived on a bog stock vehicle running 91ulp with even a few trips to rev limit city :burnout:

[Alister]

I don't have a VX SS but I have a VX Calais V8. Using Optimax, my average fuel consumption is currently sitting at 13.6L/100KM and that's mostly city driving. Using ULP I was getting about 14.5L/100KM with a lot of highway driving or over 15L/100KM mostly city driving. I guess the LS1 can take advantage of higher octane fuel due to its higher than normal compression ratio.

[VXSS.]

Hey All I Have The Same Problem With My VXSS S2. The Most I Can Put In Is 55-60Ltrs. When I Have Filled The Tank It WIll Read 450 D.T.E & I Only Get 300Max Until Red Light Comes On. Mind You This Is Babying The Car. 2000Rpm Max Gear Change.

What Can I Do ?

[chevypower]

why run an SS on premium? it's an American engine designed for standard fuel - which is what i love about it. I get 500km per tank with mine on the cheapest fuel around (United Boost 95) city driving and 600 on the open road. I haven't reset my trip comp for over a month, and it's averaging 12.6L per 100km (mostly urban driving)

[VXSS.]

I Dont Understand How This Can Be So. They Are Exactly The Same Cars & Identical Motors.........

Can Some One Please Properly Explain & Tell Us How We Can Resolve This Problem !

[Alister]

why run an SS on premium? it's an American engine designed for standard fuel - which is what i love about it. I get 500km per tank with mine on the cheapest fuel around (United Boost 95) city driving and 600 on the open road. I haven't reset my trip comp for over a month, and it's averaging 12.6L per 100km (mostly urban driving)

That Boost 95 is premium mate. 95RON compared to that of standard ULP which is 91RON.
The LS1 in the Holdens are tuned quite differently to how GM tuned them in the Corvettes etc.
If I remember correctly, HSV now specify to run their cars on 95RON or 98RON fuel.

Also, a snip from an autospeed article...
http://autospeed.drive.com.au/cms/A_2459/article.html

Note that Sam says pretty well every LS1 tune he performs is intended for use with high-octane unleaded. This is particularly important to be aware of given Sam says the standard LS1 can detonate on normal unleaded.

I'll continue to run Optimax or at the very least 95RON as my fuel consumption has improved greatly over standard ULP.

[chilly]

[QUOTE=clarky]Hi All, The only change has been the oil, which could be a contributing factor, it has 15/50w Mobil 1, it was on 10/40 Castrol Magnatec.
[QUOTE]

what was the reason for changing the type of oil mate.....