Still lovin' it

[Cantata]

Into our 3rd year with out 12-reg A6 3.0 Tdi, and still love it despite extreme wallet pain caused by recent major service at main dealer. Told myself that will be its last main dealer visit....
Just a wonderful long range cruiser. Another 300-mile round trip just done, three-up and no hanging about either but still an extraordinary 52.3 mpg!

 

[gordie1973]

That's great mpg for the big V6!

I have a driving holiday in Ireland coming up in 4 weeks with the family, looking forward to setting a 47.5mpg target for the trip in the Bitdi...... However I'm not planning on taking the roof box, and trying to fit all the necessary gubbins in the boot..... If the roof box has to go on, I suspect I'll struggle to see 40 mpg though!

 

[AtotheK]

Irish roads = No chance of 47.5 I'm afraid... I'm a Paddy too


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[gordie1973]

Irish roads = No chance of 47.5 I'm afraid... I'm a Paddy too


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Yup, you are most likely correct, but I can only dream! Like getting a decent mpg / pint of Guinness / soda farl / packet of Tayto cheese & onion / Veda ..... whilst living in London!!!

 

[AtotheK]

Feicin Tayto... CLASS!!!


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[jojo]

That's great mpg for the big V6!

I have a driving holiday in Ireland coming up in 4 weeks with the family, looking forward to setting a 47.5mpg target for the trip in the Bitdi...... However I'm not planning on taking the roof box, and trying to fit all the necessary gubbins in the boot..... If the roof box has to go on, I suspect I'll struggle to see 40 mpg though!

You must drive 60mph constant to get 47.5mpg. I've not seen 40mpg at all on my BiTdi, despite the DIS telling me 44.1. Closest I've got was 39.7mpg overall from one tank using brim to brim figures, but I would say I was averaging 80mph on the motorways.

 

[gordie1973]

Righto - challenge is set, I leave with Bitdi (saloon and we managed to get everything in without need for a roof box) and the family on Saturday from London to Holyhead and then a big old tour of Ireland (Dublin - Westport, then up to Donegal, over to Portrush, down to Belfast, Dublin, back to north wales for a few days before getting back to London), I fancy throwing in a bit of the Evo triangle when in Wales (gently as will have the family on board!) so am setting a challenge of 43mpg for the entire trip........

To be honest I'm not a fan of mpg challenges as living in town is a PITA for anything like that - but since I'll be taking it easy with the family on board, i have to do something to relieve the monotony!

Will stick a few pics up en route around.....

Econ mode on, auto lights off, tyre pressures sorted, mirrors unheated, A/C off....... Here we go!

 

[AtotheK]

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[jojo]

Righto - challenge is set, I leave with Bitdi (saloon and we managed to get everything in without need for a roof box) and the family on Saturday from London to Holyhead and then a big old tour of Ireland (Dublin - Westport, then up to Donegal, over to Portrush, down to Belfast, Dublin, back to north wales for a few days before getting back to London), I fancy throwing in a bit of the Evo triangle when in Wales (gently as will have the family on board!) so am setting a challenge of 43mpg for the entire trip........

To be honest I'm not a fan of mpg challenges as living in town is a PITA for anything like that - but since I'll be taking it easy with the family on board, i have to do something to relieve the monotony!

Will stick a few pics up en route around.....

Econ mode on, auto lights off, tyre pressures sorted, mirrors unheated, A/C off....... Here we go!

I averaged 42ish mpg on my trip to Wales a few weeks back, so long as you don't venture into 80mph, it's possible. Had my gearbox in Auto mode, Eco is maybe 1mpg better off in town driving, it does sod all at motorway speeds, but for the sake of 1mpg, you lose a whole lot of performance!

 

[gordie1973]

Ace up my sleeve is technically I'll be travelling an extra 72 miles each way fuel free, so I can do the calculations manually I think I'll get close to 55mpg.. Thanks Irish ferries!

 

[fingermouse]

Got 39 mpg in sport mode from south wales home. Due to my issues

 

[gordie1973]

And we're off!

 

[gordie1973]

I'm stunned. Yes, I was taking it easy (family on board), and yes there was a fair bit of 50mph av speed camera action on the M6 and coming along the north Welsh coast, and yes I know the DIS ain't that accurate, but to show a 50.7 mpg from this thing over 300 miles is unreal.(will do actualsbat the end of the trip)

It will get hammered now as am in Dublin for 2 days......

But it is possible .....

 

[evans1089]

I've never seen those figures

 

[fafa]

I managed to get 50.3 at the end of a 60 mile trip from leeds to manchester. Almost all Motoroway with a long downhill out of the pennines and 50mph average speed cameras around the m60.

 

[gordie1973]

Well I was right - a couple of days in Dublin and associated traffic - albeit only 12 miles of driving, and mpg dropped like a stone..... started this morning at 44 average, and the drive this afternoon along some fairly undulating a/b roads to Westport resulted in the 46.8 you see below.

To be honest, it's getting annoying! I WANT to do 600 on a single tank, but think it will be risky, as services are few and far between...... No point in getting stranded lol!

 

[gordie1973]

I managed to get 50.3 at the end of a 60 mile trip from leeds to manchester. Almost all Motoroway with a long downhill out of the pennines and 50mph average speed cameras around the m60.

I agree, if you want the hyper mpg, you need to be averaging 50mph and steady at that, when I get back on the road tomorrow I'll do the final 100 miles in the tank and just get back to normal driving style, no point in buying one of these for fuel consumption!

Although on my old E60 M5 I'd be approaching my 4th fill up by now!

 

[jojo]

To be honest, the most I've ever got from my BiTdi is 516miles from one tank, but I usually get 400ish with mix town and motorway driving. 600 would be an amazing achievement!

 

[Scottk]

You should have got the bigger tank!!

 

[scottshere]

How on earth are you getting these numbers from a 3lt BiTdi?
I've got the 2 Tdi and I can't get more than 500 from a tank
Not sure if the multitronic (8 speed) makes much difference


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[jojo]

How on earth are you getting these numbers from a 3lt BiTdi?
I've got the 2 Tdi and I can't get more than 500 from a tank
Not sure if the multitronic (8 speed) makes much difference


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Actually, there was an optional extra for a bigger fuel tank on all TDI models at the start, which my car doesn't have! But it's now standard on the facelift models I think? Don't even know why Audi even made the smaller tank? Stupid idea.

 

[Audimad]

How on earth are you getting these numbers from a 3lt BiTdi?
I've got the 2 Tdi and I can't get more than 500 from a tank
Not sure if the multitronic (8 speed) makes much difference


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That's terrible, only 500 miles. I have a 2.0 TDI and the range when i filled it up was 725 miles.

 

[scottshere]

That's terrible, only 500 miles. I have a 2.0 TDI and the range when i filled it up was 725 miles.

725 on an A6 with Auto box?
I could get that from my 1.9 A4, but not this C7 Auto


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[fingermouse]

only gripe with the a6 tank should have been bigger to give 500 mile range on mixed driving

 

[evans1089]

I just manage 400 out of my tank. And i mean just..
hmmm...

 

[gordie1973]

On 520 with 80 showing to empty. Think I can get another 50 safely without leaving myself stranded, although think 600 is entirely possible. You can imagine "the face" if we run out of juice miles from a petrol station!

But just as an aside, how much have the other bitdi owners done when the DTE showed 0 miles........ ????#imriskingdivorce

 

[Scottk]

I have the 75 l tank, the standard was 65l but they are now all 73l I think. I have got 10 miles after it has read zero but not sure if I could risk further! Got real earache about it too!

 

[jojo]

I would never risk driving a BiTdi on zero miles range, it's too damned thirsty for that type of a stunt! lol

 

[gordie1973]

Ok - bottled it at 540 miles. DIS showed 48.3mpg, brim to brim 53l so just shy of 45mpg (44.6). Happy with that, as wasn't driving like a nun, and the 2 days in Dublin were killers for consumption.

Car didn't like it much, EGR valve is kaput and in to be fixed tomorrow, challenge is out the window, now going to drive it like God intended, and I won't be happy until I'm in the mid to low 30's again.....!

 

[fingermouse]

pedal to the metal

 

[gordie1973]

pedal to the metal

Lesson learned

 

[rassi]

Car didn't like it much, EGR valve is kaput and in to be fixed tomorrow, challenge is out the window, now going to drive it like God intended, and I won't be happy until I'm in the mid to low 30's again.....!

What are the symptoms of a knackered EGR valve on the BiTDI? In a previous MB it meant that performance was in some kind of fail safe mode.

 

[gordie1973]

The safe mode didn't kick in, so assuming the warning happened v early! Have been told it would have just dialled down the power a lot. But no other real info.

Just dropped it off this morning and got a new A4 ultra (150ps) sport as a run around. Not too shoddy, although somebody seems to have put square wheels on it. . .

 

[Rhyso]

Check coolant levels; its a combined valve and cooler in one. The valve might be ok but the cooler might be failing so worth checking

Mate of mine just had his replaced under goodwill as its a £600 part!!

 

[gordie1973]

£600 + fitting? That makes it approx £1000 with the vat and a couple of hours...... Jeez.

Did anyone get an extended warranty after purchase? Any idea how much they are as this incident has brought home how expensive these things can be.....

 

[Rhyso]

£600 + fitting? That makes it approx £1000 with the vat and a couple of hours...... Jeez.

Did anyone get an extended warranty after purchase? Any idea how much they are as this incident has brought home how expensive these things can be.....

Either £600 all in or £600 + fitting; not 100% sure sorry

 

[gordie1973]

Just an update - got back to London at the weekend, the dis was showing 44.6 mpg, but the real world brim to brim came in at 39.6...... Over 1550 miles. Killer was (yet again) the crawl back to London 1.5 hours to do the last 12 miles on Friday evening.

To be fair, I'd pretty much given up on the hypermiling by Belfast, so drove it "normally"!

Whilst she was in to get the valve fixed, I got a brand new A4 saloon 150hp 2.0tdi for 3 days, and took that up to the north coast, and I swear driven normally the DIS was showing 62 mpg average, and it was a decent drive - boh standard sport with Manual gearbox. Was v impressed, but not as impressed with getting back into the A6. It only takes a few miles in another car to show you the sheer performance of the thing!

Anyway, back to the grind......

(Although I still think 43 would have been possible if is wasn't for those pesky capital cities!!!)