Possible reasons why car is drinking so much petrol?

Hi guys, basically about a week back, I ran out of petrol, before than the car was doing ok on petrol. (I don't think running out of petrol is the cause to what the car is drinking too much petrol)

FIAT PUNTO 2002, 1.2L

anyway, basically the car exhaust was making a horrible noise like those chavvy boy racers car kind of make.

and the mechanic looked underneath the car and found the problem, the flexi had gone and he said this was the issue with the noise also this made the car lose petrol.

It's now been fixed (part replaced) and I've topped it up, and the car petrol indicator went from the red line to a bar and a bar and a half but the on those levels the car has still got that yellow dot. Indicating the petrol is low.

Anyone have any possible suggestions why this is the case? Is the car still in it's reserves, do I need to put half a tank in?

many thanks

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 1

PataynaRolaay

Bro, your punto's F*****. You replaced the exhaust, it still made a noise (seen your other thread), and now its loosing petrol. Cut your loses and change cars. I believe your with Co-Op, seen ya posts few weeks ago, just change the car over and transfer insurance. Find another Punto (there crap cars anyway!)

Reply 2

gbduo

Fill it up with fuel rather than leaving it in the red? The amount of **** you have dragged through the lines from the dregs in the bottom of the tank probably hasn't done it much good either.

You should never run a tank in the reserve permanently, you can seriously **** your filters and pumps doing it.

Reply 3

JC.

What a guage says is irrelevent.
They don't mean much anyway. Half a tank on the guage certainly doesn't mean you've got half a tank left. It is an INDICATION only.

It may well be the case that the car was using a lot more petrol when the exhaust went pop.
I've had the same issue with my car this week and it has only just managed to do 180 miles on a full tank (12 gallons), so certainly a blowing exhaust will have an effect on fuel consumption - I'd normally get about 240 out of a tank between fillups for comparison.

Reply 4

Emma:-)

Entertainment Forum Helper

Original post by gbduo

I agree.

Reply 5

455409

Never understood why people don't brim their tanks when they fill up. Whether your tank is full or half full you're still gonna use as much fuel.

Reply 6

gbduo

Original post by james1211

Never understood why people don't brim their tanks when they fill up. Whether your tank is full or half full you're still gonna use as much fuel.

The thinking being from the lefty eco mentalists is that if you brim your tank, you are carrying around excess fuel that you don't need and thus extra weight that is using power to lug around and thus killing the baby polar bears.

The problem is, is that by only filling your tank half way, you spend twice as long going to the petrol station, filling up and thus unless you drive past the petrol station every day, kinda negates any kind of CO2 saving you may have made by having the tank half full by having to make the detour to the petrol station.

:angry:

The other reason is that people just can't afford £70 to fill up the tank of course. :biggrin:

Reply 7

littlemissmidget123

it could just be your driving......

Reply 8

snozzle

One reason could be a collapsed/blocked CAT, this would hurt fuel economy and might cause an odd noise.

Other than that there is loads of reasons fuel economy could be down. If the mechanic has messed with the exhaust you might want to check the oxygen sensor wasn't damaged or something depending where it is.