Hello
I am new to this site and have recently purchased my first LR Freelander 2 2011 TD4 automatic. It has 38,000 miles on the clock and was last serviced at 30,000 miles. I have only being driving it for a couple of weeks and admittedly doing mainly short journeys which I probably really should walk, but I can't resist the new car! I reset the average MPG and now seem to be getting an average of 15mpg! Does anyone know how I can get it checked to ensure it is running as it should and if it would be covered under the warranty? I have had the tyre pressures checked and it will need new tyres all round shortly, but I am just wondering if anything else could be wrong.
Many thanks

Got to be a combination of cold weather and short journeys. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but does the fuel change in the winter to stop waxing? On our one with short journeys we average about 24 mpg but on a 320 mile motorway trip last week, I got my best ever - 34.7mpg. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

My 2009 Auto HSE is doing 28mpg on a 5 mile trip to work and back ( 10 miles round trip ) engine gets to temp about a mile before work.

On a run to swansea I was averaging 38mpg HSE TD4 Stornoway Grey ★ Rear Spoiler ★ Black Leather Interior ★ Panoramic Roof ★ Navigation with Bluetooth ★ 19 " Alloys ★ Alpine Stereo 10 Disc Auto changer and Ipod connection and lots of other nice toys ★

A cold engine uses more fuel than a hot one, and a journey which is short enough that 'I probably really should walk' suggests that the engine probably isn't getting up to temperature. You won't get a reliable mpg reading from a couple of weeks of that kind of use, so I wouldn't take too much notice of the 15mpg. On longer journeys on clear roads you should see somewhere around the low 30s for an auto.

It used to be that petrol was added to diesel in the winter to reduce waxing, and that could have a small effect on fuel consumption. I don't know if petrol is still used, of whether different additives are used these days. (NOT petrol these days - it damages high pressure injectors.)

Last edited by pab on 5th Dec 2013 2:32 pm. Edited 1 time in total

I wouldn't think that petrol would be used nowdays with common rail diesels and high pressure fuel pumps. I'm sure I read somewhere that mpg goes down this time of year because they are using 'winter fuel'. Past: FL2 TD4 HSE Auto
Evoque SD4 Dynamic Lux Auto
Present: Audi A3 S Line.

I average 40 mpg

Steve D wrote:

I wouldn't think that petrol would be used nowdays with common rail diesels and high pressure fuel pumps. I'm sure I read somewhere that mpg goes down this time of year because they are using 'winter fuel'.

You may have already seen the sticky MPG thread at - MPG (DISCUSSION THREAD) which contains lots of real world mpg figures.

My own experience with a 2011 SD4 is averaging around 24mpg, most where most of the journeys fall into 'probably really should walk' category. I've seen 16mpg for a week made up purely of 'probably really should walk' trips last winter during the extremely cold weather.

For long journeys on uncongested motorways, my normal driving style and speed gets around 38mpg, but I've managed 45mpg+ when driving carefully well below speed limits.

There lots of stuff on the internet going into why there is such a big difference between real world and official figures (32.5 - 40.4 - 48.7). Most of the suggestions like driving style, traffic conditions etc.. are common sense but hard to quantify and validate against your own real world experiences. However, one of the suggestions which I've always suspected as being the biggest factor at least for me is cold starts. I recently found the following articles on the net which has helped me put to rest any thoughts there may be something wrong with my FL2s engine.

The AA - fuel for thought
Suggests that cold engines use significantly more fuel, for a medium diesel car they test 43% more fuel during first mile, down to 16% extra at third mile. This almost perfectly accounts for the 20mpg (~40% less than official urban figures) we see for the weekday school runs, which are less than a mile round trip.

MetroMPG - mini experiment
I know this if for a completely different car and petrol, but it measured that in really cold (-7c) weather, the engine was consuming 3 times as much fuel on start up, and was still burning through double the amount after 2 minutes. This probably explains some of the 16mpg weeks I saw last winter.

The official figures testing methods Dft fuel consumption testing scheme does suggest that the urban figures are tested from a 'cold' engine, but their definition of cold, which is 'engine not been run for several hours' at ambient temperatures of 20-30c, means that manufacturers are probably able to run the test while the engine is still reasonably warm.

When I first got my manual 2009 SE diesel a few months ago I was getting 36mpg but that was down to a lot of motorway driving at the time.

Since then i have dropped around 27mpg with a lot of 'cold' to 6 mile journeys.

Don't know if its just coincidence but I put some of the Shell super (or whatever its called) diesel in and I'm not getting 30mpg on predominately 'cold' to 6 mile journeys. I won't be continuing with Shell Super as its too bloody expensive

Thank you all for your responses, and in particular Sam for your comprehensive reply. I am now seeing the bigger picture and understand fully that it will be better all round to stop showing off to all the other mums on the school run and start walking! I will read the other thread too. Thanks again everyone

[/quote]Don't know if its just coincidence but I put some of the Shell super (or whatever its called) diesel in and I'm not getting 30mpg on predominately 'cold' to 6 mile journeys. I won't be continuing with Shell Super as its too bloody expensive[/quote]

I am interested in your experience as recently, because a local BP garage was selling diesel for the same price as local supermarkets, I filled up several times using the BP super stuff and my consumption has improved a couple of MPG. Not sure if this is the fuel or the fact that I have been doing some longer trips recently as well.

cc41 wrote:

Hello
I am new to this site and have recently purchased my first LR Freelander 2 2011 TD4 automatic. It has 38,000 miles on the clock and was last serviced at 30,000 miles. I have only being driving it for a couple of weeks and admittedly doing mainly short journeys which I probably really should walk, but I can't resist the new car! I reset the average MPG and now seem to be getting an average of 15mpg! Does anyone know how I can get it checked to ensure it is running as it should and if it would be covered under the warranty? I have had the tyre pressures checked and it will need new tyres all round shortly, but I am just wondering if anything else could be wrong.
Many thanks

Thanks, I gave her a run to ingatestone saddlery today and she averaged 31mpg, so much better. Think I just need to stop driving silly short distances! Will be pulling the horse trailer with her next weekend so she will be put to better use soon!

Try putting some injector cleaner in the tank when the fuel level is low. I do this occationaly on my 2009 Freelander and average about 40mpg. My best ever was a trip from Oxford to Newcastle 54mpg.

Which injector cleaner is best for td4 automatic?