2001 Fairmont fuel consumption.

[Crash Lander]

I posted around Christmas about my old mans Fairmont, and it's lack of power. catalytic converter among other things was suspected. Turned out to be the Power Control Module. Got that replaced under the extended warranty thing he bought when he got the car. Power is back with a vengence, but now he still has a fuel consumption problem. It always did have one, but we presumed it was related to the lack of power. Obviously not, as on lpg, he's getting around 15l/100km, which I'm guessing is about right, but on petrol, he's getting 18l/100km, which I know is way off. Should be getting at least down to 12 I reakon. He drove from Rockingham in WA to Bunbury, and that's when he got only 18l/100km.
Suggestions please?

[au2sw]

injectors may need a clean, possibly dirty fuel filter. maybe a silly q, but your sure there is no leaks along lines, mainly at filter etc? as it only happens on petrol, that would be my guess.

[TwistedEL]

**** Rocko to Bunbury you should be seeing less than 11

So they have replaced the ECU and what has probably happened since it is dual fuel is that it has learned how to drive best on Gas. When on petrol it is likely still using the gas mixtures etc, if you drive on petrol long enough it will probably go down but then it'll run like **** on gas.

I would suggest he runs it on gas only and switches to fuel only once a week or whatever they recommend

Anyone else?

[au2sw]

actually, thats a point....does he switch to petrol at least once a week for abot a half hour? if he doesnt, then fuel pump, filter, and injectors can all start creating problems, and the petrol does go stale, so we recommend that when you have LPG, use a quater of a tank at least every month, while maintaining a minimum quater of a tank at all times so as not to burn the fuel pump out.

[Crash Lander]

They didn't replace the ECU, they replaced the PCM (Power Control Module).
I suggested to him maybe injectors, and possibly do the oxygen sensor, but the fact that lpg consumption is about right, I doubt it's that.
I asked him about how often he runs petrol, and he said he does about 40km of petrol running after every tank of lpg. At least that should eliminate that side of things.
I'll get him to run some injector cleaner through a few tanks of petrol, and change the fuel filter, then see what happens.
Thanks guys. I'll report back with results if any.

[TwistedEL]

Is it an I6 or a V8?

[Crash Lander]

Originally Posted by TwistedEL

Is it an I6 or a V8?

It's an I6.

[TwistedEL]

Then they replaced the ECU

[au2sw]

if he runs injector clean through system, get him to use the high octane fuels as well, these do help in cleaning the injectors. also, run it on petrol for the next couple of weeks, it wont hurt the engine (just the pockets:( )that way he can be assured that the petrol is not stale, the injectors are cleaned and may reset the ecu to how the petrol is running, thus resetting the economy side of things.
good luck
col

[Bushbasher]

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Hmmm...... interesting subject and one at the forefront of my thoughts at the moment as I've just done a trip with the tribe from here in Pt Lincoln to Mudgee and then the Central Coast in NSW and back for a total of near on 4500km in the last 10 days in my Futura wagon. It's set up with factory Tickford dual fuel and we spent about $500 on fuel for the whole trip so I'm happy as about that. On gas the wagon averaged about 6.5km/l (15.5L/100km)which I'm happy with considering we were 2 adults, 2 rug rats, bedding, portable cot and assorted bags and boxes of stuff, and an Engel fridge; with the fridge, a pair of Lightforce Blitzs' on at night and the aircon going most of the time all pulling power in the wagon. PLUS pulling a 6'x5' trailer full to just above the sides with suit cases, fold up chairs, cooler bag, tools, monster 4WS pram and of coarse my tackle box and rod tube. The thing is, at Cobar in western NSW I balked at paying 78c p/litre for gas so stayed on petrol through to Dubbo where I switched back to gas at 49c p/l (with a Coles discount docket) When I filled up the petrol on the Central Coast a few days later it took over 50L to fill again which gave me an average on petrol of about 6.7km/L h/way cycle for the 350km or so I went on petrol. This, quite frankly, I thought was sh!thouse economy and had me worried till I just read this thread. Now I'm wondering if there is an after market ECU that can have dual tuning maps that will cut in with the flick of a switch so when you switch from gas to petrol the tune switches as well to give best performance and economy for both fuels right off the bat instead of constantly having to deal with a compromise. HMMMMMMMMM........ Think I'll post up that question to the forum and see how we go.


Bushbasher

[Crash Lander]

Initial reports from Dad suggest that the petrol consumption is improving slightly now, as he's just using petrol at the moment as suggested by TwistedEL. It's gone down from 18L/100 to about 15L/100. That's after 2 days. Looks promising, but he's not going to hold his breath yet.