Covid and fuel usage

Flash Car 76

Active member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Dec 20, 2010
Messages
525
Location
Bungendore NSW
The 407 wagon used to use between $450 and $500 a month on fuel with me driving around seeing family, mates, grandkids etc. but am now lucky to use $70 to $90 a month even with the recent price rises. I am really stuck with just shopping and the odd visit to the doc or something similar and was wondering am I the only one with such a reduction or are others seeing the same?
FLASH
 
Haven't filled my 8:08 in about 3 months. Jumped in it the other day to go somewhere and the 'Service' indicator came on indicating 'Oil change required' - based on time, and not distance. I've never had that happen before !

Cheers

Justin
 
Flashy you are not alone. I literally cannot remember when I last put diesel in the C5. It must be at least 3 months, possibly when we went to midsommar at Ikea, but I cbf looking up the credit card statements. Now hovering just above reserve with 120km to go, been like that for weeks. And done only 650 this tankfull so far, worst figure ever had.

Time-based service due 4 months ago, only done 4000 since the last one which was presumably 10 months ago. That is still 100km a week, I dunno how, have not been anywhere.

Other car 208 takes 95, I topped that up maybe 5 or 6 weeks ago, not even down to half, only 209km done. I changed the insurance to under 5000km a year and saved 50 bux.

I wonder if on modern day cars an extended period past the due date will make it shutdown systems or not start at all.
 
I'm getting about 8 weeks between fill ups and even then i'm only keeping the top half full
I take the 504 out and as i didn't connect the fuel guage when i put the tank in i guess as to how much fuel is in it so i went to do my normal throw $30 in it for just in case and it spat back at me, oh well at least i know it's full
The 505 hasn't had fuel put in it for well over 12 months and still has over 1/2 tank
sons 406 hasn't had fuel put in it for the same amount of time and still has over 3/4 tank
 
From February last year to the end of the year i did over 20,000 Kilometres around Victoria for work. Yet i wasn't allowed to go more than 5 Kilometres from home, go figure.
 
Working from home for the last 2.5 months, my Koleos is lucky to travel 20km per week.
 
Boy, you guys just aren't breaching enough Stay At Home orders :)
Just as a barely relevant aside, I was just reading that petrol in the UK has increased 30p in a single week!
You can imagine how certain perennial petrol price conspiracists around here would react to that!
 
In jest - You southerners better migrate to Northern Territory plenty of work only 7 days lockdown so far. No masks, driven 5000km in last month and 30000km this year I am double vaxed. Have relatives in Qld, Nsw & Vic who both love and hate lockdown. Vic relatives got covid and said it was like breathing through a straw while metre under water. Tried this in the pool at home its extremely hard to get air. So take care.
ULP is $1.52 in Darwin
 
I had a Covid-19 Lockdown surprise also. The 3008 sat in the garage for the last month and when I drove it Sunday in the local council area to charge the battery, it went a few hundred meters down the street and the engine warning came on. Within 20-50 meters the engine started to miss badly. So I returned to home base to investigated why the engine feels like it is out of balance when this engine has no balance shafts (1.6 Pure tech) . I turned it off and investigated the oil etc and all seem OK as it is not many Km out of a service. On restart the warning came up and engine icon appeared again, but it was smoother again. So I took it for a drive and all seem OK except the engine warning icon stayed on. I have booked it into Peugeot service which is Click & Collect etc. Today, I was surprised on start, that instrument panel was clear and back to normal. My guess is that moisture/water had pooled in the bottom of the fuel tank over the last month and this has caused the period of misfiring. I guess the lesson here is to still regularly drive the car even in a Lock Down.
 
I always used my 203 on a gentle run along minor roads to our nearest large town 65k's away. But alas it's across a border now and the paperwork to enter would make an East German feel at home. We took the advice of the large policeman on the border and now buy everything in our own state even though it's further away. But the 203 gets left at home.
 
I had a Covid-19 Lockdown surprise also. The 3008 sat in the garage for the last month and when I drove it Sunday in the local council area to charge the battery, it went a few hundred meters down the street and the engine warning came on. Within 20-50 meters the engine started to miss badly. So I returned to home base to investigated why the engine feels like it is out of balance when this engine has no balance shafts (1.6 Pure tech) . I turned it off and investigated the oil etc and all seem OK as it is not many Km out of a service. On restart the warning came up and engine icon appeared again, but it was smoother again. So I took it for a drive and all seem OK except the engine warning icon stayed on. I have booked it into Peugeot service which is Click & Collect etc. Today, I was surprised on start, that instrument panel was clear and back to normal. My guess is that moisture/water had pooled in the bottom of the fuel tank over the last month and this has caused the period of misfiring. I guess the lesson here is to still regularly drive the car even in a Lock Down.

Or tip a cupful of methylated spirits into your tank every now and then to absorb and get rid of the water.
 
A full tank breathes a much smaller volume of air, and therefore takes in much less moisture than one stored with a low fuel level.
With daily temperature changes tanks breathe a lot of air, laden with moisture which condenses in the tank, building a pool of water which the fuel floats on.

Farmer's know to refuel their tractor at the end of the working day, not the start.

So, to minimise moisture accumulation in the tank, keep it full.
 
A full tank breathes a much smaller volume of air, and therefore takes in much less moisture than one stored with a low fuel level.
Farmer's know to refuel their tractor at the end of the working day, not the start.

So, to minimise moisture accumulation in the tank, keep it full.

Not everyone has a tank of 98 at the end of their garden......
 
A full tank breathes a much smaller volume of air, and therefore takes in much less moisture than one stored with a low fuel level.
With daily temperature changes tanks breathe a lot of air, laden with moisture which condenses in the tank, building a pool of water which the fuel floats on.

Farmer's know to refuel their tractor at the end of the working day, not the start.

So, to minimise moisture accumulation in the tank, keep it full.

I have a cheap small 4x4 on a mates bush block. I keep the tank pretty much full for two reasons, the moisture issue and the fuel gauge doesn't work, which is not a problems as the tank is always full. There is no 98 at the end of the garden, or 91 even, or a garden, jerry can fill ups only as I can't see any value in paying for rego to drive to the petrol station 30 km away ;) :evil: (y)
 
Yes, I have a similar problem with a light truck and a ute, farm vehicles which require fleet of Jerry cans to keep them going. One is petrol, the other diesel, so double that.
 
If you don't have on property storage there are a number of small transportable poly fuel tanks down to a few hundred litres complete with electric pump for reasonable money that are suitable for a small trailer or ute.
 
Wow! Seems like a common Covid-19 Lockdown issue! My niece's VW Golf 1.4 did the same after not being used for 5 weeks. Our tank was down to 1/2 or 25/50 litres of 95. Also, it may have been the reduction or slow movement in fuel sales during lock down, where the moisture was in the fuel from the station? I did get fuel from the Caltex/Ampol main station here. Peugeot will have a look at it when I take it in on 5 Nov (bit of a wait). I'll ask Peugeot about this issue, possible damage, and whether additives like methylated spirits etc
can be used in the new 1.6 Puretech engines?
 
My fuel consumption in the Koleos Diesel has jumped from 8.7L/100km urban to 10.7L/100km due to having a 5km radius limit originally , increased to 10km, so only doing short trips to the supermarket, doctors etc. The short trips also ensured that after many weeks of lockdown, the DPF light would eventually come on. Unable to use a freeway within 10km of my house to burn off the soot in the DPF, finally today we have had our radius of operation extended to 15km and first thing this morning I was on the Monash Freeway out to Stud Road and back to Warrigal Rd. The DPF light went off after 15km at speed and will hopefully stay off for another six months!
 
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