The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Ok, I bought a cheap, high mileage, '98 5sp manual Outback in late November/ early December.
I've tried to keep fairly accurate records of my fuel usage since (keeping the receipts and logging it into an Excel spreadsheet), and also what I've done to change it.
I've tried to exclude the records when I've either been towing the boat or done a fair bit of 'city' driving, just trying to keep it to my 'normal' usage, which comes close to 150ks a day, with about 135 of those on the highway.
Here's how it breaks down:
When I first bought the car, I used 81.09L for 698.7ks (11.6L/100).

I did a simple 'tune up' which was upper engine cleaner, oil, oil filter, air filter and plugs.
It then changed to 121.84L for 1242km (9.8L/100)

A couple of bottles of Spitfire injector cleaner gave me 180.12L for 1870.1km (9.63L/100).

I then, rather than keeping my speed to just under 10kph over the limit, kept my speed to only 1 or 2 kph over the limit (using cruise control). It then dropped to 213.3L for 2423.9km (8.8L/100).

I then switched from 'regular unleaded' to 95 premium.
I'm now getting 183.92L for 2113.1km (8.7L/100).

The total of my 'kept' records comes out to 699.2L for 7649.1K (9.14L/100).
I'm still not happy with how the car is running (aside from the fuel usage). Thinking that I should probably look at the MAP or O2 sensor, or both.
So, my biggest differences came from a simple tune up and changing my driving habits. Also, the Spitfire made enough of a difference, with my mileage, to make it worth using on occasion.
Regardless, I thought that this might be some useful information for those wondering if their fuel economy was 'normal' or not?
(and that's not to say that mine IS normal....)

Oh, and another thing that I have noticed is that any 'city' driving really increases the consumption quite dramatically.

Cheers!

well that is quite interesting!! they are pretty good figures but that is around what it should be getting doing highway driving !!

nice template for anyone thinking of sharing fuel economy measures in the future HINT,HINT


And if you can edit it to say what engine is in this beast for the benefit of those like me that don't know, manual or auto? And just how high are the kms?

Ta, Jono

Good read... Don't happen to want to do a tank of Ultimate 98 BP Fuel to test do ya??

Dave

That is very good economy for an Outback, i think redbook lists them as between 8.9 and 9.5 L/100km

As for city driving, its quite normal to use more. Remember that your outback weighs in at around 1500kg.

on the open road my wifes 92 liberty (apparently it has a 60 litre tank according to the specifications) will get 500-550 km to a tank (91 octane) with the aircon on freeze with the aircon off it has hit 600km from a full tank but when its stop start in the city it has been as bad as 330km (aircon on freeze) or as good as 450km (aircon off) using 95 or 98 made no real difference apart from when I pay (and there is always fuel in the tank when I fill it up)

TOONGA

SuBaRiNo wrote:Good read... Don't happen to want to do a tank of Ultimate 98 BP Fuel to test do ya??

Dave

Just for the fun of it, I filled her up with 98 the other day. I'll run a few fills through it and let you know.

Awesome... that should be interesting... they claim u get an extra 70km out of a tank or something.

Dave

Damned67 wrote:Just for the fun of it, I filled her up with 98 the other day. I'll run a few fills through it and let you know.

Yeah, do it for at least 3-4 fill ups.

You won't notice a difference straight away, it takes consistent use for it to start taking effect.

I was running 98 on the L but ended up going back down to 95 as the difference wasn't noticeable enough to justify the 10 odd cents BP charge per litre for 98.

I still get much better economy with 95 than I ever did with 91

SuBaRiNo wrote:Awesome... that should be interesting... they claim u get an extra 70km out of a tank or something.

Dave

i get this with ultimate EASY...its defiantely worth it in my books, although i do think the newer motors get the most benefit from it.

alex

Just to jinx myself, it already seems to be getting much better mileage, still running on the first tank.
I'm not expecting too much, as I didn't see any great difference between 92 and 95, but we'll see what happens over the next few tanks.
Cheers!

Sorry this has taken so long, I just never seem to get the chance to sit down and deal with my fuel receipts. On the plus side, this means I've done quite a few K's for this comparison.
This is about 10 tanks of fuel (anyone know what the tank capacity is in a 98 Outback?). All of them were Caltex 98.
And the results are:

4652.6 Km/405.86L= 8.72L/100Km

This is actually 0.02L/100Km higher than running on 95 octane, and both 95 and 98 octane improved fuel economy by approx 1% from 92.

Now, for clarification, this is the fuel usage in MY car with MY driving. Other cars and other drivers may see a greater improvement with the different fuel.
In addition, I don't feel my car is running to it's greatest potential. It has the occasional small hesitation while cruising. Something minor enough that it'll probably cost $$$ to throw new parts at it to try and fix it, and may not make too much of a difference.
Anyway, for me, for the sake of my fuel costs, I'll be switching back to 92.

Cheers All!

Yes the Outback has a 60L tank & your fuel light should come on with 9L left in the tank (they are pretty accurate) my Gen 2 sedan weighs 1320kg so I'd say yours should come in at less than 1,400kg.
Mine, to a 60L tank averages about 580 around town with a reasonable amount of hard driving & Ive had 732kl on a country run, 2 up + luggage and averaging around 130kph, I squeezed 56.8L into the tank when I finally found a servo that sold 98ron:D
Not too bad for a car that would pull a high 12sec qtr without a 26kph headwind, overall I can't complain, shame it's more than likely going to be a hail write off.