Club 80-90 Forums

Can anyone please give me some insight into the relative fuel efficiency of:

a) a 94-98 style Honda Accord 2.0i

b) my van, slightly lowered, spoiler, normal roof, minimal interior, and a 1.9TDi motor

The deal is this: I love the van to bits, but I need wheels to run my business and it has nearly driven me to bankruptcy more than once. I've been given the Accord, which having no hatchback is really a bit of a white elephant for me. BUT IT DOES WORK!

The Honda needs new front brakes and bearings. £500. There's going to be other things too, sooner or later. So I'm wondering about putting that money (and probably more) into re-powering the van. But I really, really don't want any more money trauma.

I usually drive the Honda at 60mph tops, to save money etc. I'd do the same with the van; any of you clever people able to tell me how much more it's going to cost me? I tend to drive around the lanes a fair bit, plus empty dual carriageways and in cities at off-peak times. I'm pretty switched-on to fuel-saving driving techniques.

Thanks, Steve.

MacAoidh wrote: The Honda needs new front brakes and bearings. £500. There's going to be other things too, sooner or later. So I'm wondering about putting that money (and probably more) into re-powering the van. But I really, really don't want any more money trauma.
.

Hi Steve

Not one of those clever people but what do you mean ''putting that money (and probably more) into re-powering the van. ''

As far as I know the 1.9D is as about as fuel efficient as these old buses get apart from LPG but......
if you've got to get a new engine & then the LPG kit you'll probably have to do 100,000 miles before seeing any sort of saving!!

Keeping two cars on the road is so expensive (& will only get more so) that if you can have one for all your needs thats the way to go.

I find that the T25 isn't too bad (considering size/weight) on long runs (especially 60 mph) its the round town stuff thats a killer!!

i have no idea about honda fuel useage, but what i did think when i read this post was, you'd be better off buying Pete headleys Passat http://archive.club8090.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=15223 which will be cheaper than both and would suit you more........ and its cheaper than fixing that honda or the van.

sorry, no help i know.

Interesting to hear that it's urban driving that is heavier on the pocket in a van. Especially since I don't do much stop-start stuff. I guess it's a lot of weight to get rolling, only to convert that fuel-duty into heat in the braking components. Wind resistance is the other factor; I've always wondered how significant it is at different speeds..

Cheers for the Passat tip Mocki; I sometimes carry a bit of gear (PA system, double bass...), not sure if there'd be room for that in an LPG'd Passat. Plus, if I'm going to buy a car it'll be fairly new and fairly boring.

I've had another go at estimating the Accord's MPG. At best, 400 miles on 50 litres, therefore 36 miles per gallon, mostly cruising/easy lanes. Not that special, eh? It's an automatic, forgot to say.

Going slightly off-topic, but I've got a Mk3 Golf TDi, which I picked up for £800. I regularly get 550 miles per tank (around 40-45 litres) without driving too conservately. I reckon I could get 600 by putting the effort in. Admittedly the majority of that was motorway driving, but a mixture of busy vs completely empty.

£700 to £1000 appears to be the going rate for a Mk3 Golf.

Just for another consideration...

KarlT wrote: what do you mean ''putting that money (and probably more) into re-powering the van. ''

Just re-read this; what I mean is replacing my comedy engine with something proper. Current engine is knackered, and so underpowered that it probably isn't worth fixing.

I've just had a £3K refund from the bank, which has cleared my £3K overdraft. I want to create the next overdraft wisely...

Its not a "TDi" then? its a 1.9 td? or is it really a 1.6TD?
doubt the honda would do more than 36.. it might at a push, but you are prob not going to be happy if its a compromise......

Not sure if I quite understand what you are trying to say.. but you could either fit another good 1.9td, or even go TDi (if you can find an early one)

Or a solution could be fitting a 2L passat/golf etc petrol engine and LPG it.. thats would be a cheap way to go...

Or pick up a cheap Diesel estate.. like a skoda favorit.. (vw running gear)...

It's currently a 1.6 n/a Diesel conversion, engine code JK.
I'm quite interested in finding a recent TDi that's been rear-ended, and going fully electronic...

I think I've taken us a bit off the thread with all this. Main question: any info on mpg for a TDi conversion?

Going on my other half's conversion where he put a 2.5 TDi into his Syncro Crewcab. He had problems because of gearing. The engine was revving too high for sensible motorway driving speed and mpg suffered as a result.

Going on posts on Brickyard from him, if you don't change the gearing to match the engine, you won't get enough difference in mpg to make the conversion worth while.

http://www.brick-yard.co.uk/forum/forum ... 11978&PN=1

There are many more posts on TDi conversion ideas if you have a look through the search function.

Clur

Clur wrote:Going on my other half's conversion where he put a 2.5 TDi into his Syncro Crewcab. He had problems because of gearing. The engine was revving too high for sensible motorway driving speed and mpg suffered as a result.

I have the same prob with My TDI panal van using the same old box that came with the van (1.7NA ) manage a revy 60

Interesting stuff - but any figures?

Steve , you seem no nearer to the answer you require, reading it, it's a bit like a politition on question time, lots of of topic waffle and every scrap of info except , yes/no or the answer required.
and no I dont know either
Mike

'though to be fair, I did provide a lot more info (with implicit questions) than was needed from the outset.
This stuff about ratios is a useful reminder. And any contribution keeps bumping the topic up to the top

But yes, would still dearly love to have ball park figures for electronic/non-electronic TDi conversion, with proper box. Or indeed general t25 mpg figures.

The problem you are running into is that there are not many TDi conversions out there (UK) especially all electronic ones... do a search for TDi Vanagon, quite a few in the USA.. but remember that US gal is only 3.83L where a UK gal is 4.54L..

Ta. I've had a quick start, and have noticed that if the TDi has come from something significantly lighter than a van, it benefits from custom ECU software... Life's never easy, is it?

I'll search on for mpg, but if anyone's passing who has _any_ kind of 1.9 diesel engine I'd love to hear what you get from it.