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Mon Oct 10, 2005 11:11 am

Mines an 83 1/2 Westy.

2.2L GoWesty motor based on 1.9 w/ Digijet FI
4 speed 091 trans
15 wheel with 215/65/15 tires

18 mpg around town.

I like to drive 65 - 70 hiway and get 21 mpg.
My wife likes 60 and gets 23 mpg.

Fri Oct 14, 2005 9:39 am

1984 with 83 engine. 1.9L
new stock tires. interiors modified.
16 gal tank
highway and town average 20 mpg

Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:06 pm

Year: 1989
model: Westy GL
engine: 2.1 rebuilt ~10k ago
trans: Auto
mods: replace interior plastic chewed by PO's dog
tires: Vredestein Comtrac 185r14 on alloy wheels, 42psi front 50 rear

Overall average after 1 year, 3 months: 16.5mpg
Avg highway: 18.5mpg
Avg city: 15.5mpg

Clearly I haven't taken enough long trips! Must rectify that in 2006...

Fri Oct 14, 2005 1:45 pm

Year: 1980
model: Riviera camper (Rivs are mucho heavier then westies)
engine: 1.6 Quantum Turbo Diesel (unknown miles)
trans: 1980 aircooled
mods: list is nearly endless of course 1st is the TD conversion Heat and economy, adding a intercooler over the winter
Speedo- reads 70 radar says 75.
tires: 205/60/15 (unknown brand) on Audi alloy wheels, 44psi front&rear
Overall average 27MPG
Avg highway: 27.5 mpg
Avg city: 26.5mpg

MPG is fairly consistant unless I have an injector or return line leaking.

Fri Oct 14, 2005 3:01 pm

danfromsyr wrote:
Speedo- reads 70 radar says 75.

Did you get a speeding ticket in a Riviera diesel?

I hope you framed that one. :wink:

Sat Oct 15, 2005 10:00 pm

'84 Westy
junkyard 1.9 leaking water and oil
4 sp manual
Pepboy white walls!! 195/70-14
It goes about 210 miles before I get worried and I refill at 220 miles. That was around town.

'85 Westy
Fast German 1.9 rebuild 100,000 mile ago. Looks and run great.
4 sp manual
Yokohama Y356 185-14
I get worried at 200 miles, hmmmmm?

'87 Syncro 7 pass GL
2.1
granny gear manual
4 bald Goodyear somethings
Hasnt moved in four years, burned zero gas.

Sun Oct 30, 2005 10:09 am

1987 Westy
2.1 L - raman about 47K ago
4 Speed - just added Redline to it (makes any difference??)
15 inch wheels - Go Westy
City-around 19 mpg
Highway 21.6 mpg - Running through the hills of Colorado just returned from a 1100 mile trip averaging around 60-70 mph, except for the mountain passes (more like 35 mph, 3rd gear @ 4000 rpm)

Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:55 am

1985 GL with roof rack
Stock 1.9 with Bosch platinums and high flow air filter
20-22 mpg, 230-240 miles per tank
185 R14 8 ply tires
teflon wax (good for 0.00015 mpg increase!) :)

Fri Feb 17, 2006 12:53 pm

Deep-Blue- 230-240 miles per 15g tank would yield 16mpg's at best and likewise worst case scenario 20mgp for 15g of fuel is 300 miles per tank. Your post had more information than the others and I wanted to use it as an example.
I have a weekender, 140K miles, automatic and the best i've gotten is ~16.5-17mpg combined with a new (Cheaper) O2 sensor. I've read some post about "Less expensive" VS "More expensive sensor" and whether that affects mpg? My calculations are done by filling up, resetting odometer; at next fill up divide the number of gallons required to fill tank into the number of miles accumulated from previous fill up. Simply want to confirm what mpg is average for my setup and if there is any value in going to the OE type sensor?

Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:13 pm

Type3,
Your numbers are in line with the numbers I've been getting in my '89 GL (Auto) for the last 8 years or so. The different types of O2 sensors are really not different. The more expensive model has an OE vanagon plug at the end of the wires. The cheaper one is the same sensor with no plug. This just means you have to cut the plug off the harness and splice the new sensor in with some crimp-on connectors. This choice should have no effect on MPG.

Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:18 pm

I run an '86GL with an auto, and those numbers match mine as well.
I rarely get over 17MPG.
I do wish there was some way to squeeze more mileage out of it!

Matt

Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:05 pm

I never let it get past the red area. I would probably get 280+ if I did.

I use the pump LCD readout stats. If I put in so many gallons, I use that number and the reading on the trip ODO...just like you do. I just don't let it get dry.

20-22 mpg...no shiznit. Did a cross country trip and used a few tanks, checking it the whole time.

Smarty pants. :roll:

Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:38 pm

Year: 1982
Model: L
Engine: 2.0 L
Mods: Re-ringed around 5,000 miles ago, Weber progressive carb, Pertronix igniter, Empi header with glass pak, all the heater stuff taken out
Trans: 4 spd
Tires: 215/70R14 Uniroyals rated @ 1486lbs a peace
Etc: loaded with about 200# of camping equipment at all times
MPG Highway: 25 :lol:
MPG Town: 22 8)
MPG towing my Bug:15 :(

Fri Feb 17, 2006 3:57 pm

The automatics just get crappy mpg, a big reason why I got rid of my 86 westy....the manual 85 1.9 westy though, minimum 20 in the city and 25-26 highway.
I've got an interesting test going on right now. Been running single prong bosch plugs for almost 2000 miles, compared to the previous bosch 3 prong.
There IS a difference in mpg. With the single prong I am only averaging 20-21 combined, and there is a noticeable accumulation of soot on the tailpipe. This compared to the 3 prong's 24 mpg combined driving mpg.
When I hit 2000 miles I'm switching back to the 3 prong.....

Fri Feb 17, 2006 4:26 pm

How do you gap the three or four prong plugs?

Fri Feb 17, 2006 5:36 pm

light load(just me and a bunch of CD's got just over 19 mpg over 1800 miles combined city, hwy, mountain drivingbetween boston and appomattox va. heading south on 81 was too hilly, coming back on 13 up delmarva was flat and fuel econ was over 21 1984 1.9 full camper 4sd. LEaving for orlando soon with wfe kids and a very full load of stuff, will report on the dent in fuel consumption

Fri Feb 17, 2006 6:36 pm

McHuntley wrote: How do you gap the three or four prong plugs?
Beats hell out of me! Each of the 3 prongs is curved at the gap to conform with the center piece. These 3 prong plugs were in the westy when I bought it more than 5 years ago, and I never even saw them until about a month ago, when I ran into a little distributor problem. Even though those plugs have probably 100,000 miles on em they work fine. :D :D Gonna put em back in too :wink: ........unless I can find them new somewhere. So far no one has them around here.

Sun Feb 19, 2006 8:21 pm

McHuntley wrote: How do you gap the three or four prong plugs?

I put some in a passat a few years ago. The Bosch set I got said they were pre-gapped. I figure this is probably the same for all brands. I'm sure I got them at Autozone but I don't think thy had them for vanagons (at least not when I bought them 2 years ago.)

Wed Feb 22, 2006 12:24 pm

Year 1983
model ASI Camper
engine intercooled 1.6TD
trans DX 5-speed
mods ETC, ETC...
tires 27" rears
MPG 27 highway, 24 all city short runs, cold starts, turbo cool-downs

Year 84
model 7-pass
engine 2.0L ABA inline-4 gas from '96 jetta
trans 4-speed
mods Etc.
tires 27" rears
24 highway, 20 in city

Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:42 pm

1985 GL, recent purchase, 156k on 1.9 digijet, no known engine or head rebuilds.

I just got it, and I'm getting about 12mpg and failing miserably on the hydrocarbon part of my emissions test, so a lot of that $3/gallon juice is going out the tailpipe.

Dropped it off to be looked at since I have no driveway, garage, etc. and it's below freezing out there - and I'm overdue for an inspection sticker. There's some valve noise so he's going to look into that, and I've asked for a compression test.

I'd be very happy to hear suggestions about what to check, and a reference for a local (New York City) VW specialist would be gold to me. The guy I dropped it off with is good, but not very familiar with VWs.