Is 220D Fuel Economy

[pauls13]

Hi all I’m new to the forum and have been watching your post with great interest. I have recently brought a IS220D sports and I love it, yes I am suffering from the crunching gear selector in 1st 2nd and 3rd but I can live with it, and I have also cleaned up the EGR after reading some of the post here and have seen some improvement to performance. But the one bug bear which is causing me concern is the poor fuel economy. Currently, I am getting around town 27mpg and 29mpg on a run which can’t be right. My Qashqai which is a 1.6 petrol gets 25.5mpg around town and 34mpg on a run, I know that the IS 220D isn’t the most economical diesel around, but I would at least expect it to be better than a petrol car. The car has done 100k miles and has a full Lexus service history and is flawless except for the mileage. Any help would be great

[jbhepburn]

Hi all I’m new to the forum and have been watching your post with great interest. I have recently brought a IS220D sports and I love it, yes I am suffering from the crunching gear selector in 1st 2nd and 3rd but I can live with it, and I have also cleaned up the EGR after reading some of the post here and have seen some improvement to performance. But the one bug bear which is causing me concern is the poor fuel economy. Currently, I am getting around town 27mpg and 29mpg on a run which can’t be right. My Qashqai which is a 1.6 petrol gets 25.5mpg around town and 34mpg on a run, I know that the IS 220D isn’t the most economical diesel around, but I would at least expect it to be better than a petrol car. The car has done 100k miles and has a full Lexus service history and is flawless except for the mileage. Any help would be great

i have only had my 220d for 1 month and get around 38-42

[shazy]

^^^^^^^^^^^^you are a very lucky individual, mine hovers around the 30mpg mark

[bigmick777]

Hi all I’m new to the forum and have been watching your post with great interest. I have recently brought a IS220D sports and I love it, yes I am suffering from the crunching gear selector in 1st 2nd and 3rd but I can live with it, and I have also cleaned up the EGR after reading some of the post here and have seen some improvement to performance. But the one bug bear which is causing me concern is the poor fuel economy. Currently, I am getting around town 27mpg and 29mpg on a run which can’t be right. My Qashqai which is a 1.6 petrol gets 25.5mpg around town and 34mpg on a run, I know that the IS 220D isn’t the most economical diesel around, but I would at least expect it to be better than a petrol car. The car has done 100k miles and has a full Lexus service history and is flawless except for the mileage. Any help would be great

Welcome to the forum.

I have the same motor but I can squeeze a little more than that. Generally my tank avg is about 32MPG (mixed round town and motorway).

I had a new EGR valve in July but it was about the same before! I run it on Shell fuel as better than supermarket. With the sport you get better economy on A roads in my opinion as you can put it in 6th at 60mph.

On the motorway try setting the cruise at 70MPH and reset the AVG MPG. Leave it for 10 miles or so and see what you get. Mine will be around the 40 - 44 MPG depending on conditions.

Worth checking all recalls are done, lexus will tell you.... When it's next in ask about the ECU version. iirc for pre 2007 "500" is the latest. Post 2007 is "600". Mine was upgraded from "400" to "500" when it was last in. They did mine FOC.

Finally it does take a bit of getting used to making the most of the gearing and torque up to 3,000 RPM, but in summary it aint a very economical engine but I still love the car and drive it so I enjoy it.

[Matus]

previous week I was skiing in the alps.

On the way there I went between 110kph and 130kph (70-80mph). Consumption was 6.0/100km (47mpg)

on the way back I tried to have the best consumption, so on 100kph limit I went 110, and the rest I went 120kph (70-75mph) - I think these speeds are very common in the UK, aren't they?

The consumption was 5.6/100km - 50.44mpg. Standard shell diesel with additive, 16" winter tires, 90% on cruise controll, aircon off (it was at the start -9 till -2 at home, so it did not switch on). 2 people on board with ski equipment. The road has lot of hills (Tropolach -> Bratislava)

if somebody has higher consumption than 20% (in same conditions), than it is the EGR valve, or the right foot matter.

[pauls13]

Today I went out in my Qashqai and reset the mpg gauge and managed to get 32 mpg around town. Tomorrow, I am going to do the same type of journey in the Lexus to see if I can get the same or better mileage, watch this space

[pauls13]

Ok so I did a similar trip oday in the Lexus and drove it like Miss Daisy and got a poor 17.6 mpg which for a diesel of any description is poor(see pic attached) does anyone thing I should take the car to Lexus?

[Shepherd]

Ok so I did a similar trip oday in the Lexus and drove it like Miss Daisy and got a poor 17.6 mpg which for a diesel of any description is poor(see pic attached) does anyone thing I should take the car to Lexus?

yes!

that is bad by any standards

[bigmick777]

On the motorway try setting the cruise at 70MPH and reset the AVG MPG. Leave it for 10 miles or so and see what you get. Mine will be around the 40 - 44 MPG depending on conditions.

For info, I did mine again on the way to work. Reset on M6 and drove about 20 miles not going much above 70 and with the odd bit of traffic not going below 60 so constantly in 6th Gear.

The AVG was 45.4 MPG.

[Matus]

Ok so I did a similar trip oday in the Lexus and drove it like Miss Daisy and got a poor 17.6 mpg which for a diesel of any description is poor(see pic attached) does anyone thing I should take the car to Lexus?

there must be some kind of problem...thats just too much.

In city conditions I would accept 30mpg, but 17...

[pauls13]

I called Lexus today and booked the car in for a check, they tried to fob me off with the cold weather and town driving in a diesel will give you poor mileage, but am not buying that, they also mentioned it could of missed a ECU update. we wait with bated breath. Just to be clear, before a journey reset the average MPG button?

[pauls13]

Ok so I brought the car to Lexus in Poole today to resolve the bad fuel economy problem and told them that I also get a smell of un-burnt diesel when the 5th injector kicks in, after testing the car for some time, the verdict is the engine needs to be rebuilt. Seems that there is some carbon build up in one of the cylinders which was serious enough for Lexus to keep the car for the next two weeks to do the Job, fortunately I have paid for an extended warranty so the work is covered, I dread to think how much it would cost if I had to pay, stay tuned for the next instalment.

[Chuckie888]

What I have noticed on mine is that the Computer is pessimistic! On all my previous VAGs' they were at least 5% optimistic so when it read 50mpg, the actual was 47mpg. On the IS220D I filled up yesterday when it read 38.7mpg but when I caluclated brim-to-brim it was 40mpg (467 miles on 53 litres)! I keep a spreadsheet of all fills and it is consistently reading 1-1.5mpg low! In other words, the difference between your Lexus IS220D and your colleagues Turbo Diesel, which they keep saying does 50mpg, may not be as big as the trip computers are saying! - Poor strategy and marketing compared to the Germans, after all, most people just rely on the computer readouts and don't do brim-o-brim "actual" calculations.

[pauls13]

What first got me concern about my MPG issue was a trip I made to Portsmouth which is a 105 mile round trip. after filling the tank to the limit and then filling the tank again to the same limit on my return, the trip cost me £23 which equates to 27mpg on mostly motorways. my 1.6 petrol Quasqai returns 34mpg doing the same journey. Will hopefully have the car back by the end of the week so will see what the results are

[Matus]

chuckie> mine the same...

pauls> how many rpm do you keep on motorway?

[pluffy]

My Mpg on my 07 IS220d was poor at about 35mpg on motorway and 28 general driving.

I took it into the dealer who updated the software, but they also noted that the EGR valve was leaking? They replaced the EGR and also a leaking water pump.

Saturday I was going from Birmingham to Newcastle so I filled the car to the brim and set the computer when I started on the motorway and it recorded 48.9mpg. This was using cruise control and getting into 6th at just 80mph (too many vibrations below this speed) & 2000rpm.

With the mileage around town this dropped to 44.3mpg. I refilled when I got back and worked out that it had actually averaged out at 45.1mpg.

This is still lower than the Saab 2.2TDi I had before which averaged 57.9 on motorways but if it maintains these values I will be happy.

[jackw]

Thought i'd chip in as I read this post while deciding whether to get one or not (which I now have!).

My trip from Cheshire to West London involved about 30 mins of town driving, 20 mins of crawling/stopstart on the M1 and the rest cruising at 80 in 6th on cruise control. My average for the trip was 49.5mpg. Considering 1/4 of the journey wasn't motorway cruising i'm very impressed with it. Also it's due it's 40,000 service in the next 1000 miles.

I was expecting far lower numbers having read this, to be honest. Chuffed to bits!

[Chuckie888]

Blimey, a Lexus dealer changing clutch parts (especially out of warranty)! Must not be in the same group as Derby, who say it's normal for gears to crunch and thud and the clutch pedal to graunch and be really heavy as well as juddering drive take up. Well, at least they don't blame driver error like Sheffield.

[pauls13]

Just to give you all an update, the Car is still with Lexus being repaired. They have had the car now for 6 weeks. Will hopefully find out tomorrow where they are in regards completing the repair

[pauls13]

Ok so I got the car back on Thursday after it being with Lexus Poole for 8 weeks, basically the car has had new rings and pistons fited, and a new EGR valve. I have been told that it will take around 2000 miles before I begin to see an improvement in the fuel economy as the ECU need to learn my driving style. before the car was doing 17 mpg around town and 23 on a run, currently I am getting 21 mpg around town and 32.2 on a run. In regards the ECU, has anyone heard of a Learning ECU which improves fuel consumption overtime? Any feed back will certainly ease my mind

[normski2]

Ok so I got the car back on Thursday after it being with Lexus Poole for 8 weeks, basically the car has had new rings and pistons fited, and a new EGR valve. I have been told that it will take around 2000 miles before I begin to see an improvement in the fuel economy as the ECU need to learn my driving style. before the car was doing 17 mpg around town and 23 on a run, currently I am getting 21 mpg around town and 32.2 on a run. In regards the ECU, has anyone heard of a Learning ECU which improves fuel consumption overtime? Any feed back will certainly ease my mind

My car was in Lexus Poole too. I had the Head Gasket issue with the 2007 Diesel engine. Major engine rebuild, New Head and loads of other bits, all taken care of by Lexus under their own extension of warranty to 110,000 miles/7 years.

I too was told of this ECU needing to learn my style of driving. Mmmm not too sure about this, but went along with it anyway, thought I'd just suck it and see.

Initially I had 17 mpg on local driving and 38 on a run which I thought was bit rubbish. After about 4-5 weeks I took the car on an extended run and gave it wee bit of welly prior to filling up in Devon. Amazingly it jumped to 54mpg on the run and now gives 39-40 around town. Had I just cleaned the EGR with a swift blow through? - I don't know but the mpg is miles better. And its back to what it was before. I read somewhere that it is good to give the Diesel engine a bit of a purge every now and then to clean the EGR. Maybe this is good advice. Stay in touch Paul, ( I live in Wimborne) we are both experiencing Lexus Poole.

Thus far, I have to say they are giving me very good service and back up. Well done Lexus Poole I say. I still have a minor issue which they have indicated they will attend to ASAP.

[pauls13]

Thanks for the feedback Normski2, that’s reassuring to know, I suspect that it will only take me a few weeks to do the 2000 miles since my Job takes me all over the country. One thing for sure, it was so nice to get the Lexus back after driving around in Poole Lexus's courtesy Avensis for the past few weeks B) Like you, I too must give praise to Poole Lexus for their friendly service.

[new boy]

Pauls - I have had the same work done on my car following a breakdown on the M18 a week gone Friday the RAC did some temporary fix but only lasted a few miles eventually the car was recovered to Lexus Sheffield. It was with them for a week in this time they fit modified pistons and rings, id a de-coke fit EGR valve, a ECU and catalytic converter. Excellent service from Gary and his team at Sheffield. It was explained to me that this can happen at any time with early engines mine is on 57 plate but who knows when the engine was built, regardless of how many mile the car has done What happens is oil passes the piston rings causing a build up of carbon in the cylinders any un burnt oil goes into the EGR valve to cause a blockage and then into the catalytic converter damaging that.

The has ECU has to learn your driving style because being new it has no history the MPG on my return journey home from Sheffield from picking up the car was quite poor it is improving slightly as for it taking 2000 miles I hope not can’t recall it taking that long when the car was new. Before this breakdown I did not have a problem with poor mileage it was returning on average just over 40 MPG which I was quite happy with so I do hope it improves quickly.

Merv

[Chuckie888]

Why does the ECU need to learn someone's MPG/driving style. Sounds like c@ck to me - the Long Term Fuel Trims will be reset, but the ECU should compensate accordingly and you will see this on your Short Term Fuel Trim figures. Eventually the Long Term Trims will adjust, but the ECU doesn't really need to 'learn' anything in my opinion.

[pauls13]

so far around town I am getting 22mpg, I have also noticed a strong smell of diesel when I stop the car! there doesnt seem to be any leaks that I can see, any ideas?