MY08 Tribeca Fuel Consumption Issue

bluetribeca · Post by **bluetribeca** » Tue May 26, 2009 1:23 pm

Hey all,

Our Tribeca is going on only 3 months old now and the fuel usage is sky high. We are struggling to get near 400km/tank and apparently that equates to around 15l/100km. Has anyone ever had any dramas with any new cars having such high usage without it having the guts flogged out of it?

We drive the car sensibly and it has got me stumped. I have heard about the ECU needing to be reflashed on other makes, anyone got an answer?

Cheers

someguy · Post by **someguy** » Tue May 26, 2009 2:49 pm

My L Series used to struggle to get to 400k on a 55L tank.

I found it was me having a bit of a lead foot (Not speeding but just putting my foot down harder than I needed to)

I went easier on the throttle and now I get 520K to a 55L tank.

It makes all the difference.

I would take it to the dealer and just get them to take a good look over it and see what they come up with (Should be under warranty if new parts are needed)

FROG · Post by **FROG** » Tue May 26, 2009 2:52 pm

keep a fuel / klm sheet over a couple of weeks and present it to your dealership

bluetribeca · Post by **bluetribeca** » Tue May 26, 2009 3:43 pm

Yeah cool, like I said we don't drive it hard, even so we should be able to get a bit more than what we currently get out of it. I thought maybe the car was still "running in" but after 4 tanks of fuel it isn't getting any better.

Thanks for the replies.

PeeJay · Post by **PeeJay** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:38 pm

Have you got it in S# mode or Intelligent? Other than that, sounds like something is wrong. My 08 6cyl Outback only uses 11L/100km on a bad day, usually around 10.

sublime · Post by **sublime** » Tue May 26, 2009 6:56 pm

I would think a car with a 3.6 litre engine that weighs almost 2000Kg would not do much better than 15L/100km!

Most reports I have read suggest the Tribeca uses 16L to 17L/100km around town, your figure appears slightly better than that.

bluetribeca · Post by **bluetribeca** » Tue May 26, 2009 7:32 pm

sublime wrote:I would think a car with a 3.6 litre engine that weighs almost 2000Kg would not do much better than 15L/100km!

Most reports I have read suggest the Tribeca uses 16L to 17L/100km around town, your figure appears slightly better than that.

Yeah I have done a bit of research, a lot of sites are claiming significantly better consumption figures than what I am getting. I still think even with it's size it should still do better than what it is. If it can't sustain around the 13-14 mark average then surely it wouldn't have passed any of the regs considering it is a modest sized 6 cylinder engine.

Our Mitsubishi 380 (3.8L) can get nearly 700km/tank, surely there shouldn't be that much of a difference between the two.

bluetribeca · Post by **bluetribeca** » Tue May 26, 2009 7:34 pm

PeeJay wrote:Have you got it in S# mode or Intelligent? Other than that, sounds like something is wrong. My 08 6cyl Outback only uses 11L/100km on a bad day, usually around 10.

I'm assuming S# mode is sports mode. No, we have it in Drive all the time

Gremlins · Post by **Gremlins** » Thu May 28, 2009 1:43 pm

bluetribeca wrote:Our Mitsubishi 380 (3.8L) can get nearly 700km/tank, surely there shouldn't be that much of a difference between the two.

If the the 380 is anything like the V6 Magna I had then it will be unbelievably economical for a V6 with that capacity so you won't be able to really compare it to the Tribecca for fuel economy. My Magna was easily more economical than my 1.8L 4 Cyl. L-Series on a country run and probably around the same for city driving.

Fuel economy has never been a strong point for Subaru's and if you're doing a lot of stop start short run city driving this won't help. I would be tempted to plan a bit of a trip somewhere on some open roads where you spend a bit of time cruising at a steady 100 - 110km/h (depending on the road speed limit) and see how it goes for economy while cruising. If it still stays around 15L/100km then it would definitely be worth getting it checked out as it should be able to acheive or better it's ADR fuel consumption specification in this type of driving.

bluetribeca · Post by **bluetribeca** » Thu May 28, 2009 2:50 pm

Gremlins wrote:If the the 380 is anything like the V6 Magna I had then it will be unbelievably economical for a V6 with that capacity so you won't be able to really compare it to the Tribecca for fuel economy. My Magna was easily more economical than my 1.8L 4 Cyl. L-Series on a country run and probably around the same for city driving.

Fuel economy has never been a strong point for Subaru's and if you're doing a lot of stop start short run city driving this won't help. I would be tempted to plan a bit of a trip somewhere on some open roads where you spend a bit of time cruising at a steady 100 - 110km/h (depending on the road speed limit) and see how it goes for economy while cruising. If it still stays around 15L/100km then it would definitely be worth getting it checked out as it should be able to acheive or better it's ADR fuel consumption specification in this type of driving.

We are gonna do a trip in the next few weeks. Got it out on the highway yesterday and was pretty good, around the 10-11L/100km mark so I am alot happier with that. It is a big lump of a vehicle and obviously that is hurting it's consumption, just didn't think it would be that bad.

You are right about the Mitsubishi's, they are excellent on fuel and even though it was a company leased vehicle (free fuel - got driven hard on occasion) it still amazed me. A real shame they stopped production of the 380.

Thalass · Post by **Thalass** » Thu May 28, 2009 3:12 pm

It does sound like there's something wrong. Even if it is a chunky car, if you take it easy you should get some benefit.

I've been recording my distance and fuel going in on a spreadsheet for nearly a year. And every time I try something new I notice some difference. This tank I went light on the accelerator right from the first kilometre, rather than after half like I usually do, and I think I'm going to get a good extra 50km or more!

I'm *this* close to starting to aermod the outback. Since its winter and the car probably won't notice a grille block or something. But the best thing you can do is have some kind of feedback to your driving habits.

Ideally you need some kind of FE instrumentation that'll give you an instantaneous calculated L/100km like a Scangauge, though they're pricey. If you're techincally minded and don't mind hacking into your car, you can buy a MPGuino open source FE indicator and put it together your self for $65ish.

But even a spreadsheet will help.

bluetribeca · Post by **bluetribeca** » Thu May 28, 2009 3:57 pm

The Tribeca's have all the two different readouts for fuel usage so I will be watching them very closely