It really saves gas and gives power!

[dcarlson12]

Fuel additives:
No idea about increased gas mileage but I will say a good word for STP fuel injector cleaner.
My 2000 chevy astro was giving a CEL which related to rich long term fuel trim. One garage said it was time for a O2 sensor replacement. This was prior to me purchasing an Autotap OBDII scanner. It told me about the longer term fuel trim error.
After a lot of research, I discovered that the fuel injection was accomplished by directing the output from the fuel injectors to the inlet ports via a 'spider'. The spider consists of 'long' legs which reach from the fuel injectors down to the inlet ports. In order to keep the legs full of fuel, at the bottom end of the leg there is a small ball which is kept seated with a small spring. When the injector 'fires' the fuel pressure is enough to push the ball off its seat and let the fuel enter the inlet port. Over time with the relatively cheap generic gas which I had been using, a gummy deposit caused the spring and/or ball to gum up. Thus the ball would not seat properly and the fuel would dribble into the inlet port at a greater rate than called for by the ecm/injector. This resulted in a rich fuel mixture even when the ecm called for less fuel. I stumbled across this info at a safari/astro forum.
After two tanks with the addition of the STP fuel injector cleaner, the gum deposits were gone and the CEL never came back again.
What a life saver for a small amount of cash.
I now put in a bottle of the injector cleaner at every oil change. No problems since. And it might even be increasing the life of my fuel pump. The first one was replaced at 128k km and my second one is now going strong at approx. 280k km i.e. the second pump has gone 152k km and still going strong. This may just be coincidental but who knows?

[marginal]

So, you are saying using the STP fuel additive didn't increase your gas mileage?

[Volgrrr]

I don't know if additives increase mileage or not however, I find it easy to understand items like malfunctioning injectors might be cleaned out and therefore work more efficiently (i.e. more precise spray pattern v a semi-dribble like injection etc.) which, in theory (and probably in practice), could or should improve the overall fuel economy of the vehicle.

By way of explanation, fuel consumption in Australia is calulated in metric measurements (i.e. litres/100 kilometres or kilometres/litre) and the best I've been able to get out of my T5 over a long trip (the most recent - 500 kilometres) was nearly 9 litres/100 kilometres (i.e. 2 imperial gallons/60 miles or 30 mpg).

Keep in mind there are 4.54 litres in an imperial gallon compared to 3.78 litres in a US gallon (i.e. 1 imperial gallon = 1.37 US gallons)

Consequently, you guys saying your 850 averages around 30 mpg US or better actually get 39 mpg when the relevant factors are converted to imperial measurement - and this seems to be a tad on the high side to me.

Conversley, the 30 mpg I get here in Australia equates to 22 mpg (converted to American standards) and my hunch is there are many 850 owners who get around this mpg (but probably wont admit it) than those who claim to get 30 -38 miles/US gallon (or 39 - 52 mpg imperial).

Because when it is all said and done, no matter how good the design of the engine was, the inescapable fact is the 850 has only a small engine powering a relatively heavy vehicle - which seems to rather contradict some of the phenomenal mileages/gallon people claim to be able to get out of it.

P.S. I've purposely ignored those who may utilise going downhill, gale force tail winds, switching off the engine going downhill, using large transporters as wind shields etc. as legitimate ways to improve fuel economy figures.

[volvomileage]

i do beleive that the specific additives will help clean injectors, one of the good mecanics i know recommended good quality injector cleaning additives at each oil change...to help fuel system stay clean as far as power i doubt it, but by cleaning injectors it will help you run more efficiently

an uk program had done test but no positive results ...

[matthew1]

Conversley, the 30 mpg I get here in Australia equates to 22 mpg (converted to American standards) and my hunch is there are many 850 owners who get around this mpg (but probably wont admit it) than those who claim to get 30 -38 miles/US gallon (or 39 - 52 mpg imperial).

22 city or highway?

I get terrible fuel economy in the city: 17-19mpg. This isn't suburb city mpg, where more modern roads were made to move traffic better. This is city blocks, start/stop/turn/park etc.

[marginal]

By way of explanation, fuel consumption in Australia is calulated in metric measurements (i.e. litres/100 kilometres or kilometres/litre) and the best I've been able to get out of my T5 over a long trip (the most recent - 500 kilometres) was nearly 9 litres/100 kilometres (i.e. 2 imperial gallons/60 miles or 30 mpg).

Don't forget in Australia the temperature is very high which equals very high fuel efficiency.
This is not the case almost everywhere else like Canada, Northern USA, Europe, Nothern Asia and so on ...

[KEWROCK]

>>>>>>>>>I get terrible fuel economy in the city: 17-19mpg. This isn't suburb city mpg, where more modern roads were made to move traffic better. This is city blocks, start/stop/turn/park etc.<<<<<<<<

I thought it was just me getting crappy gas milage.

I started a thread "What's Your Gas Milage?" Some of the responses seemed pretty outlandish. I'm reading all these posts about 25 and 30 miles to the gallon. Not calling anyone a lier, more like don't really know how to properly figure a true average, or just assuming wrong. We also have a tiny Ford Escort ZX2 4 cylinder that even on a 23 hour straight trip to Florida never averages more than 29-30 mpg.

In the V70R I'm getting absolutely no more than 20mpg city/highway mixed. That's Queens, NY, It's pretty congested wherever you go around here. I go to Long Island Quite often too, so that means getting on a 50-60 mile-an-hour highway for 20 minutes, getting off and driving in another congested area. Right now my trip computer is at 19.1 mpg. That's usually where it eventually ends up after resetting it. 18.8, 19.2 always within that range. I've checked the accuracy of the volvo computer a few times on paper at the pump, It's amazingly accurate.

[Volgrrr]

[quote="matthew1

22 city or highway? I get terrible fuel economy in the city: 17-19mpg. This isn't suburb city mpg, where more modern roads were made to move traffic better. This is city blocks, start/stop/turn/park etc.[/quote]

In answer to your query - probably 75% highway and the rest city.

However, I think I may have created some confusion with my post.

The point I was trying to make is my T5 (and it's probably as good as most Volvos of its age) gets around 30 miles per Imperial gallon which converts/equates to approx. 22 miles per American gallon.

Therefore saying a Volvo 850 does 32 miles per American gallon in the U.S is the same as saying the same vehicle will do nearly 44 miles per Imperial gallon here in Australia (I think my maths and conversion rate is correct i.e. 1 Imperial gallon = 1.37 American gallons).

And therein lies my problem.

I've never heard of anyone out here in Australia getting anywhere remotely near that figure out of a T5 (44 mpg) irrespective of the ratio of city to highway driving and how the vehicle was driven.

[Volgrrr]

>>>>>>>>>I get terrible fuel economy in the city: 17-19mpg. This isn't suburb city mpg, where more modern roads were made to move traffic better. This is city blocks, start/stop/turn/park etc.<<<<<<<<

I thought it was just me getting crappy gas milage.

I started a thread "What's Your Gas Milage?" Some of the responses seemed pretty outlandish. I'm reading all these posts about 25 and 30 miles to the gallon. Not calling anyone a lier, more like don't really know how to properly figure a true average, or just assuming wrong. We also have a tiny Ford Escort ZX2 4 cylinder that even on a 23 hour straight trip to Florida never averages more than 29-30 mpg.

In the V70R I'm getting absolutely no more than 20mpg city/highway mixed. That's Queens, NY, It's pretty congested wherever you go around here. I go to Long Island Quite often too, so that means getting on a 50-60 mile-an-hour highway for 20 minutes, getting off and driving in another congested area. Right now my trip computer is at 19.1 mpg. That's usually where it eventually ends up after resetting it. 18.8, 19.2 always within that range. I've checked the accuracy of the volvo computer a few times on paper at the pump, It's amazingly accurate.

This seems to be more in line with what I'm stating about the fuel economy of the 5 cylinder Volvo engine.

[Volgrrr]

By way of explanation, fuel consumption in Australia is calulated in metric measurements (i.e. litres/100 kilometres or kilometres/litre) and the best I've been able to get out of my T5 over a long trip (the most recent - 500 kilometres) was nearly 9 litres/100 kilometres (i.e. 2 imperial gallons/60 miles or 30 mpg).

Don't forget in Australia the temperature is very high which equals very high fuel efficiency.
This is not the case almost everywhere else like Canada, Northern USA, Europe, Nothern Asia and so on ...

Yeah!

But it certainly wouldn't drop it down to such an extent that it seems like a real gas guzzler when compared to some of the mileage claims I've seen listed on this thread (remember the conversion rate used to quantify the relative fuel economy of a vehicle used in America to that of a similar vehicle in Australia might throw some people a little).