BX long distance travelling

[Crossbow]

I have just returned from an 800 mile round trip from Suffolk to Sussex to Surrey to Yorkshire to Surrey and finally back to Suffolk. What a superb cruiser the BX is, it just ate the miles. But what really surprised me is the fuel consumption, nearlly 60 to the gallon. On the last day, I filled up in Sheffield, drove to Surrey four up and then back to Suffolk just me on board and after 360 miles, the fuel gauge was reading 3/4 full. Just amazing. It's a TZD turbo. I've checked the oil and it hasn't used any and whilst most of the time I was cruising at around 70 there were times when I was doing 85 or so and easily keeping up with the Audis and BMWs. Most classic cars use quite alot of fuel but not this one.

I'm sure that most of you diesel engined BX owners know all this but aren't our cars brilliant. I will be doing another long road trip in a couple of weeks time but this time in my Dyane. It will be great fun but the figures won't be as impressive.

John

[hilarystone]

They are light reasonably aerodynamic cars and even by BX van with 16V engine does between 35 and 40mpg on British motorways with the turbo diesel 5th gear conversion.

[RobC]

It's fuel efficient yes, but bear in mind that the fuel gauge is incredibly deceptive, so a 3/4 showing on the gauge is probably more like 1/2 or even lower! I can do over 100 miles on a full tank before it even budges a mm to the left. This is due to the expansion tank having to be used up before you get to the main tank that houses the gauge.

fwiw on a cruise I can get 450 miles per tank in the 16v.

[Kitch]

Doing well to better the test figures from Citroen and various motoring mags by 15mpg!

38mpg is the 16v's record in bog standard trim (think that was around 440 miles on a tank). Usually around 29mpg though as the loud pedal gets mashed more than it should.

[RobC]

Yeah I was gobsmacked - it was in France a few years ago. I was on the lovely clear N roads and never going above 60mph. Admittedly most of the time it's more like 350-400 for me!

[Kitch]

Yeah I was gobsmacked - it was in France a few years ago. I was on the lovely clear N roads and never going above 60mph. Admittedly most of the time it's more like 350-400 for me!

Sorry Rob I was talking about the OP. Yeah I think 440 was my record, but it was at 60mph most of the time like you say!

[hilarystone]

The TD 5th gear conversion makes a big difference to fuel economy with the 16V engines – they are geared at nearly 24mph/1000rpm in top gear after the conversion compared to just under 21mph/1000rpm in top gear with the standard 5th gear. I do measure my mpg figures from fill-up to fill-up so there's very little margin for error and the speedo is within about 1% both for mileage and speed with the 195 55 15 tyres I use on the van.

[Crossbow]

On my first tankful, four up all the way, I did 580 miles before filling up with the guage reading 1/4 full. It only has a fuel filter not a 'bleed pump' so I don't like to risk going too low. The car has only done 130,000 and as I have a full service history from new, I know that it has always been serviced on time so this maybe why it runs so well.

One thing about a light car is that filling it up with people slows down the performance, especially in the peak district where it is important to drive it quite hard to keep the boost up. When I had dropped my 3 passengers off for the final 130 miles, it felt really fast again as the weight had lightened by about 30%.

I saw a red G reg estate in Holmfirth which looked like it was being used as a commercial vehicle by a builder but no others. There was also a Dyane parked up in the same town. You don't often see either on the road.

John

Grey TZD Turbo 1990
Red Dyane 1973

[MULLEY]

I've managed a best of 58mpg in my 1.9 n/a diesel txd hatch, my 8v Gti manual did 36mpg & with no attempt at fuel economy the valver has done a shade over 31mpg, so i can well believe getting to 40mpg especially with the 5th gear conversion. My TZD turbo hatch, i can't remember, i do know it did under 30mpg when i drove it like a loon at every opportunity now thats worse than the valver, haha....i find sticking to 60mph & not reving too high as you go through the gears, lifting off nice & early in order t slow down & timing lights so as not to stop all helps.

[Tinkley]

Although I regularly beat the Citroen figures for my 1.6 petrol, the best thing about the BX on long distance is the comfortable way it gets there. Apart from slightly altering the heel angle (of foot) to accelerator after about 300 miles for foot 'relief', it leaves you still pretty fresh at the end of a journey.

More comfortable for me on a long journey than the ('09) C4, though Deltic disagrees. It could be that C4 seats are better suited for women than men. Does happen - at one time Volvos were like this and the chief seat designer was female!. Also better power (and non power) steering 'feel' (less tiring) than the C4 on motorways and dual carriageways.

[Thread Bear]

Other Citroens aside, they are the most comfortable car to do miles in, I find. Add the turbo unit, and drive in a non urgent, momentum way, and I expect to get better than 54 mpg. You can do better, of course. I am sure there are moderns that offer better figures, but can they offer the rest of the package. The BX is a pretty big car inside. Such a car offering that volume now will probably be 400kg heavier. Big tyres sap power etc etc. BX tend not to carry a huge amount of toys, if the LHM system is good it nicks little power. Its a hard act to beat. Indeed its the BX ability to eat miles which has seen off many cars which covered big mileages for business back in the day. My 16V is an ex company car (by request, so a bit of a perk). Its hard to find low miler Estates as they are so darned useful. Frankly if I had to have a different car to do its job I do not know what I would pick. The Citroens after the BX just are not - well Citroeny, and they got Pug fat.

I feel a bit more would come if you could adjust the height of the suspension in motion. Get a smooth road and drop the car so the splitter is really working, I bet there is 3 or 4 more MPG available. The roads elsewhere are so crap you need to set the suspension so it has enough travel to cope. I recall Mike Cooper experimenting with a CX and the returns by dropping one on the deck for motorway work were extraordinary.

Seats? I might be an odd shape but most modern car seats are not comfortable. I do not think they get people to actually sit in them! Endless adjustment knobs does not deal with a fundamentally crap bit of work. Frankly most cars want the seat bunged and a nice Frog Eyed Sprite seat put in. Comfort, support and light. Case Solved!

[rutter123]

I was up until 3 weeks ago using my tzd turbo for my weekly runs from south lincs to heathrow sometimes twice weekly clocking up on average 400 miles a week, fuel consumption somewhere low 50's or if i sat at 60mph prob closer to high 50's which i think is pretty good, even on a heavy right foot up in the 80's never less than 35mpg. Of the 3 turbo d's ive owned this one seems the best on fuel running a lucas pump kkk turbo, currently going thru a half life refit on the tzd at 284000 miles should be good for another 284k when its done. And nothing else compares to a bx for soaking up the bumps dips and troughs when cutting through the long straight B-roads across the fens, sticking to the speed limits obviously.

[hilarystone]

Well today I've the chance to recheck the fuel consumption on the 16V engined van having done 650 miles today. I left home at just gone 5.30 this morning and got back at 5.35 tonight. First stop to fill up was just off the M60 at a Tescos after 180 miles – the tank was part full when I left home 53 litres and 410 miles since the previous fill up – these miles had included a couple of runs across the mountain road and some local running about so 35mpg seemed pretty good. Next stop for fuel was near Bracknell after 335 miles (via Rainham and Dartford Crossing) and 39 litres - equating to 39mpg. I was not hanging around – I had a stop of nearly an hour in Manchester and a similar one in Rainham and was mostly doing in the high 70s on dual carriageways and the motorways. The Turbo diesel 5th gear does make a big difference to the fuel consumption - when I first fitted one to my red Valver consumption improved by 3–4mpg. Tyres do make a difference too – I changed the tyres from Conti Premium Contact 5s on the Valver to Yokohama AD08Rs last Autumn and fuel consumption took a dive of about 1–2mpg… At first I thought it was simply winter fuel but the change for the worse has remained this summer. The van runs on Conti Premium Contact 5s…

[Philip Chidlow]

My BX TZD Turbo managed a quite astonishing 54-57 mpg throughout the Challenge... that's two up with our kit, camping stuff, litres of LHM, oil, coolant etc, plus a garage's worth of tools... Impressed.

[MULLEY]

The only thing that is annoying on all of the BX's i've owned is the noise levels, they are very high in comparison to my C5, that would make even more difference to the BX for long distance driving. My TXD had acceptable levels of noise doing 60mph, but do 70 in it & it became very loud making journeys tiring.