Skoda Octavia Tour Owner's Manual page 115

114 Driving and the Environment
Regular servicing
A poorly tuned engine consumes an unnecessarily high amount of
fuel.
Having your vehicle serviced regularly at a specialist garge enables you to satisfy
one of the requirements for economical motoring even before you set off on your
journey. Keeping your vehicle properly serviced not only has a positive effect on the
safety of your vehicle and maintaining its value, but also saves on fuel.
A poorly tuned engine can result in a fuel consumption which is 10 % higher than
normal.
The foreseen maintenance work should be undertaken exactly according to the
Service schedule by a specialist garage.
Also check the oil level after refuelling. Oil consumption is dependent to a consid-
erable extent on the load and speed of the engine. Oil consumption could be as high
as 0.5 litres/1 000 km depending on your style of driving.
It is quite normal that a new engine has a higher oil consumption at first, and
reaches its lowest level only after a certain running in time. It is therefore not
possible to correctly assess the oil consumption of a new vehicle until after you
have driven about 5 000 km.
For the sake of the environment
•
You can achieve additional improvements in your fuel economy by using high-
lubricity oils.
•
Check the ground below your vehicle at regular intervals to detect any leakages
in good time. Please have your vehicle inspected by a specialist garge if you find any
stains caused by oil or other fluids on the floor.
Avoid driving short distances
Short distances result in an above-average high fuel consumption.
– Avoid driving a distance of no more than 4 km if the engine is cold.
The engine and catalytic converter must first have reached their optimal operating
temperature in order to effectively reduce fuel consumption and pollutant emis-
sions.
The cold engine vehicle consumes approx. 15 - 20 litres/100 km of fuel immediately
after starting. Fuel consumption drops to 10 litres/100 km after just 1 kilometre. The
engine reaches its operating temperature (outside temperature and engine
dependent) only after about 4 to 10 kilometres and the fuel consumption then
stabilizes. You should therefore avoid driving short distances whenever possible.
An important factor in this connection is also the ambient temperature. The
 fig. 116 shows the different fuel consumptions for the same distance, on the one
hand at +20 °C and on the other hand at -10 °C. Your vehicle has a higher fuel
consumption in winter than in summer.
Checking tyre inflation pressures
Tyres which are correctly inflated save fuel.
Always ensure that your tyres are inflated to the correct pressure at all times. The
rolling resistance will be increased if the inflation pressure is too low. This will not
only increase fuel consumption but also tyre wear and the driving behaviour will
worsen.
Always check the inflation pressure of the tyres when cold.
Do not drive with winter tyres all year round for this costs about 10 % more fuel.
Winter tyres are also louder.
Fig. 116 Fuel consumption in litres/100
km at different temperatures