fuel consumption 08 liberty heritage

[scubaru]

Hey folks just purchased a second hand 08 Subaru liberty with 70,000 on the clock, my first subaru woo!
Out of about 50 litres I'm getting between 400-450 k's. I'm driving normally and mostly in subarbs.

I'm not sure if this is normal so I thought I'd ask some more experienced people

[Surge]

I've had the same car for around 2 years now.

I believe what you're getting is about right, if its got the 4 speed automatic box.

You should be able to improve on that via a tune.
You have a denso ecu so its easily tunable.

Depending on the price and availability you could even go for e85 when you get the tune.

I'm currently on a kido tune from Matt. Very worthwhile getting one of his tunes. I ran a bp98 tune for about a year and now I'm on a flex fuel e85 tune.

Other things to consider would be changing your spark plugs if they haven't been done yet. You should find that yours will be at the end of their lifespan.

A good service never hurts.

But basically your fuel consumption seems correct and you won't get a massive improvement in fuel economy unless you start hypermiling

[scubaru]

I've got a five speed manual.

What sort of a tune do you reccommend? I can only think of one station around me that has e85

[Surge]

Whichever tuner you choose to get your tune from, will generally ask you what you want out of the tune.

So you could ask for better fuel economy and then the tuner can adjust your Active Valve Lift System. Hopefully improving efficiency at low speed and keeping max power at high speed.

They would also tune your engine on whichever fuel you use. Which would mean you could ask to be tuned on 91/93/95/98/100 octane and elimitate any potention detonation events that you would have had if you used cheaper fuel without a tune.


I have eflex near my home so I am tuned on that for maximum torque out of this engine. Not the best fuel if you want maximum range out of your fuel tank but in my opinion its better for your engine. Exhaust gas smells better, bit more power, not much of a difference in price over using 98 octane fuel.

The great thing is right now kido tuning can implement his option of flex fuel so you can fill up with either ethanol or standard petrol and the ECU will calculate the correct mixture in your tank and adjust the way your engine runs accordingly. Meaning you won't get stuck somewhere just because you can't find ethanol.

There may also be something that can be done to improve your shifting but I wouldn't know since mine is an auto. I've read possibly you could have a shift light come on, possible flat foot shifting etc.
I know the auto box can be improved for less slipping.


Your alternative would be a tune from west_minist (another tuner on this forum). I believe he has a sale price at the moment. Several threads here on the results of his tune for the 2.5i.


I personally went with Matt from kido because he was local and would come out to tune your car in person. That meant the first tune took less than an hour and there was no effort on my part.

If you go for a tune via email it would mean having to flash the tunes yourself and spend time logging your driving and I think its more time consuming.

The other thing you could consider doing is taking the car into your local Subaru specialist and ask them to scan the car for faults. They might even test drive it for you and try to identify any issues. My local guy did that for free (techworkz in Canberra). It turned out my car didn't have any issues but it was good to hear that from a pro.