Capri Technical Forum:

Anyone track their milage on a Capri 2.8i Special? I am getting around 15 miles per gallon which seems excessive. Is this normal? or should I be looking at tuning something up on the engine?

that sounds bad.
my v8 does 28 mpg taking her steady, but open up the throttle and around town she drops to 12-16mpg

I got more than that from a 2.9 sierra. Although it spent a lot of time on motorways, i wasn't exactly tame with the throttle

MY 2.8I will do 25mpg round town and around 35mpg on the motorway.
yours sounds a bit to exsessive.

2.8i Turbo on average gave me 28MPG and up to 32 on a good run... down as low as 12 to 18 when having fun.

2.1 Pinto with 160BHP averaging 28 to 30MPG these days with mappable ignition... was on avearge 24MPG with distributor... had it give 35 on a run which was nice.

Your 2.8 does sound excessive. Have you checked for leaks?

Pulled the plugs and checked and they were all light brown coating on them, so mixture seems right. Idel spped is aprox 900rpm. There is no petrol smell anywhere, so don't think I have a leak..any other suggestions?

My Zackspeed280 (2.8i with X-Pack and zackspeed front and rear spoilers) used to average 28mpg on long runs at 80+ when using it as an only commuting car.
My 3.1 Essex Mk2 Ghia with a 5-speed conversion would run between 24-31mpg depending on how sideways I was. It was also my tow-car and when pulling a twin axle trailer with Westfield the mpg would drop to about 14! Still out-dragged most boy-racers!
Unfortunatly the Mk2 is off the road at the moment so I'm using a combination of a Volvo 480 (does more MPG with the trailer than the Mk2 did without!) and a 3.9 V8 Range Rover - don't even ask what the mpg is on that one, I don't want to work it out!

Mike, does your car roll easily? With one hand on the flat for example - a little bit of resistance can seriously hurt mpg!

Hadn't thought of that, will check it out on the weekend..I suspect a dragging brake might cause the milage to increase as well..so will check that as well. The other thought I had was the cold start injecotr leaking or not shutting down, but would that make it idle a lot faster even when warmed up if it was leaking?

I think it depends on how much fuel it gives - it could always be slightly on the over rich side which could also labour the engine more? Not certain to be honest!

Verified that no dragging on the brakes, so much be something in the fueling. The car runs clean, plugs look nice and tan colored, so not running rich..any other ideas?

Hello there, im new to the capri 2.8i. Love the car but unfortunatly im only getting 15mpg. :/ has anybody else experienced this. ok im only doing small journeys. And my car has been looked right over and tested every way possible? is this normal ? thanks guys best regards charlie