roscoe108

Just saying hello. Picked up a 2013 GLK250 BlueTec about a month ago. The dealership had one on demo with about 4,000 km on the odometer, AMG Package and Convenience Package, white. Has everything I need, and I managed to snag it for $41,500 CDN with no freight charge!

I love the torque and have always been a diesel fan. Though one thing I've noticed is that during these -20 Celsius days lately my mileage has gone to absolute hell. I always noticed that back when I used to own VW Golf TDIs, but I recall reading somewhere that poor cold weather performance was not an issue with the GLK250s.

Did I get that wrong? Have other BlueTec owners been seeing really awful mileage during the "polar vortex" as well? Once it's warmed up, it's not so bad, but let's be honest, a diesel engine takes a long time to get good and hot.

PS - by 'awful' I mean 13 l/100 km (~18 mpg US).

fcch

Hi!

Welcome ... sounds like you got a really sweet deal!

As for the mileage ... the cold seems to really affect this car.
I drive a lot. 47,000 km since mid july. I was getting 5.9 - 6.1 l/10km in the warm weather. (according to the dash display). Last few weeks when it was always -25 to -35 Celsius in the morning I was getting 7.9 to 8.3 l/100 km.

The colder fuel seems to be less efficient in the motor and it's pulling a lot more fuel. I also had to change the air filter as the calcium dust was clogging it (get a CEL).

I drive 95% on the highway on a winding road (Rt 155 in Québec).

Have fun with your new ride!!!!

roscoe108

Hey man. Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I think I managed to get a pretty good deal.

About 6.0 L/100 km in warmer weather sounds about right for me, but in the cold weather you're describing, I'm getting far worse than 8.3 L/100 km. Well over 11 L in fact. Though I'm wondering if that's because my daily drive to work is about 5 km, or 7 minutes long in total. When it's -25 C outside, I'm thinking that that just simply isn't enough time to warm up the diesel fuel at all. I am wondering just how much diesel gel is spitting out my tailpipe!!

So tell me, what is a CEL and why would I need that? I would like to know more, so thanks in advance for any info you can send my way...

Best,

Ross

107123210

I have only 3 fill ups to go by.
First one mostly city driving in December - 553km. 9.08 l/100 or 25.9 mpg us
Second mostly highway, but including gridlock - 590km, 8.45 l/100 or 27.8 mpg
Third mostly highway - 773 km, 7.44 l/100 or 31.6 mpg.

All in temperatures of -15 to -10C.

My figures are based on calculations. I don't even know how to get average mpg from display, but friend tells me his car display gives lower mpgs than the numbers he calculates.

107123210

CEL is Check Engine Light and NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT. IT IS A GENERAL TERM FOR A WARNING FROM YOUR CARS COMPUTER TELLING YOU SOMETHING IS WRONG. (sorry about caps - using tablet)

Regarding "calcium" blocking filter. Do theyuse Calcium Chloride on roads in Quebec? In Ont and most places it is plain salt - sodium chloride. They do sometimes spray the salt with calcium chloride solution to keeps dust down.

I am currently in NC - Washed my car, but it is covered in salt again. Stil snow coverage down here and freezing overnight. Can't get away from winter! Heading further S tomorrow.

roscoe108

Apologies, I thought he was telling me that the "CEL" in question was the type of new air filter FCCH was referring to that he purchased. Seriously, I am not that stupid. I don't know what they use in QC, but I live in Ontario and yeah, as far as I'm aware it's just plain old salt, or in some cases, sand. Calcium chloride you only find on back dirt roads, which I am never on anyway. Nor do I think they mix the CC with the road salt because I always see plenty of salt dust haze when driving down dry roads after a thaw.

MKenM

On the left side of the steering wheel there are 4 arrows. Going left to right move thru menus on the dashboard where you see your speed and odometer reading. If you hit OK while it is on the odometer it will take you sub menus and using the up and down arrows will scroll thru the choices "OK" will let you see a particular item and you can reset some of the option such as MPG/L since last reset or from last start. There is an abundance of information in these menus.

fcch

Hi ... sorry for the confusion.


They use ordinary salt here.
We use calcium chloride on some logging roads and back lanes to firm up the surface or keep down dust in the summer. Thankfully I have company pickups to get to the bush here.


I had gotten a Check Engine Light just before my second A service. I believe they usually change the air filter at the B service and the service manager was surprised that we needed to change it after only 15000 km.


I drive mostly highway and the traffic seems to be kicking up a lot of dust.

advocator

Congrats by the way

As far as I witnessed for the past 10 days, GLK 220 CDI (2.2 diesel engine) gets me around 7.8L / 100KM while driving "normal+" (meaning I drive normal but I gotta squeeze the gas from time to time to get some extra thrill).

When I drove more aggressively (for a day) it got to about 10L/100km.

when I drove extremely smooth and casual, I got it to about 6.8-7L/100KM.


Far better than my older Q5 2.0T gasoline audi ..

glayfan40

I originally thought the same until relatively recently - as my current tank of diesel has already lasted almost 2 weeks. And during this time the temperature in Boston has ranged from a low of 5-10F to a high of almost 50F (just yesterday). On the same commute to work (12mi one way, 85% highway) I noticed my "From Start" mileage varied from 25-26MPG (on the cold days) to 30-31MPG (on the warmer days).

I set the climate control to Auto at 68F and didn't touch it. So to me it just seems the MPG dip has to do with the viscosity of the engine oil plus that the engine has to work harder to keep the cabin at the desired temperature during colder days.

Just my $0.02

fcch

I'm sure the cold engine is less efficient too. Viscosity, cold parts etc)


My morning commute is over 90 minutes and the motor is up to operating temps (80 degrees cel) within 5 minutes. That's why I thought the cold temperatures had an impact on fuel consumption and that the cold fuel (and air) was the culprit. I could very well be wrong though. Not much of a mechanic ... I just drive 'em ... And like driving very much