evening people
                      Im wonder if someone can help, have a 1998 25 v6, this is drinking petrol,about 17 miles to the gallon  , i have check codes nothing reported and also air filter, plugs, all ok car seems to drive ok, so don't think anything wrong with air mass meter but temp gauge is struggling to climb, ok, car is being used mostly on short journeys at the moment, have taken car for a good hard ride to see if i can wake it up, not using any water or oil but seems to running very rich, alot of steam from the tail pipe as well, would the HBV valve make any differents to the running, ok i know about the heater,  having to use the bloody citreon ax, as it cost me approxly 80 quid for about 50 miles 

I probably only get around 20 mpg round town.

Hi guys
           Thanks for the replys, lazydocker you say that it could be the theromstate??, would this cause the car to run cold until normal driving brings in hot water, is their some sort of coolant sencer for this bearing in mind this is the x25xe with spark plugs, no fault codes listed, was thinking of blanking part of the rad of to test, or checking the cam, car was doing at least 23 miles around town and a good 32 on a run, i think i have killed it by short journeys 

blue_dream wrote on 15. Feb 2011 at 22:27:


Best way to test the 'stat is to start it from cold and carefully hold the top radiator hose... If it warms slowly then the stat's stuck, if you get a sudden rush of heat then it's operating normally

Sounds like it's stuck open though. The poor fuel economy is because it's not getting up to temperature