What Kind Of Mileage Are You Getting?

[Cannon00000]

Im getting the feeling that my 20mpg is way to low. Should my 95' 325is being getting more than that? Unfortunatley I have an auto, but even still that shouldnt lower the mileage that much should it?

What is everyone else getting in their E36??

[fredo 328]

I get 25-28 depending on how and where I am driving. My mileage did go down a little when I got bigger wheels. I also think my mpg improved after putting in new spark plugs.

[NeverLeaned]

I get about 20 in strictly city driving......... averaging 23.3 since I bought the car.

[docrobot]

Me, I average 18 MPG with my 5 speed, doing mostly short 5 - 8 mile runs so the engine barely gets up to temperature before its turned off.

It is also hovering around the freezing point of water here during the hottest part of the day. (Check out my current temperature below.)

Oh, and I am an aggressive driver, hitting redline most days to and from work!

On the highway, its a whole new ball game, since I get over 28 MPG there...

[NeverLeaned]

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr............

[catalyst.]

27 - 28 highway
18 - 20 city
8 aggressive driving
average says 24.5 on my obc

[bmw323inewbie]

yer I reckon 18-20 with city driving, and somewhere from 30-35 mpg on the motorway, depends how heavy with the accelerator.

On the topic of mpg, with Vanos does it use a lot of fuel when you accelerate hard ? - i found from reading on this forum , it opens another set of cams or something about 3.5K revs, so if i don't drive too hard and change gear @ 3-3.5K revs do I get better efficiency ? I just did 1000 miles in the last 7 days through work.....

other times I just like to hear that Vanos go mental up to 6k

[ajames]

i have a '92 325is 5-speed and i average about 24-25. OBC is usually at 24 - 24.5 mpg. It also depends how i drive. 20 mpg does sound a little low, i remember when i got the car about a year ago, that my mileage was pretty low as well. But after some pretty general maintenance, it came right back up. New plugs definitely made a difference among other things

[bigbilly]

With a 6-speed 328iC, I get 20-22 in city and 24-27 on highway.

For me at least, the OBC mileage calcs are somewhat optimistic and overstated by about 0.8-1.0mpg.

I recently drove about 12k miles from Tallahassee up the east coast to Nova Scotia, west to Seattle, south to San Louis Obispo, and then back east to Tally and averaged about 26 for the whole trip, which boosted my overall average for the past two years from a firm 22.8 up to around 24.

Adding a cold air intake helped *minimally*. I hear chipping also has an effect but cannot comment - I haven't installed mine yet.

BB

[dutchbmw]

my average is 21 mpg

[NeverLeaned]

Things like tire pressure, clogged injectors/plugs and dirty air filters all contribute to poor gas mileage. Think your mileage is too low? Grab a new filter, and a bottle of techron and see what happens.

[bimmer_boy]

Originally posted by NeverLeaned@Dec 12 2004, 11:52 AM
Things like tire pressure, clogged injectors/plugs and dirty air filters all contribute to poor gas mileage. Think your mileage is too low? Grab a new filter, and a bottle of techron and see what happens.

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Especially tire pressure! If you have tires at different pressures it will destroy your gas mileage! Trust me, I found that out the hard way. Once I got them all up to the right psi, gas mileage increased noticeably.

[wulley1]

What are the ideal spark plugs and tire pressures to be using?

[Cannon00000]

Originally posted by wulley1@Dec 12 2004, 01:58 PM
What are the ideal spark plugs and tire pressures to be using?

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I know tire pressure varies tire by tire. However when getting me new winter tires on the mechanic pointed out that even though the tire says max psi 55 I shouldnt be putting more than 35 psi in. Is this right?

[drz]

My OBC shows 27 mpg on my 328i (taking readings for the last month) -- I do about half and halh on highway and city driving. I think my OBC is a little optimistic, too. I used the trip odometer and a calculator and got about 24.3 mpg on my last tank. This is all knowing that I need to change my spark pluigs and air filter. 20 mpg does sound low, unless you drive in first gear a lot -- hehe