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is it unusual that i get an avg of 25 miles to the gallon?
(mostly city driving, i hit the freeway like once a week)
And i mainly keep my rpm at or below 2 - 2.5 (i rarely let it pass 2)
And i see all of you guys posting that you average in the 30s and whatnot even with driving it hard...
I have an MC. Still, my experience is that the MINI is very sensitive to the manner of acceleration and to highway speed. What in no way feels like jackrabbit acceleration to you is likely to feel that way to your engine. At least is does to mine.
My advice is to use the instantaneous mpg reading to figure out what your car likes.
I have gotten a high of 41.5 doing 60-65mph on flat interstates, but I can drop that to 35 by going 80mph. In the city, lower mpg but similar story, with more emphasis on how fast I accelerate from stops and to keep up with traffic flux.
__________________ "History is what people remember." RC
When going for gas mileage, I usually try to limit it to 3k rpm for shifts. Counter-intuitive, but maybe you are keep the revs too low?
That is it. Reset your OBC and drive maintaining 3000 RPMs, then shift up and maintain 2000 RPM. Watch the MPG reading go up when at 3000 RPM, then fall when 2000 RPM, even at the same speed.
OP, don't shift so early. I think you'll see better MPG figures.
City driving can be hard on mpg, but the rpms you use as a max are what I use as a minimum. I believe that you run the risk of getting a lot of cabon build-up if you keep it below 2-2.5K rpm. Check out the carbon build-up thread. At least take it out for an Italian tune-up once and awhile. The MCS has a high-performance engine. I don't think it should be driven a tractor. This isn't a 1950 American flat-head that redlines at 3K rpm.
My area is mostly country roads with some city. My average would be between 30-32 mpg, if it weren't for my long switch-back, cliff hugging driveway (8 mpg in 1st gear). The toll for my view brings it down to around 27 mpg.
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Robin Casady Bombadil: 2007 MINI Cooper S, R56, Pure Silver, LSD, Wood Shift Knob, Rota Slipstream 16x7, NAV, HIFI...
The little car has surprised me with how good the mileage is. I always leave it in Sport mode. My driving mode is accelerate to at least the speed limit as quickly as I can (not a drag race start, but still much faster than the traffic around me). Once I get to desired speed, I do try to keep it steady. In most cases I am outpacing traffic by 10mph or so. My daily drive is mixed... country roads, 4 lane highways, city, etc. and I average 31~32 mpg. I have averaged as high as 37 on longer trips (all highways). I'm very impressed with that characteristic of the MCS.
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2009 MCS, Pure Silver, 6MT, Premium and Sport packages
I'm averaging about 32-33 mpg with mostly spirited driving. Generally shifting at 4000 rpm or higher. I keep the sport mode on at all times and if let the transmission "brain" do its thing it generally picks that point to shift at also. I can't imagine shifts at 2000 or 2500 but of course the MC doesn't have the torque of the MCS.
__________________ SCOOTER2009 MC, Chili Red/White, Automatic, Cold Weather, MFSW, Sport Seats, Center Armrest, 25.5mm Rear Sway Bar, Falken Azenis RT-615, Valentine V1, Now Alive and Well in Salt Lake
I get about 23.3 average, mixed highways, main roads, and about half of it around town. I do drive spirited though and tend to find every excuse possible to rev my engine when I'm doing fun runs with my friends (which is bad enough on my milage).
Imho, gas is cheap. Id rather get 23.5 enjoying myself than disregard why I bought a MINI and get 37.
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2009 R56 PW/PW "Jeremy"...6 Speed, Sport, Cold, Hi-Fi, Piano Black, Stubby Antenna, Alta Intake, Alta Hot Side Boost Tube, Functional hood Scoop, Alta Exhaust, Alta Rear Endlinks, Scangauge II, Cooper Side Scuttles, 22mm Alta Rear Sway Bar, KW Variant 1 Coilovers, CravenSpeed Adjustable Short Shifter, NM-Engineering Torque Arm Insert, S.P.E.C. Stage 2.5 Clutch and Pressure Plate.
2007 mini cooper S manual...And i mainly keep my rpm at or below 2 - 2.5 (i rarely let it pass 2)
What am i doing wrong
Well, IMO, you must not be having much fun driving your Mini S. At 70mph in 6th, the Mini is turning 3000rpm and if you rarely pass 2000, you must never see the highway.
The Mini S is a high performance engine that wants to go fast. I rarely get much farther than my driveway without hitting the red line. Unless I am in traffic, I rarely shift out of 1st and 2nd under 4000 and I am averaging over 30mpg.
IMO, you need to enjoy your Mini and drive it like it was meant to be driven.
__________________ I'm not in a hurry, I just like to drive fast.
OH man guys!! This is my first manual car! i didn't know. I'm doing it all wrong. My stupid self thought the lower the rpm the better for the car, so i always shifted to 6th as soon as i can, which is normally 45-49 mph ( i stare at the speedo). This is entirely incorrect right? Bad for engine/transmission?
I honestly dont mind all the shifting, but if the way i do it is wrong then i don't want to do it. (and yeah i'm 3k-4k rpm on the highway which i rarely get on)
Do you 2nd gen MCS owners have like a guidance chart for what speeds it is (on average) best to shift at? -noobie-
IMO, easiest rule you can follow is shift at 2.5k if u're not in a hurry.. The big factor where you might be losing efficiency is at what rpm you're shifting into with the next gear.
If shifting gear at 2k, then the next gear starts at 1.6 or 1.7k.. that's too low in the power band & so the engine consumes more fuel to catch up!
*shift @ 3k if you're late to office and 5k if it's a Sunny Saturday
OH man guys!! This is my first manual car! i didn't know. I'm doing it all wrong. My stupid self thought the lower the rpm the better for the car, so i always shifted to 6th as soon as i can, which is normally 45-49 mph ( i stare at the speedo). This is entirely incorrect right? Bad for engine/transmission?
I honestly dont mind all the shifting, but if the way i do it is wrong then i don't want to do it. (and yeah i'm 3k-4k rpm on the highway which i rarely get on)
Do you 2nd gen MCS owners have like a guidance chart for what speeds it is (on average) best to shift at? -noobie-
If I were you, I would not worry about the gas mileage too much. Learn to drive the car well. As you become more used to the manual car, shifting is by the sound of the engine more than staring at the tach. Keep your eyes on the road.
If you are driving for mileage, it is OK to shift at slightly lower rpms but do not lug the engine or stomp on it when the rpms are too low. If you are on too high of a gear, just shift down before stomping on the accelerator.
Frankly, in real city driving with lots of traffic and lights, getting 25 mpg is not too bad, especially with the a/c on.
Physics??? That's why I changed majors in college.
I really have no idea whether there is any factual basis for the better mileage at 3k shift points vs 2k. But a couple things make me think that may be a source of the OPs low mileage.
1. If he is shifting between 2 and 2.5k, then when he gets into the next gear, his rpms will be quite low. Maybe not lugging yet, but on the way there. So then the engine has to work harder to get back up to speed. Basically what tambi posted above.
2. I normally run just over 70 @ 3k in 6th gear. I haven't bothered to try to figure it out, but I would guess 55 is around 2.7k in 6th? If so, my suspicion would be that is the rpm that MINI built the engine to be the most fuel efficient at so as to get the good highway mileage numbers. I suppose that would vary depending on what gear one is in, but pretty good starting point. So if I'm shifting at only a few hundred above that, dropping to a few hundred below that, I'm keeping the average close to that, so hopefully maximizing the fuel efficiency.
Or it could have been a mere coincidence that I got something right (if indeed I'm right). This would seem like the most likely explanation.
Hopefully matt will give this suggestion a try and let us know the results.
I see the same thing with the 2000 vs 3000. The instant mpg seems to read better when I'm cruising along at 3000 rpms. On the same roads at 2000, it seems I have to give it more gas to keep speed up the hills. That really hurts the instant mpg.
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2009 MCS, Pure Silver, 6MT, Premium and Sport packages
Okey.. I'm not the best teacher on earth, but i'll give it a shot..
Basically, a lot of this has to do with BSFC Curves - Brake Specific Fuel Consumption, which shows how much fuel is consumed, for a given torque & engine rpm.
I've attached a bsfc curve of a random gas engine (I've been searching one for the MINI but haven't been able to find it). Anyway, if you pick any given torque value on this map, say 78N-m.... the BSFC value for this torque at 2500 rpm is 275 g/kWh, which is better than BSFC at 1500 rpm, which is 300 g/kWh {Smaller number, better efficiency}. Basically all this shows is that all engines have 'sweet-spots' of best fuel efficiency.. the closer you are to it, the better efficiency you get
Do you 2nd gen MCS owners have like a guidance chart for what speeds it is (on average) best to shift at? -noobie-
I don't. What gear you should be in depends on how much load there is on the engine.
The faster you go, the more wind resistance there is, so the higher the rpm needs to be.
If you are going up a hill, you need to be at a higher rpm than you would if you were cruising level, at the same speed. If you are going down hill, you need even less rpm, unless you need the engine to slow you down.
Accelerating requires more power than cruising, so you need more rpm. You should be able to feel car respond quickly to the gas pedal. If it isn't, you are at too low an rpm. At less than highway speed, you would want to have at least 2.5K rpm when you start to accelerate. Unless you are in 1st or 2nd, accelerating from below 2K is asking a lot from the engine.
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Robin Casady Bombadil: 2007 MINI Cooper S, R56, Pure Silver, LSD, Wood Shift Knob, Rota Slipstream 16x7, NAV, HIFI...
And i mainly keep my rpm at or below 2 - 2.5 (i rarely let it pass 2)
And i see all of you guys posting that you average in the 30s and whatnot even with driving it hard...
What am i doing wrong
If you don't like the result you are getting, start doing the opposite. Push in the Sport button, give it some gas, shift at comfortable higher rpms, and DRIVE it.
I ALWAYS use the Sport button. I out accelerate the next car at every traffic light, chirp the tires in 2nd gear when leaving work after a bad day, tap the gas just because I'm bored and want to hear the turbo spool down, and occasionally throw it into a curve as hard as I can, just so I can come out of it floored in 3rd gear. I do at least some of this every day along with a 15 mile stretch at about 85 mph. My average gas mileage is 32 almost all the time. Sometimes it may drop close to 30, but I have never finished a tank below 31mpg.
Some of the things I do that may help: I never worry about warming it up, never lug it by driving with rpms too low, I pre-accelerate before hills, I let the car coast (in gear) when it can, I almost never use 5th gear... usually because of a 44oz cup in the RH cup holder. Most of the time is spent either in 4th gear or 6th gear (when at highway speeds).
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2009 MCS, Pure Silver, 6MT, Premium and Sport packages
"History is what people remember." RC
SCOOTER 2009 MC, Chili Red/White, Automatic, Cold Weather, MFSW, Sport Seats, Center Armrest, 25.5mm Rear Sway Bar, Falken Azenis RT-615, Valentine V1, Now Alive and Well in Salt Lake
08 MCS/ 6Spd Manual / LtB/ Sport Pkg/ 205 45 R17
