Alright, i installed an Alta CAI over a week ago, and am wondering what gas mileage others get? I was getting between 31-34mpg before, now i cant get any better than 31.7. I am driving like a grandmother, fuel up at the same place, aprox. same time of day, and have the same city/ highway driving routine. Anyone else have this happen?

 

Question... if you drive like a grandmother (and you must in order to get 31-34 mpg) then why buy an intake at all? If I were looking for fuel mileage I would have gone the opposite way with the mods.

To answer your Q - I get 25-28 mpg in mixed driving. My commute is 20.0 miles each direction of which 2.8 are rural, 17.2 are highway at 65-70 mph. My lunch break takes me 3.3 city miles each way to pick up a chicken gyro. The only real variation comes from whether I leave work late and hit rush hour.

It should also be noted that I accelerate like a teenager on meth.

 

Toad! Hi there!

I was pleased to see your thread because I've been considering a HAI along the lines of the following thread (https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...php?t=142151); and I've wondered about the whole gas mileage question myself.

To be fair, I doubt that you can draw any conclusions from one week ... especially since the result you got doesn't indicate you're doing any worse. I'll be curious to see what kind of responses you get.

 

I could be mistaken, but unless you also had a tune after you had the CAI installed, then the ECU will need to learn to adapt to the new environment. While it's doing that, it will likely be less efficient than prior to the change. I'm not sure how long it will take to adapt (likely depends on how much you drive), but once it does, you should get a better read on the long-term mpg you can expect.

HTH,
Ivan

 

that wouldnt be correct, because if the intake flowed SOOO much more than the ECU couldnt cope with it, then it would cause it to run lean, in theory saving gas.

OP, is yours an S or not?

i get 27.6 in mixed driving w/ mine. usually when you lose MPG it has nothing to do with the mods and everything to do with you driving to feel the mods.

 

Sorry, ill clear it up.. I normally have mixed driving, and yes, i normally do get 31-34 (that includes normal city/ highway, and spirited driving) with, occasional jackrabbit starts, while winter mpgs are in the 26-29 range. After installing the intake, i was trying to see how much better the mileage could be (hence, grandmother driving). Im looking for ways of improving the performance in both the fun factor and fuel saving areas (reason for the intake). I commute 30ish miles daily, some city, mixed with highway, not much stopping especially on the return. I do plan on more mods to come.

In the beginning, i did drive like a bat outa hell to feel the CAI, afterwards, i filled up to start an accurate reading

i have an 03S,
NKG plugs,
Nology Hotwires,
Alta v2.0 CAI
with 66k

 

I had the Alta V2 installed along with a 15% pulley at AMVIV this past spring. Since then I've noticed a 10% drop in fuel economy across the board (normal driving, commuting, driving like a snail to save gas, etc.) Makes sense that more air requires more fuel, thus slightly worse economy, right? I'm not too disappointed considering the extra power gained, but am curious what a tune would do.

It is odd to me though that even without the pulley, you seem to have about the same loss in economy.

 

I have a stock MCS '04 Typically I get 26-28 mpg mixed driving. At the pump, people say "wow... you must grat mileage". Don't I wish. I heard that the new Minis are boasting 40 mpg. My question is how do they do it? Is there any modification avail that would get me up in that neighborhood. tnx

 

It takes a lot more power to turn a supercharger than it does a turbocharger. A turbocharger uses wasted energy in the exhaust while a supercharger is a parasitic drag on the engine.

Combine that with 5 years of development and a significantly different head design (with a rather mild cam set) and you can see very good economy.

I get the same comment as you ALL the time, and I too wish I had a better answer..... but thats not really why I bought the car, so I take the time to talk about mods

 

Thanks for your reply. I would not have thought that the delta between super and turbo would be so large. I don't spike the throttle often so I'm not using the supercharge that much (only when I do a dumb thing like pull out in front of a fast going semi). I've now switch to 89 and don't see a change. I read on an other post that the larger JCW filter hurts the mileage. So I continue to search for a magic bullet. As an aside, if I bought my Mini before my Porsche Boxter, I would not have gotten the Boxter. I sold it because the Mini is more fun.

 

Have you ever tried to spin a supercharger by hand? It takes a considerable amount of force due to the weight of the rotors, and it spins at about 2.5x the rpm of your engine with a fixed, defined ratio, regardless of your throttle input. Yes, it takes more power to spin the unit under high load/high throttle situations, but you still have a lot of spinning mass to take with you, even if you never make it past 1/4 throttle.

Now spin a comparable turbo - it takes virtually no effort as the turbine/compressor wheels and rotating assembly has very little mass and rides on a film of oil inside a bearing. Ball bearing turbos are even more ridiculous.

Add to the fact here that the turbo is driven by wasted energy AND has a system in place that almost completely bypasses both turbine and compressor under light load (wastegate + bypass valve) and you have something that does not add additional load to the engine unless your use of the GOFASTER! pedal merits.

So, a turbo can be used as an economizer (hell look at VW's "Ecodiesel" of the 80s) but a supercharger cannot.

 

40 mpg in the "S" versions of the new MINI's? I would think that would apply to the regular model.

 

This is a conflictive statement. In order to improve gas mileage and fun factor, you need to look at things like suspension mods and step back from engine performance. Engine mods don't necessarily drop your gas mileage but few actually improve mileage. The most important association to gas mileage is driving style. Also if mileage is a key point in decision making, then one should not be looking at a supercharged car. I get 24mpg but then I drive the crap out of the car as much as possible.

 

You guys are no fun at all man. I love driving MS MINIVER through the curves and listening to her roar. But I also love it when my mileage is up around 29-30 mpg. So could you please cease and desist with the idea that you can't have your cake and eat it too!

 

I've got to agree with revray. To me that is one of the beauties of the Mini S - fun and frugal. Personally I think 30 mpg is great economy but then again my Subraru Forrester I traded in on it got only 17mpg. I have been driving a lot less spirited lately due to the $4 a gallon gas but it's nice to know I can when ever I want to.

 

Appreciate that the original poster is unhappy w/ his 31 mpg from his MCS w/ intake!!!! If 31 mpg is not cutting it then the reality is the MCS is not the right car. And to top it off spending money on mods isn't the way to go either - take the money for mods and direct it to fuel.

The quest for power comes at some sort of cost typically MPG takes some kind of hit. Most of the time the MPG hit is small and the "gain" is so much fun its worth it. I avg 24 mpg so its clear that I spend most of my time in the fun factor.

 

Would anybody here say that plugs/wires/coil pack could improve mpg at all? say 3-4%? Say bringing a 27mpg average that I have noticed in my MCS since Jan up to a 27.7-28mpg averagae? I'm not thinking that those mods will do much if anything for performance, but perhaps they could burn the fuel more efficiently and result in a marginal increase in economy. Anybody who has actually purchased these mods would probably know best if they can reply

Thanks

 

Alright, im not saying that i installed mods to gain better mpgs, i installed them leaning towards the fun side (the pos. gain in mpgs would have been a bonus that ive heard of from others). I was just wondering if it was common for the mpgs to be affected like this from adding these features. Im in no way considering getting rid of my S because of the change (obviously, id remove the intake if it bothered me), this car is the most fun ive had out of any other of my past vehicles hands down. Im still used to the 17mpgs that i was getting from my Silverado, so its not a big deal. I chose the S for the extra power and performance (knowing of the mpgs compared to the non S)... So, again ill say that its not even an issue, i was just curious. Thanks for the responses.

 

This question have intrigued me, though. If you replace a filthy air filter with a brand new one, it should improve gas mileage, right? Why? Simply because you're providing more air to the engine with a clean filter than a clogged one. So why wouldn't adding an additional air intake source also improve mpg? More air is more air. Is there some point at which you can provide too much air to the engine? Obviously, I am not up to speed on any of this stuff, but I am interested in learning more about it.

That and I wanted to hit my 300th post!

 

Congrats on that 300 post REVRAY

 

Engines have to maintain an air/fuel ratio. If there is too much air being pumped into the engine without enough fuel you will blow the motor. Also meaning that an increased amount of air inside the engine means an increased amount of fuel that needs to be injected in order to maintain a safe running environment. That is why it is better to run rich (more fuel) than to run lean(less fuel). A rich A/F helps to keep engine temperatures down.

 

Well NYC highways and traffic leave me at no BS.........aprox: 20-22MPG. I live on redline and the worst average I had it down do was 16MPG. It is on a JCWS 2006 so.I guess it could always be worse. People that own a Mini usually aren't hurting for gas even when it hits 5$ now by 6$ I'll be griping then.