i recently bought an 02 brg justacooper. with the sports and premium package. bought it with 95k on it.

im a little bit confused as to why my mileage is worse than my dads 1990 caddy?
im only getting around 18mpg on the streets but when i reset my comp and get on the highway im getting 35+mpg

is it the way im driving? im new to manual transmission but i dont redline i dont ride the clutch, i coast in neutral, never let my rpms get to high.

what could the problem be? is it my driving or something else. im not sure of the recent work done to the car. who ever had it before me put a lot of love in the car and really kept it up to date. the oil was change not to long ago

thanks

 

What do you mean "on the streets"? Stop and go traffic will kill your gas mileage.

 

on the streets meaning" normal town driving. not like a city more of a town streets lights every few blocks. would it really kill it that much

 

Our 05 Automatic Justa Cooper only got 21-22 in town. TERRIBLE!

Our 03 Manual R53 gets 33-36mph on a regular basis.

Maybe it needs a tune-up. Or maybe you just got one that gets horrible gas mileage. Sorry to hear about that, but try some small tune-up items to see if it increases your mpg.

 

i pray i dont have one. i mean the mileage is great on the highway but otherwise it sucks. i have a feeelign part of it may half to do with the fact thats its been 95+ degrees everyday for the past two weeks. and the A/C is used only when friends are in the car. but when i drive alone theres no AC

ill have to go out to morristown mini maybe monday and see whats up. i need a new battery for my phob anyway.

what would you suggest?

 

My 2003 CVT Cooper also gets 18-20 mpg around town and mid 30's on the highway. It is usually driven very easy.

My 2002 5-speed gets close to 30 in city highway mixed driving, and driven much harder.

 

Use only premium gas .... and possibly some BG 44K power enhancer http://www.bgprod.com/products/fuelair.html or a tank of 100 octane race fuel to clean out some carbon deposits. I'm not a huge fan of additives .... but some times they can make a noticible difference. Yearly I use either Chevron Techron or BG 209 in all my vehicles.

 

You are going to the dealer anyway so get them to check codes . Your car may be running rich because of a faulty sensor or something. 18mpg is just not at all right for a Mini. I always avarage no lower then 29 running hard to 33 normal grandpa in town driving. I would be really surprised if there is nothing wrong with your car.

By the way- Are you using the pencil & paper to really check it or the computer that is never right anyway?

18mpg is just not right at all.

 

Yea I'm thinking that's a little much even for in town. My 03 JCW usually gets about 24 mpg in the previously described driving situation...

 

ill try everything you guys have said. unfortunately my mini isnt under warranty anymore. but ill still go in and see whats up. its weird the car feels absolutely mint! never driven a car that feels so good. no noises no weird shakes no leaks no nothing!

i have a bottle of that BG 44K sitting next to my computer waiting for fill up.

i think the mileage has a lot to with the fact thats its been 100 degrees everyday for the past 3 weeks. also im new to manual driving but id say im pretty damn good at it by now. i mean the first day i killed the mileage spinning in circles in the parking lot. Also living in a very hilly area is not helping. some of the hills around here are like living in sanfran and it doesnt help that there is a stop light with a line of cars waiting on a hill. so you need that extra rpm to move all of 10 feet when you have to move up

 

Maybe a silly thought, but -- check the size of your tires. Someone may have put the wrong size on it and your speedo may be quite a way off if they did.

Check the pressure, too.

 

will check pressure now and im pretty sure the tires are the right size

 

A couple of suggestions: First, you didn't say how you were checking your mileage. Don't go by the computer; do the actual calculation when you fill up.

Second, not to be a know-it-all, but if you're new to manual trannies, you may just need to get used to the car, the engine and optimal shift points for different types of driving. As 'Rice mentioned, stop-and-go will kill your mileage anyway. If you spend a lot of it with the engine revving 1000 RPM higher than it needs to, that will kill it even more dead. On the highway, you're basically 6th gear and go. In slow-moving traffic, it's all up to you, your right foot, and your gear selection. You'll want to keep your RPMs between 1800-2500. Of course that takes all the fun out of it and it could require a LOT of shifting, but that will get you the best out of the worst.

Definitely only use premium gas.

Also, spark plugs live a lot longer than they used to, but they still don't live forever. If the previous owner did a lot of city driving, 95K miles is a good life for one set of plugs. Maybe a few simple tune items will help (plugs, air filter, etc.). If you're anywhere near the northeast, go visit Greasy Pete in Worcester, Mass ... he'll hook you right up!

Just for grins, throw half a can of Seafoam into the tank the next time you fill up.



HA! How do you drive a MINI like a grandpa??? I don't think I could if I tried!

 

Don't coast in neutral - you actually use *more* gas that way. When you're coasting in gear, the fuel injectors are cut off completely until the engine speed gets down to about 1200 RPM. When you're coasting in neutral, the injectors are on all the time, using enough fuel to keep the engine idling.

 

ahh thank you for that vital info! didnt know that

 

Go figure!

I didn't know that either and totally makes sense!

From now on, I'll coast in gear!

Thanks for the tip!

 

Check out some basic things first.
Air Filter, is it clean or dirty.
Check spark plugs.
Oil? Filter?
The fuel filter has probally never been changed.
Ditto on the Techron.
High test gas only.
Tire pressure.

 

Check your mpg from figures you get at the pump. Don't trust mpg display.

Also get your average from 3 or 4 tanks, don't just go off the 1st tank.

 

That's amazing info!

 

One thing I dont think Ive read here is at what point on the tach are you shifting. The higher you rev, the worse the mileage is. Most of the time, in normal city driving, I dont go past about 3k rpm because a) its not necessary, and b) mileage drops significantly when you rev higher than that. Set the display in the tach to actual mpg and youll see what I mean.

 

Don't get entirely caught up in the "don't coast in neutral" debate of things. There are so many pros/cons to both sides. Just drive it like you want to. The 0.3 gallons per hour that you burn while coasting in neutral won't even be noticed and while you are idling, you are also saving your engine by only revving at 1000rpms instead of 3000. Coast or don't coast. Either way is driver preference. I coast in neutral when I don't need to stop down a hill, but if I need to stop, I leave it in gear.