If you keep you foot out of it, how do the various minor mods affect gas mileage?

 

I have pretty much the same experience. My (non-JCW) MCS gets around 30 in mixed driving. I have some stretches of highway on each tank I've measured, but I've also had bumper-to-bumper traffic, so it evens out.

 

My 02 MC averages 30 in town driving and as high as 34 on hwy driving. I keep careful track on ea. tank full, writing it down in a notepad in my glove compartment and have been very satisfied with my MC.

 

with 2 months of meticulous record-keeping, i am currently averaging 24-25 MPG in my MCS (as seen here). Then again, I drive like a guy who just moved up from a MINI Cooper...

Slightly related, today i saw a billboard for a BMW 3-series that said "30 mpg". yeah, right. maybe in a wind tunnel on a dyno w. the windows up...

 

In the last 9000 miles my MCS, according to the OBC, has turned in an average of 26.5MPG at an average of 39MPH. Thats using it daily on a 45mile SoCal Freeway commute, plus a 1000 mile AZ trip.

As for 30MPG in a 30series - my wife is yet to break 20MPG in her 325i, her current average is 18.9MPG on her 50mile round-trip commute.

I am fairly sure that I could drag 5-8 MPG out of either of them, but I would have to drive at unnaturally slow rates, and that it not going to happen anytime soon......

 

I drive 120 miles round trip a day to work on rural highways at 55 - 70 mph. My actual MPG (calculated by actual miles and fueling) over the past year is 28.6 MPG. (15% pulley, K&N, reflashed ECU, Magnaflow).

 

Not necessarily. I had a 2002 330ci, and it was relatively easy to get 30mpg on the highway. Long trips we'd usually average 28 - 29 including some city driving.

 

FYI

I see alot of people talking about MPG using cruise control. Especially with an automatic, you will get better mileage by not using cruise control if you pay close attention to your driving. CC can't anticipate like you can and when CC senses reduced speed it will accelerate hard to catch up.

 

Well my MC has been getting under the estimated mpg on it's first two tanks... 1st tank was 26.5 with about equal city/highway driving, and the 2nd tank got 27 with mostly city driving... I guess it's because it's new and since the 2nd tank had slightly higher with more city driving, it's looking up. Since the estimated mpg is 28 city/36 highway, I'm under on both accounts, and I don't drive wildly either...

So CC is not a good gas saving technique then when on open highway?

 

Makes perfect sense. I can see CC giving better mileage on a totally flat road, but on hills your argument makes sense.

 

i am adding my s/c pulley, crank pulley, thermostat, ags, and the alta diverter for more hp, tq and better mpg this friday.
on my 3rd tank of gas, i averaged 27mph, 80-20city. i only have the k&n typhoon and as mentioned it did help out with mileage and power. my mods will be done this friday and i will post the feeling later.
i know i will be getting better gas after my mods and the power when i need them.
i will be selling my k&n typhoon. only 600 miles on it, still brand new. anyone interested, let me know. beautiful intake.

 

Head ---> desk.

When I was washing the car this weekend, I noticed (slight) feathering on the outside edges of the front tires. This could easily be caused by a number of things, including: aggressive street driving (ummm, guilty), suspension adjustments or incorrect tire pressure. Since I'm not about to change the aggressive thing and the alignment questions are things I can't check at home, I went for the easy one - tire pressure.

Gah. I thought the spouse had checked the tire pressures; he thought I had. The tires were set for 29 psi all the way around. Inflating them up to where they belong (Pirelli Euphoria run flats on S-Lites) got me almost 4 mpg better on the highway, up to almost 36 mpg for a quick 200 mile roadtrip (to check the effects of tire presure, of course).

 

I tend to keep the RPMs below 3000 rpm. This is definitely not spirited driving but enough to get better mileage per gallon. Most of my driving is city based so you have to be smart in terms of maintaining your speeds and minimizing stop and go driving and eliminating all rabbit jump starts off the line.

 

My 2003 MCS tricked me the other day... I drove it to Fort Worth (about 250 miles away) and the computer indicated 40.5 MPG for the trip (I reset when I left my driveway)... That was cruising at about 83 mph, I reset the MPG counter on the return trip and was only getting low 30s, very disappointing. I then bought gas and calcluated manually, and I averaged about 32 mpg.

I don't know why the MPG computer was measuring so high for that time period.

In the city, it normally shows about 24mpg. (that's using the boost quite a bit)...

 

i believe you cause i have a friend who owns a 1989 5 series with the 6 cylinder engine and he gets 35MPG highway

 

Base MC with JCW sound kit; 34.5 combined city/hwy

 

2006 MSC Auto, under 5,000 kms total. I did two mileage tests, almost exclusively city driving. First, i drove a full tank aggressively second, passively. The difference was 22 MPG compared to 28 MPG.

Then I realized I did not buy this car for the gas mileage...

 

thought i let you all in on my mod. as mentioned i had successful installed the 16% pulley, 2% crank pulley, thermostat, oil catch can and the alta diverter. without a surprise, ags v3 could not be successfully installed, way to complicating.
anyways, with my new mods, the power has definitely improved and the feel is excellent and not to mention, the engine sound is much deeper than without the mods.
only thing i dont lkie about the upgrades is my mpg has lessen. now with more added power & torque, the mpg declined a little. but its only been couple of days and i am keeping my eye on it to see how much it will effect.
i will keep you guys posted.

 

Your first few tank fulls will show a decrease in mileage. As you get used to the new found power your mileage will improve. At least it did for me once I stopped using all that power every chance I got.

 

I just did another calculation on the last tankfull. 28.6mpg, almost all city driving, with much of it being bumper-to-bumper trips in rush hour. I can't complain.

 

Living where i live everyone does 85-90 on the hwy so hardly any car is gonna get really great mileage because of the RPM the car is turning.

 

Your wife must have one heavy foot!

 

I have a 2003 MCS with K&N Typhoon CAI, 15% Alta Pulley, Unichip, Denzo Irridium plugs, and Milltek Catback Exhaust. In gridlock traffic, she gets 24-27 mpg, and in freeway/highway travels she gets 32-36 mpg. Don't worry about mileage when you have less than 8,000 - 10,000 miles on the odo. After 10K, the mileage really improves. I've been driving a friend's 2006 MCS and its mileage is really not as good as my '03, but it has under 5,000 miles. Hope this helps.

 

alright. mileage will improve after 10k. i have a long way to go but something to look forward too. thanks miniclo, your feedback will be most appreciative.

miniclo, can you tell me what your unichip is and what good its for our minis?

 

I have a Non-S and average around 28mpg hwy and 25mpg city