Fuel economy... your MPG?

[e34.535i.sport]

Hi, just a quick one but as many replies as possible would be great to get a good average! What MPG do you tend to get around town and motorway?
-(I average around 18MPG round-town and 26MPG motorway).

Cheers.

[Rus]

My driving is about 40% highway and 60% city. My MPG varies between 17.5 and 19 depending on how lead-footed I am and how much time I spend idling around in traffic. Haven't really established a purely highway MPG.

[Michael999]

30% highway
68% city/traffic
2% wide open throttle

i get 15L/100km (i believe thats actually 15 or 16MPG)
Oh and i live at an altitude almost a kilometre above where i work.
535i automatic is a disgusting car on fuel for its power

[Qube]

Is it time for another fuel economy thread again?

Please do go ahead and search :)
http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=32452&highlight=fuel+economy
...for example.

I average 19.6 mpg with very spirited 60% highway 40 % local driving.

This is being sharked and running on high octane.

[Denton]

My OBC tells me it's time for a tuneup...I think it's the original O2 sensor...just glad there's only one. :D

[BFEINZIMER]

12.9-13 city...i guess im doing horrible?

[BigKriss]

14 mpg, all city

[CharlesAFerg]

15.1 almost all city, fairly sprinted but not too bad - icky for an m20 2.5

[e34musician]

75% city, 25% hwy. using mid grade in California, getting ~17 - 18mpg. Haven't got a chance to do real 100% hwy yet.

[Jehu]

I'm around the same with conscienscious driving maybe closer to 23 hgy but i'd like to think with the new plugs and fuel filters i installed in my back seat i'll see an improvment....

[Boone.Msi]

an obc reading of 20mpg with about 40% highway and 60% city spirited. Thats with a bad MAF and dirty o2's...

[Traian]

How will installing new fuel filters improve mileage??? That's like installing a new air filter to restrict your intake...

I've averaged a little better than 18 mpg over the last 1300 km or so, mostly highway, but a lot of 160+ km/h and idle/stop and go too. I get like 25 or so if I click the cruise on at about 110 km/h.

[SC David]

I've always what you guys mean when you say your percentage of city and highway driving. Is it by distance or by timing?

For me, I do about 80% city driving timing wise, but only about 20% city distance wise. Either way, I'm at 22mpg on my tank right now according to my OBC. I get roughly 15mpg city with a heavy foot, 18 with a light foot. 24mpg highway when I stick at 85mph, 28mpg when I stick around 65mph and draft off semis.

[Ferret]

*cough*

Around 34-5 around town.
Highway/Motorway about 38-40

[Nick.Hay]

Last drive said: 46L/100km!!! **** Me!! hahaha

Considering it was running on 5 cylinders and smelt terribly of pertol out of the exhaust, I'm not surprised!! Poor old girl :( :(

[Dave M]

*cough*

Around 34-5 around town.
Highway/Motorway about 38-40

That is efficient, especially the city mileage. Are you providing this in British gallons? If so it drops a bit, but is still imprssive. 34 british = ~28 US, 38 british = ~32. My M50 will get 31 on the HW, but will not get near 28 in the city.

Go deisel.

Dave

[Paul in NZ]

i do mostly a stop start "highway ty[e drive.My average is 19.4 miles per imp gallon.It was down to 17 .2 but has been creeping up since i got a new dizzie capThe stop start and the hills kill the mileage.Not that it would be spectcular,my best is about 28 mpg(again imp gallons)on the open road.My actual calculations give me readings of 21 to 24.I try to fill up at exactly the same pump to take variations out of the equation

[Ferret]

That is efficient, especially the city mileage. Are you providing this in British gallons? If so it drops a bit, but is still imprssive. 34 british = ~28 US, 38 british = ~32. My M50 will get 31 on the HW, but will not get near 28 in the city.

Go deisel.

Dave

Yeah, those are UK mpg figures...

There's not much difference in the highway mileage because they're the same capacity engine, the thing that kills M50's around town is the amount of fuel they use at idle...

I had the fuel rail out of my last M50 and cranked it over, was shocked how much fuel went everywhere.

You probably already know this but: Petrols and Diesels work in a fundamentally different way. Petrol/gas engines control speed by the amount of air going into the cylenders, and the fuel is added in proportion. Diesels /always/ take a full charge of air, there's no throttle valve on the intake - their engine speed is regulated by how much fuel is going in through the direct injectors.

This means that at idle they use a shockingly small amount of fuel... as in it hardly effects your mpg rating while sat in traffic... however with the 525i gas I'd be sat in traffic watching my mpg rating slowly tick down.

Sorry if I'm preaching to the converted!

EDIT: If I lock the cruise at ~55mph it returns a constant 50mpg :o

[J.DeFeo]

I get about 14.7 mpg city and depending on hills and wind 24.5 to 27mpg highway. Mildly spirited driving, with occational WOT.

[Sidney Rough-Diamond]

I try not to work it out. Paying $8 a gallon with a V8 is barking mad.I'd sell it if I knew the true figure.

[Ferret]

I try not to work it out. Paying $8 a gallon with a V8 is barking mad.I'd sell it if I knew the true figure.

Haha, this made me laugh out loud :)

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

one of my friends brought by to fix.....9.8 MPG

[SC David]

one of my friends brought by to fix.....9.8 MPG
That's Ferrari territory.

[Boone.Msi]

no other 530i's? C'mon i wanna know where i stand...

[Dr. Frank]

15 miles per gallon city (4.55 liter gallon) heavy left foot!!!

[bigtisas]

21.5 mpg with 80% highway.

[karmann]

I have an e34 bmw 520i m50b20 I have tested using the lowest octane in europe...and the highest ,,,(95-99) octane .I ran 6 tanks of each and consistently found the higher to be about 10 percent better (city driving) long trips were maybe 5 percent (10lt per 100km-99oct and 11+ litres with 95 octane)..also my engine is alot quieter with the high but I dont' know if 99 octane is overkill for my car,is it causing any damage?,budget wise i think i am better off with the 99 octane but I would like to know if it's bad for my car

[DaveVoorhis]

It shouldn't be a problem. I believe the VANOS-equipped M50 engines have a knock sensor, which allows the engine to adjust the spark timing to benefit from high octane fuel. Non-VANOS M50, M20, and M30 engines do not have a knock sensor, and therefore will not benefit from higher octane than recommended, and may be more inclined to carbon up if you use higher octane fuel than recommended.

[Podmore]

Translating 13.2 l/100 km gets me 21.5 mpg (imperial gallons @ 4.55 litres) overall city and country. A bit better than 28 mpg sustained highway driving. Around 18 mpg city driving. Worse than 14 mpg enthusiastic hills driving ....

[ajt3nc]

The old e34 gets 26 mpg in 25% city 75% hwy driving , the jeeps gets 12, the vw 45 and the suby gets 23.

[brick8]

I get around 22 mpg 50/50 highway/city.

You should post results for all your vehicles on the epa website. If more people did this it would be a great resource--much more meaningful than what is on new car stickers!

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/findacar.htm

[ChefJRD]

I recently got 30.5 mpg on a highway trip, but normally average 24-25 mpg in suburban driving (between city and highway: 30-50mph with occasional stops).

[MarkD]

The M5's use about 9.5l/100 km @ 130 km/hr, they both have my chip in it.

In the city, they use around 15l/100 km

[Jon K]

~18.5 mixed with boost.

[zhandax]

The OBC shows 25 mpg at 100 mph. I have gone 425 miles on the freeway with the guage indicating ~1/8th a tank left. Around 20 mixed city/freeway. Probably around 15-16 downtown. This is running Ammoco Ultimate. 25 hwy is the same as the 6 cyl. 300E. The 528e with a 5 speed did 30mpg.

[hidenakka]

Is it too late to chime in? I'm getting just 13.6mpg. :( There's gotta be something wrong with my car... Since its from Japan, do I need to do a remap of the air-fuel ratio? Anything to help cuz I pay $70CDN/week as this is my DD. And yes, 100% city stop n go driving.

[ThoreauHD]

I get 19mpg in hard city driving and 26 mpg on highway driving. I'm hoping to improve that with new ignition coils. I've replaced everything else, and I keep getting a Check Control Module see owner's manual thing, so I'm thinking that maybe ignition coils after 85K miles would be helpful. Hope the bavauto coils don't suck, cause I'll probably be picking those up.

[CharlesAFerg]

Is it too late to chime in? I'm getting just 13.6mpg. :( There's gotta be something wrong with my car... Since its from Japan, do I need to do a remap of the air-fuel ratio? Anything to help cuz I pay $70CDN/week as this is my DD. And yes, 100% city stop n go driving.

You know, fi we resurrec tthis thread enough we can see if our MPG has gone down since last time we all posted in this same thread... lol

15.3 OBC here.
Ugly.

[Sam-Son]

16 city 35-38 highway

[Paul in NZ]

You know, fi we resurrec tthis thread enough we can see if our MPG has gone down since last time we all posted in this same thread... lol

15.3 OBC here.
Ugly.
sorry mate mine has gone up.Was 19.4 av now crept up to 19.6,as i said last time after dropping to 17.2 whilst driving around with a intermitternt bad miss and ocassional hard start.A round trip 1200km open road driving also helped

[bmwrp8]

I just don't want to know my MPG since before I drive a e36 316i...I know 1600cc of the e36 is waaayy fuel efficient than the 525:D :p

[philbyil]

Just did a run to San Antonio and back....averaged 76mph ;) on one leg and 77 on the other....averaged 27.4 mpg!

I have a 525i 5spd with a Jim Conforti chip in it running 93 octane.

[MBXB]

19 city; 26 highway

[shurton]

16 city
20 hwy

[whiskychaser]

Hi, just a quick one but as many replies as possible would be great to get a good average! What MPG do you tend to get around town and motorway?
-(I average around 18MPG round-town and 26MPG motorway).

Cheers.

I'm jealous. Only way I get those figures is if I hit the OBC before going downhill on the M62- just after the sign saying 'highest motorway in England'

[e34.535i.sport]

I'm jealous. Only way I get those figures is if I hit the OBC before going downhill on the M62- just after the sign saying 'highest motorway in England'

What are you getting these days?! I fixed a corroded fuel pipe recently too which seems to have increased my economy!!! (According to the OBC anyway) :p Done a run to Rhyl and back last week - averaged 27.7mpg (turned out to be true i worked it out myself). Hit 30mpg for the first time too - but i was trying for it and driving 'economically' ;) !

You probably already know this but you actually use less petrol if you roll up to lights etc in gear than if you slip it into neutral and coast... Funky. :D

[e34.535i.sport]

Is it too late to chime in? I'm getting just 13.6mpg. :( There's gotta be something wrong with my car... Since its from Japan, do I need to do a remap of the air-fuel ratio? Anything to help cuz I pay $70CDN/week as this is my DD. And yes, 100% city stop n go driving.

You know if i get stuck at lights or in heavy traffic for a while mine will drop to about that - thats why i try and take the quiet routes! Its horrible sitting there watching the OBC go down and down... and down! I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with it - it just aint designed for city driving. I try not to think about fuel costs these days...

My lowest home from work a few nights ago - 12.9mpg. Scary stuff though!

[Macv]

16mpg for 50% highway 50% city

close to 30mpg on the interstate

[Alexlind123]

19mpg. Im starting a new job in a week which will require some highway driving, so hopefully it will go up a bit then.

[632 Regal]

mine runs around 20ish mixed city/highway. Haven't gotten more than 22 in years.

no other 530i's? C'mon i wanna know where i stand...

[filip00]

i get around 15mpg in the city, stop and go driving, while on open road it's around 30mpg.

[steve0suprem0]

was getting about 20/28. with the supercharger, i's about 26/34 so long as i keep my foot out of it. pure highway @80 with cruise control: 36.2.

now, if i get on it, hell, i dunno. probably something like the m30 guys get...

[whiskychaser]

What are you getting these days?! I fixed a corroded fuel pipe recently too which seems to have increased my economy!!! (According to the OBC anyway) :p Done a run to Rhyl and back last week - averaged 27.7mpg (turned out to be true i worked it out myself). Hit 30mpg for the first time too - but i was trying for it and driving 'economically' ;) !

You probably already know this but you actually use less petrol if you roll up to lights etc in gear than if you slip it into neutral and coast... Funky. :D

On a 3 mile trip to work - about 14mpg. Motorway about 23. Replacing the two short hoses that connect the injector rail to the hard pipe. Front one is def weeping when cold but sods law thats the one that has to come from Germany when you order. When I get it back on the road and save up enough money to fill the tank I will do a proper test and not just rely on the OBC:-)

[JMI]

I have considered resetting my "average mile per hour" setting when I reset the "average mile per gallon" to see how the two relate. Might make for a more valid comparison then "70% city - 30% highway" sort of thing.

Jim

[e34.535i.sport]

i get around 15mpg in the city, stop and go driving, while on open road it's around 30mpg.

look awsome. Do they have a name or number?!

[Jon K]

was getting about 20/28. with the supercharger, i's about 26/34 so long as i keep my foot out of it. pure highway @80 with cruise control: 36.2.

now, if i get on it, hell, i dunno. probably something like the m30 guys get...

conventionally a supercharger hurts mileage. its a parasitic belt driven compressor. turbochargers utilize exhaust waste to produce power. It'd be like turning trash into gasoline - it's just that cool!

[leicesterboy15]

Might as well get in there....

on my 535i (187k) I get 15.5 - 16 around town (takes me 50 mins to travel 12.5 miles so quite heavy traffic and lot of stop start) and around the 23 mark on the motorway.

Surprisingly I get better economy from my 540i, I have been watching the fuel closely recently and for the same city journey I have got the OBC up to 18.7 but it averages out at about 18.4. Over the weekend I did a 220 mile trip and averaged 27.4 at between 90-100mph but I was trying for this (well for the half the journey anyway until I got bored) but usually i get between 25-26 on the motorway. If you drive like a loon though you can see the fuel gauge go down as quick as the speedo goes up!

[Jehu]

optimally 18/24 .I just installed Denso iridium plugs yesterday and will be changing the fuel filters later this afternoon. I'll be looking for any consistant improvemnts.

[535Bimmer92]

22 mpg about 1/2 city and 1/2 higway
93 oct.

[zman-95-540i]

About 14.5 with 90% city driving.

[filip00]

look awsome. Do they have a name or number?!


hah, thanks. i just got a pm a day ago about those wheels lol.

they are REMOTEC, 17x9. this is how they look on a close up

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/5142/untitledda2.jpg


sorry for the offtopic, guys.

[Traian]

So I guess everyone who's getting 30 mpg in their 540i (or pretty much anything > 518i) lives in the UK right? :)

[Jehu]

the Denso Iridiums went in Sunday and today on the Interstate with ASC=Off and Cruise Control=On at 65ish i was getting 28 MPG! Not half bad for $90,lol....

[TC535i]

the Denso Iridiums went in Sunday and today on the Interstate with ASC=Off and Cruise Control=On at 65ish i was getting 28 MPG! Not half bad for $90,lol....
Can you get me the part numbers on those Densos?

[Jehu]

Can you get me the part numbers on those Densos?

IK 20.. I bought them on ebay from these guys (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DENSO-Iridium-Power-IK20-set-of-4-Spark-Plugs-5304_W0QQitemZ270131323350QQihZ017QQcategoryZ33693 QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem).
I feel i should state that I can not and am not attributing any increse in MPG or feeling of easier acceleration/more power to these plugs. Any new plugs may have had a similar result but it was measured by my OBC weather it is strictly due to these plugs or not.

PS. He was back ordered when i paid which is not explained on the auction page so if you order you may find yourself waiting a week as did I.. possibly, may want to ask him first if its an issue.

[zhandax]

If the wait is an issue or if you don't like buying on eBay, Autohaus AZ shows them in stock for $10.08 each and over $50 qualifies for free shipping. Just punch in IK20 under part number. If you are in a hurry and on the east coast, buybimmerparts has them for about $5 more (for 8 which qualifies for free shipping) which is still $4 less than eBay (delivered).

[foemill]

My '95 525iT with 156,000 miles on it gets about 21 MPG city and 27 MPG highway. That's with one coil dropping out here and there.

[semiretired]

Hi, just a quick one but as many replies as possible would be great to get a good average! What MPG do you tend to get around town and motorway?
-(I average around 18MPG round-town and 26MPG motorway).

Cheers.

21 mpg city
25 mpg hiway

91 525 M50 with over 246,000 miles

[Barney Paull-Edwards]

Converting to USG,28 round town,42 on autoroute,29 flat in germany,why do I drive a diesel,thats why!

[Justin-Redfive]

4mpg - track, 9mpg - city, 15-18mpg - highway There's nothing like the feeling of putting $80 of gas in your car to go 250miles.

[Traian]

So I guess everyone who's getting 30 mpg in their 540i (or pretty much anything > 518i) lives in the UK right? :)

Ok maybe I'm wrong. I reset the OBC on the highway and got 29.4 mpg (US gallons :D ) at about 110 km/h average over about 10 km (mostly flat but slight uphill and downhill also) - I calibrated the OBC before using my calculated mileage, and it's actually a little pessimistic by about 2-3%. Granted that's on an almost empty tank, but still, I'm impressed considering I haven't replaced anything and I've only got 5 cogs to work with.

[Alexlind123]

22mpg

[e34.535i.sport]

Ive been driving rather sensibly these days and i'm averaging 19.6 around town according to the OBC. If i really watch what i'm doing I get it up to 22mpg - i need to do a check myself though... to see if the OBC is telling porkies.

[BlackOnBlack]

26 strictly highway, 19 around town. My usual to/from work mix is a consistent 22 mgp.

[Podmore]

As bought, 17.7 mpg average. Replaced plugs, HT leads, distributor cap, O2 sensor and got 20.2 average. Replaced CPS and injectors (with 19lb ones) and now getting 22.3 average, mostly city driving. Yet to do a long country trip!

[trevortheleper]

1995 530it with dinan chip . city driving in Honolulu..9.8mpg. late night round island rides 18-19 mpg. A Hybrid civic has no soul.

[trevortheleper]

1995 530it with dinan chip . city driving in Honolulu..9.8mpg. late night round island rides 18-19 mpg. A Hybrid civic has no soul.

[VentoGT]

In mostly highway, I get 20-24MPG
Mostly city, 13.5-15MPG
Mix of 70 city/30 higway--14-16MPG

Love the 6 cylinder motor with worse consumption than my fiance's Tahoe :)