540 owners only fuel usage?

[Ross]

Yes, i searched. Very little regarding the big 8.
What sort of fuel "economy" do you experience in your 540s? Manual or auto trans?
Thanks

[yaofeng]

17 around town, 20 highway. But I have driven very little highway.

[Ferret]

540i manual:

17 round town, 30+ motorway if being careful and keeping it to 70 or below.

The highest I ever got was 36 on a 250 mile 60mph motorway run with a vaccuum leak.

[Tiger]

Ferret's fuel mileage is Imperial Gallon.

[Tiger]

Strictly city/local driving as in driving to bus stop in your town will yield 16 MPG. This is the worse you can get.

When I drove long interstate highway, I got 24.7 MPG... I am always in the 70's MPH.

For usual driving with 60/40 city/highway driving, you will get about 19 MPG.

My engine is original Nikasil. I heard those with Alusil engine got lower mileage overall.

[Ferret]

Ferret's fuel mileage is Imperial Gallon.

Converted just for tiger:
14.1 US town
25 Highway
30 Best seen

(EDIT - Need to check out an O2 sensor, and see which one is bollixed!)

[bimmerd00d]

E39 540/6 here, i get about 19/28. I've seen 32.6 at 60-65 in VERY cold weather.

[yaofeng]

Thanks guys. It looks to be no thirstier than the M30

Or the m50tu, at least my m50tu isn't doing that well on the fuel economy aspect. And it plainly sucks in the power aspect until it gets up to speed.

[Tiger]

535 and 540 has about the same consumption... maybe the 535 is more thirsty. Since you got manual trans, it is on par with auto 540i E34.

Some E39 with sport package that has differnt differential gear is way thirsty but awesome acceleration as I have driven one.

[rnrn]

540 auto, 16-17 city and 23-25 avg hwy. I've hit 27 with cruise at 70 for long, long flats.

[spitfire]

Yes, i searched. Very little regarding the big 8.
What sort of fuel "economy" do you experience in your 540s? Manual or auto trans?
Thanks
I always average about 10-10.5 litres/100 kms on my trip computer which includes more highway than stop and go driving. Highway speeds are mostly around 140 kms on a 540/6. Hope this helps. And she is a nikasil with 230,000 kms on her-very little oil consumpsion. cheers

[h2oyo]

17 around town, 20 highway. But I have driven very little highway.
Yeah I agree with yaofeng. I dont do much highway driving. I did a some last month for a day. We went to the Ren fair. That was about 45 miles each way and all highway. I got a very strong 21 MPG.

[charlie]

17 around town (real) and low 20's on the HWY (but that is always 75+) and mine is auto


Yes, i searched. Very little regarding the big 8.
What sort of fuel "economy" do you experience in your 540s? Manual or auto trans?
Thanks

[Ross]

Thanks guys. It looks to be no thirstier than the M30

[pingu]

21mpg (proper English gallons!) on a mix of town and motorway. Automatic trans. On the motorway I tend to do 95mph (which is much thirstier than sticking to 70mph).

[MBXB]

17 mpg stop n go
24-25 Interstate keeping it around 70-75



Strictly city/local driving as in driving to bus stop in your town will yield 16 MPG. This is the worse you can get.

When I drove long interstate highway, I got 24.7 MPG... I am always in the 70's MPH.

For usual driving with 60/40 city/highway driving, you will get about 19 MPG.

My engine is original Nikasil. I heard those with Alusil engine got lower mileage overall.

[leicesterboy15]

I've owned a 535i Sport Manual and have currently got a 540i auto, I find that fuel consumption is slightly better in the 540i. I find that town driving varies greatly dependent on traffic (obviously) but this means peoples experiences may be completely different as there as different definitions for town driving. I find that I can get just over 17 mpg (UK) in town if I take it easy and use a bit of common sense but with normal town driving this goes down to about 16. In the 535i for the same journey it was 15.5 - 17ish.

On a long run I've tried doing an economy run and got about 26 in the 540 but then I got bored and it dropped to about 22.5.

[Ross]

" I've seen 32.6 at 60-65 in VERY cold weather."
Thanks.
Just curious to know what constitutes very cold in TX?

[Jehu]

by the OBC the reading is usually around 17.4 which is a mix of highway and city driving though generally more highway. If i reset both values while on the highway for a good long drive , ASC=Off in Sixth gear of the manual transmission i can see on flat roads 24 mpg for periods but usually in real world situations with traffic i need to pass i get around 22mpg..which after i get off onto city,town roads will quickly settle around 17.4..and I used exclusively 93 octane gas. Denso Iridiums about 50K miles ago FWIW. Have used various oil lubes like Lubra Moly ceratec and Injector cleaners in the tank like Red-Line and Lucas Oil.. and Royal Purple 10w30 for quite a while now,maybe 40,000 thru several changes.

[repenttokyo]

Just out of curiousity, why is everyone's fuel economy so low on average? On the highway, a V8 of that size should be pulling around 27, 28 minimum. Is it gearing?

[yaofeng]

Just out of curiousity, why is everyone's fuel economy so low on average? On the highway, a V8 of that size should be pulling around 27, 28 minimum. Is it gearing?

Discipline, or lack thereof. Can you resist when you see open road with what's available from the engine? If I want gas mileage I would have bought a Honda.

[repenttokyo]

Discipline, or lack thereof. Can you resist when you see open road with what's available from the engine? If I want gas mileage I would have bought a Honda.


I've owned cars with similar powered V8's, so I understand what you are saying. I guess I misinterpreted Ross' question as wanting to know what the average fuel mileage was under normal driving conditions.

Although I do think it is a misconception that large V8's get poor fuel mileage on the highway. They should do close to better than most 4 and 6 cylinders. It's stop and go driving that kills them.

[632 Regal]

530 is a thirsty little devil, im a mix of 20% city and rest highway with avg speeds 80mph i get 20ish no matter how far I fly.

original O2 sensors with 200K + could be a factor but my car has not let me down in the years I have owned it so I wont change them out... dont want to go pulling teeth if they just have cavaties.

[bubba966]

I get 17-19 in city, and 27-29 highway in my M-Sport auto w/Dinan engine software.

Alusil block, roughly 109k miles on the block, 168k on the car, 125k on the tranny.

Amsoil Signature Series 0w30 oil in engine, Red Line in diff.

Michelin PS2's for tires.

Guessing I'm getting a bit better mileage than most due to the better aero & stance of the M-Sport over the standard E34.

[Mordan]

I always average about 10-10.5 litres/100 kms on my trip computer which includes more highway than stop and go driving. Highway speeds are mostly around 140 kms on a 540/6. Hope this helps. And she is a nikasil with 230,000 kms on her-very little oil consumpsion. cheers

now that's interesting. only 10 litres/100 with a 540! if only Belgium wasn't a tax hell.

I have that 518i with a M40 and I can't do much better than you on highway. I have a hard time staying around 10liters/100kms on average. Only on flats do I get 8 liters in all gears 50 km/h, 70km/h, 90km/h 120/km and 140km/h
when the o2 sensor kicks after a while I guess

that would give me evidence a bigger engine doesn't necesseraly means less fuel economy.