I know it's been discussed previously but would like to know others thoughts... Up until mid December my car was doing 38-39 mpg, only really being used at weekends, mostly round the doors and maybe 25% motorway/dual carriageway. After a change in job I now use it for the daily commute aswell, about 6.5 miles each way in traffic. By the time I get to work the car has hardly warmed up in the cold mornings and on the way home it just gets up to temp. The mpg has dropped to 31.9 despite my best efforts. I was a bit concerned until I had a 330i courtesy car for a couple of days. Same journey,same conditions etc 22.6 mpg.
Car was in for egr recall October, just been in for discs and pads all round. When I mentioned it the service adviser told me to keep an eye on it. Very helpful...
Bit tricky considering they did away with the coolant temperature gauge years ago, now just the oil temp displayed
31.9 mpg doesn't seem too bad for a cold engine on your daily commute and especially now you have seen the comparison with the 330i. As Adie says, try the hidden menu if you can find out how to get there. The procedure is on the internet, I've been told.
Access Service Menu video here: (be patient, it takes a while to start) https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/...struments/62-10-instrument-cluster/1VnczNwxCI
My 535d does similar shorter journeys and sits at around 30mpg, I don’t think that’s bad compared to my previous 525i that did 24mpg. I don’t think you have much to worry about.
My 330d xDrive is averaging 41 Mpg overall, and in summer will achieve up to 50 Mpg on a long motorway run. But at this time of year, low 30's Mpg for short urban journey sounds about right. Anything less than 10 miles, will not allow the engine to warm up. Also factor in that during winter, fuel consumption will increase by 10 to 15%. As said above, it's simple to check the coolant temperature with the hidden menu. Mine gets up to around 90 Deg C. Update - Just did a 10 mile return journey today (20 miles) a mix of urban and country roads. As the weather has warmed up it's made quite a difference to consumption - 41 Mpg.
Anything less than 10 - 15 miles in winter temperatures is going to knock mpg. Warm up times are much slower as ambient temperature drops, plus a higher electrical loads, including the high demand PTC element in the HVAC system. xDrive will also have additional drivetrain losses in winter, with more cold oil drag and churning losses during the warm up phase. I used to see about a 10% drop in mpg in my 330d in winter months, when temperatures were above freezing. Drop below freezing for a few days and it headed for a 20% drop in mpg. Peter
Good call. There is just the one 'main' thermostat in the N47/57 engines. Makes it easier to identify any issue. Looking for ~90C running ECT. Peter
I would think this is not bad for twin turbo three litre - remember x drive will make mpg worse by about 10-15% over a rear-drive car.
That’s good The best I’ll get on a run this time of year is high 20’s In town driving it’s seems the mpg flips to gpm
My average at the moment is 39.9 mpg and that's mainly town driving, not much extra urban driving at all. High 20s seems quite low if that's mainly motorway driving.
Ditto my long term average (15K miles) is 39.8mpg (9 miles to work each way) Last couple of weekends have had trips from Durham to Liverpool and Durham to Nottingham for Uni open days with my son and both returned 46MPG+ for the 300 mile+ round trip and I wasnt hanging around. While I don't have x drive I would be very disappointed if my MPG dropped to 31.9 - I would get the thermostats checked.
The shorter the trips, the worse the winter impact will be. OP has stated his daily trips are now only 6.5 miles. The first few miles, particularly until oil is above 70C, is the killer. I give you and example from my 330d days, when I collected data for different start conditions. The figures are for 3.5 miles from start up, we see the impact of a colder ambient temperature. Takes a good few miles to recover average mpg from a cold start in freezing conditions. BMW E91 330d Cold start around 0°C OBC read 25-26 mpg. Cold start approx’ 10°C OBC read 29-30 mpg. Warm start approx’ 10°C OBC read 34-35 mpg. Hot start at approx, 10°C OBC read 37-38 mpg. Peter
Checked coolant temp as advised and it was +89 so I'm inclined to think it is the cold weather combined with the rush hour traffic. The 6.5 mile commute was done in 38 minutes tonight so the temp gauge was dead centre on 100 when I checked the coolant temp. Thanks again for the replies.
Your coolant temp of 89 Deg C. is spot on where it should be. If it's taking you 38 mins to do 6.5 miles, I'm not surprised that your only getting 32 Mpg. You should be returning closer to 40 Mpg once the warm weather arrives. Also, manufacturer's consumption figures are far better than can be achieved in real world conditions.
Temperature is fine. Thermostat for your engine is rated 87 C for opening temperature, oil also good at 100 C. Peter