E30 Zone

I have recently fitted a 325i engine, manual gearbox and have a 4.1 (possibly 4.2) American M3 LSD, in my 1990 318iS.

I swapped to the 2.5 because the engine is absolutely MINT, just run in by an old dear who owned it's previous host for 15 years and tootled about in it. It was also an Auto so saw no loading on the end of the crank from the clutch. It was making 35 to the gallon on the motorway with the auto box (low rpm at speed). The 318iS engine used to be excellent on fuel but as it got more and more tired, the economy tailed off to worse than a friends E36 3.0 M3!! (I had to rag it everywhere of course).

I am currently living in Coventry after Uni and work in Banbury. For the sake of my sanity I have to move out of Cov (if you've lived there you might understand what I mean!) but it is very conveinient for work. Banbury is only 40 minutes down the A46 and M40 (two very clear roads at peak times). A friend and I also share the commute, him driving one week, me the other. I really want to move in with my girlfriend of 5 years as it REALLY is about time. She lives in a villiage near Bedford (Shefford) and I am thinking about commuting to Banbury every day. A trip of about 58 miles each way.

This will mean about 550-600 miles a week!

My question is: How much will 600 miles cost me a week in super unleaded in my '325is'? Obviously a (tiny) bit worse than a 325i sport with it's 3.91 diff.

How much would this commute cost me with: my 4.1/2 LSD, a 3.91 LSD or a 3.64 LSD? Bear in mind, the engine is very strong and efficient for an M20B25 and if I'm tootling along in traffic I'll be driving fairly sensibly. The roads can be eiteher a slightly longer A road and motorway or a more direct A and B road through villiages and Milton Keynes.

Thanks for any advice, this is the only dampener on a move to 'er indoors's place..

Jai

buy a mk3 golf tdi.

Yea, a different car will be on the cards if I stay at the current job for much longer than a few months...

If the commute is horrible I could always look for another job, I've worked here for two years and it was my first job out of University. I need to expand my toolkit and learn some more skills too, I've become a good CAD and project engineer here at Siemens/Dematic but it's not the field I studied in. I am thinking about looking for a more junior position in Motorsport (I couldn't submit my dissertation so have no Honours ) so I can work my way up. I have a Beng Automotive Engineering degree.

Was thinking about:

Mazda MX-5 (old 1.6)
Nissan Micra 1.3 (does the job)
Peugeot 106/306 diesel for chip fat.
VAG 1.9tdi something or other to run on chip fat.

But for now I reallly want to keepo the 325i and see how it goes..... With the commute, and with Laura! Anyone hazard some guesses about costs?

Jai

I commute approx 500 miles a week. Mainly Motorway and very little town driving. As I drive like 'orangecurry's Avatar' (you'll know what I mean when you see the pic) i'm spending approx £80 per week and that's not driving hard.

As whiteM3 quoted "buy a MK3 golf tdi"

Hope this helps.

that would cost me around 120 hard earned pound coins but i'm only gettin 22 mpg at the most.

Jesus...

The 400 miles we do in Niels M3 GT (3.0) costs about 60-80 quid a week! I imagined about that but I'm being hopeful, it's an old engine after all.

Anyone else?

Jai

I get about 250 miles on a full tank in my 325i tourer and if its not busy i can't resist pressing the loud peddle.

But if its busy on the back roads average 40ish or busy motorway 70ish then you can get 350 miles at a push.

If you only rev up to between 3 and 3500 between gears you could possibly get more but thats just boring, you may as well use a different car.

My E46 318i touring regulary gets 500 miles on a full tank but the tank is bigger £60 63 Litres

I have a 60 mile round trip to work. Although I don't work every day.
In my 325i touring with 3.91 diff I get roughly 300 miles per tank at £55. So the 600 miles you plan will be a couple of tanks worth - £110 roughly.

I have got another car for work - a 1993 toyota corolla 1.3 and I get nearly 400 miles from a £35 tank of fuel when driving like an old lady. It's so good on fuel this little car and I'm actually better off with two cars. Also it has made the E30 a bit more of a hobby and less of a worry. I save around £40 a month on fuel and the toyota costs me £30 a month to insure. The insurance cost for the corolla was 'mirrored' against my existing policy so I kept no-claims-discount etc.

i done 200 miles on 15 quid yesterday! Polo 1.0 Mk3

Get the golf. Doesn't even need a turbo tbh. (Although its possible that they're more economical I guess)

One hundred big ones!!

Yes 100 big ones. Big engine, big bucks.

If you think that's bad, My Director was travelling to London once a week in his Bentley GT......wait for it £150 round trip

TBH with you, you could shave a few pennies off that nby nopt using Sunleaded, as the m20 has no knock sensor as standard...

I'd expect about 28-30mpg constant, town and motorway, asuming about 2/3 motorway.well sertviced lump helps.

I was doing 600 miles a day in the touring with a 4.27 rear end and 2.0 lump- averaged out at 28mpg over 6500 miles.

bit better than the 730i which seems to like doing 400 miles to £90

31200 miles a year, that's diesel territory.

probably cost you between £110 - £200 bearing in mind youve got a high diff and so economy will be less. With a 325i youd average around 28-32 mpg on a run but it will be less with the 4.1 diff

Get yourself a small engined cheap banger....i run a 1.0L Vauxhall Nova in the winter and to do most of the commuting...

It'll pay for itself in fuel bills in no time and you can always sell it on when your ready for the same price you bought it for in most cases

As 320 says, you dont need to run your std 325 on super unleaded anyway so you can make some savings there

How much? I like the idea.

A 106 1.5 diesel on chip fat???

I might show Laura a list of things i could have bought her with the dfference in fuel bills, then borrow her 1.0 16v micra. It sips fuel... Bummer to not use the E30 after the recent efforts though!

Jai

An lpg conversion is cheaper than another car

Bummer also to wear out the E30 and spend a fortune on juice for WORK...
Consider also the price suplement for insuring the car for work use, especially if you work at more than one site.

Cheers
Toby

at the end of the day it ain't going to be cheap, i've been running 325's for the past 4 or so years and 25mpg seems to be a good combined average. with around 20,000 miles per year

My touring with the cam in it is shocking around town, about 16-18mpg, can get high 20's on the m-way. but tbh a standard 2.5 isn't alot better

The alpina is however alot better on fuel than any of my 325's have been with a lemon of an engine, well over 30 on the m-way and mid 20's around town. it must be the low end torque, you can just woft along when taking it easy

I have travel to and from work on my insurance already. I might have to tell them i'm doing more miles when I ring about the slight increase in capacity.

I'm not worried about the miles on the e30. It's become bit of a dog to look at and the sweet engine was 'free' in the 325i i bought to put my s50 in and has only 65k under it's belt.

I spose it's feasible to diy lpg? What about doing it with a switchbale map on megasquirt?

Megasquirt can do LPG apparently...
LPG prices here
http://www.whatprice.co.uk/car/retailer-LPG-prices.php

I used to use the 318i everyday and it was piss poor on fuel, I never got more than 320 miles from a tank even when going steady. Must have been even more of a duff engine than standard!
On the flip side I now run a Focus 1.6 diesel sport - I hammer the crap out of that thing and get 520 miles from £40, it never gets below an average of 47mpg, and i cruise higher than the speed limit on the motorway where most of my driving occurs in the week. It astounds me that I can get those figures and keep up with the fast flowing traffic - however, it aint got no soul, so it is hardly ever used at the weekends!

Right, I nearly went bankrupt trying to commute and got so stressed we nearly split up!! Serious waste of time..

One useful thing came out of it though.. Even driving it like a nutcase 50% of the time I managed 28.5 MPG calculated from the mileage and litres (I wrote the cars mileage on the fuel receipts and calculated in excel over 2500 odd miles).

28.5?? Not really too bad considering it has the 4.2 diff!

Jai

American M3 LSD's were 4.1

I have commuted over 500 miles a week in my e30 for the last 2 years, and do another 500+ miles a week for work in my company car a Xsara! I'll tell you which I prefer for the commute.

The e30 just isn't upto it, but I'll never sell her.

Sod commuting that far - not surprised you didn't stick with it So have you got a new job?

I just got myself a 1.6d VW caddy (mk1 golf pickup ) for the commute - I do about 20000 miles a yr & it'll pay for itself in about 6 months! Plus it saves banging the miles on the E30...

And exposing the general public to all that chrome!

I have a corsa TD these days and the turd averages 64.somthing mpg..... its cheap tax and insurance too and the best part is the engine is jap (bomb proof reliability)


The 'save myself by buying another E30' fund is doing well too now im singel again (women have money radar- anything over a tenner in the wallet and they know)

Clear case of a DIY LPG installation needed, if ever i saw one!!
Bought a suitable kit from ebay a few months back for £160, needing about £40's worth more of parts to fit to an E30, and I posted an ebay link to another kit last week that went for £80 I think!!

Brianmoooore wrote:Clear case of a DIY LPG installation needed, if ever i saw one!!
Bought a suitable kit from ebay a few months back for £160, needing about £40's worth more of parts to fit to an E30, and I posted an ebay link to another kit last week that went for £80 I think!!

Exactly what I meant by my comment - granted you may be able to pick up a cheap plodder for £200 but by the time you have a 2nd lot of tax, insurance, mot etc it doesn't look quite as sensible to run 2 cars.
And you get to drive a decent car every day instead of some cheap nasty derv.

I do 700 miles a week and decided to keep my M3 in the garage and only use at weekends as its only got 60k on it anyway and for what a daily driver would cost me I would save on my M3.

Get yourself a nice runabout (I got a 00 156 2ltr ts for £1700) and if I give it away in two years I wont have lost anything.

Far too much lad!! On friday i took my sport out around the mountains/glens and it drunk £55 of fuel! I was driving it hard though.......