high fuel consumption?????

[antiks]

last week i treated myself to a 316i M40 engine on a 1990 plate
very well looked after (folder of reciepts)
on the way home from buying her the fuel light came on, so i put £20 of fuel in and the needle went to just under half way (all good).
now -- i have only done short journeys of about 2-9 miles at a time.
the needle has gone done to show only a quarter of a tank of fuel left.
the milage is only showing that i've done 44 miles!!!
that works out to be about 50 miles for a tenner (i'm thick and find it easier to work it out like this).
i would say this is a high fuel consumption so need to know where to look first for any faults.
any help is appreciated.

[kuSt]

is the car in good overall nik? does it look like the engines been looked after? i have a '90 316i and i only get 120 for £20 and i drive it like an OAP.

[kuSt]

oh yeah, check for fuel leaks, check your petrol tank + filler neck, fuel line and hoses.

[Kos]

50 miles to ten quid is a bit juicy on a 316i

they do leak fuel from under the inlet manifold, repaied my one recently just before i sold it

[antiks]

is the car in good overall nik? does it look like the engines been looked after? i have a '90 316i and i only get 120 for £20 and i drive it like an OAP.

yes, the car looks in good condition, well looked after, clean engine (on the outside).

will check all relevant hoses and fuel tank hose and manifold

cheers for the info

[Careanla]

Well I just done 220miles on £30 in my '88 320i works out about 31mpg I was getting that from a Mk1 Mondeo 1.8i.

Thats a mixture of about 100miles motorway and 60miles A-roads the rest is round town driving and taking my son school.

I do drive slow though and keep the momentum going and the revs low.

When I sold the mondeo one of the reasons was the MPG. But in the E30 I don't give a toss lol... such a nice drive it's all worth it!

[kuSt]

it could also be running very rich, some people arse about with the CO adjuster on the AFM to hide poor running or idle issues.

unless you have the tester thing to wak up the exhaust, you'd have to get it to a garage for an emissions test. you could check your plugs and see if they're black/sooty in the mean time.

[antiks]

it could also be running very rich, some people arse about with the CO adjuster on the AFM to hide poor running or idle issues.

unless you have the tester thing to wak up the exhaust, you'd have to get it to a garage for an emissions test. you could check your plugs and see if they're black/sooty in the mean time.

very intresting!!
i'm going to look into this at the weekend.
gonna take it for a tune soon so will see what that brings
cheers---- kuSt

[Brianmoooore]

Checking fuel consumption between two places on the gauge is highly inaccurate. Run it down to the fuel light again for a more accurate picture.

[djezd]

or brim it drive it for x miles brim it. the equations are all in the handbook. I can see why you'd be shy to fill it though

[antiks]

took car out earlier and i have done 55 miles so far on 20 pounds but the fuel gauge is showing less than a quarter of a tank left .
will wait for the light to come on then i'll have my mileage to £20 of fuel.
does'nt look good though
i will post the final mileage when light comes on.

[12345kevin]

50 miles on £10 for journeys of 2-9 miles is probably about 23mpg, sounds about right considering the engine never warms up !

[boxclever1753]

as has been said... fill it up and do 100 miles then fill it up again.. you can then work out how much your 100 miles cost..

then you have a benchmark to work toward and analyse..

[antiks]

50 miles on £10 for journeys of 2-9 miles is probably about 23mpg, sounds about right considering the engine never warms up !

maybe but i'm still going to check all relevent hose and connections just to ease my mind.

[someguy]

The fuel light's come on surprisingly far down the guage.

My 316 gets about 32-34mpg on my ordinary commute. On a long journey recently I got about 38mpg out of it!

When I'm sitting in traffic it gets very thirsty.

[Jon_Bmw]

23mpg off a 316, that is bad enough to make anyone phsyically sick! Brim it, reset trip counter, then drive, fill up and work it out.

Does it smell of fuel when you have the interior vents on. Even a slight leak will cost you a lot of lost petrol in the best scenario and a burnt out car in the worst case.

Imo you'd have to be NAILING it everywhere to get it to 23mpg average! So i think you have some other issues that you need to rule out first. Good luck

[Brianmoooore]

I'd think twice about brimming the tank on a freshly aquired E30. Leaks in the filler pipe, near the filler stub, and from the pump O ring aren't exactly unknown!

[320Touring]

I'd think twice about brimming the tank on a freshly aquired E30. Leaks in the filler pipe, near the filler stub, and from the pump O ring aren't exactly unknown!

Brian, sometimes you gotta live a little...

just dont smoke

[kuSt]

you're mebs gonna have to spend more time with the car and get accustomed to the fuel gauge, mines not very accurate.

most accurate way to get your mpg is to run it to empty, put in a gallon and empty it again...only need to do this once, (everyone says it pulls dirt through from the bottom of your tank), but if you've just acquired it, maybe you should try this, then change the fuel, air and oil filters (+oil change) anyway.

i get shocking mileage about town, but i've just put £20 in and got 100 motorway miles with a lot of gas left, i'll let you know what the total mileage is when i'm back to the reserve light.

if it's the case that there's a too large a discrepancy between town/motorway miles, maybe this might help to pinpoint possible areas to investigate? (with the expert help of brian mooore of course )

[kuSt]

antiks, just got 160 miles for £20, this was 50/50 motorway/urban

i get 120 miles for urban

i'd prob get 180-190 motorway only

mebs it's just the case that old 316i cars are totally crap for driving about town...

[Dave_M3]

I used get around 27mpg out of mine
A friends 325 touring did better and at least he was able to make abit of progress. Plus he used tow a race car to events maybe once evry two weeks...

I put mine down to the tappets wearing as I tied everywhere else. Now I get around 45 with my iS

[magnumlove]

I wouldn't worry about it. My 316i has always done that too. The fuel gauge always seems to go down a lot quicker between between the half mark and the quarter mark. I haven't a clue why but I know the car is fine as it alway does around 330 miles (give or take) to a full tank and I've owned it four years.

[antiks]

finally the fuel light came on and on £20 of fuel i got 89 miles.
this has been small journeys around town.
gonna get it tuned and the tappets need doing.
no fuel leaks that can be seen so i'm guessing just needs a tune up.