poor economy

[jamesroools]

the car is a '89 318i m40, i filled it up yesterday, and since then ive done about 130 miles arround town, and im already on halfway, this does not seem good too me! that works out to about 22mpg, which is awful
really need help as this is gonna end up costing a lot to run

cheers
James

[hoshy]

sounds about right to me. I drive the same engine btw.

mine is pretty bad to be fair and it's got recently worse after I boiled the water and almost emptied the rad. oops. I was gonna post up this on here but I guess we may as well share a thread if that's ok.

so guys what are the main reasons for poor fuel economy?

I was gonna investigate the CTS firstly.

[dazleeds]

dnt know if it applies to 4cyls but i was told to replace blue sensor in engine as it makes it run rich when fooked hth Daz

[jamesroools]

mine is pretty bad to be fair and it's got recently worse after I boiled the water and almost emptied the rad. oops. I was gonna post up this on here but I guess we may as well share a thread if that's ok.

I was gonna investigate the CTS firstly.

ive boiled it a few times too and emptied the rad too...

whats the CTS?

[johnl320]

If thats all heavy town work mate,then thats not far off the mark IMO if you have a bit if a heavy right foot . its a lot of car to be chucking around town. I'M sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong
regards
john

[Gwynleym10]

Yea sounds about right to me as well, its pretty shocking in central london.

Make sure the car is services, new oil/plugs/leads in good condition/new/clean air filter fuel filter...etc.,etc

Pump the tyres up! Er take everything out of the boot!

Twon driving is also a bit of a black art as well, look for space all the time, don't be close to people in fron tof you, otherwise you be braking a lot. Keep it as smooth as posible.

Racing people or even pulling away swifly from the lights etc really effects the MPG, especially when you do it on average 15 times a journey in central london!

Other than that find the cheapest petrol, and never be too low in the tank so you don't have to buy expensive petrol.

Convert to LPG

[Gwynleym10]

Also I find that halfway on the guage is far from halfway in the tank, its more lie 4/6ths if that makes sense. Its more than half anyway.

[jamesroools]

hmm scrap the idea of an m10 conversion, wonder if anyone has an m21 for sale

[hoshy]

I used to get 70 to a tenner with about 5 spare. now I get 60 with about 5 spare. (petrol hasn't gone that much... yet )

CTS is coolant temp sensor. if car thinks it's cold then it will run rich, thus poor economy. but that's the only reason I know about given that the fueling is fixed on this system. I'm sure there's plenty of other possibilities the more experienced folks can tell us about

[Gwynleym10]

High compression m10 2litres run by Lpg, cheap and powerful!

[Gwynleym10]

I have got 80 to a tenner, but was not in central london.
I ithkni i also have got about 20 to a tenner in central london....traffics the problem!

[jamesroools]

what would be the better option then, getting the m40 up to a decent standard, i.e. service, tappets etc. or put an m10 in it?