Petrol consumption nightmare

[johnnyboy]

My 316i Tourer is getting about 198 miles to a tank. I have replaced the following:

plugs, dizzy cap, rotor arm, engine oil and filter, thermostat

still using shed loads of fuel.

any ideas appreciated? The car runs fine other than this.

cheers,

john

[Theo]

Check the fuel tank mate, corroision on the tank and possibly the filler pipe is a relativly common problem on the E30 I believe, replacing the fuel tank is good fun too - not.

[Cloggy Saint]

Bit of a thread hijack, but i'm having the same problem. I've replaced the same parts that johnnyboy has and according to the obc i'm averaging only 17mpg I've got a blue temp' sensor on order which may help but i can't see it making too much difference. The tank and filler pipe are both in good condition and the car drives well. What could cause such bad consumption (and please, spare me the 2.0 jibes)

[Widge]

Shot fuel pressure regulator???? Pumping too much fuel in? Does it smell like it's running rich?

[Cloggy Saint]

Apart from the obc readout and the fact that i can't keep my swingometer below 10L/100km, there are no clues as to why it's so thirsty. No petrol smells etc and as i said, the car drives well, although it's a bit lumpy and hesitant until it's warmed up.

[Widge]

Is it actually using a lot of fuel, or do you think that the swino meter and OBC are reading incorrectly. Go and fill up and see howmany miles you get to a tank.

[dazleeds]

mine drinks like an alcoholic glaswegan

no offence intended

[Cloggy Saint]

It's using loads of fuel! A full tank of 61 litres gives me roughly 300 km. That's something like 185 miles on 13.5 gallons

[dazleeds]

i get bout 45miles to each Ԛ£10 put in

not good imo

esp as the sport happily does 240 to Ԛ£30

[Widge]

das iz baden Ja. You are either leaking or horrendously over fuelling. I have had 390miles out of 60 litres in my 325.

[Cloggy Saint]

390 miles?! I'm not getting half that . I guess it's time to shell out some euros.

[Widge]

I think, and I know you lot don't want to hear this but Daz's sport proves it, that som of this bad consumption is attributable to the fact your missing a 5 off the boot

[Cloggy Saint]

Some of it possibly, but when i first got the car i could get +/- 450 km before the fuel guage entered the red. Still not brilliant but better than i'm getting now. I had a heavier foot back then too!

[Widge]

He he, get ye one of these, althoug try not to buy one that is attached to the back of an Edirty6

[Cloggy Saint]

Sod that, i'm thinking about one of these!

[Martinaston]

Get the injectors cleaned/replaced and then reset the ECU, Don't expect an imediate change though as it takes some time for the ecu to ween the engine off of all the fuel

[georob]

im getting poor mpg from mine, changed the filter and pump as pump was goosed, smells rich now though, n oleaks from pipes

so what should i do to try to fix?

thanks

[StuBeeDoo]

although it's a bit lumpy and hesitant until it's warmed up.

I've had on-going issues with mine for ages. I recently changed the ICV, and it's loads better when cold. Don't know if it's improved the consumption though, but I fancy the "swingometer" isn't quite as active.
HTH
Stuart.

[georob]

im getting poor mpg from mine, changed the filter and pump as pump was goosed, smells rich now though, n oleaks from pipes

so what should i do to try to fix?

thanks

bump

[reggid]

do any of you with high consumption have an O2 sensor? If so it may be faulty.

[Widge]

Nope, none of the moronic controlled cars have an O2 sensor.

[Quaser]

yes they do - my cab has a lamda sensor, as does my mates 320 cab!

Q

[gareth]

my wifes E34 was doing about 10mpg for a while and this was eventually tracked down to a perished fuel hose, connecting onto the fuel rail. it only ever leaked at high throttle loadings so was near impossible to provoke sucessfully while stationary.

the problem with fuel leaks is that the fuel dries up so damn quickly!

i take it your fuel filler neck is in good condition? (mine leaks when full....)

[Cyruz]

I was getting crappy mileage too untill i realised a fuel pipe had frayed , I might just duct tape it back up, chav style braided hoses innit mate.

[JJ26]

My 316i only does 26mpg i get near on 260 miles on 40 litres every time. However when i go to start it, it cranks continuously for 4- 5 seceonds before finally spluttering into life and then the idle bumps up and down like crazy for 15 secs. Slight throttle aggrivates it and the revs hunt up and down as if the choke is on too much. I read a post last week from someone with poor economy and they pointed out their temp guage was always on the blue. ive noticed mine is also like this. it only ever goes off the blue if left to idle static for a long period of time. So im thinkiing stuck open thermostat. Although ive never noticed it taking long for the blower to warm up. Either way Il replace that and the blue sender for the motronic. Il let you know what happens.

[JJ26]

Changed the blue temp sender, made no difference. Changed the thermostat and now car is running just slightly under half mark on temp guage and warms up much quicker. Still wont do better than 26 mpg though

[KDS]

Johnnyboy, DaTourer,

Did either of you get your high mileage problems sorted out? If you did, please share.

My Touring is averaging 13-14mpg. Non-aggressive city/highway driving using high octane. Those are Hummer numbers! Brand new thermostat and recently replaced fuel pump. Starts well and runs smoothly with absolutely no gas smell. WTF?

My mechanic refuses to believe my mileage figures. Says that the car would be squirting raw fuel and blowing black with that kind of crap mileage.

[Brianmoooore]

To all of you with excess fuel consumption:
Take a couple of spark plugs out and check the colour of them.
If they are black then you have a fuelling problem.
If they are a sort of light brown and clean, then the problem is either a leak or a heavy right foot. (Or you have a 320).

[Quaser]

where is the fuel filter on these cars?

i think after 15 years, i should change it!

Q

[Gt6s]

To all of you with excess fuel consumption:
Take a couple of spark plugs out and check the colour of them.
If they are black then you have a fuelling problem.
If they are a sort of light brown and clean, then the problem is either a leak or a heavy right foot. (Or you have a 320).

And check tyre pressures !!

My 320's quite okay on the stuff, thanks.

[320Touring]

To all of you with excess fuel consumption:
Take a couple of spark plugs out and check the colour of them.
If they are black then you have a fuelling problem.
If they are a sort of light brown and clean, then the problem is either a leak or a heavy right foot. (Or you have a 320).

OI! easy tiger

as brian says, lovely browney beige is what we're looking for.good trick to find leaks is to park the car over some newspaper, so you can then run it and track the leak

[Cloggy Saint]

Yesterday i did a 300 mile round trip which was nearly all motorway cruising and returned an average of 25mpg. That's since replacing plugs, air & oil filter and blue temp' sensor. Gt6s, what kind of mpg do you get? Would replacing the fuel filter make any difference?

[e30_Turbo]

LOL @everyone.....

You guys wanna strap one of these turbo things on like me, then we can talk serious MPG's......... METRES PER GALLON!

Lets just say £20 went in on Tuesday, I've done 28 miles and i'm in the red again.......

On full chat in 5th gear you can watch the gauge move and I mean move

Still makes for a fun e30 drive everytime........skint now tho

Mark.

[StuBeeDoo]

Ok, I've just done a 808 mile holiday trip and got an average 31.8mpg.
The first 315 miles were all motorway/dual carriageway/A road and I got 30.4mpg at an average of speed of 65mph (bloody roadworks!).
Then I did 278 miles all on A roads/dual carriageways which included driving through several towns where I got caught in the usual town centre gridlock. That part I got 32.5mpg.
Then I did 220 miles which was 75 miles A roads and 145 Dual carriageway/motorway. That worked out at 33.08mpg, again at an average speed of 65mph.

So 320i Tourings are thirsty, but I can live with it.
Oh, and I get 26+mpg in daily use. And I don't drive like an old fart either!

[KDS]

...I suppose it would be a good idea to factor-in tire size as well. Anything with a circumference larger than stock will throw off the odometer and give the false impression that you're traveling fewer miles per tank.