E36 Gas Consumption

[ckyrules014]

my e36 wasted 1/4 tank of gas and just got a little over 30 mpg driving in the freeway and street does that sound about right?
Its Automatic.

can it improve?

[bowmang]

30 mpg sounds great to me...

[thatsamare321]

i think he means he got 30 miles on 1/4 of a tank, which seems more reasonable. my gas mileage has been shit the past month and a half, getting maybe 15 city

[bboyvek]

me 3

[E36BMW3series]

30 mpg for a 325 sounds about right.

I was driving my M3 pretty sporty since I just fixed it, but not too hard because it needs to break in a little more first, but I got 23 mixed so I would say that is good.

[ckyrules014]

Alright thanks its that my brother has been saying that it wastes too much gas. (He drives a standard Accord)

[Defeater]

30 mpg for a 325 sounds about right.

I was driving my M3 pretty sporty since I just fixed it, but not too hard because it needs to break in a little more first, but I got 23 mixed so I would say that is good.

They do as well as 23? When I had my '98 M3/4 I would get more like 17 mpg mixed. It may have been due to the increased mileage (151k)... which is incidentally one reason why I didn't keep it very long.

[Mauritius36]

30mpg is pretty good. I get about 28 on the highway. 23 otherwise

[pmgreer]

I have a 1997 328i convertible with a 5-speed manual - I'm getting 30.4 miles a gallon, and I'm usually running at 70mph

[ckyrules014]

i think he means he got 30 miles on 1/4 of a tank, which seems more reasonable. my gas mileage has been shit the past month and a half, getting maybe 15 city

Now that i reread my original post it can confuse people. What i meant was that after driving a little over 30 miles i wasted 1/4 of a tank.
Also how many gallons is 1/4?

[svginferno]

that's like 4 gallons, the E36 has a 16.x gallon tank.

so you're looking at 7.5 MPG O.o. I get about 27-29 MPG highway. More like 23-25 MPG mixed.

[Defeater]

Now that i reread my original post it can confuse people. What i meant was that after driving a little over 30 miles i wasted 1/4 of a tank.
Also how many gallons is 1/4?

The entire tank is 17.2 gallons, making 1/4 tank 4.3 gallons. So you averaged 6.97 miles per gallon.

.. Wow.

[akhbhaat]

Are you sure your gauge is functioning properly? Even an engine in a very poor state of tune should do significantly better than that. You either have a fuel leak, or your gauge is malfunctioning.

There's only one truly reliable way to determine fuel consumption: reset the trip odometer the next time you top off the tank. Next time you stop for fuel, fill the tank again and divide the mileage on the trip odometer by the amount of fuel that it takes to fill the car.

[ckyrules014]

Are you sure your gauge is functioning properly? Even an engine in a very poor state of tune should do significantly better than that. You either have a fuel leak, or your gauge is malfunctioning.

There's only one truly reliable way to determine fuel consumption: reset the trip odometer the next time you top off the tank. Next time you stop for fuel, fill the tank again and divide the mileage on the trip odometer by the amount of fuel that it takes to fill the car.


How can i find out if i have a fuel leak or bad gauges??
Oh yea also the mpg gauge doesnt work when the car is off the meter thingy sits before the 40 on the white but when i turn the car on the meter goes to the opposite side like to 8 and when i accelerate the meter moves from 8 ,10 and so on ..Shouldnt it be the opposite way?
Also when i accelerate car revs to like 2000 rpm (according to the gauge) while going like 30mph to 40mph so probably its my gauges.. what do you think?
If you guys need or want ill record the gauges in action, ill post it up on youtube.

[Denwad]

I usually average around 20-25 mpg the way i drive in my m3.

[E36BMW3series]

They do as well as 23? When I had my '98 M3/4 I would get more like 17 mpg mixed. It may have been due to the increased mileage (151k)... which is incidentally one reason why I didn't keep it very long.

Sure do. Mine only has 76,000 and is in excellent shape though, so maybe it was the age of your car.

I don't get great highway mileage but if I cruse country roads at say 55mph I can get 28 almost 30 pretty easily. Because of the missing 6th gear I am at about 3500rpm at 80mph on the Highway, that leads to about 21 mpg on the highway.

Before I did my head gasket and drove probably 7,000 miles on it I averaged 22.5 mpg and I always drive it pretty hard once it's warmed up. I love this car because of it, a fun fast car that you can drive hard and still average 20+ mpg :buttrock.

When I did my head gasket there was a quite a bit of carbon buildup on the cylinders and on the cylinder head. We got all of that off so I'm wondering since we got it out of those cracks if it will lead to more HP and better mileage.

[Rob24857]

Need to put summer air in your tires.