Fuel economy on 3.0d?

[MartyVFR]

Hi,
Just wondered what fuel economy you guys are getting with your 3.0 diesels?
I have had a 2006 Sport for a couple of weeks now & if i'm honest i'm a bit dissapointed with the economy i'm achieving!
I would probably class my driving as mostly extra urban & even though i've heard that BMW are very optimistic with their figures i'm getting just over 23mpg!
My previous car was a Lexus RX 300 (3.0 V6 petrol) & i was getting about 22mpg with this car. Now i know the BM is heavier & more powerful but i don't reckon my driving has changed.

Any thoughts much appreciated.
Cheers,
Marty.

[drb5]

We've done circa 600 miles since we picked ours up(2004 model) and although that includes a 250 mile run on a motorway, we are getting around 32mpg atm.

I hope to stick to this, but expect 28-30mpg over the coming months.

I'll be honest and say we are TRYING to get good economy, but i have had some "fun" in it.

[hpn]

Ours normally stays around 26/27mpg on fairly short journeys going to work everyday.
It hardly gets any time on the motorways and even then its not very far, and we get about 31mpg if we reset the consumption on the computer before getting on.
I wouldnt say that any of us drive efficiently/slowly either.

[MartyVFR]

Thanks for that dudes.
Food for thought anyway.
I don't thrash the car so would probably say i'm trying to get decent economy. Don't drive like Grandad though!

Any of you technical types know if there would be any reason my car wouldn't be giving decent economy?
Car has 48000 miles, full BM history, just been serviced & supplied by BM dealer (Eastern in Edinburgh).

Oh yeah, that 23mpg is over about 500 miles, i 'recalculated' when i fuelled up.
Cheers,
Marty.

[bigshout]

I'd say that's about right 23mpg around town. the 4.4i you only get around 17mpg!! you should get around 30-32mpg on the motorway compared to 20-24mpg in the 4.4i V8.

[bazzyboy]

get it mapped m8 ---- 258bhp & 572nm torque

i get 38.2 on the fuel computer 620mls on a tank doing mixture of school run & motorway

used to get 32.6 with the same driving style

car has so much torque now u are tickling the throttle at motorway speeds the eco gauge is always way above 35mpg on the motorway

only downside of remap is slightly more smoke under full throttle (but u can have fun smoke-bombing people behind )

but its so worth it, pulls like a train more torque than the v8 boys

[CondorX5]

[quote=""bigshout""]I'd say that's about right 23mpg around town. the 4.4i you only get around 17mpg!! you should get around 30-32mpg on the motorway compared to 20-24mpg in the 4.4i V8.[/quote]

Not my 4.8is we get 24mpg on the motorways and 21mpg in town. While towing a heavily-loaded trailer, with roof box fully loaded as well, its dropped as low as 20.9mpg....... but that's the lowest I've had on it!

[thedweeb]

[quote=""MartyVFR""]Thanks for that dudes.
Food for thought anyway.
I don't thrash the car so would probably say i'm trying to get decent economy. Don't drive like Grandad though!

Any of you technical types know if there would be any reason my car wouldn't be giving decent economy?
Car has 48000 miles, full BM history, just been serviced & supplied by BM dealer (Eastern in Edinburgh).

Oh yeah, that 23mpg is over about 500 miles, i 'recalculated' when i fuelled up.
Cheers,
Marty.[/quote]
Well Ive had mine for about a year now , dont do much motorway stuff but get 29-32mpg which im happy with considering the size. Try changing your air filter as it may not have been done as its a bit of a job to get out. If you look in "How to" you will see a write up I did a few weeks ago.

[ITBarbie]

Hi

I've had my 3.0d 2004 for approximately 16 months and live in greater London and get about 23-24 about town. I can probably notch up to 27 on a small motorway run at about 80mph.

I'm seriously thinking about a remap but it's depleting my pocket with other bits at present


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[thedweeb]

[quote=""ITBarbie""]Hi

I've had my 3.0d 2004 for approximately 16 months and live in greater London and get about 23-24 about town. I can probably notch up to 27 on a small motorway run at about 80mph.

I'm seriously thinking about a remap but it's depleting my pocket with other bits at present


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/quote]
I was thinking of a remap but worry about the extra strain on the gearbox

[Turks]

[quote=""MartyVFR""]Thanks for that dudes.
Food for thought anyway.
I don't thrash the car so would probably say i'm trying to get decent economy. Don't drive like Grandad though!

Any of you technical types know if there would be any reason my car wouldn't be giving decent economy?
Car has 48000 miles, full BM history, just been serviced & supplied by BM dealer (Eastern in Edinburgh).

Oh yeah, that 23mpg is over about 500 miles, i 'recalculated' when i fuelled up.
Cheers,
Marty.[/quote]


Are you just going off what the Computer says? If you are then there are some reasons for why it would show a low reading. It could be that the computer somehow has had the settings changed to calculate MPG in US Gallons (3.785 litres rather than 4.546 litres). It could be that a fuel sensor is giving a false reading.

I would suggest that you do a brim to brim test to calculate the fuel economy for yourself. If then you are still getting around the 23 MPG mark then we can explore the reasons for this.


Turks.

[Darnicmax]

I know this will read as being a bit sad....but since I bought my X5 (2005 3.0d) I've kept a spreadsheet detailing fuel economy.

All calcs are based on brimming the tank....

Total Mileage Travelled : 3459

Total Fuel Used : 123.5234 Gallons

MPG averaged over distance/fuel used : 28MPG

The car is never used round town - just for holidays/days out etc

Total Spent on Fuel : £600.88

Fuel Cost per mile driven : 17.37pence per mile

I reset one of the on-board MPG computers when I bought the car and have not touched it since. It is currently showing an average of 32.4MPG (so slightly optimistic against the actual)

We have two other cars for which I do the same...the Wife's Mini Cooper (currently 29.14MPG ..but it is an Auto!) and my 2001 SLK 230 Kompressor (28.64MPG...and this is used round town)

Against this baseline, I think the X5 stacks up fairly well!

[MartyVFR]

Thanks for all that guys.
Looking at other peoples mpg's i'm maybe not doing too bad - just expected to get a bit more than previous car!

Bazzyboy - who did you get to do your remap? defo something i fancy doing.

The Dweeb - i saw your writeup, very comprehensive & a ridiculously complicated process, my car has full BM history so i'm gonna question them about it 1st. Wish me luck!!

Turks - Just going off trip computer so far, next time i fill up (gulp) i'll do the brim to brim test & report back. Will also check which gallon scale computer is set to (good thinking sir!).

Darnicmax - Thanx for that info, i wish i could be as organised to keep records like that!

I'll run car for another couple of weeks & do all of the above then report back.
Cheers,
Marty.

[ChrisLux]

For a re-map , call Jason at BW Chiptune .
He does a special offer for the forum , £250 for E53's .
I've had stuff done by him before and he's a magician with electronics .
I'll be having mine done next time I'm in UK .

PERFORMANCE TUNING,REMAPPING,CODING AND PROGRAMMING OFFER FOR XDRIVERS.CO.UK
www.bwchiptune.co.uk
www.bwautorepairs.co.uk
0044(0)7831 103030
0044(0)208570 3600

Chris

[Turks]

I used to have a similar Spread Sheet as Darnicmax when I worked in the UK to log my miles against my fuel spend (to check if I was recovering my expenses with the pence per mile paid by my company). It is pretty useful and I just updated it monthly. I used to get a receipt from the garage when I filled up and then just wrote on the top of it the mileage on the dash. The receipt told me how many litres I had bought and the mileage would just be the difference between the last reading... easy.

Also made it very easy to claim mileage allowance in my tax return at the end of the year... nice little cheque back from HMRC for very little work.


Turks.