Page 1 of 1

Fuel consumption

Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 10:44 pm
by Hoppy_70
Had my X5 a couple of months now and wasn't completely happy with fuel consumption. It's been well documented on here that BMW are in fact lying f*****ers and nobody gets anywhere near claimed.

I was getting 31mpg on a careful motorway cruise and 18 or less around town (2007 3.0d). I bought a cheap chip box from eBay and have just given it its first decent rest on a trip from Manchester to Bognor Regis and am quite impressed. Around town isn't awesome with around 22mpg but on my run at around 70mph I got 40mpg, which I'm happy with.

I'm pretty sure even driving like a nun I wouldn't have got that before. I reckon 45mpg old be achievable at 60.

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 10:24 am
by Geezer
That's quite impressive. I've always thought those boxes on ebay to be a bit of a scam.

Glad to hear it working out for you. Any effects on performance?

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 3:16 pm
by xl5
you will get those figures to start with, wait till the cars computer starts to average out the mpg..

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 3:58 pm
by Don Coffey
That's not quite good, that's fantastic!  BMWs claims are subjective.  For one, they are tested on a rolling road and secondly, are you driving as economical a possible?  Not easy to qualify really.  You may feel that you are but judged against what or who. 

As a rule I used to get 20% below claimed on my cars driving how I wanted.  I now get closer to 10% below, but in a car as big as the X that takes some doing in my case as I live in a hilly area.  If I lived in Norfolk, and drove the same way as I do now I would expect to see returns equal to claimed.

I remember reading an article about the long term car being an Lexus RX hybrid.  For the first couple of months the guy was getting poor returns, however when he drove the car with economy in mind, the reruns improved instantly.

Don

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:19 pm
by Tweaky
I would be interested to know how many miles you get out of a tank of fuel, compared to before the remap.  I am sure I read somewhere that after a remap you will see improved mpg on the car computer, but in reality it doesn't actually occur......if I remember rightly it is something to do with where the car takes its readings from, and the increase in (air flow I think) with a remap.  ;)

Of course I could be completely wrong, no doubt someone will correct me if I am. :P

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Fri Mar 08, 2013 7:24 pm
by touring
Not everyone thinks the figures are well out, I easily achieve the quoted figs, maybe I drive like a nun!' 'how many nun' do you see driving an X5? [quote="Hoppy_70"]
Had my X5 a couple of months now and wasn't completely happy with fuel consumption. It's been well documented on here that BMW are in fact lying f*****ers and nobody gets anywhere near claimed.

I was getting 31mpg on a careful motorway cruise and 18 or less around town (2007 3.0d). I bought a cheap chip box from eBay and have just given it its first decent rest on a trip from Manchester to Bognor Regis and am quite impressed. Around town isn't awesome with around 22mpg but on my run at around 70mph I got 40mpg, which I'm happy with.

I'm pretty sure even driving like a nun I wouldn't have got that before. I reckon 45mpg old be achievable at 60.
[/quote]

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 1:57 pm
by Hoppy_70
[quote="Tweaky"]
I would be interested to know how many miles you get out of a tank of fuel, compared to before the remap.  I am sure I read somewhere that after a remap you will see improved mpg on the car computer, but in reality it doesn't actually occur......if I remember rightly it is something to do with where the car takes its readings from, and the increase in (air flow I think) with a remap.  ;)

Of course I could be completely wrong, no doubt someone will correct me if I am. :P
[/quote]

I think any changes to the mpg on screen are made through the hidden menus, I don't think they can occur on their own/ be tricked. I definitely saw an increase in the miles out of a tank but haven't been very scientific with it. I got about 500 out of my first tank on a run, but this one did about 620. I reckon I could squeeze 700 if doing nothing but motorway at 60ish.

[quote="xl5"]
you will get those figures to start with, wait till the cars computer starts to average out the mpg..
[/quote]

It isn't just to start with, I've had it on for about two weeks, this was the first decent run. I've reset the mpg a few times (if that's what you mean?)

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 2:12 pm
by huck
As above, there have definitely been issues with remapped/boxed cars where the tuning causes the computer to be out of whack - this was certainly the case with me in a couple of my remapped cars - the computer became (even more) optimistic by 2-3mpg.

The only reliable way is to do brim to brim calculations.

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 7:06 pm
by Hoppy_70
Yes i've checked with actual versus computer and its bob on at the moment.

Re: Fuel consumption

Posted: Sat Mar 09, 2013 7:40 pm
by huck
[quote="Hoppy_70"]
Yes i've checked with actual versus computer and its bob on at the moment.
[/quote]

Then, if your driving style is exactly the same, that's a serious result. Nice one.