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I asked the representative upon delivery about the break-in period and he pulled out the owners manual and showed me <=100 mph, <= 4500 rpms. Hope this helps, Timny.
This I have considered, so thank you for that validation. Here's to looking towards 10K!
2) I'm thinking that you are driving too slow. My former 328i and 530i both got their best mileage well north of 70 mph.
This I hadn't considered. But I should add that, while I don't know how valid it is, the analog mileage/fuel efficiacy guage at the bottom or the taco (or is it the speedo?) shows the highest efficiancy right around 62-63mph, which is where I have been driving. But I am sure I'll hit 70 eventually and see myself!
Thanks for the input.
Best Regards,
Shipo
I would keel over if I ever saw 27mpg!
Best Regards,
Shipo
I must be doing something wrong - enlighten me, please. Here's the situation. I am driving along in an unfamiliar area and want the Nav to tell me the nearst CVS, say. I can't seem to get the Nav to do this. I can't find an alphabetical listing of businesses for instance. What the Nav. will do is display businesses within say a 0-3 mile radius around me, but these are organized into geographic proximity; even if I had the time to do so, scrolling through a list of businesses in ascending order by their proximity to me doesn't help me to find THE business I am looking for, if you follow my meaning. Myhand-held $400 Garmin PDA's built-in nav offers this level of functionality, so I am assuming this $2000 dvd-based BMW Nav should do the same but that I am doing something wrong. Insights anyone?
An indie, though, suggested don't even bother replacing the spring if you don't notice any problem with the handling. Which I don't.
Have you been using the mpg feature on your on-board computer? Does it show only 19mpg? I have used mine and found it to be fairly accurate (with actual mpg being slightly better than what the computer shows).
With gas prices being what they are, there's certainly motive ... .!!
Having said all of that, the 3.0 liter mill in my 530i is substantially different from the 3.0 unit in your E90. Differences aside, my reading of the internal architecture of the new engine suggests that, if anything, mileage should be improved over the old version. Until the engine is well and truly broken in I wouldn't sweat the mileage too much, especially because you are keeping your speed down so low.
Speaking of your speed, why are you driving so slow? BMW simply recommends that you keep it below 100 mph for the break in period. Keeping your speed slower than that will provide you with zero benefit, and might actually be to your new engines' detriment. In the case of my 530i, I picked it up in Germany and immediately headed out on the two lane back roads where I would routinely hit 100 between small towns. Zero to 100 to 35 to 20 to 35 to 100 to zero, rowing the gears all of the time, lots of fun.
True story, back when I was kid growing up in the Detroit area, any number of my friends' fathers were engineers for the "Autos", and to a one they all swore that by breaking in their new cars in while limited to second gear (of three) for the first few hundred miles, that they got better power and better economy. True? I have no idea. Fast forward to 2002 when I got the 530i and drove it hard for the first 1,250 miles, after which I drove it even harder (cruise control set at the speed limiter (just over 132 indicated)) for several hours.
When my car made it over to our side of the pond my selling dealership kindly upgraded the firmware in my OBC to the latest revision (gee thanks). The car was virtually un-drivable as a result. The throttle would lag, and then come on all at once, and then drop out at weird times. :P Finally during a conversation with a technician (I'd moved to a different state and so this was at a different dealership), said technician told me, "They all do that."
"Oh really? Well mine sure as hell didn't do it when I picked it up in Germany. The problem didn't start until I got back here to the States."
"Really?!? Hmmm, when did you pick the car up in Germany and when did it get over here?"
"I picked it up in April in Germany, and then picked it up again in New Jersey in May."
"Hang on a minute." He then took my car into the shop and connected it up to his computer. A couple of minutes later he reported, "The firmware in your car is dated mid-May, so obviously it has been changed since it got over here. As is so happens, we received a new version of code last night, do you want to try it?"
"Hell yes!" Problem solved.
While we were testing the car after the software upgrade we drove up a long on-ramp to a freeway and while I was running the car at full throttle up through the gears he said, "Damn, this thing is fast, way faster than any other 530i I've ever driven."
It didn't feel any different to me so I asked, "Yeah, but most folks get an automatic transmission. You're probably just used to driving around behind a slush box."
"Mr. Shipo, I drive dozens of 530i(s) per week, and many of them are sticks. I'm telling you, your car feels like it's in 540i territory."
Was my extra acceleration due to how hard I drove the car during break-in? Who knows. Was the excellent mileage that I got due to the same thing? Couldn't tell ya.
My suggestion; drive the car, and drive it as hard as the manual says you can. Oh! Have fun too! ;-)
Best Regards,
Shipo
My family's 2004 Honda Odyssey suffers from sub-standard gas mileage, and I never got the bottom of it. I get only 17mpg for mixed driving, though 21 or 22 is to be expected. I'm good about doing the maintenance (as per the owners' manual) and regulating the tire pressure. When I expressed my concern to the service department, they didn't even offer to check anything. They just dismissed my concern by telling me that 18/25 is just an indication and that actual gas mileage could be better or worse depending on many variables such as driving style, weather, etc.
Anyway, if I were you, I'd raise the mpg concern early on and ask them to look into it. As computerized as this car is, maybe they will actually find something that can be corrected.
Reflashing the OBC? Hmm ... my dealer seems challenged enough at installing floor mats! But I'll keep it in mind, especially as I apy attention to the mileage in the weeks ahead.
A friend of mine has the previous model 530 and gets mileage close to 28 he tells me. That blows my mind. I know the engine in the E90 has a little more juice to it, but the 330i's a much lighter car, isn't it? So I agree with you -- if anything, I should be getting better mileage (or at least mileage closer to what BMW says I should!)
Here are my questions:
1) Assume I have the oil changed at 3K, 6K, 9K and 12K ... will BMW still change it at 16K for "free"?
2) Do I have to go to the dealership where I bought the car for said service?
You might want to re-think the extra oil changes on your new 3, because (1) they are probably unnecessary and (2) they are costly for a BMW.
You can go to any BMW dealer for service, no matter where you purchased/leased the car. They all have to honor the warranty and free maintenance, though the dealer you bought the car from might show you some favoratism when it comes to scheduling appointments, loaner cars, any special requests, etc.
Outside of the cost, is there any negative to getting this updated? (you did mention that the first update actually made the car drive worse).
note: I have a roof rack on my car, which could affect gas mileage.
When I started turning wrenches on cars back in the 1970s, 3000 miles was a good time to do an oil change. What with inefficient carburetors, leaded fuel and by today’s standards VERY low-tech dino-juice in the crankcase, a car of that era could easily expect to see the far side of 100K miles. In my case, my 1966 Valiant with the 225 Slant-Six went 211K on the original motor before I rebuilt it (it burned oil) and my 1970 Dodge Challenger with the venerable 340 made it to 187K when it was stolen.
Fast forward 35 years and we now have very clean burning fuel (less particulate matter to suspend in the oil), electronic systems to manage the fuel injection and ignition timing to make the combustion process even cleaner (even less particulate matter to suspend in the oil) and even good old dino-juice has been beefed up to last longer and protect better. What does that all add up to? Longer intervals between oil changes.
Now consider the current crop of BMW engines:
These engines are efficient enough to be certificated as Ultra Low Emission Vehicles (ULEV) or better, which reduces the combustion byproducts and as a result reduces the particulate matter that the oil must hold in suspension, yielding even longer oil change intervals.
BMW is using synthetic oil right from the factory; said oil has far greater abilities to keep contaminates in suspension with no appreciable loss in lubricity. Couple that with the ability of Synthetic oil to shrug off the effects of water (older Dino Juice used to react with water and form acids) without any loss in lubricity, and you have an oil that can withstand longer oil change intervals without ANY additional engine wear. Yup, you guessed it, the OCIs just got longer again.
BMW has also seen fit to nearly double the amount of oil the engine holds in its sump when compared to other comparably sized engines. Twice the oil means twice the already prodigious capacity of synthetic oil to hold particulate matter in suspension, lower oil temperatures (spends more time in the sump cooling), fewer passes through the oil galleries getting the #$*^%~!@ beat out of it, and a much greater margin of error for low oil. I could say it again but you get the idea. ;-)
Modern engine oil (once again, specifically Synthetic) is far more stable in extreme environments (high engine temps, high RPMs and extreme cold) than conventional oil, as such, it breaks down at a FAR slower rate when compared to the old stuff. Ditto on the OCI thing.
If all of this is not enough, when I was working for MBUSA in the mid 1990s, MB was testing a number of cars with Synthetic oil (IIRC they were W210 E-Class cars marked as E420s with the new three valve, twin spark 4.3 liter V8 engines that ultimately wound up in the E430s). A few of those cars only had the oil changed when the chemical analysis of the oil indicated that it was starting to degrade below acceptable minimums. Do you know what the average mileage was between changes on those cars turned out to be? Glad you asked, 25,000 miles.
Based upon the above items, I would not be surprised if the oil in latest generations of ULEV and ULEV-II certified BMW engines could last 30,000 miles under normal driving conditions. Having said that, I will not be the first to raise my hand to try and find out, 15,000 miles is just fine by me.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Best Regards,
Shipo
Interestingly enough, while the E39 530i is definitely a larger car (almost three more inches in wheelbase and 10 inches in overall length), it only weighs in at a scant 77 pounds more than the new E90 330i. Go figure.
The reason that I believe that the mileage on the new E90 should be measurably better than what I got on my E39 is because the new engine does not have a throttle body. Your engine simply "throttles" the valves, and as such, most engineering reports indicate that at any given throttle setting, (i.e. any given amount of air and fuel), the new engine should produce something like 18-20% more power (or economy if you are tooling along at a nice steady speed). Unfortunately I seem to have been expecting much greater mileage from the new line of engines than folks seem to be getting. :-( I'm at a loss to explain how the extra power at any given throttle setting does not in actuality translate to better economy. Having said that, I absolutely believe that you should easily be able to see 30 if not more on a trip. Don't forget, most of my 30+ mpg trips were from southern New Hampshire (just north of Boston), down through your neck of the woods, across the Throgs Neck Bridge and out into Long Island, so if my 5er could do it, your 3er should most certainly be able to do it.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Well, then, I will definitely speak to my service department if matters don't improve in the coming weeks. I was a little more heavy-footed on the drive home yesterday, and did see a 0.2 mpg improvement (not much of an improvement but better than a loss!).
Thanks!
(2006 330i and 2005 X3).
Your cars need oil service every 15K. The major Services (I, II, III & IV) occur every 30K mles. You will also need to take them in for a brake system flush every other year and a cooling system flush every 3 or 4 years (I don't remember which). IIRC, the information you seek is somewhere in the packet of manuals that you got with each car, I just don't remember where.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Let the following represent the headlight configuration (i.e., if you were facing the car's grill, the headlamps would be numbered left to right as 1, 2, 3,4):
[OO OO]
1 2 3 4
- if I push the appropriate column lever forward to hold the "brights", the lamps 1 and 4 illuminate with greater intensity (as expected), but 2 and 3 do not come on at all
- if I pull the appropriate column lever towards me (i.e., to "flash" the "brights"), lamps 2 and 3 illuminate, while 1 and 4 remain the same
What I find odd about this is as follows:
- lamps 2 and 3 are not xenon (should they be?)
- lamps 2 and 3 do not illumniate when the I put on the "brights" (shouldn't all four lamps be on when the 'brights" are on?)
2 and 3 are your halogen bulbs used for daytime running lights and flash to pass.
That is how it is supposed to be.
-Paul
Of course having said that, I feel that the modern crop of BMW engines are easily as well engineered (if not significantly more so), and as such, my bet is that using the OBC's OCI recommendation will easily allow these engines to see life well north of a quarter of a million miles before requiring a rebuild.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Mileage on my old 330i continued to improve well into 20k miles. Best mileage I got was San Francisco to Santa Barbara (~300 miles). I got 28 mpg with ave speed of 75+ mph (couple stop lights slowed me down).
Best regards, Lehrer 1
Lehrer1
Second, you'll have to have the codes pulled from the car's computer so we know what error codes have been posted. You might be able to get this done for free from Autozone.
When the engine light goes on, that's a signal to get right on it. You could be doing damage to your car by driving this way.
Best Regards,
Shipo
Best Regards,
Shipo
the cam sensor tells the injection brain which cylinder is firing, so yeah, you need that.
Here's a place that sells used ones:
http://data.bmrparts.com/bmwparts/2151.html
I didn't know how many are on your engine.
I've also heard it isn't terribly difficult to replace yourself, but as it involves opening the hood, I would never attempt it..
Plus... mine went out under warranty..
regards,
kyfdx
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Thank you, Tricia ">