z4 35i fuel consumption

[Marekdawg]

That is a good question but I have actually checked the tank out and all the connecting bits etc all seems good in the hood. nothing has been tampered with there at all.

I thought you may have already checked having seen your other thread. Another thought from my own experience in Harare, is your car safe from the lovely chaps who like to come along and siphon your fuel at night? Again doubtful but just another thought.

hahahaha That is a funny question I wont lie. You know I don't live in the jungle right? I live in South Africa. My car is parked in a lock up garage everyday in a secure complex. and at work its parked at the office in the parking lot situated inside the building.

I actually have less hassles with my car here in South Africa than what I did when I lived in the UK.

When I lived in the UK my car got broken into a few times. My door locks got destroyed, I came out to a car with broken windows sometimes. Those chavs are another story, very menacing to society and extremely destructive. I remember walking down the street on my way to work the one morning and every single car parked on the side of the road had a smashed windscreen!

We don't have that issue here in South Africa because most places have lock up garages and if not then its because its in a safe complex with car ports with no way for anyone to come into the complex. Even if you goto a shopping center you get nice underground parking to park in. No one parks on the side of the road in the sun all day here like what I had to do when I stayed in the UK.
Look there are places in SA where you have to park on the side of the road for an hour or two but most places you goto have big parking spaces that are usually underground or under cover and they are very safe.

Also I don't live in Harare. I live in Sandton in Johannesburg.

Haha I know, I lived in Zim for a good few years as well as SA, spent most of my time in Cape town or visiting family in Nelspruit, to be honest, actively avoided Joburg as much as i could.
Only reason I asked is mine was in a garage inside our locked property with electric fence etc. but after a couple of confusing weeks I found the issue...
But glad the fuel issue seems to have gotten better!

 

[Nanu]

Can't believe you like going to the car wash and having the car wash guys wash my car for you

Would not even let the wife wash mine. Me and me only so I know exactly what product is used and the water and sponges are clean.

 

[eff1guy]

Can't believe you like going to the car wash and having the car wash guys wash my car for you

Would not even let the wife wash mine. Me and me only so I know exactly what product is used and the water and sponges are clean.

:slaphead:

 

[sachak]

Can't believe you like going to the car wash and having the car wash guys wash my car for you

Would not even let the wife wash mine. Me and me only so I know exactly what product is used and the water and sponges are clean.

Damn straight I like getting other people to wash my car for me. I washed enough cars when I was a kid and in my early 20's. I can now have other people wash it for me.

We also have an awesome 24/h car wash here so I sometimes go at like midnight and get the car washed, Have a cappuccino and let them do there thing. Vacuum wash, they clean the rims properly too, polish the tires etc
They also have a lift that I often use and I get them to clean the cars chassis. You can see the lift in my other DIY thread, I use that lift for oil changes etc too.

Look if I really wanted to I could pay and wash the car myself....but why?? that defeats the point of paying them money to wash your car. I would just wash it myself for free at home otherwise...

 

[ph001]

...I guess it comes down to how much you care for your paintwork. A group of guys washing cars for a living are never going to be as careful about grit / contaminants etc on the mitt than an owner who is fastidious about the paint finish. Having spent a week doing a full paint correction with a DA (actually quite enjoyable when you see the results) the last thing you want to do is introduce a load more swirls and scratches. For example, my weekly routine is:

1) Jetwash car with clean water to remove loose surface dirt
2) Snowfoam entire car
3) Jetwash again with water to remove foam

..note - I haven't even touch the cars surface with any kind of cloth yet

4) Contact wash with quality lambswool mit and ph neutral shampoo (top half of car only). Rinse mit after every contact in separate bucket with grit-guard .
5) Rinse with hose
6) Contact wash with quality lambswool mit and ph neutral shampoo (bottom half of car only - excluding sills, bottom of bumpers etc). Rinse mit after every contact in separate bucket with grit-guard.
7) Rinse with hose
8 ) Contact wash around shitty area's such as sills, wheel arches, inside doors etc
9) Final rinse with hose
10) Clean wheels with seperate microfibre cloth and ph neutral cleaner.
11) Drive car briefly to remove excess water and dry brakes off.
12) Dry / condition paintwork with edgeless microfibe and quick detailer.
13) Tyre gel to finish.

...and that's in addition to the monthly 3-stage wax protection.


I wonder if this thread can get any more off topic!!!!

 

[sachak]

Well I managed to get 350km to that last tank....However I was running a stage 2+ MHD map for most of it. Not sure how much of a difference that made. I filled up this afternoon and then flashed back to stock. Will see what I get with this map and tank of fuel.

That's a good way to wash your car and if my paintwork was perfect I would care allot more but I need all the swirls and scratches removed that I received the car with first. This will get done soon alone with the fitment and spraying of the msport front bumper. After that I will be allot more meticulous with how my car is washed.
Right now fuel consumption and perfect working machinery is more important to me than a few swirl marks.

 

[bob4333]

1st rule of maintenance - wash your own car.

Not just for the washing, but you also spot other things during the process .................

 

[Smartbear]

1st rule of maintenance - wash your own car.

Not just for the washing, but you also spot other things during the process .................

like missing wheels
Rob

 

[bob4333]

like missing wheels
Rob

That too.

Perhaps I'm a bit too fussy but a car on bricks just doesn't have the same appeal...................

 

[Number Six]

Don't know if you are still benchmarking fuel use but thought I'd chip in as I enjoyed/was horrified by your build thread. 2009 35i manual here, from the last full tank to reserve warning I got 268 miles/431 KM with a mixture of driving like Miss Daisy and giving the accelerator pedal a leathering. The best I have ever achieved economy-wise is probably 375 miles to a tank going by your readings rather than what the car says.

 

[sachak]

ok guys so I've been driving with the stock map for a while now and fuel consumption was an abortion to say the least.

I took a drive down the cape town which works out to 1470km there and 1470km back so its allot of driving. On the way there I kept getting roughly 250 - 270km by the time the needle got to the half way mark. Me not knowing how far the next petrol station was I filled up each time. I filled up many times doing this it was a stuff up. cost a fortune.

The drive back yielded the same results but I knew roughly how far apart the petrol stations were this time so I could stretch things out a bit and monitor consumption a bit better. Alas the same thing by the time I got to 250km the tank was at the half way mark and then started dropping rapidly from there so had to fill fast.

BUT then.....the wierdest thing happened, first the oem amp for the radio blew cause the car now makes no sounds of any kind, maybe its just a fuse? who knows. And then shortly after that happened I got a brake pad failure light come on.....I stopped the car and checked my pads and they are still like new. They haven't been on the car for very long at all I fitted them recently. I looked in the iDrive under services and it reports that the front and rear pads are still fine and have many thousands of km to go still before they need changing.

I carried on driving and my consumption dropped drastically! ive so far managed to get 619km to this tank and I still have 109km to go according to the computer. when the computer said I had 140km to go I put in R100 worth of fuel which gives roughly + - 7L of petrol. This bumped the reading up to 205km left to the tank. so it gave me roughly +-60km of driving as I wasn't sure if I would make it to the next station so I just threw in R100 to make sure and i continued my journey home and by the time I got home I was left with 109km left and 619km done to the tank. So what ever happened that caused that brake failure it improved my fuel consumption ALOT!

Any ideas guys?

I was thinking maybe the ABS unit was clamping my brakes down all the time causing excess load and hiking fuel consumption, but if this were true wouldn't my discs be purple and blue etc from excessive heat?

 

[Gaffa22]

thats very strange, yes had the brakes been on the discs would be very very hot

 

[sachak]

So I started the car today and went for a drive to grab breakfast and the sound is working again. Radio is working as normal and the brake pad failure light is gone. WTF.....