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New 3.5i, 12mpg?!

5K views 43 replies 19 participants last post by  RockChips 
#1 ·
I've just purchased a new X5 3.5i and haven't yet burned through the first tank of gas that was in the car when I took delivery with 3 miles on it. I'm consistently showing about 10-12mpg and there's black soot all over the back of the car indicating that it's running very rich. The dealer is telling me to run another couple of tankfuls of gas through it before I bring it back in for service saying that this is normal. I'm smelling bovine scat but was curious what the collective wisdom here thought about my fuel economy and exhaust debris? The car has only about 250 miles on it.

I'm thinking bad gas from the dealer and hoping that it'll clear up when I put a fresh tank load in it. Hopefully nothing bad will come of it otherwise.

Thoughts?

Wes
 
#2 ·
What kind of driving?

Give it another tankful, but if it is highway driving I'd insist that look at it- and not just pull codes but look at fuel trims.

BTW, I've driven over a million miles and never had a tank of 'bad gas'. Yes it happens, but not nearly as often as rumored. IMO

A
 
#3 ·
I've had my 2011 3.5i SAV for about 20 months and I only get 17mpg for 12mile each way commute to work on 75% highway and 25% city streets. Not brilliant fuel economy and not spirited driving either. I'm attributing it to the wider 20" SAV tyres. It works out to be about 350 miles between fill ups of premium.
 
#4 · (Edited)
I just got my X5 Msport 5.0 yesterday and it says 6.2 around town for the first 100 miles:rofl:

Im not paniking yet:confused:

Im sure the car needs to be broken in to determine an accurate gauge!

but this sound makes it worth it..........
Rob:thumbup:

http://youtu.be/bWMrglwK8wA
 
#5 ·
I really don't think broken in occurs in such a short period of time. I have noticed that the X5 35D has consistent given me the same results in fuel economy. It is a function more of the driving style and path I take. I am sure the break in occurs after about 50k miles. Until then, break in is really a slow and gradual pace. You are effectively polishing the engine with stress.
 
#7 ·
I've just purchased a new X5 3.5i and haven't yet burned through the first tank of gas that was in the car when I took delivery with 3 miles on it. I'm consistently showing about 10-12mpg and there's black soot all over the back of the car indicating that it's running very rich. The dealer is telling me to run another couple of tankfuls of gas through it before I bring it back in for service saying that this is normal. I'm smelling bovine scat but was curious what the collective wisdom here thought about my fuel economy and exhaust debris? The car has only about 250 miles on it.

I'm thinking bad gas from the dealer and hoping that it'll clear up when I put a fresh tank load in it. Hopefully nothing bad will come of it otherwise.

Thoughts?

Wes
Thats the new reality of a BMW turbo. I've had the same experience in my brand new 5.0, except my milage is about twice as bad. Get used to the black tips and the smell. Or get a mercedes :mad:

Here is my writeup on the deal. http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showthread.php?t=657057
 
#8 ·
I looked around before I posted and did see your thread on the experience you've had with your X5M. I hope your wrong about having to get used to this because if my car continues to leave black soot all over the back of it and get a consistent 12 mpg, that'll be unacceptable. There's no reason for this car to run that rich.

One thing I did notice in the owner's manual is that they approve the use of E10 gas but no higher. I wonder if the factory A/F map doesn't account for the only gas I can buy, E10 and if an additive would help? Also, we should all be watching the E15 mandates that look to be gaining inertia in the USA - that's going to spell trouble for our warranties.

Back on the soot and fuel econ - my wife and I are driving it very sedately. We're occasionally getting it on the 2nd pipe but not always in around town driving. I wonder if I could get better mileage driving it in manual mode and keeping the revs up a bit but with still a light touch on the throttle?
 
#13 ·
mileage - when I drive on highway I am close to 20-21 mpg, however city driving is very gas consuming.
When u say consuming
Any actual #'s for city driving for u sir
Rob
ps which model do u have
 
#14 ·
I've just purchased a new X5 3.5i and haven't yet burned through the first tank of gas that was in the car when I took delivery with 3 miles on it. I'm consistently showing about 10-12mpg and there's black soot all over the back of the car indicating that it's running very rich. The dealer is telling me to run another couple of tankfuls of gas through it before I bring it back in for service saying that this is normal. I'm smelling bovine scat but was curious what the collective wisdom here thought about my fuel economy and exhaust debris? The car has only about 250 miles on it.

I'm thinking bad gas from the dealer and hoping that it'll clear up when I put a fresh tank load in it. Hopefully nothing bad will come of it otherwise.

Thoughts?

Wes
I drove my 2013 X5 3.5 from the factory in South Carolina to my home in Maryland and could have made it without stopping for gas. On the Maryland beltway I get 25-26 mpg, on weekends driving locally it drops to about 19-20. Since I drove from the factory directly home the only breakin period was the request to keep it under 100mph for the first 1000 miles I owned it. I don't think you indicated in your original post you had an M - maybe I missed it - but you're getting worse mileage than our 2007 Yukon Denali which averages 14mpg on a good day.
 
#15 ·
Mine's a 3.5i gas and I have an update on this since yesterday. For the entire first tank full of gas the onboard computer was reporting 10 - 12 mpg even after being reset at the beginning of the day several times. With exactly 300 miles on the car I put 20.5 gallons of premium Exxon gas in it which on my calculator says I actually got 14.63 mpg - not terrible. The real kicker though is that I put about 80 miles on the car today and now the computer is telling me that I'm getting 17.6 mpg average consumption in my urban (well, as urban as Annapolis gets) holiday driving.

My conclusion which I've already informed the dealership of is that they put a load of bad gas in my car before delivery. I'm personally suspicious that they knew that given the advice I got from their service desk who told me it would get better after another tank or two of fuel. Leaving that aside, I'm pretty happy with the way the car ran and the economy I'm getting now. I romped on it several times so it wasn't all *****footing around and still got over 17 mpg. YMMV.
 
#20 ·
Well this explains it
Barely touching the throttle on this beast and the MPG gauge goes to 12 ....lol:rofl:

It is what it is....cant wait till i romp on it after 1500 miles and see what the mpg is then.

im on this planet once, mind as well spend a ton of money on gas!

Rob
 

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#23 ·
We buy a lot of gas at Costco also. When I mentioned this to my dealer salesperson, he said I should go talk to the dealer's service people about Costco and Sam's Club gas. I haven't verified this but he said that every time they've seen a clogged injector on a car it's been an engine that's been fed a steady diet of Costco/Sam's fuel. It was his strong recommendation to not put their gas in these newer BMW engines - something about not adding Techron or some other additive that just about everyone else adds. That was right before I drove off with what was apparently a bad load of gas that the dealer put in the car.

grilodan, my apologies for offending your sensibilities. I'm new back to BMW after a 10 year hiatus from their cars and not that familiar with why they call the new models what they do. I'll be sure to name it correctly when I post.
 
#22 ·
Is it just me or does it annoy the crap out of you guys as well when people say 3.5i or 3.5d? The engine is a 3.0L inline 6 ... PERIOD. And the models are 35i or 35d.

Anyway, now that I got that out of the way ... I've driven my car almost 7,000 miles over the last 4 months. It's a 2013 X5 35i and I average around 17/18mpg if I run 75% Highway and 25% City. It's a lot worse than I expected. When the wife drives it in town only (we live in Chicago) it's around 10mpg. It's really bad.

I also have the problem with the exhaust spitting out black stuff and it never gets better, apparently. I love the car a great deal, I still think it's the best car I've ever owned, but the fuel economy (or lack thereof) is pretty ridiculous.
 
#24 ·
I will admit that I will get Shell or BP every several tanks because Costco gas doesn't indicate it has any "detergents". I used to pass a Costco with a gas station on my way home from work daily, but as I will likely retire in a week I won't have access to a Costco gas station (but I also won't be driving 96 miles a day).
 
#26 ·
Diesels rule. Last week took our '11 X5d on a trip from Carpinteria, CA to San Jose and back. Averaged 27 mpg at a consistent 80 mph. Today did a trip to Los Angeles and back averaging 29 mpg due to traffic causing speeds not exceeding 65 mph. After ditching the Michelin Latitude rft tires at 35,000 miles in favor of non rft Yohihama YK580 tires, the ride and mileage have improved. I have been so pleased with this vehicle. Other than various recalls, have never had to bring this vehicle in for any issues.
 
#27 ·
27 mpg in a 650i? What's your average speed? I used to get around 27mpg in my F10 535i averaging 80mph. I don't know how you're pulling 2mpg with the V8 and that heavy body. Low speeds is my only guess.
 
#28 ·
@zuma - I too love the diesel, I just can't stand the drone from the engine at around 75/80mph. And the intoxicating sound of the 35i exhaust puts a smile on my face every time. Having said that, as a cruiser, the diesel is phenomenal. I had the 335d as a loaner for a week. I averaged 34mpg driving like a maniac. Great engines and I can't wait until they bring the much better 40d to our shores.
 
#31 ·
I have a 2012 35i and haven't had any issues with black soot on the tailpipes or unusually low mileage. I get around 18-19mpg indicated as the overall average for a mixture of your typical suburban driving.
 
#32 ·
An update on my 35i X5 - after about 1500 miles, really since the second tank full of gas, I'm getting 18.5 mpg in spirited suburban driving. I'm not at all unhappy with that and looking forward to seeing what kind of mileage I get on the highway when we travel next month.

My problem apparently turned out to be a problem just for the first tank of gas. Your explanation is as good as mine as to why that would have been the case.
 
#35 ·
We took a short ski trip last weekend in our '12 35i. With a Thule 1600 ski box on top and a healthy tailwind, mpg was 22.8 running 75-80 true by GPS (speedo is 3 mph slow). Coming back into the wind at the same speed it was 18.2. This vehicle at 22k and with 18 inch RFTs gets good mileage.
 
#38 ·
Averaging 11mpg and I'm getting places quick
So u can draw any inferences from that statement!:D
 
#39 ·
A few weeks ago I was going from Philly to DC (in a rental Mazda 3, i am from WA). Saw a white X5 in left lane passing me. As it passed, I noticed the exhaust pipes and bumper were pretty black from soot. Falling for stereotype, I thought to myself "must be a diesel". Sped up to check the labels - 50i !.
P.S. Haven't seen a 35d with black pipes or soot in the back.
 
#41 ·
I think the new X5 will show big mpg improvements since the N55 is capable of much better mileage in the still heavy F10. As a comparison our new Cayenne with the 3.6 liter NA V6 got 27 mpg at a 172 miles door to door ski trip last weekend. This included passing through two smaller cities and two drive through espresso stand visits. Terrain makes a huge difference it took 22.7 mpg to the destination and 34 mpg coming home each 86 miles and 49 mph avg. speed. 27 mpg was the calculated mpg for the full trip mpg after re-fueling. I would assume the new X5 35i to get closer to these numbers.
 
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