1st Gen R53 Cooper S Most liked posts in thread: Absolute Horrid Fuel Mileage!

There are certain days of the year where I get only 8 MPG on my '06 MCS. :devil:

 

LOTS of reading on Minis, LOTS of R53 experience, leads me to summarize thusly:

Supercharged engines put out great power per liter - of displacement - but superchargers are NOT as efficient as turbos or normally aspirated motors on fuel economy.

"Normal" on the R53 is beteeen 21-24MPG city, and 25-30MPG highway. There are outliers on either side of that. I get about 23-23.5 mixed (heavily city) driving, and not-quite-29MPG on trips at a consistent 70-75MPH without yo-yoing. Many friends get about the same.

13-14 miles is ju-ust enough to fully warm up the car, so you're traveling a high %age of your drive time at the engine's least efficient state. My commute is, ironically, about 14 miles as well, in the hilly terrain near Pittsburgh, and 23MPG is pretty OK. I still get high 20's on longer drives.

That whistle, by the way, is your boost bypass valve - normal at near 0 boost (very light throttle) conditions as the boost is "bled off"..

Your forged (does nothing for fuel economy) turbo-ed (better than supercharger for fuel economy but essentially fuel-economy-effect-free on the highway), caged (again, minimal-to-zero fuel effect), 300bhp (we know you're bragging - but that motor sounds great!) Miata (lighter, lower, far less wind resistance) is in no way comparable to the supercharged Mini.

Oh - I believe the recommended PSI on the Mini tires is 33, not 38, but mine's not nearby so I can't check.

Not criticizing, hope you enjoy the Mini, as they are certainly GREAT fun. Your Miata may indeed be MORE fun, but perhaps a little less interior space!

 

My 6 cyl. Lexus ES got 29 mpg, so by your logic my MINI should get at least 40, right?

By extension, when I drove my JCW there were times it only got between 6.2 and 7.1 mpg - must be something horribly wrong with it, right?

My point was comparing any two differnt make, model etc cars is worth very little unless you're doing a controled mileage test. They're different ....period.

Likewise, driving conditions play a large role in your fuel mileage - my example above was a track day.

So, it sounded like you were looking for the magic button under the dash to push that would "fix" your car, when there might not be anything wrong with it, or it might be that you have a mechanical issue, or that the previous owner modded it - had it tuned - poorly, changed injectors etc etc. The only cure for that is to go back and do all the basic checks - compression and leakdown, look for vacuum leaks, fuel leakage, tuning issues etc. Too many variables for us to guess at a real answer.

I can't find your post on the other site, nor do I care to go look, I rarely go there because when I post some thoughtful replies to someone's querry I get pillloried for my trouble.

Here, I was trying to use a little levity and it clearly didn't work, sorry.

And maybe your thread title may have been a little off-putting, considering how many people responded that it seemed about right - depending on circumstances?

 

Hey Jim you'll be the torque of the town. Best stop somewhere & siphon off that excess gas your MINI is making.

Back on topic: I loves my MINI.....

 

You are not driving hard enough. I've had mine down to 6.7.

 

Something must be wrong at about 19 MPG

I would think you should be getting at least 28/30 mpg.

Are you using premium gas or regular?

19 MPG in a Mini is just not right. Something gotta be wrong.

:confused5:

 

27-35 per qtr tank, what I'd the range on fill ups? If its that high , hell I only get 23 on my 06 JCW doing local.

 

I get 22 MPG or so on my '06 MCS (your same motor), but I've got several engine mods, including larger injectors, so I'd expect mine to be a little bit thirsier than yours. Maybe a target of 26MPG or so on average for a stock MCS (with 2/3 highway miles).

 

On my 06 JCW w/tune my tracked average over the past 30,000 miles is exactly 19 MPG. My best fuel economy was 24.6 mpg (must have been a road trip) and my worst was 11.7 mpg (must have been a track day).

My 05 Justa Vert tacked over last 19,000 miles is averaging 21.5 mpg. 40.2 best (no idea how I got that) and 19.0 worst.

All driving is mixed use with heavy LA traffic.

I've found that on long trips I can get 330+ mile per tank if averaging 75 mph. Slower I can get further, faster is not as far. In daily driving, if my wife used the car she will get about 280 miles to the tank on her 15 mile one way commute. If I am driving I will only get about 220 miles and my commute is 5 miles one way. I'm also a strong believer in exercising the go pedal's full range of motion as often as possible.

 

Doncha love a guy who tells you what his new car should do based on what his old (completely different other brand) car does?

Didja get a chance to check any of the 6 or 7 things I suggested on the other site?

 

Say what? 265 miles per tank, divided by 4, comes out to 66.25 miles per quarter tank. Perhaps lower than average, but not horrid by MCS standards.

On a non-S R52, much of our driving is on congested San Francisco streets, and 17-18 mpg is typical.

 

Your numbers definitely aren't out of the norm.

Driving style greatly influences the fuel economy on our cars. A couple weeks ago, I drove very gently (most people would consider this normal driving) from Columbus to Detroit and back went almost 380 miles between fill ups.

However, for most of my daily commute/spirited driving, I probably average 230-300 miles between fill-ups (20-25 mpg). I try not to think about it anymore and just enjoy the sound of the supercharger, Alta intake, and Magnaflow exhaust.

 

For what it is worth, my new car is a low mileage (8k miles) 05 MCS with JCW engine including injectors. Here are the last three tanks mpgs: Miles Per Gallon Date
29.9 04/05/12 18:11
29.7 04/04/12 16:40
21.4 04/03/12 11:29
The 30mpg averages are highway driving at about 75 mph average. The 21.4 is all in town enjoying the acceleration amid stop and go traffic.
Michael

 

Good stuff, but I seldom keep track of the MPG in my MCS. I'm headed to the coast tomorrow and I'll keep tabs on the fuel economy and report back on Monday.