For some reason, in the last 2 tanks my little excel has been using twice as much fuel as it normally does, cant figure out why. Performance has also gone down, not a whole lot cause theyre not exactly fast to begin with, but after my last oil change it was pretty nimble taking off. When i take off after starting up sometimes, the car sort of shudders and struggles to make power, but 5-10 seconds later it starts coming good. And the auto slips occasionally when going from 1st to 2nd, but that itself cant be responsible for the fuel usage.

I just changed the oil and oil filter, and its at the correct level, the air filter is still clean, but there must be something else that needs attention. Could it be i need new sparkplugs (and leads?), a new O2 sensor, fuel filter, something else?

Any ideas/help appreciated.

try the fuel filter

ive seen sludge one after not that many kay's

Check your plugs, plug leads and coil.
Now that winter is here the damp conditions could magnify any problems with leads such as crossfiring, shorting etc.
The symptoms would be more pronounced under engine load, (take off, accelerating) and when the engine is cold.

Could you have dislodged something while you were changing your oil and filter?

Do you have a friendly mechanic that could look at it for you?

I might try the fuel filter and plugs first up, then move onto leads and coil if i dont have any luck there?
Dont know of a mechanic who could look at it without some serious labour charges (cars not worth putting too much money into), but when i picked up the BMW from the shop, he mentioned fuel filter straight off the bat.

I have the same prob with my excel and have replaced all of the items mentioned above, i have also had it at ultratune to put it on the computer but nothing came up on it. The only thing left i can think of is maybe the fuel pump?
P.S if you try it let me know how it goes.

Could be bad fuel
Water in the fuel (try add metho to your fuel to dry it out)
Plugs
Leads
Earthing problem
Fuel filter
MAF I know some of the excels were prone to MAF failure.

BTW what your describing is the fuel ecconomy halving not doubling

I'd though about saying something but didn't want to appear pedantic ....

BTW .... it's you're .... not your

yeah yeah but mine makes sence.

I read this thread expecting to find some miracle cure to my oil burning woes

Thought i got something bum about

Earthing & MAF are good suggestions, and i'll try the metho next time i'm pissed

I hope your wrong about the fuel pump bluboy, not after i started putting the floor of a wall over the fuel tank entry plug. Luck/Karma/God does'nt want me to have a walled car...

Well, i've got a few idea's to try, so we'll see how they go, thanks guys!

not sure if its in relation to excel's... but what about the o2 sensor in the exhaust or air intake or something? wouldnt that (if faulty) tell the computer to add more fuel therefore the richness and halving in fuel economy?.. maybe its just turbo cars.. lol

ahh crap, I read the title and thought this thread would give me a miracle solution to get my 2v corty down to 8l/100 compared to the 16/100 i'm using now

I've been having the same problem for the past few weeks lately also, I'm only getting 350km-400km to the tank compared to the 600km-700km I used to in a 1.6L Civic!

HAHA see I told you!

Maybe it's something to do with the wall you installed?

injectors? if it's EFI maybe an injector isn't spraying properly.

the wall would slow it down also

It was poorly gapped sparkplugs, replacing them made things better. But yeah, that wall adds a couple of kilo's to slow things down
Actually, now with the wall in, the beemer is the faster car, only slightly haha.

I can definatly say changing the o2 sensor helped me... that being said mine was VERY rich... rev it up in the garage and you could see the fuel sprayed across the shed... That being said my V8 supercar burble is gone now...

Just remember when ya add a wall or subs etc, this is only an approx: each 100kg's added to your car add 2psi to your tyres and this will help rolling resistance heaps.. ( better econ & perfomance.)

hey rad what was the correct gap???

0.7-0.8mm is the specced size, have since learned a hacksaw blade width will work on almost all cars.

Daz: good tip mate, will have to try it. Though that would mean i'd go from 34psi to about 38 or 40psi, will the tyres take it?

Shuld do, I run 40 all the time due to number of highway kms i do everyday... Just be carefull with retreads...