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Re: A few 320i questions

On Mon, 17 Oct 1994, Darren Gibbons wrote:

> I've been driving my '78 320i for almost a month now, and I'm liking
> it the more I drive it.  I'm really racking up the kilometres too,
> which really hurts on a low mileage car such as this one, but oh well.

	BMW's love high mileages, don't sweat it.  I put 220Kms on my 
first 320i, and that was low.  Body rot killed it, the machnicals are 
slowly finding their way into my '83 320i with 173Kms on it.
 
> I just have two questions(for now)
> 
> The mileage seems awfully poor.  Or mabye I'm just used to
> economy cars.  I'm getting 19-22 mpg, which seems low for a four
> cylinder.  Am I just imagining things?
	
	If that is city driving, that is pretty well accurate, atleast 
from my experience.  On the highway I get close to 28, but I also have a 
1.8L and fuel injection. If you have the original carbed 2L then it will 
be a little harder on gas.  It also depends how hard you drive it.  A lot 
of folks find they drive a BMW harder than their japan econo boc because 
it feels right....

> 
> Second, the brakes *really* squeak.  The pads were replaced about 3K
> km before I got the car, so that makes about 5k on them.  They still
> look like they've got plenty of material, but they make the most
> horrible sound when I come up to a stop.  They were replaced by BMW
> technicians, so I doubt that they are poor quality pads.

	You probably have some crap on your pads.  Go out on a deserted 
road, make sure no one is behind you or going to pop out in front of you, 
take it up to about 80Km/hr and come onto the brakes hard (put not hard 
enough to lock them).  Do this 3-4 times and it will clean the crap off.  
Also, if it is squeeling in the city, try applying a little bit more 
pressure and see if it stops.  I found I wasn't braking hard enough at 
first.  The combination of the too should help clear things up.
 

> Thanks,
> Darren Gibbons
> gibbonsa@domain.elided

	Are you at ST FX?  I'm at Dalhousie in Halifax.

 
							Jeff 
							'83 320i
							'77 Honda Trail 125