Engine RPM's???

[Hoofty]

Got my first BMW, but it had a blown engine. Now that I have replaced it (damn bellhousing bolts) I am worried about the engine RPM's. At 70 MPH it is turning at 3300 PRM's. Is this normal? Or do I need to start looking at the transmission? It is an automatic.
Thanks

[Marv17]

i have an M-tech automatic as well. that sounds about what im running at as well. at 80mph im like at 3500-4000 rpm's. its somewhere around there. give or take.

[teetime4one]

normal

[CirrusSR22]

Is that 70 mph indicated or actual (GPS). My car indicated (before a diff swap)3000 RPM at exactly 70 mph indicated. Actual speed at 70mph indicated was more like 67mph.

I have a 3.45 diff in my automatic at it's about 2400 RPM at 70mph indicated. Interesting thing is the torque converter doesn't lock-up until you hit 70mph, then it drops off when you slow through 66mph indicated. RPMs climb about 300 RPM when it drops off. That would make up for the 3300 RPM vs. 3000 RPM I was getting at 70mph.

Not trying to put erroneous thoughts in your head, but maybe your torque converter isn't locking up?

[Marv17]

Is that 70 mph indicated or actual (GPS).

not trying to jack the thread of the OP, but when i did check it was actual (GPS) as you say. i have a portable GPS in my car and thats what its at both indicated on the dash and GPS.


I have a 3.45 diff in my automatic at it's about 2400 RPM at 70mph indicated.
i thought automatics came with a 4.40 or something? anyway, im not an expert just asking.

Not trying to put erroneous thoughts in your head, but maybe your torque converter isn't locking up?

QUE? = WHAT?..... you lost me on that one. could ya inform me a bit. lol.

hey hoofty. whats your gas mileage on your full tank of gas in your Ti?? and your MPG? i want to compare with mine and yours.

[CirrusSR22]

Many cars, especially BMWs, have speedometers that read faster than actual speed. If yours is accurate, you are in the minority. Mine is about 3 - 4 mph off.

Automatics have a 4.44. I have a 3.45 (manual ratio) in my automatic car.

When the torque converter locks up, the engine RPM drops because of the reduction in slipping in the torque converter. The opposite is true as well.

[hotmilk400]

the shift points are really high. around 10 - 15 MPH in first before red-line. 40 MPH in 2nd, 75 in 3rd gear, 90 in 4th gear, and 135ish in 5th gear. it kinda sucks when your like 120 and your rpms are so high, and the gas like drains out as you go. i did 120 for 25 miles, and i was fine.. the RPMs are ad normally high in 5th gear.. but when u are doing 100 , and u step on the gas, u accelerate to 120 in like 2 seconds.. its got a lot of power.. the thing that sucks is.. when u are doing 60 MPH, your RPMS are like 3 , and at 70 they are like 3.5 haha..

[mohaughn]

You have a 5 speed automatic? Where did you get that???

As for doing 100 to 120 in 2 seconds.. I don't believe it... The Ti does not generate a lot of power in that range of the motor. At the high end of 4th gear the car pretty much stops pulling around 105mph...

[thesk8nmidget]

the shift points are really high. around 10 - 15 MPH in first before red-line. 40 MPH in 2nd, 75 in 3rd gear, 90 in 4th gear, and 135ish in 5th gear. it kinda sucks when your like 120 and your rpms are so high, and the gas like drains out as you go. i did 120 for 25 miles, and i was fine.. the RPMs are ad normally high in 5th gear.. but when u are doing 100 , and u step on the gas, u accelerate to 120 in like 2 seconds.. its got a lot of power.. the thing that sucks is.. when u are doing 60 MPH, your RPMS are like 3 , and at 70 they are like 3.5 haha..

huhhhhhh


You have a 5 speed automatic? Where did you get that???

As for doing 100 to 120 in 2 seconds.. I don't believe it... The Ti does not generate a lot of power in that range of the motor. At the high end of 4th gear the car pretty much stops pulling around 105mph...

weird! maybe he means kph but still he said mph clearly....

[hotmilk400]

what? really... well.. first, i have 5 speed manual not auto... (sorry if this post was for automatics.. my bad.. ) also, i have NOOOO problem going way over 100.. maybe my motor is tweaked? i bought the car used.. it looks pretty stock under the hood.. 100 MPH is around 4.5 RPM if i remeber correctly.. 120 is like 5.2 RPM , and anything higher then that is getting to close the redline... my motor is ALLL about high end power.. maybe that means something? maybe something was done.. anything under 3 rpms, i dont have alot of power, once i hit 4 RPM's my HP feels like it has doubled, and 5 RPMs i got alot of power, but it goes up so fast it redlines right away.. (at 6.5) like.. when u whach the Tach, it goes up slowy till 4 RPMs, then the speed wil increase 2 times as fast, then takes like a few seconds to redline.. i dont know.. i havnt found a place where my car loses horse power exepct when i am in low rpms (anything under 4 is slow) at 100 MPH i can hit the gas in 5th gear and get to 120 like it was nothing.. and i can keep going faster, but its a waste of gas to do like 130 in a 65 MPH zone.. ... honeslty, my guess is that my car has been altered to do high rpms.. i MUST put the full 92 octane in my car, which i know isnt stock, so maybe that is it? i cant test to much now because i ran off the road yesterday , and bent my front right armature, and dented my rim.. (so my tire gets flat fast, and i pull to the right alot..) i did 100 in it like that, but its kinda bad .. i pull to strongy to the right..
btw, i do have the stock 1.9lt motor, and the rest looks stock.. so i dont know if anything was done.. once i get teh armature fixed, i will get my friend to video tape my top speeds to show u guys.. my car lives in the high rpms... my friends BMW 328 lives at the 2 - 3 rpm range.. so i dont know.. i MUST goto the high rpms when driving.. if i am in first gear and shift at 2 rpms, it will feel ike the wrong gear.. same with the rest of the gears, i MUST shift at 3+ whenever i shift, or it doesnt have ANY power..
when i say no power, i mean i am lucky to get across the intersectsion without dying.. haha..
do i sound crazy? or is that normal?

--

oh, sorry.. i have a 1998 318 TI sportpackage... :-)

[tiFreak]

I have a 1.8L and I have to shift at 3k+ too, I know for a fact my car was stock until I got it, so I think that's normal

[Hoofty]

not trying to jack the thread of the OP, but when i did check it was actual (GPS) as you say. i have a portable GPS in my car and thats what its at both indicated on the dash and GPS.



i thought automatics came with a 4.40 or something? anyway, im not an expert just asking.



QUE? = WHAT?..... you lost me on that one. could ya inform me a bit. lol.

hey hoofty. whats your gas mileage on your full tank of gas in your Ti?? and your MPG? i want to compare with mine and yours.


I am only getting 23 MPG on a tank.
I have found that my indicated speed is 5 MPH faster than I am actually traveling. Courtousy of the Rice County Sheriff's Dept.

[hotmilk400]

23 a tank???????? mine gets 28 MPH and that is at like 4+ rpms all the time.. umm... u needa like change an air filter and do a tune up or something.. that is horrible.. or is that an automatic or something.. im so confussed.. 23 is horrible

[Hoofty]

23 a tank???????? mine gets 28 MPH and that is at like 4+ rpms all the time.. umm... u needa like change an air filter and do a tune up or something.. that is horrible.. or is that an automatic or something.. im so confussed.. 23 is horrible

When I installed the new (used) motor with 94K on it last month, I installed:
New plugs, wires, air filter, water pump, starter, belts, oil & filter, fuel pump, battery, thermostat, and put seafoam in the fuel tank to clean the fuel system.
I realize some of these items have nothing to do with mialiage.
Is there something I am missing?
Yesterday the check engine light came on. So I will pull the code for that issue.

[John Firestone]

... the RPMs are ad normally high in 5th gear.. but when u are doing 100 , and u step on the gas, u accelerate to 120 in like 2 seconds....100 to 120 in like 2 seconds is hard to believe. Here is what a 318is could manage from roughly 100 mph to the rev limiter:

http://www.unofficialbmw.com/john/misc/318is_m44_3.45_vmax.jpg

I am not sure what the wind conditions were like. I expect a 318ti's higher aerodynamic drag would have made it a bit slower toward the end.

[hotmilk400]

ok ok.. it might not have been 2 seconds.. it was an exageration.. but i was doing 100 today, and when i step on the gas in 5th gear, i have no problem doing 110 in around 2 seconds.. im going to have my friend record this stuff.. when im doing that fast on back roads, i CAN NOT look off the road to long.. i know it is not more then 5 seconds to go from 100 - 120..

[hotmilk400]

wat kind of motor did u put in it? 23 a tank is horrible, especially with a new motor.. my friend has the 328 with the 6 cly and he gets 26 MPG . u should be getting 28 without a problem even if u beat your car.. i do not know what u are missing, or what is wrong.. u needa talk to someone tho about it

[John Firestone]

ok ok.. it might not have been 2 seconds.. it was an exageration.. but i was doing 100 today, and when i step on the gas in 5th gear, i have no problem doing 110 in around 2 seconds.. im going to have my friend record this stuff.. when im doing that fast on back roads, i CAN NOT look off the road to long.. i know it is not more then 5 seconds to go from 100 - 120..You'll have a hard time doing 100 to 120 mph in five seconds on flat ground. It took Mot magazine about 12 s to get an M44 318is from 160 to 180 km/h (99 to 111 mph) which is bit more than than half the difference. My earlier graph suggests about 10 s to 180 km/h (111 mph), and a full 20 s or so for 100 to 120 mph. That's a fun thing to do, nevertheless, as the motor happily chortles.

I would be very careful driving fast on back roads. Above 80 km/h (50 mph) or so, your chances of survival rapidly approach nil should you meet something immovable, like a tree, and you don't have to stray very far to find an immovable that kills you. The trees along German back roads do in almost five people a day, on average, and help make their fatality rate per kilometer driven about four times greater than the unrestricted sections of the Autobahn. :frown:

Perhaps I should post the next picture that appears in the paper of someone straying off course at legal speeds on one of the local back roads. You would have great difficulty convincing me to do any speed testing there!

[hotmilk400]

i think my gears or motor are different or something.. when i was racing my friends 328, i almost beat him, and he has the bigger motor.. (both stick , both the same year, his has a bigger motor) well whatever.. i am surpised it takes you guys SO long to go from 90 - 100 or 100 - 120. my car does not take more then 10 seconds , and that is a fact.. im not sure of the exect time, but i know its faster then that chart on a flat road.

yeah, i needa drive alittle slower on the back roads.. to many dear jumped out infront of me, and to many roads turn to sharply.. i slid off the road thursday, and like 2 weeks ago.. .. and i almost hit a dear.. so yeah.. i think im going to take it to the tracks one day and see the real speeds, the real HP and top speed.. i just need a new set of tires before that.

[Hoofty]

wat kind of motor did u put in it? 23 a tank is horrible, especially with a new motor.. my friend has the 328 with the 6 cly and he gets 26 MPG . u should be getting 28 without a problem even if u beat your car.. i do not know what u are missing, or what is wrong.. u needa talk to someone tho about it

I replaced my 96 1.9L with a 1.9L from a 97 318ti. The car runs great and has plenty of power.
The mystery continues.

[skragglies]

I've got a 97 318 ti...Completely stock engine and 5 speed transmission. Although I'm not in complete agreement with hotmilk, I would say it jumps from 100 mph, to 120 pretty quick. And I get between 28 and 32 mpg's...When I drive like a grandma.