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Convinced my car is sucking gas harder than it should.

TridenT

TridenT

Lifer
Alright, my car has never gone above 33.3 mpg. That was a miracle. I'm looking online and see a lot of people who keep public fuel logs that they are getting usually 35mpg+ when doing the 100% highway driving. If I do those 180 mile trips all at once, maybe doing 70mph... I get around maybe 30-32mpg.

Any ideas as to what's up with that?

2000 Honda Civic EX Coupe. (Automatic)
 
Has it had a tune up lately plugs wires? Could be oxygen sensor or MAF sensor. You could try pulling codes even if theres no CEL but this is trident so you should just cry more.
 
TridenT said:
Alright, my car has never gone above 33.3 mpg. That was a miracle. I'm looking online and see a lot of people who keep public fuel logs that they are getting usually 35mpg+ when doing the 100% highway driving. If I do those 180 mile trips all at once, maybe doing 70mph... I get around maybe 30-32mpg.

Any ideas as to what's up with that?

2000 Honda Civic EX Coupe. (Automatic)
Click to expand...

People usually pad their actual MPG...
 
They are probably trying to get good FE whereas you are just driving the car. If they keep a log, they are probably driving conservatively. The tendency is to try to get the numbers better and better.
 
drive 55-60 with cruise control on and you should see 35+.

also tuneup and tires could play a role. Ac on, windows open. How much crap you have.

My best tank is 23mpg all highway so be happy.
 
I agree with checking tires (try adding a little extra pressure even), cruise control at 55-60, and driving conservatively. A tune-up couldn't hurt either. Better/lighter transmission and engine oils would help with mileage too.
 
JCH13 said:
I agree with checking tires (try adding a little extra pressure even), cruise control at 55-60, and driving conservatively. A tune-up couldn't hurt either. Better/lighter transmission and engine oils would help with mileage too.
Click to expand...

Screw "a little extra pressure", go to sidewall or go home. :sneaky:

BTW, as everyone else has mentioned cruising at 70 mph could be the whole reason why you're not hitting 35 mpg.
 
Bignate603 said:
Screw "a little extra pressure", go to sidewall or go home. :sneaky:

BTW, as everyone else has mentioned cruising at 70 mph could be the whole reason why you're not hitting 35 mpg.
Click to expand...

Also the fact that, around Seattle, if he's going 70 legally chances are that he's traveling on I-90 which means he's driving over mountain passes. Driving through the mountains tends to cost a little more gas. 😉

ZV
 
My gas mileage has really gone up since I moved to Minneapolis. I'm doing a max of 65 on my 15 mile commute to work and it's mostly at a constant speed which eliminates the problem with acceleration.

Got 35mpg on my last fill-up. 2001 Honda Civic EX coupe.

But since you're trident, you should probably cry more, and when you don't hear the advice you want, then you flip everyone the bird and walk away.
 
In the past I drove the 4dr version of that car. 100% highway driving would usually be 33-34, occasionally down to 30-31 if it was the climb portion of mountain driving or I decided to go 75+.

Could never get higher than that because in urban freeways the traffic is stop and go, and in rural areas you get run over by the semis if you aren't doing 65-70mph.

I think I managed to hit 35mpg once when I kept it at 65 on I5 through the central valley and got passed by the occasional big rig that took the gamble that CHP wouldn't get him for doing 70mph 😛
 
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TridenT said:
Any ideas as to what's up with that?

2000 Honda Civic EX Coupe. (Automatic)
Click to expand...
I'm guessing automatic transmission might be one of your problems.

My Honda Civic had great highway mileage. Manual transmission, fifth gear the whole time, 50mpg imperial when going 70mph. That's actually what the car is rated for up here.
My Corolla is totally different. Automatic transmission, gears jump around like mad, gets freaking horrible 40mpg imperial when going 70mph. Having it race the engine and sometimes drop to second gear at 6k rpm on hills is what does it.


They are probably trying to get good FE whereas you are just driving the car. If they keep a log, they are probably driving conservatively.
Click to expand...
true, but Trident is logging his mileage too, so this cancels out.
 
Phanuel said:
And he's probably not lugging rocks.
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My civic hauled rocks just fine. 300 pounds of crap in the drunk, going 70mph on the highway, and it would still be in the 48mpg range (imperial gallons).

Serious question, would a big 500 fat guy get terrible mileage in a smart car? :biggrin:
 
ShawnD1 said:
I'm guessing automatic transmission might be one of your problems.

My Honda Civic had great highway mileage. Manual transmission, fifth gear the whole time, 50mpg imperial when going 70mph. That's actually what the car is rated for up here.
Click to expand...

The 2000 Civic with the automatic is rated at 6.1L/100km or 46 mpg Imperial, which is only 38 mpg in US measure. Or so sayeth the EnerGuide.ca website.

ZV
 
My 98 Camaro got 32 mpg highway at 70mph, through an automatic no less 😀 But that wasn't typical of those cars, most people were below 30mpg mark even with the manual trans. Basically my point is not all cars of the same model are the same. Mine somehow got above normal mpg (4 above old EPA ratings, 6 above revised ratings), your car is a bit below normal mpg.

Oh and look, Shawn is jacking another thread to whine about his crappy toyota again. Go figure 😛
 
Don't worry, it'll soon change. I let my gf borrow my car whenever she wants, and she's covered under the insurance policy. It's only a matter of time before she cuts off a truck, writes off the car, and I can buy a Subaru Impreza.

Trident, do you often drive behind other cars or are you the Alpha Male leading the pack? Car in front gets the worst gas mileage. Your gas mileage can easily go up 10% just by staying behind another car. You don't need to ride his ass; stay two seconds behind.
 
ShawnD1 said:
They haven't improved mileage in the past couple years. Mine was 2006, but 2012 is about the same:
http://honda.ca/civic_sedan#/civic_sedan/specs
5.4L/100km = 52.3mpg imperial, 43.5mpg US
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That's wonderful for you, but it's useless for the OP who has a 2000 Civic EX with an automatic, not a 2012 with a manual.

You might as well post that a Peterbilt Semi gets 8 miles per gallon or that a motorcycle gets 55 mpg for all the relevance it would have to the OP's car.

ZV
 
skull said:
Has it had a tune up lately plugs wires? Could be oxygen sensor or MAF sensor. You could try pulling codes even if theres no CEL but this is trident so you should just cry more.
Click to expand...

if it was the o2 or maf his mileage would be a lot worse, and he'd have a SEL on, with the computer throwing codes.

how many miles on the car? when is the last time you changed the oil? air filter? fuel filter? trans fluid? full synthetic or dino oil? tire pressures?
 
disappoint said:
if it was the o2 or maf his mileage would be a lot worse, and he'd have a SEL on, with the computer throwing codes.

how many miles on the car? when is the last time you changed the oil? air filter? fuel filter? trans fluid? full synthetic or dino oil? tire pressures?
Click to expand...

137k, today(I do regular oil changes around 3k usually), it's newer too, about a year ago (but this issue was still around back then), close to a year for that too, full synthetic, cars standard 30-29.
 
33 is not that bad if mixed driving.
Also automatic is worse on mpg but not by tons.
My '11 Civic 5 speed gets about 37-38 (mostly highway but combined) if I drive conservatively, but it drops substantially if I do lots of city driving.
 
I think most of those hypermiler types with i4s in that range use decent-quality 5w20 oil, which makes a small but real improvement in fuel economy over 10w30, and the operating temperature in Washington state should be no problem for it.

The auto definitely penalizes things a bit, particularly being a 4-speed. Those things typically have your motor turning over at a higher rpm to go the same highway speed than 5th gear in an econobox manual. It gets even worse if you're in a situation where the thing keeps shifting from 3rd to 4th (you may have seen this going up a sustained incline).

But yeah, once you've checked over every common maintenance thing in your car, you kind of have to take the results for what they are.

Fresh, good quality oil
new air filter
transmission fluid checked/replaced if ancient
check plugs/wires
tire pressure
all sensors operating clean/good
coolant not dirty/ancient

ZV has a point, particularly if you're dealing with inclines and higher altititudes in mountainous areas.

Mythbusters also showed that a dirty car got worse fuel economy than a clean car, but a slight but real amount. Hilariously enough, once it was covered in golf ball shaped clay, it improved further 😛
 
Oh yeah, another weird thing that I don't recommend really, but I have a friend who delivers stuff for an oil company, he drives an old VW hatch, he actually got narrower tires and improved his fuel economy a bit. I don't necessarily think that's a great idea considering the tradeoffs that has, but it's another crazy thing people do.
 
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