Honda Civic 2004 - Fuel guzzler?

Hi,

I have been given a Honda Civic, 2004 1.6 SE VTEC as company use vehicle.
However, I feel the fuel use on this car is well over what I expected. It is
a unleaded petrol vehicle.

I usually put about £40 of fuel in. Around 43 Litres. Out of that I get
280miles by avergaing 75mph on the motorway and 320 miles if I travel
everywhere on the motorway at about 60mph.

Question is - is this normal? The trip computer reads that the car is doing
42mpg but I reckon it is more like 28-30mpg... Also the fule indicator
always seems to be a few notches below where it was everytime I get in the
car, although there is no fule leak under the car...

What are your experineces, thoughts, idea's...

 

How many miles are on this car?

What is its maintenance history? For starters, when were the
plugs last replaced, and were the ones recommended in the
Honda owner's manual used?

Is the air pressure in the tires checked regularly?

 

Only way you could afford it. You'd be on LPG if it was yours. Be happy.
Could be lots worse.

SEVENTY dollars US! Gasp! Gag! Choke! For a HONDA!

Eleven gallons US. That's over SIX DOLLARS per gallon! Eeee-gad. Shee-it.
In high-tax Canada, I'm paying $3.17 US per US gallon for 91 RON. A
complete fillup from totally dry for me is $36.15 US for 50 liters.

Really really, you need to have a word with Tony Blair. Really. Jesus. SIX
bucks for a gallon of gas? Shit. Really. And you have cameras watching you
scratch your asses in public. And you can't own guns. What a nutty country.
Gladstone must be turning in his grave. Time for a revolution, my friend.
Oh, wait, no guns....hmmm....

The only other country that taxes gas more than you is Hong Kong. Did they
do that when Cowperthwaite ran that joint?

Note to readers: "Domestos" is using Imperial gallons, which are about 20%
larger than US gallons.

Yeah, that's normal. Has to do with electrical damping of the signal from
the fuel level sender.

Add a space character to the "--", as in "-- ". Your sig is not compliant
as currently constructed.

 

Does your car lack a knock sensor? My 97 Civic HX didn't have one and
it had terrible milage until I fixed the factory timing. Fixing it
boosted the average from 20MPG to 36MPG and it fixed a major loss of
power, nearly a stall, every time the car attempted lean-burn mode. A
little turn of the distributor made a hated car into a loved car.

Of course no dealership would look at the car because there was no
computer error code. I had to fix it myself. Honda dealerships seem to
trust the computer WAY too much when in fact it only indicates complete
failures.

 

how can the computer give an error in this situation? the sensor in the
distributor was telling it the timing was right! you're absolutely
correct that the dealer should have fixed the problem, and that some are
too reliant on codes, but even so, no code can be triggered if a sensor
has not failed and is deemed to be giving correct readings. great
diagnosis on your part though. good one for the archives.

 

36,500 miles - almost ready for its next service.

The car has a perfect maintenance history as it is a company car and it all
gets paid for by the company.

That would have been the last service at 25,000 miles

i'd hope so the garage i had my service at was a Honda garage.

I had four new tyres put on just over a month ago. It made no change.

sorry - but the company looks after the car...

 

Just a suggestion: It's only perfect if they're using OEM
parts.

If the plugs used are not the ones recommended in the
manual, this could hurt mileage. Bosch plugs, for one, have
a bad reputation on Honda cars.

NGK plugs is one of the brand names many Honda models'
owner's manuals.

Doesn't matter if they're new or not. Air pressure needs to
be checked at least once a month, after the car has sit
several hours. Air pressure //will// go down, especially as
the seasons change.

Then is there really anything you can do?

 

What is your driving style? Do you do jackrabbit starts? Do you brake
much while on the highway? Do you coast to traffic lights or race all the
way till you stop?

Have you tried spending a week driving calmly to see what effect your driving
may have on your fuel economy?

 

Do have any actual evidence to support that?
I've used bosch plugs in a half dozen hondas without any problems.
It really doesn't take much to make a spark plug that works and is reliable.
You really have to try hard to **** that up, like champions with their
english threads.

 

Anecdotal reports here. Also, I think I tried non-Honda
recommended plugs at some point. My mileage has been much
better with my 91 Civic in the last few years.

Are (the typically recommended) NGKs so much more expensive
than Bosch's?

Your own anecdotal evidence is noted, though I don't think
it's anymore scientific than the next guy's. Maybe less so,
because you don't indicate whether you've compared fuel
mileage rigorously.

And is fuel economical?

If it didn't take that much, I suspect we wouldn't have so
much variety in manufacturers.

I am not interested in debating. If you're a guy, you won.

But I stand by my position.

 

What new cars use /leaded/ fuel?

Maybe you mean you are using regular grade as opposed to premium? They
are all unleaded though.

What do you mean "out of that"?

Do you know how to calculate fuel economy?

You start with a full tank. When filling, insert the nozzle all the way
in. When it clicks, squeeze one more time without pulling it out, then
remove when it clicks again.

Then you reset the trip meter.

Then you drive around until you partially empty the tank.

Then you refill it in exactly the same way: two clicks.

Now you can figure out the fuel consumption relative to the distance
driven. E.g. hdivide the liters by 1/100 of the distance. E.g. 43
liters by 5.148 (514.8 km) is 8.35 liters per 100 km. For miles to the
gallon, just divide the miles by the gallons.

In this way, you are measuring quite exactly how much fuel was consumed
out of the tank by driving that distance, instead of "reckoning".

You can extend the measurement over more than one filling. Just keep
driving without resetting the trip meter and keep buying gas (without
necessarily filling all the way). Then when you want to measure, top it
up all the way to the top. Now add up the fuel volume from all the
receipts and calculate that against the total trip distance.

I do that from time to time when I'm calculating fuel economy, get
caught with a near empty tank and the prices are high.

All that matters is that you go from full tank to full tank (no net
change in tank level), know how much you put in to maintain that same
level, and how far you went.

That's about 8.3 liters/100 km. A bit on the high side. I'd expected to
be under 7 for all highway driving.

Well, when you decide to stop "reckoning", give the above method a try.

Also the fule indicator

The fuel indicator will vary with the incline of the car, and the
forces of acceleration.

In my 98 Civic, if I go around a long right turn, the needle drops, as
it does if I park on an incline to the left. If I face uphill, it
drops. If I face downhill it rises. The measurement depends on the
configuration of the float in the gas tank.

If you had been driving on level pavement and then park on a slight
incline, in any direction, the needle may not be where you remembered
it when you return to the car.

 

That's a huge difference: 80% more miles!

Wow, your car had some seriously out-of-whack timing. That can't be
factory timing, can it?

Were you putting in 87 octane gas? Those cars need a higher grade, out
of the factory. But even on 87, it shouldn't behave that badly. Just
some pinging here and there.

Are you or were you the original owner? If not, you can't say it was at
a /factory/ setting, right?

It sounds like your HX was set up for way, way aggressively advanced
timing for the use of high octane fuel.

 

uhmmm NO!
God damn gas (regular not premium) is about 2US$ / liter (premium 2.15$/liter) so it is roughly 8 US
bucks for a gallon thanks to our lousy leaders here in Turkey..And get this..more than %75 of that
is tax! and get this too...more than %50 of new car prices is tax.. that is for cars with 1.6 liter
or smaller engines...don't even think about getting a car with freaking 2 or 3 liter engine! Plus,
if you own your car say for 5 years, the property tax you have to pay for your freaking car for 5
years exceeds your cars value after 5 years, of course that is for cars with 1.6 liter or smaller
engine..I still remember 7 years that I lived in the US ...good old days..

ahmet

turkey

 

I average 40 MPG with 2004 SI

What new cars use /leaded/ fuel?

Maybe you mean you are using regular grade as opposed to premium? They
are all unleaded though.

What do you mean "out of that"?

Do you know how to calculate fuel economy?

You start with a full tank. When filling, insert the nozzle all the way
in. When it clicks, squeeze one more time without pulling it out, then
remove when it clicks again.

Then you reset the trip meter.

Then you drive around until you partially empty the tank.

Then you refill it in exactly the same way: two clicks.

Now you can figure out the fuel consumption relative to the distance
driven. E.g. hdivide the liters by 1/100 of the distance. E.g. 43
liters by 5.148 (514.8 km) is 8.35 liters per 100 km. For miles to the
gallon, just divide the miles by the gallons.

In this way, you are measuring quite exactly how much fuel was consumed
out of the tank by driving that distance, instead of "reckoning".

You can extend the measurement over more than one filling. Just keep
driving without resetting the trip meter and keep buying gas (without
necessarily filling all the way). Then when you want to measure, top it
up all the way to the top. Now add up the fuel volume from all the
receipts and calculate that against the total trip distance.

I do that from time to time when I'm calculating fuel economy, get
caught with a near empty tank and the prices are high.

All that matters is that you go from full tank to full tank (no net
change in tank level), know how much you put in to maintain that same
level, and how far you went.

That's about 8.3 liters/100 km. A bit on the high side. I'd expected to
be under 7 for all highway driving.

Well, when you decide to stop "reckoning", give the above method a try.

Also the fule indicator

The fuel indicator will vary with the incline of the car, and the
forces of acceleration.

In my 98 Civic, if I go around a long right turn, the needle drops, as
it does if I park on an incline to the left. If I face uphill, it
drops. If I face downhill it rises. The measurement depends on the
configuration of the float in the gas tank.

If you had been driving on level pavement and then park on a slight
incline, in any direction, the needle may not be where you remembered
it when you return to the car.

 

With my 2004 SI I got 399 miles on 40 litres the last time I checked, this
was mostly hwy driving

 

Pah. The Accord has a 65 litre tank. 14.3 Imperial gallons. 17 US
gallons. £60 to fill with 98RON. Oh she prefers the higher octane stuff.

My wife comes from North America, same s**t, different place....

And of better quality.

 

Have you checked your tyre pressures?