Increasing my mileage!

[stevo1210]

My 2011 Honda Civic is a decent car to drive. It gets me from A to B comfortably without any problems at all. However, I'm starting to note the fuel consumption and it seems to be drinking fuel more than my older 2003 Toyota Corolla hatchback!
My Corolla uses about 10L/100KMs, the Civic uses 13-14L every 100KMs, I don't even thrash it when I drive and it gives me these figures. I've even gotten to the point where I won't use my A/C when it's hot outside.
I dunno if weight is an issue but from what I can see, the Civic weighs 1380KGs whereas the Corolla weighs about 1000KGs... but still I do still believe that Honda Civics were known for their efficiency and economy.
A friend suggested I get some ECU chip thing to reduce petrol consumption and some magnetic ring around the fuel lines so it de-ionises some shit in the petrol but I'm guessing these things are gimmicks right...?

[kc8adu]

iirc newer cars are run a bit rich to help with nox.
and the magnets,ect are gimmicks.lots of stuff out there to seperate suckers from money.

[dood]

I did some figuring and i'm coming up with about 17MPG? If so, that's extremely low for that car. You should get 25-30mpg.

[mathog]

Originally Posted by dood

I did some figuring and i'm coming up with about 17MPG? If so, that's extremely low for that car.

Agreed. The Corolla was 10km/l = 23.5 mpg. That tells us that either you do a fair amount of your driving at low speeds with stop and go or drive on high friction surfaces (dirt or gravel). Corollas tend to get well over 30mpg on smooth highway. A modern Civic will get slightly worse mileage than a Corolla, but nothing like what you are seeing.

This is what you should be seeing:

http://automobiles.honda.com/certifi...aspx?group=epa

For things to be that messed up you would need a pretty major problem on the Civic: sticking brake, (very) dirty air filter, bad injector, vacuum leak, horrible wheel alignment, partially blocked exhaust, or something along those lines. Many of these would cause the car to throw a CEL.

Assuming the weather is the same. If you have been measuring the mileage for the Honda during a cold snap that would also decrease the efficiency.

[stevo1210]

I forgot to mention this (just popped into my head). My Civic uses e10 petrol and my Corolla uses 95 premium petrol as it isn't e10 compatible. The e10 is 91RON and the Corolla uses premium 95 RON (it can use 91RON normal WITHOUT e10 but they phased it out now).
Both cars are driven down the same route on a weekly basis, this route is on the way to uni/work (yes i learn and work at the same place). The route is 22KMs long, consists of varying traffic... the first 1/4 of the trip is the start stop crap, the next half is smooth flowing freeway style traffic and the last 1/4 is normal road traffic with minimal start/stop.
My Civic has 17,000KMs on it (got it brand new) and my Corolla has 90,800KMs as of today... and yes I'm overdue by a fair amount for a oil change on the Corolla as I have no driveway to perform the work until at least another fortnight. Hopefully I don't cause any damage by *just* going over the service interval. :-/

[mathog]

Originally Posted by stevo1210

My Civic uses e10 petrol and my Corolla uses 95 premium petrol as it isn't e10 compatible.

E10 has about 3% less energy/volume than regular gasoline. That isn't enough to account for the difference you are seeing. (E85, on the other hand has 28% less energy/volume, and straight EtOH has 33% less).

[mariushm]

I don't own a car but I heard tire pressure makes a difference when it comes to fuel economy.
Maybe yours are not properly inflated?

Maybe the fuel is not really that quality or the people at the pump you use add crap to make money? Change the fuel, fill up from another place.

[RJARRRPCGP]

What do you think this problem is?:

A guy I'm sometimes with, has a 2000 Civic EX (mfg. date of 4/00 on driver door sticker)
(2000 appears to be the last year of the little 1.6 motor)
and suddenly this year, the check engine light's on!
Check engine light being lit on a Honda seems rare. (unlike Chrysler)

And the gas gauge was full before going to Brattleboro (about 50 miles from Springfield) and was at half when back in Springfield.

Does that seem like bad MPG?

[mcdaydavies]

you can try putting some acetone in, that should improve economy and performance. I use acetone in my car and it has no problems, but make sure to do research first.

[mathog]

Originally Posted by RJARRRPCGP

What do you think this problem is?:

There are typically hundreds of error codes that may be associated with a CEL, and a good number of them cause mpg to decrease. It is a very bad idea to drive around like that because if the exhaust has too many unburned hydrocarbons it will destroy the catalytic converter. That is, it converts what might be an inexpensive problem (like a fouled plug or a cracked spark plug wire) into an expensive one (ever priced a catalytic converter?)

Yes, half a tank = ~100 miles is poor mileage - assuming he didn't drive there and back at 100 mph.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by mcdaydavies

you can try putting some acetone in, that should improve economy and performance. I use acetone in my car and it has no problems, but make sure to do research first.

That's a Myth. Don't do it.

[stevo1210]

Originally Posted by RJARRRPCGP

What do you think this problem is?:

A guy I'm sometimes with, has a 2000 Civic EX (mfg. date of 4/00 on driver door sticker)
(2000 appears to be the last year of the little 1.6 motor)

I could swear that the D16Y series motors were one of the best that Honda produced. They were economical and decent in power when compared to other cars of the era. I remember driving a '97 Civic (same model... EK/EJ series Civic) and I could get 400-500KMs of city driving very easily. My new Civic, you'd be lucky to get 350KMs out of a full tank :-/

[stevo1210]

Originally Posted by mathog

E10 has about 3% less energy/volume than regular gasoline. That isn't enough to account for the difference you are seeing. (E85, on the other hand has 28% less energy/volume, and straight EtOH has 33% less).

I'm going to take the car back to Honda today and see what they say. I'm not impressed that my econobox Civic is drinking figures only 1L-1.5L off a larger 2.4L Accord (my mothers car)!

[severach]

Originally Posted by ratdude747

That's a Myth. Don't do it.

It's only partly a myth. It's a myth that you'll get fantastic mileage. It's not a myth that it will help clean out the engine and make it run better. An engine getting substantially less MPG than it should is the kind of engine that acetone can help with.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by severach

It's only partly a myth. It's a myth that you'll get fantastic mileage. It's not a myth that it will help clean out the engine and make it run better. An engine getting substantially less MPG than it should is the kind of engine that acetone can help with.

As young as the car is, I doubt that. Sounds like a sensor issue or something messing with the fuel trim.

[stevo1210]

Just came back from Honda. They put the scanner tool in and all sensors are good, no error codes anywhere in the car. I then went to an independent mechanic around the corner and even his scanner tool didn't chuck any codes and he also checked the spark plugs (said it was clean as a whistle) and determined there's nothing wrong with the car.

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by stevo1210

Just came back from Honda. They put the scanner tool in and all sensors are good, no error codes anywhere in the car. I then went to an independent mechanic around the corner and even his scanner tool didn't chuck any codes and he also checked the spark plugs (said it was clean as a whistle) and determined there's nothing wrong with the car.

So you basically got ripped off?

[c_hegge]

Ouch. At least you don't drive a 3.8L Holden Commodore like me.

[stevo1210]

Hmm, something weird happened today. I decided to run the tank earlier in the week to near empty and then filled up with 95 RON petrol. At exactly 100KMs, I filled up again with 95 RON (not the e10 stuff) and my consumption went down to 11.3L/100KMs. This is with the A/C on at times as well and I'm using the same route of road.
11.3L vs. 10 to 10.5L every 100KMs in the Corolla sounds more reasonable now. In all seriousness, does that mean I've been filling up with dodgy petrol all this time then?!!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Originally Posted by stevo1210

In all seriousness, does that mean I've been filling up with dodgy petrol all this time then?!!

That happens more often than you may think.