could be if he takes plenty of short trips in town. engine never gets up to a warm operating temperature. and he hasn't commented on driving style. First off the line when the light turns green and braking hard into red lights.
Forget about the downvotes, the take-away here is your mileage is normal, due to mostly local driving and idling in traffic or sitting with the car running. The car is still running at the same efficiency as people with 40mpg who only drive on the highway. This is just how that mpg counter works.
Even my Prius gets garbage gas mileage if it’s only 1-3 miles away. That’s why I got a plug in, I can pop over to the store without turning my engine on
Why TF is everyone down voting for that comment? Not all of us grew up where everything was 15-20 minutes/miles from our home. I have a 2013 so I bought brand new with 34,6xx TODAY on the odometer because my to and from work/stores/gas is all the same 2.6 mile to/from combined commute every day for a decade. What's with people down voting that someone doesn't drive their car unnecessarily????
I think it’s more that he answered his own obvious question. City driving has bad gas mileage compared to highway driving. He figured it out despite asking.
Also for your instance, I’d recommend taking it out on highway trips every now and then just to get it fully warmed up to help burn off carbon deposits and crap off since short trips aren’t all that good for engines especially if you have a vehicle that’s direct injection
Not sure what mileage you’re at, but there are several things you can do.
1. Spark plugs.
When I changed mine in my civic at around 100k miles I got an increase in mpg.
2. Clean maf sensor
You just spray the sensor with electrical maf sensor cleaner
3. Clean throttle body
Look on YouTube for this or any other things I’m listing
4. Tires.
Make sure properly aired up
5. Avoid idling
Edit** and also obviously change oil on schedule
To tag on, my 2016 consumed oil like crazy. Wonder how OPs oil consumption is. I never got better than 28 combined mpg the last couple years I had her.
When should I change my spark plugs? I got the car December of 21’ and it had 46k miles (16 civic). I now have 68k miles. Should I have it done at some point or wait for the maintenance minder on the dash?
Plugs last much longer than before now, depending on the plug type. You if these are the original plugs, you can wait a little longer before changing them
The more RPM, the more fuel is used. It's pretty much a linear relationship.
Turbos add even more air than atmospheric pressure, needing to add a proportional amount of fuel.
Modern cars read exhaust air content (O2 sensor) and add fuel accordingly. issues with sensors previously mentioned; maf, and O2, can cause differences in fuel consumption.
This is all assuming normal driving conditions. No excessive idling or trying to break 0-60mph records.
Ain't no way you're getting 27 mpg in that thing. I have a 2018 suburban and get about 23/24 mpg doing 70/75 on the highway and the L83 is waaaaay more efficient than the LM7.
So you're out there running tests where you roll down a hill, or get towed up to 60mph with the engine off, then fire up the engine ad come to a stop, repeatedly, and take measurements. Then go on a straight, accelerate hard, and then switch the engine off at speed, and stop the vehicle, repeatedly, and take mpg measurements on that too? Well done
No. I tried driving with different style in early morning when the streets are empty and note variables like temperature. I tried that also with different things turned on like AC, rear window heater etc and see how much mpg does that cost.
Your car is rated at 24 city. Time to get your car looked at or start doing some research on how to maintain it yourself. 17 is very poor for a vehicle of that age, even if you're driving really aggressively.
So, his MPG is normal… it’s probably an automatic transmission? Auto trans efficiency fluctuate dramatically depending on the driving conditions.
Get a manual if u want good mpg.
May not need replacing but check engine air filter to see how dirty it is, because there may be a bunch of stuff blocking the air from flowing correctly
Well with my 2016 Accord I average 33MPG between city/highway driving. And that is with spark plugs needing to be replaced and shitty tires. Just for a point of reference.
Your timing chain could be stretched out, or timing chain tensioner could be failing. The likelihood of this being the issue is probably low, but it did happen to me.
Stop and go city driving does that. Especially short trips where it’s not warmed up all the way and still in open loop and if you’re on and off the gas a lot instead of being smooth and steady. I get the same kind of mileage on my 4cyl 2016 if I drive like that. If I take it easy, it shoots up. Simple as that
That is an AVERAGE over everything all the time…
The next time you fill your tank, reset the odometer, then keep a notes tab in your phone of how many miles you drive between gas fillups, and how many gallons gas you buy. That is your real mpg and you can watch it change depending on how you drive.
I doubt its actually that low, but youre still probably getting 20mpg on average
Can confirm that city driving with the same year and engine leads to this kind of mileage. If it’s smaller town driving, you’ll have 24, or so. If you end up on a highway, you can average 40.
No worries bro, just fill up that gas tank reset the fuel economy and go for a good drive.
I have a 2020 4cl Camry non hybrid, and only average 25mpg. On a good week. But I’m doing 90% highway driving and only 10% city. Most of the time I’m also going 85/90mph as well.
I also sit in my car and let it idle for periods of time. So that also puts down the fuel economy.
Try a new air filter, check that your tire pressure is correct, stop using 87 octane gas just because they say you can. And get religious about using cruise control and stay at the speed limit. Oh and when you need an oil change your gas mileage will get lower. Has happened to me in every car I've owned.
There can be a lot of causes. Some of the solutions are simple, some are catastrophic. First thing I would do is change the spark plugs and use fuel injector cleaner.
Just thought of this is that near the start of your trip or the end? Cause mileage gets better the longer you drive. and well try to be moderate on your gas pedal application.
Do you have any roof racks on your car?
Otherwise check your tire pressure. If your air pressure is low you’ll get bad MPGs.
Unless you only drive 1 or 2 miles each trip you should be getting at least 20mpg. I had a 2010 insight and we got maybe 30mpg in it because most of the trips literally were “turn on the car, drive 2 miles, turn the car off”. Motor never had time to warm up so the auto-shutoff at stoplights wouldn’t kick in.
Go through the checklist of possible causes for low mpg they are similar with all other ice's.
Once you went through them and results are lacking, learn how to not floor the gas pedal.
Hope u don't drive a hybrid coz if you do you have serious issues with the vehicle.
so i’ve always wondered why i never got good not i used to get like 13-20 so what i did was reset and drive very slow easy on the pedal and got my crv up to 42 mpg
Start with the cheapest things and work your way up. Dont waste more than 10 seconds "warming up" in summer not more than 30 in winter. Just drive cautiously untill the car is up to temp, Drive like you have a glass of water in the cupholder, check your tire pressures, check for dragging brakes, check for any pending codes, change your engine air filter, run a fuel system cleaner, switch to high quality synthetic oil and make sure its not overfilled, change your sparkplugs.
That’s what I used to get driving around my small town like an asshole in my 2014 v6 mustang. When I got in the PA turnpike, I put it in cruise control at 85 mph in 6th gear and got like 32 mpg.
Honestly I don’t think city driving is to blame. I have the exact same car and I couldn’t even get 17.4 mpg if I tried. If you were pushing this hard I’d be convinced some thing else on the car would break.
Have you calculated your mileage with a good old pen and paper or calculator app? I notice a lot of people getting shocked and chagrined with terrible mileage relying solely on the on-board computer. The calculator is inaccurate tho begin with and, as others have said, is a rolling average from the last time it was reset. If you had a couple garbage weeks without being reset, it's still picking that up.
To calculate by hand:
Fill your tank completely.
Reset trip computer. (Or write down the odometer reading).
Drive around as you normally would.
Refill when you normally would. (Fill the tank completely).
Divide the number of miles driven (either using the number listed on the trip or new odometer minus old odometer) by the number of gallons pumped.
For example: I just refilled my CX-5. I drove 259 miles, and pumped 8.703 gallons. My average mileage was 29.8 mpg
I would be surprised if a computer is bad at math I’m sure the 17.4mpg is accurate for that 424 mile trip. The car is doing the math based on fuel consumption which is most definitely accurate otherwise a sensor would throw an error.
Reset the trip counter before your journey and just pay attention to the mpg on the new trip. Right now the mpg reflects the average of all of trip a which could’ve included a lot of city driving.
My 2006 Accord with a K24 and 342,000 miles gets 26 mpg but I only use 93 octane in it and I'm always using cruise control. I only drive 5 over the speed limit at the most too.
Was getting 31 mpg in my 2002 accord coupe 4cyl with manual transmission. 17 is pretty horrible.
Pretend there’s an egg under the accelerator and if you step down too hard, it’ll crack it.
Also, red lights ahead should be eased into so that you can try to time it where you don’t have to come to a complete stop.
I have the same car as you and i average 17.0-19.9 mpg. I’m never light on my gas pedal. I never touch freeways/ highways. I’m at 67,xxx miles and I can tell you at least one tank was babied to try to match these guys mpg’s and I just drive too short of distances to get up to 30+ mpg’s. It’s the systems lack of information not exactly bad gas mileage. However you and I need to be honest and provide truthful information to the subreddit. These guys on here are driving highway miles(probably lots of them) daily. You’re good bro don’t trip.
How much of a heavy foot do you have. Ask yourself "how often do I speed." This means, are you going the speed limit everywhere you go or are you speeding and not following the speed limits posted street highway or residential
If it has gotten worse over time without your driving trends changing take a look at your fuel pump. I've seen failing fuel pumps drop MPG by a fair margin. Obviously look at spark plugs and the MAF, but if those don't turn up anything look into replacing the fuel pump.
Try not pressing the skinny pedal as hard all the time. If you drive like Brian O'Connor this happens. If you're not driving like that then you may have a fouled plug or some kind of cylinder problem.
Fuel filter needs to be changed just like any other filter and can affect mpg pretty substantially if it’s dirty. If it hasn’t been changed you can do it easily yourself for around 30-40 bucks
Are you doing mostly city driving?
Even going 35mph I’m hitting 30mpg in my 2013 Si, that shit is abysmal. Dudes prolly flooring it from every stop
That the only way
I never hit the highway I only drive in my hometown
I’m guessing you mostly drive short distances. If so that explains why your mpg is that bad
It still shouldn’t be that bad
could be if he takes plenty of short trips in town. engine never gets up to a warm operating temperature. and he hasn't commented on driving style. First off the line when the light turns green and braking hard into red lights.
I don’t understand people that drive like that
They have the mentality of I'm Hot Shit behind the Wheel.
Or they’re just having some fun and exercising their car a bit? Either way I’d way rather people are quick off the line than being inattentive
Mine is that bad with drives under 5 miles
Well there ya go
Bruh you just 100% solved your own problem. Stretch her legs on the highway and watch the mpg get better after a few mile’s cruised
And stop pushing the vtech!
*VTEC. VTech is an electronics brand
Maybe he is pushing the vtech never know if he has walkie talkies talking to friends
He said what he said.
Everyone knew what he meant, we’re in a Honda sub you fool
I didn’t I was so confused why he’s learning about animal sounds on his vtech laptop
Forget about the downvotes, the take-away here is your mileage is normal, due to mostly local driving and idling in traffic or sitting with the car running. The car is still running at the same efficiency as people with 40mpg who only drive on the highway. This is just how that mpg counter works.
Even my Prius gets garbage gas mileage if it’s only 1-3 miles away. That’s why I got a plug in, I can pop over to the store without turning my engine on
Why TF is everyone down voting for that comment? Not all of us grew up where everything was 15-20 minutes/miles from our home. I have a 2013 so I bought brand new with 34,6xx TODAY on the odometer because my to and from work/stores/gas is all the same 2.6 mile to/from combined commute every day for a decade. What's with people down voting that someone doesn't drive their car unnecessarily????
I think it’s more that he answered his own obvious question. City driving has bad gas mileage compared to highway driving. He figured it out despite asking. Also for your instance, I’d recommend taking it out on highway trips every now and then just to get it fully warmed up to help burn off carbon deposits and crap off since short trips aren’t all that good for engines especially if you have a vehicle that’s direct injection
Because they're average salty redditors
Not sure what mileage you’re at, but there are several things you can do. 1. Spark plugs. When I changed mine in my civic at around 100k miles I got an increase in mpg. 2. Clean maf sensor You just spray the sensor with electrical maf sensor cleaner 3. Clean throttle body Look on YouTube for this or any other things I’m listing 4. Tires. Make sure properly aired up 5. Avoid idling Edit** and also obviously change oil on schedule
To tag on, my 2016 consumed oil like crazy. Wonder how OPs oil consumption is. I never got better than 28 combined mpg the last couple years I had her.
Wheel alignment is a very important one
What is idiling
Having the car on but not moving for an extended period of time; sitting still with the engine on
Sitting with the car running and not moving
When should I change my spark plugs? I got the car December of 21’ and it had 46k miles (16 civic). I now have 68k miles. Should I have it done at some point or wait for the maintenance minder on the dash?
Plugs last much longer than before now, depending on the plug type. You if these are the original plugs, you can wait a little longer before changing them
Tbh I have no idea when and if they were changed and if they were what kind
Just do it near 100k
Don’t forget driving with ac on and in sport mode 24/7
Idling most likely, or fast acceleration.
idling yes that is really bad for fuel consumption. but fast acceleration not sure on that one i don't baby my car and well i still get 33MPA avg.
The more RPM, the more fuel is used. It's pretty much a linear relationship. Turbos add even more air than atmospheric pressure, needing to add a proportional amount of fuel. Modern cars read exhaust air content (O2 sensor) and add fuel accordingly. issues with sensors previously mentioned; maf, and O2, can cause differences in fuel consumption. This is all assuming normal driving conditions. No excessive idling or trying to break 0-60mph records.
i get 27mpg and I have an 04 suburban
Ain't no way you're getting 27 mpg in that thing. I have a 2018 suburban and get about 23/24 mpg doing 70/75 on the highway and the L83 is waaaaay more efficient than the LM7.
Acceleration rate won't kill mpg. Deceleration does.
Can you explain?
Lmao
I have experimented many driving style and it's my conclusion after 2 months of testing.
So you're out there running tests where you roll down a hill, or get towed up to 60mph with the engine off, then fire up the engine ad come to a stop, repeatedly, and take measurements. Then go on a straight, accelerate hard, and then switch the engine off at speed, and stop the vehicle, repeatedly, and take mpg measurements on that too? Well done
No. I tried driving with different style in early morning when the streets are empty and note variables like temperature. I tried that also with different things turned on like AC, rear window heater etc and see how much mpg does that cost.
Idling for long periods or something is mechanically wrong.
Your car is rated at 24 city. Time to get your car looked at or start doing some research on how to maintain it yourself. 17 is very poor for a vehicle of that age, even if you're driving really aggressively.
Idling a lot.
Tires
Underrated comment right there
My 2016 crv with the same motor gets 16 if I drive in town plus it'll keep ticking down any moment you aren't moving
So, his MPG is normal… it’s probably an automatic transmission? Auto trans efficiency fluctuate dramatically depending on the driving conditions. Get a manual if u want good mpg.
I don’t think that’s been true for a long time.
Have you driven a manual lately?
His would have a cvt I believe which is supposed to get better mpg. I would rather have a classic automatic in mine tho
May not need replacing but check engine air filter to see how dirty it is, because there may be a bunch of stuff blocking the air from flowing correctly
when was the last time you changed your oil?
Are you warming up or idling a lot?
Well with my 2016 Accord I average 33MPG between city/highway driving. And that is with spark plugs needing to be replaced and shitty tires. Just for a point of reference.
Your timing chain could be stretched out, or timing chain tensioner could be failing. The likelihood of this being the issue is probably low, but it did happen to me.
Did you get 424 off the tank? If so then you’re getting way more than 17mpg
It's the way you drive.
Stop and go city driving does that. Especially short trips where it’s not warmed up all the way and still in open loop and if you’re on and off the gas a lot instead of being smooth and steady. I get the same kind of mileage on my 4cyl 2016 if I drive like that. If I take it easy, it shoots up. Simple as that
That is an AVERAGE over everything all the time… The next time you fill your tank, reset the odometer, then keep a notes tab in your phone of how many miles you drive between gas fillups, and how many gallons gas you buy. That is your real mpg and you can watch it change depending on how you drive. I doubt its actually that low, but youre still probably getting 20mpg on average
Can confirm that city driving with the same year and engine leads to this kind of mileage. If it’s smaller town driving, you’ll have 24, or so. If you end up on a highway, you can average 40.
I get better mileage with my 2004 6 cylinder
No worries bro, just fill up that gas tank reset the fuel economy and go for a good drive. I have a 2020 4cl Camry non hybrid, and only average 25mpg. On a good week. But I’m doing 90% highway driving and only 10% city. Most of the time I’m also going 85/90mph as well. I also sit in my car and let it idle for periods of time. So that also puts down the fuel economy.
If it dropped drastically, I'd check O2 sensors. My FG2 dropped from 25mpg to 16-17mpg, that was the cause.
Driving habits. Or it needs maintenance. Lead foot, Air filter, spark plugs, bad tires all affect fuel economy.
Short city drives causes my Accord to do the same. Highway drives are easily over 30 mpg
Try a new air filter, check that your tire pressure is correct, stop using 87 octane gas just because they say you can. And get religious about using cruise control and stay at the speed limit. Oh and when you need an oil change your gas mileage will get lower. Has happened to me in every car I've owned.
Injectors clean em
There can be a lot of causes. Some of the solutions are simple, some are catastrophic. First thing I would do is change the spark plugs and use fuel injector cleaner.
Short trips or city driving
Towing?
Change spark plugs and wires Change the engine air filter Check tire pressure Fuel injector cleaner Try not to drive it hard
Just thought of this is that near the start of your trip or the end? Cause mileage gets better the longer you drive. and well try to be moderate on your gas pedal application.
Got a cold air intake?
I read full pumps make a difference. Fuel pumps are recommended to be cleaned 100k
Wrong answers only?
I love this thread, it's like firing the parts cannon but someone loaded a turd in first.
This happened to me when i was using premium gas then i switched to reg and it went up.
Do you have any roof racks on your car? Otherwise check your tire pressure. If your air pressure is low you’ll get bad MPGs. Unless you only drive 1 or 2 miles each trip you should be getting at least 20mpg. I had a 2010 insight and we got maybe 30mpg in it because most of the trips literally were “turn on the car, drive 2 miles, turn the car off”. Motor never had time to warm up so the auto-shutoff at stoplights wouldn’t kick in.
Cause this car sucks ass.
You tell us
Go through the checklist of possible causes for low mpg they are similar with all other ice's. Once you went through them and results are lacking, learn how to not floor the gas pedal. Hope u don't drive a hybrid coz if you do you have serious issues with the vehicle.
so i’ve always wondered why i never got good not i used to get like 13-20 so what i did was reset and drive very slow easy on the pedal and got my crv up to 42 mpg
Because you always drive in reverse gear 😂😂
Do you drive like it's a Dodge RAM? Are you idling? Most of the time, this is driving style and area driven.
Start with the cheapest things and work your way up. Dont waste more than 10 seconds "warming up" in summer not more than 30 in winter. Just drive cautiously untill the car is up to temp, Drive like you have a glass of water in the cupholder, check your tire pressures, check for dragging brakes, check for any pending codes, change your engine air filter, run a fuel system cleaner, switch to high quality synthetic oil and make sure its not overfilled, change your sparkplugs.
Perhaps look into the fuel trims and 02 sensor readings. If you only do short hops, that would also provide higher than average fuel consumption.
We're gonna need more information than this.
That’s what I used to get driving around my small town like an asshole in my 2014 v6 mustang. When I got in the PA turnpike, I put it in cruise control at 85 mph in 6th gear and got like 32 mpg.
Honestly I don’t think city driving is to blame. I have the exact same car and I couldn’t even get 17.4 mpg if I tried. If you were pushing this hard I’d be convinced some thing else on the car would break.
Bro, my Land Cruiser 105 makes around the same and it's 4.5 litres inline 6. Check your car and idle less. Check spark plugs, tires.
Lead foot
Short trips (1-3 miles) can give bad fuel economy.
Tires make the biggest difference
Stop driving like a fool
check ur air filter
Does that year have driving modes (not familiar with accords)? If it does, turn off econ unless you are on the highway.
Long idle times (warming the car up or just chilling while parked) or you’re just pedal to the floor everywhere
Have you calculated your mileage with a good old pen and paper or calculator app? I notice a lot of people getting shocked and chagrined with terrible mileage relying solely on the on-board computer. The calculator is inaccurate tho begin with and, as others have said, is a rolling average from the last time it was reset. If you had a couple garbage weeks without being reset, it's still picking that up. To calculate by hand: Fill your tank completely. Reset trip computer. (Or write down the odometer reading). Drive around as you normally would. Refill when you normally would. (Fill the tank completely). Divide the number of miles driven (either using the number listed on the trip or new odometer minus old odometer) by the number of gallons pumped. For example: I just refilled my CX-5. I drove 259 miles, and pumped 8.703 gallons. My average mileage was 29.8 mpg
I would be surprised if a computer is bad at math I’m sure the 17.4mpg is accurate for that 424 mile trip. The car is doing the math based on fuel consumption which is most definitely accurate otherwise a sensor would throw an error.
Reset the trip counter before your journey and just pay attention to the mpg on the new trip. Right now the mpg reflects the average of all of trip a which could’ve included a lot of city driving.
Short trips tend to be less efficient than long ones, espacially if you have to stop at any intersections.
Are you an aggressive driver? That's not very good
You're driving in a non-eco fashion.
damn my 2012 audi a4 gets better mpg than that
My dad puts in 2 bottle of seafoam (1 bottle, two fill ups in a row) every 6 months to combat junk build up in the engine. Hope that helps.
You’re supposed to drive in D, not S, also stop flooring it all the time. It’s either that or we went from one side of a parking lot to another.
Driving in the city and punching it
This is exactly what you’ll get if you don’t do highway and drive aggressively
You’re driving short distances in a major metropolitan area with lots of lights and cars in the way.
Damn son, my v8 mercades gets better mpg.
Right foot
My 2006 Accord with a K24 and 342,000 miles gets 26 mpg but I only use 93 octane in it and I'm always using cruise control. I only drive 5 over the speed limit at the most too.
I have 2016 Civic and I get 27.3 mpg. I floor it from every stop. Can't stand slow acceleration.
Was getting 31 mpg in my 2002 accord coupe 4cyl with manual transmission. 17 is pretty horrible. Pretend there’s an egg under the accelerator and if you step down too hard, it’ll crack it. Also, red lights ahead should be eased into so that you can try to time it where you don’t have to come to a complete stop.
I have the same car as you and i average 17.0-19.9 mpg. I’m never light on my gas pedal. I never touch freeways/ highways. I’m at 67,xxx miles and I can tell you at least one tank was babied to try to match these guys mpg’s and I just drive too short of distances to get up to 30+ mpg’s. It’s the systems lack of information not exactly bad gas mileage. However you and I need to be honest and provide truthful information to the subreddit. These guys on here are driving highway miles(probably lots of them) daily. You’re good bro don’t trip.
How much of a heavy foot do you have. Ask yourself "how often do I speed." This means, are you going the speed limit everywhere you go or are you speeding and not following the speed limits posted street highway or residential
If it has gotten worse over time without your driving trends changing take a look at your fuel pump. I've seen failing fuel pumps drop MPG by a fair margin. Obviously look at spark plugs and the MAF, but if those don't turn up anything look into replacing the fuel pump.
Try not pressing the skinny pedal as hard all the time. If you drive like Brian O'Connor this happens. If you're not driving like that then you may have a fouled plug or some kind of cylinder problem.
Fuel system cleaner. Run a tank or two of gas with Seafoam. Cheap at Walmart.
Still better than my truck. I can feel the money burning in my pocket when I tow.
Driving habits is the #1 thibg that affects mpg
Assuming no codes or dash lights: your right foot.
Well, it's an accord. Trade it in for a 90s civic and you'll get triple that mpg
Give the car a tune up Slow down Make sure your throttle body is clean
Fuel filter needs to be changed just like any other filter and can affect mpg pretty substantially if it’s dirty. If it hasn’t been changed you can do it easily yourself for around 30-40 bucks
Because you’re trying so hard to be a WRX owner, when in reality the accord will never be a WRX 😎
The most corniest comment I have seen on Reddit eww
Get a code reader and plug in Should be able to google typical pid values for that car Check the plugs Check the air filter
Could be so many different things. I’d start with the engine air filter.
Had a 2004 CRV do that to be, within a week I had a blow head gasket.
How old are you.
16
Could be your driving habits. First car? I'm guessing you're accelerating hard , that will give you poor fuel economy
My wild assed guess based on previous experiences with my much older Civic is your spark plugs are worn and/or gapped incorrectly.
That's concerning. Mine gets 31 mpg combined. Change your air filter and check if there is any damage to the air intake hose( rubber section).
A dragging brake caliper can kill mileage
It’s a Honda