fuel economy really low.. WHY..??

[xcwizit]

Hello Honda-Family!!
I have `96 Civic Vti 1.6L, full tank of fuel holds 45L, i should be doing over 400kms from a full tank (not giving it much, driving normal), ive changed the spark plugs (ZFR6J-11) and the fuel filter (original Honda from Essendon Honda), oil (Mobil Synth- 15W/40) as well as the oil filter.

Why am i only getting around 350kms (if im lucky) out of a full tank??

I havent changed the air filter yet, also my oil is a lil tiny bit over full on the dipstick, probably 2mm.

HELLPPP!!!

[JasonGilholme]

try changin your air filter. Just cleaned the air filter on the car and she runs sooo much better. I've got a 45 litre tank and i get about 600kms out of a tank.

All i can suggest is try another air filter and see how you go.

How is the car running??? does it feel a bit sluggish?? if so it might be dumping too much fuel into the engine.

Give the ecu a reset as well, see if that helps

Good Luck

Jason

[jackosimm]

What do you call not giving it "much" and driving normally? And do you do much highway driving or is it all the stop/start city driving?
Try not going above 3-4 thousand rpm the whole tank and check what km you get :thumbsup:

[xcwizit]

To JasonGilholme:
Nah havent changed the air filter. I should do that ASAP. It doesnt feel sluggish at all fully smooth. are you getting 600kmz from normal driving? Do you give it at all??

To Jackosimm:
giving it a little would be changing gears around 4000 revs and not around 2000-3000 revs. No i dont do much h-way driving, maybe once a week on the westgate bridge, mostly street & city driving, plenty stop-starts!!

[EuroAccord13]

Maybe your injectors need an ultrasonic clean.. Might not be squirting efficiently...

[EG30]

I bought my 2nd EG ( Si ) a mth after my 1st one ( 1.3 Breeze ). I'm astounded by the Si economy so far. After 300Km the fuel gauge still sits just above the 1/2 way mark. I've been driving it with A/c on most of the time and I've been hammering it up to 7200rpm on a few occasions as well. My Breeze's economy is at least 10% worse than that.

The Si was serviced at a Honda dealer in Perth a few mths back, prob filled with 10w-40 oil. I've yet to change the oil to my fav ( for this type of car ) Castrol 5w-30 which I would expect an improvement of 0.1-0.3L/100Km improvement in fuel econ.

So 350km from a full tank is definately not what I would expect from your Vti.

IMHO I would check the fuel pressure regulator 1st, then the MAP sensor.

[EuroDude]

Sometimes if you give it a good thrashing and rev it to 6000RPM it can loosen contaminants (such as clogged fuel injectors) and get things flowing again. You may wanna clean out the throttle body too.

[Limbo]

Try running Thinner oil. Its not the problem of the car but it will help with the economy.
Check Timing. Clean Airfilter.
Do you have a standard exhaust? does the car have a strong petrol smell? Might be running rich for some reason? Fuel Filter changed?

[Beastcivic]

I never get over 400km per tank. Even when it was stock I got about 340-380k's per tank. None of my mates civic's get good k's per tank either. I also have a hard time believing people when they say they get 500-600k's.

[EuroDude]

I never get over 400km per tank. Even when it was stock I got about 340-380k's per tank. None of my mates civic's get good k's per tank either. I also have a hard time believing people when they say they get 500-600k's.


I guess it depends on driving habits and routines. for instance I get 450km from my Civic Si but thats because 70% of my work route is highway, despite my 'spirited' driving.

[JasonGilholme]

xcwizit: I try to take it easy on the throttle. I accellerate slowly and change at about 3 to 4 thousand.

Occassionally i will give it some if some lancer driver pulls up next to me with the stereo goin or somethin but apart from that its pretty well tame driving. I also do a mixture of city driving and highway driving

[Astrodice]

I get about 450 Ks on my 98 EK GLI sedan on a full tank of either BP 95/98 Octane. However I have definately noticed that from Full to half full, I get more K's then out of half full to near empty. Have any of you noticed this at all and if so any comments would be appreciated. Cheers :honda:

[shortie_vi]

i drive a 96 Civic Vti too and i get about 550K out of my tank but i never drive my car to empty... i was told it's not good for the car

i've notice that from full to half full i get more K's, like it takes forever to get to half tank... this week alone, i filled up my tank on Saturday and I drove down to Wollongong, drove around Wollongong, then on Sunday drove back to Homebush Bay and then drove to Smithfield, then on Monday and today I drove to and from work (i work in pyrmont... 40 mins drive.. stupid sydney peak).. and i still have over half a tank left...

but once it's pass half way.. i can only take a few trips to work and back before I fill up again

btw my car is stock... i switch petrol all the time from normal unleaded, optimax, 95 octane, 100% octane... i notice that when i use 95 octane and normal unleaded i get more K's out of it..

[JasonGilholme]

The reason that your tank empties quicker after half way is because its angled towards the bottom.

[gtjetpilot]

ideally with fuel you want the highest octance and the most oxygen you can ram in to get more complete combustion ergo cleaner emissions and more power. I also drive a 100 series GXL landcruiser 6cyl and a 91' corrolla hatch and it's the same deal consumption wise - xmas day drove to wollongong to see relatives and the round trip barely made a dent in the gauge, however going from empty and putting $20 in you notice it just eats it up...

[shortie_vi]

The reason that your tank empties quicker after half way is because its angled towards the bottom.

that makes sense..

[Astrodice]

Thanks Jason, that would explain it...lol..It had me perplexed..

Ps..Yeah I never run my tank down to empty, dont know whats down there..lol

To xcwizit: Mine was from Essendon Honda as well, was called Josh Sady when i got it... :)

[hethro87]

Hey guys. My car too has also been getting some poor fuel eco - i have a 70 L tank on my Camry and i only get arounnd 500km out of a tank of 95ron octane or 600km out of a tank of 91 ron octane. However im filling up my tank tomo with 98 ron octane as im driving her up to Newcastle and back. But i do do alot of stop and start driving.

I'll try and not thrash the car on this trip and report my findings when i come back on sunday night/monday morning!

Im also certain that if you have a filthy air filter (im gettin a k and n one soon. My one
s rooted at the moment) your fuel eco will go down. Remember how an engine works? No good clean air, no good combustion!!

Hethro

[Zdster]

To all of those with poor fuel economy - what sort of mods do you have? I have noticed that even little things that shouldnt change economy that much end up having a bit of an effect (ie exhaust, air intake etc).

[bennjamin]

change spark plugs , fuel filter , air filter , PCV valve , check o2 sensor , check your cataylic convertor too...

[xcwizit]

iv chnged my sprk plugs, fuel filter, oil except for air filter..!!
i havent chnged my leads either but that shouldnt have an effect on my poor fuel economy should it..

il buy a new air filter next mon.

Wich air filter is good to buy for my civic.. the RYCO one from autobarn or the original Honda from Honda..??

CHEERS EVERYONE FOR YOUR INPUT

[blu3illusion84]

get K&N gain power!

[dc-r]

how abt weight of your car? do you have a lot of things in your car???
in my case, i try to loose weight of car... i think so far i loose abt 60kg. maybe more.(hopely...) since then, my fuel economy is getting high. even i don't fill up the fuel fully, just 25L at time. if i drive nomally, 250km is easy. maybe try to loose weight out of your car... ;) such as sub... etc...

cheers....

[mrwillz]

I get about 450 Ks on my 98 EK GLI sedan on a full tank of either BP 95/98 Octane. However I have definately noticed that from Full to half full, I get more K's then out of half full to near empty. Have any of you noticed this at all and if so any comments would be appreciated. Cheers :honda:

yes i noticed that 2
where the guage drops faster on the 2nd half to empty faster thenthe top half.
i fort it shud b better in the 2nd half seeing, there is less weight in the car.
meh

[wynode]

Have a read of this:

http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30815

PS: Judging your fuel consumption by just the needle is inaccurate and misleading.

[Menzy]

well i have an ek running d16 sohc non-vtec
and i fill up at 45-40L
and if i drive hard i get 450km ... easy driving with a few highway Ks and i get around 500-550, which isnt bad... hope this helps everyone !

[EG30]

I've clocked up 520Km so far on my current tank of fuel in my EG Si man hatch. It's approching the E mark on the fuel gauge but the fuel light has yet to come on. I've only filled up the car once since I've bought it, and when the light comes on when there's about 5-6L of fuel left in the car. Definately more economical than my 1.3 Breeze.

Will let you guys know my econ figure once I fuelled it up again.

[honda1996]

Ive got a gli hatch i get 500k`s out of a tank and the second half of the tank emptys real quick. I got shafted last week, i bought that safeway (woolworths) fuel . A few days later i noticed my car running real sluggish and i could not work out the problem. After doing some checks I finally got around to checking my cars fuel filter and to suprise it was dripping muddy water. So hence i had to dump my preicous $40.00 fuel , change fuel fliter and thankgod it didnt get to my injectors! Now the car runs a dream. So Beware never buy that shit fuel ,i know about 5 people that have been fkd up for using it and i thought it would never happen to me :(

[EuroDude]

I've clocked up 520Km so far on my current tank of fuel in my EG Si man hatch. It's approching the E mark on the fuel gauge but the fuel light has yet to come on. I've only filled up the car once since I've bought it, and when the light comes on when there's about 5-6L of fuel left in the car. Definately more economical than my 1.3 Breeze.

520km! Are u sure? For da luv of god thats good. You must do alot of highway mileage ;)

[wynode]

Yeah it would have to be mainly highway driving to get that kind of figure. In my old Si (4 door hence about 40-50Kgs heavier) I used to get around 8.6L/100Kms (city driving)

[EG30]

520km! Are u sure? For da luv of god thats good. You must do alot of highway mileage ;)

Yeap sure as sure.

The fuel light finally came on at around 530Kms and I fuelled up with Ultimate 98 at 542Km with 40.8L of fuel. Fuel consumption works out to be 7.42L/100Km for me. I drive a mixture of highway and urban mileage with an average speed in the low 40Km/h's ( from my experience in my BMW's trip computer over the last 15 years ). A/C usage is about 80+%. I hammered the car pretty hard as well on the last tank of fuel ( about 5Km worth of full throttle high load driving ), so with moderate driving along with less A/C usage low 7L/100kms and even high 6's for my is definately achievable. I will be changing my engine oil to Castrol 5W30 very soon and that would improve things a little further.

My car is completely stock apart from the K&N air filter with 185/60R14 el cheapo Maxxis with not much grip/not much rolling resistance, 36/34psi F/R tyre pressures. Once I get some hi performance tyres and the wheels aligned for handling I expect to lose up to 0.5L/100Km in fuel consumption though.

http://img306.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fuelgauge8ru.jpg

[nexace]

Is this the 96 civic that's done 46,000km?

Sounds like you need some serious cleaning if this is the case. :)

[xcwizit]

actauly. I just got my muffler put on yesterday and i filled optimax this week. My car can breathe alot better now and with optimax im geting more kms out of the tank! iv done just about 1/4 (1/2 way between full & half) and iv done roughly over 150kms. Meaning i should get bout 400kms . There's nothing wrong with the car, just paranoid. I dont do much highway driving. mainly all street driving around here and the city!!

[According In QLD]

I never get over 400km per tank. Even when it was stock I got about 340-380k's per tank. None of my mates civic's get good k's per tank either. I also have a hard time believing people when they say they get 500-600k's.

620 on my way down to syd from a full tank :)