Whats your MPG?

[Cletus Vandamn]

I'm trying to figure out about what the average MPG for a 90-93 Accord is. My 92' EX coupe 5 speed gets horrible gas mileage and I cant figure out why. My last couple tanks I have only gotten about 23-24 MPG with city driving. That cant be normal, can it? I have recently put on a new cat/catback/intake and also replaced the cap/rotor, new spark plugs/plug wires and also got a new O2 sensor and fuel filter. All this stuff dont and I still cant get over 24 MPG out of the damn thing. I'm about to give up and sell the damn car and buy a Civic or something. Only reason I bought it was so I could get better MPG for daily driving than my boosted DA. My DA is boosted at 16lbs and still gets 22 MPG with me redlining damn near every gear. So something definitely has to be wrong if my damn near stock Accord can barely get better gas mileage than a 350WHP DA.

What are you guys getting MPG wise and what do you think might be my car's problem?

[92acclude]

I get between 24-25 with my H22.

[phatdoughnut]

i can get close to 28mpg on my h22a.

How low are you draining the tank?

[Cletus Vandamn]

I usually fill up once it gets a little under half a tank so it doesnt cost quite as much. But I always write down what my trip odometer was at and how much fuel I put in and divide the 2. Last time I filled up I got about 23.5 MPG. I never take this car over 4K either, so its not like I'm redlining itor anything. When I bought the car I was under the impression I would be getting atleast 30 MPG out of it but thats not happening.

[PakaloloHonda]

Even tho you may not be goin over 4k .. which you almost could'nt do in the city anway,
you're prolly doin alotta stop N go .. odds are you got the air on constant ..

City driving is the pain .. period .. I dont run air at all, and I spend alotta time in 5th gear.

A Hui Hou !!!
Tomi

[owequitit]

Perhaps not so oddly, weight of the vehicle plays a large part in mileage as well. It is harder to get equal mileage out of a larger mass because it requires more energy to accelerate that mass.

I do honestly feel your pain, but 23-24MPG out of a pretty much stock CB7, isn't really out of the ball park. They were rated at 22MPG city if I remember correctly... I would have to look at my window sticker to know for sure, but it is close.

I now get just about 30MPG in the city with my mods, and can get almost 40 on the highway if I can maintain a steady 80MPH. I also have 216K on the original engine.

My car is auto.

I can itemize them if you want.

Based on experience, the TB/intake plenum on the F22A6 is restrictive and causes pumping loss. I saw a routine 3MPG city increase with the H series plenum/tb using the same mileage calculation that you use on your cars.

I would also recommend a valve adjustment. This can also have a 3-4 MPG impact.

Keep in mind too that even if you are boosting your DA all the time on the street, the restraints of a realistic speed and or traffic is still limiting your total boost time to a very small percentage of your total driving time. You could take a stopwatch with you the next time you drive and just cumulatively time all of your time in boost, and then divide that by the total drive time to get a percentage of time in boost...

The only point to that is that off boost, your B18 is still going to behave as an NA engine in terms of mileage. Being of smaller displacement gives it an advantage. Plus the car is lighter than a CB, so you have less mass to lug around as well.

[gloryaccordy]

Damn you owequitit...

Since I changed my toasted O2 sensor I get slightly better mileage...I wanna eventually get the H22 plenum/TB though. Right now I get about 22mpg with basically all city driving.

[T3aM 83rD]

according to my calculations i get around 20 mpg all city.

[Stealthman80]

my car gets about 19 mpg in the city, I get about 500k to a tank, or like 312 miles, I was only getting about 200 miles to a tank until I got my valves adjusted and got a new fuel filter and got my fuel line leak fixed. I still dont understand how people can be getting like 27 mpg in the city adn high 30's on the highway, these cars are only rated at 22 city 28 highway

ok well the manual version is rated 24/31 it still doesnt make sence that people would be getting more then rated???

http://www.edmunds.com/used/1993/hon...576/specs.html

[Gemini]

my car gets about 19 mpg in the city, I get about 500k to a tank, or like 312 miles, I was only getting about 200 miles to a tank until I got my valves adjusted and got a new fuel filter and got my fuel line leak fixed. I still dont understand how people can be getting like 27 mpg in the city adn high 30's on the highway, these cars are only rated at 22 city 28 highway

ok well the manual version is rated 24/31 it still doesnt make sence that people would be getting more then rated???

http://www.edmunds.com/used/1993/hon...576/specs.html

i think i need to get those stuf adjusted also because my gas mileage is about 250-260 a tank and thats on a good day.

[owequitit]

my car gets about 19 mpg in the city, I get about 500k to a tank, or like 312 miles, I was only getting about 200 miles to a tank until I got my valves adjusted and got a new fuel filter and got my fuel line leak fixed. I still dont understand how people can be getting like 27 mpg in the city adn high 30's on the highway, these cars are only rated at 22 city 28 highway

ok well the manual version is rated 24/31 it still doesnt make sence that people would be getting more then rated???

http://www.edmunds.com/used/1993/hon...576/specs.html

My family currently owns 6 Hondas (not counting friends) and they all get better than advertised mileage. They are closer to advertised in the city than on the highway, but they still beat it. I have spent quite a bit of time in all of them and it takes effort to NOT beat the estimates.

It has to do with the EPA test. It is a very specific lab test. If a car is configured to perform optimally outside that test, than the results of that test will be skewed lower than what you might see under the optimum conditions for that car.

Most people assume that the slower you go the better your gas mileage will be. This is true to a point.

The best example I can think of is cruise flight in an airplane. There are two main cruise speeds published; Maximum Cruise Speed (Performance Cruise) and Maximum Endurance (Economy Cruise). One covers the most distance for time flown (high speed) and the other gives us the most distance for fuel burn (slower speed and thus less fuel burn). However, if I fly at a speed less than the economy cruise speed, my speed decreases more than my fuel burn resulting in less distance covered for the amount of fuel burned, resulting in reduced fuel mileage.

This same concept works on your car. At some point, you will be using almost as much fuel just keeping the car running at idle that you were cruising at some speed.

Then you have to consider aerodynamic drag, gearing, powerband, etc. There will be a point of greatest economy, but it won't necessarily be 25 MPH.

At highway speeds my best economy comes at between 80-83MPH depending on conditions. If I slow 5MPH from 80, or if I speed up the same amount, I see a measureable mileage decrease. It isn't huge, but I can measure it. About 1-2 MPG. It also results in saving up to 15 minutes on a typical longer trip of 3 hours. Obviously, if you travel farther, the time savings increases too, all while using less fuel. At worst, it is a marginal increase.

It will also vary with driving style and gear. Generally in town, since you are in stop and go anyway, you will be better off spending as much time in a higher gear as possible, but again, there is a balancing point. If you are always at WOT in 5th gear to keep up with traffic, your mileage may increase if you can spend less time at WOT in 4th gear and accelerate faster instead.

You basically just have to experiment with it in your car, under your driving conditions.

Steady acceleration and steady cruising will make a HUGE difference in your observed mileage, as will steady deceleration. Doing anything other than this burns more gas.

A/C, passing and the radio all consume energy that ultimately comes from your gas tank...

Tire inflation pressure, tread quality, extra crap in your trunk, and even a dirty car can have some effect.

Routine maintenance can also have a profound effect. At the Accord's EPA rated City mileage of 23MPG, a 3MPG savings is 13%. That means if a valve adjustment and complete tune-up fluid change gets you an extra 4 MPG, you have just seen about a 20% increase in fuel mileage.

Big heavy wheels and stereos will also kill your mileage.

Unless developed in a wind tunnel and aerodynamically proven, body kits and wings will generally also reduce your mileage. Sometimes, they still will. The R32 Skyline has terrible drag, even for the age.

Honestly, the upgrade from F22A4 stuff to F22A6 stuff with the H22 plenum has resulted in the greatest gas mileage increase for me.

The reason is simple. The amount of energy the engine had to spend pumping air in, went down, which meant more power to the wheels, less time accelerating at lower throttle settings, and thus fuel savings.

If I travel WOT for a very long period of time, then my mileage does go down slightly.

Basically the mods broke out the mileage about like this:

Stock - 23-24 MPG city

Catback - 23-24 MPG city

Header and cat - 24-25 MPG City

A6 intake mani, cam and ECU - 26-27MPG

All of the above plus H series plenum - 28-30MPG

My driving habits did not change much. My mileage has gone from 67K when I bought the car to 216K now, but maintenance has offset most of the age related wear, so it is not typical of most 216K engines.

[SSMAccord]

on average I get about 400 miles to a tank. Its mostly freeway mileage but this is from full to the fuel light being fully illuminated.

[Cletus Vandamn]

So you guys are saying 22-24MPG is about average then? That sucks. My old V8 got atleast 20 around town and the motor was twice as big!!! Why does it suck so much gas? Well I'm most likely going to be selling this car now. The whole point was to get something ecnomical and I might as well be driving my DA with the MPG I'm getting now. So keep your eyes open for a For Sale thread sometime soon if I dont sell it locally first.

[starchland]

wow very good information owequitit.

I get 24 mpg in the city here with I/H/E
and i definately want to do a valve adjustment now!

[Stealthman80]

I should note that im probably only getting 19 mpg casue I have an SE which weighs like almost 3100 pounds and I have a full stereo and subs, and I wiegh 260 pounds