I recently got a JDM Ek3 Vti which has the factory 1.5l 3-stage vtec. I am barely ever going past the 2.5k rpm during daily commuting and green economy light is on occasionally too. However I've just calculated that I'm getting around 18-20mpg only (past owner said he was getting 38mpg). I bought this car mainly for its' supposedly good economy and I don't know what I could be doing wrong since I'm not trashing it. Any tips would be appreciated. Engine runs extremely smooth too!

 

Don't shift a 1.5 litre 4 cylinder at 2500RPM. Go try to do 5mph on your bike in the highest gear it has and see how that feels, your legs aren't moving fast but I bet it takes a lot more out of you than if you used the gears appropriately.

Other than that anything outside of standard maintenance is guess work at this point. Things like air filter/spark plugs can make an impact, tire pressure, double checking that your distributor timing is correct, making sure valves are adjusted within spec, etc etc... If your MPG really dropped by over 18MPG it sounds like something significant happened.

Once again - Do not shift at 2500RPM if you're intending to save gas cruising around.

Edit: 1000 posts. Yay.

 

What chance said and when digging into the maintenance, take a good look at the spark plugs, they may point you to an underlying issue.

 

Until 2500rpm the engine operates in 12v mode if that changes anything. Also I'm mostly on the 4th gear going at constant speed of 40-50km/hr.

 

I'm not an expert on the 1.5L D series or the economy mode of that vehicle, but if it's 12v under 2500RPM I'd be willing to wager that mode is intended only to save consumption during idle, and maybe putting around a parking lot. Keep in mind some areas of the world (Europe, Asia) where these cars were first sold had a lot of congested stop and go traffic, which probably lent value to that mode of driving.

4th gear at 45kmh translates to 4th gear at 27MPH. That is too high of a gear for that speed, you're lugging the engine.

Check the spark plugs, see if they're fouled or coated in fuel at all. If you've been inducing a lot of load on the engine without traveling at speed I'd be willing to bet you've got some pretty decent carbon deposits going on right now.

I would be willing to wager that if you increased your RPM while cruising to 3200->3500 you would see an improvement.

 

Congrats!

 

What do your fuel trims look like?

 

my mpg with this engine is ****** FANTASTIC.

 

How do you drive it?
i.e. how hard do you drive it/typical shift points/cruising rpm etc?

 

Classified

 

Yeah would be great if you told me at what rpms you shift etc....Only had the car for a week.

 

No idea honestly

 

bullshit *******, nobody likes the tuna.

 

OP stop shifting your 1.5L Honda like a Cummins diesel.

 

lmao I know man... still getting used to it. My previous 3 cars were 1-1.3L so quite a different driving experience. On a side note managed another 170km out of 15l unleaded so not too bad....air filter definitely needs to be changed though.

 

I don't drive like an ***, the engine doesn't produce large gobs of power so why rev it up and waste gas. Even Chloe likes it slow

 

you keep her out of this

 

there are times when i kick it up by gigabit speed

 

Which I now have

 

Bro, you're late and she's satisfied.

 

Who is Chloe?

Pics...

 

EHEM! CHLOE GRACE MORETZ.

See avatar.

 

Ah yiss...

 

Chloe is also Tony's moms name

*runs away*

 

3 things:

1. I always thought your avatar was Ivanka
2. Chloe looks a little too young
3. Tony's mom on the other hand,..