Hello,

The car has around 15,000 miles and drives smoothly with no apparent issues and tires should have at least what the manufacturer recommends for air pressure.

Can anyone offer suggestions as to why the gas mileage is way down, I'm only getting on average 19 mpg. I believe it should at least get between 20 city/ 29 hwy right?

Thanks in advance!


Modified by vtec_head at 4:14 PM 7/2/2008

 

How about your foot? I mean do you have a heavy foot? Throttle a little lighter and there will be a noticeable difference. Yeah it's hard doing that but just keep in mind that it's a v6 a little different from the i-4. none the less a great car.

 

Actually my wife usually drives this car and she's pretty careful at how she drives it and is aware of not having a "Heavy foot"....

Anyone else have any ideas or suggestions?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtec_head &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">drives smoothly with no apparent issues and tires <u>should</u> have at least what the manufacturer recommends for air pressure.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Go to a Tire shop and ask if they have an inexpensive tire gauge. Generally the chains will give you one if you emphasize the inexpensive part. With that said, you SHOULD check the tire pressure. It might look good, kick it and it might kick you back, but it does no good if you don't really know its pressure. You can do little things like get rid of the golf clubs, if she has AAA, drop the spare tire and jack, drive with the windows up (&lt;-Debatable) change air filter, check and re-gap or replace the plugs, avoid red lights with proper speeds (most are timed now-a-days), and don't forget, to not fill up everytime it hits half a tank...I know women do this more than guys, because they're afraid of running out of gas, but the 2 minute drive to the gas station waste more gas than waiting that extra few days, you'll cut down the amount of time and gas taken to get there. Drive the first few miles easily, you don't have to warm up (FI), but you're in closed loop.

Also, it depends on how the car was broken in, as well...But that's also debatable (how to break it in).

 

Regarding the heavy foot issue, the EPA bases there estimates on what they believe are normal driving habits. Not what people REALLY do with their cars. Not to say you are a nutcase behind the wheel. But, if you open the throttle just a little more, I mean less than 25 percent more than normal you can double the injector duration and cut fuel mileage in half. Just something to think about.

The only way to tell if there is a problem with the way the car runs is to check the short term fuel trim. If you have an air leak or a biased a/f sensor the trim will be high because the engine is recieving extra fuel. 19mpg is pretty good for a v6.

 

I've averaged 24-25 in town and 31-32 on the highway (520 miles my last tank!) in the year since I bought my 03 V6. Your mileage sounds a little low. I keep seeing these types of threads thinking either you all have the same problem-whatever that is-or the calculations are not right.

 

Hey Wellinghurst,

Thanks for your input. Your Accord is getting great gas mileage! Are you maximizing your air pressure? or driving like a 100 yr. old grandpa to achieve those numbers? lol...just trying to figure out what could be wrong with our Accord especially since it's a 2007 and drives very smooth with no apparent problems. Funny that you say you have a 2003 Accord, my wife had a 2003 Accord V6 coupe and she swears up and down that it was great on gas and was getting much better than our 2007 V6 sedan. Maybe the Accord in 2003 was made more efficient?

Something I did do for our current Accord is maximize the air pressure to what it says on the tires. It actually jump from 19 avg mpg to 22 avg. mpg! May seem like a small difference but the numbers add up!

 

I drive normally I guess. My wife drives it most of the time, and I redline it at least once when I take it out because she never does and I want to keep it honest. All in all, I don't drive it like a grandpa. the 520 mile tank was running 70-80 in the interstate through the mountains of WV.

I keep 32-33 lbs of air in all 4 tires because I rotate them myself, but I don't want to switch the 5lbs front to back every time I do it.

I really don't understand all the bad mileage posts at all. Something is strange here.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by wellinghurst &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I drive normally I guess. My wife drives it most of the time, and I redline it at least once when I take it out because she never does and I want to keep it honest. All in all, I don't drive it like a grandpa. the 520 mile tank was running 70-80 in the interstate through the mountains of WV.

I keep 32-33 lbs of air in all 4 tires because I rotate them myself, but I don't want to switch the 5lbs front to back every time I do it.

I really don't understand all the bad mileage posts at all. Something is strange here.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I don't think anything is strange here. What I do think is that you have a very exclusive and rare Accord that was built very well and is extremely efficient the way the cars should be built. I guarantee you that most people here with similar Accords will NOT get the same MPG numbers that you are getting especially with the way you are driving it. Especially getting 520 miles on a 17.1 gal. tank? That would be a total average of 30.4 mpg average for city and hwy

Consider yourself lucky!


Modified by vtec_head at 1:00 PM 7/10/2008

 

I also have an 03 V6 auto, and I can easily get that mileage. My wife drives the car most of the time, doing short trips (less than 5 miles at a time), and the car gets 21-23 mpg. On the highway I can get over 30 easy if there's not much traffic and I can keep the cruise on for extended periods. Short trips, and sitting at red lights, are mileage killers, but what can you do? I think the EPA numbers for this car are 18-29mpg. I can beat the 29, and I have never gone below the 18, so I'm happy.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BLKFLSH &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I also have an 03 V6 auto, and I can easily get that mileage. My wife drives the car most of the time, doing short trips (less than 5 miles at a time), and the car gets 21-23 mpg. On the highway I can get over 30 easy if there's not much traffic and I can keep the cruise on for extended periods. Short trips, and sitting at red lights, are mileage killers, but what can you do? I think the EPA numbers for this car are 18-29mpg. I can beat the 29, and I have never gone below the 18, so I'm happy. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Well, our Accord now gets an avg. of 22 - 24 mpg city/hwy combined but I think that's because I maximized the tire air pressure to the limits of what the tire manufacturer safely recommends. I don't think we could get 30 mpg even just on hwy but I could be wrong.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by vtec_head &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

I don't think anything is strange here. What I do think is that you have a very exclusive and rare Accord that was built very well and is extremely efficient the way the cars should be built. I guarantee you that most people here with similar Accords will NOT get the same MPG numbers that you are getting especially with the way you are driving it. Especially getting 520 miles on a 17.1 gal. tank? That would be a total average of 30.4 mpg average for city and hwy

Consider yourself lucky!


Modified by vtec_head at 1:00 PM 7/10/2008</TD></TR></TABLE>

The 520 (took 15.5 gallons to fill back up=33.5 mpg) miles was pure highway filling up at one exit and not stopping until I was on E. I don't normally get 520 miles per tank, but I do average in the 24-26 range mixed driving.

 

Quote:

The 520 (took 15.5 gallons to fill back up=33.5 mpg) miles was pure highway filling up at one exit and not stopping until I was on E. I don't normally get 520 miles per tank, but I do average in the 24-26 range mixed driving.
____

That's excellent! Not sure if I or most people could do that with our cars but there are some lucky souls out there that can, I'm sure.

I just found a interesting website called http://www.fueleconomy.gov

There I found some stats on my 2007 V6 Accord. Check out this link!

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/mpg...ls=on


Basically says that out of 10 people that submitted their MPG numbers they came out with this:

Number of Vehicles: 10
Average User MPG: 23.4
Range: 17 - 29 MPG
Updated On: 07/07/2008

I think now our Accord is getting pretty close to what these people are getting on average so I don't feel too bad now.

thanks guys!


Modified by vtec_head at 10:01 AM 7/11/2008

 

Sorry, repeat post...