I drive a manual 1997 Accord LX. I've been clocking my gas mileage and found that my car is coming in really low. I checked fueleconomy.gov rating and the official rating on the car is around 28-30 mpg, while the average rating from actual drivers is more like 25-28 mpg. Well, my car seems to be coming in closer to 19 mpg.

I changed the air filter and checked the air in the tires, but I'm wondering if there's anything else that might be causing such a dramatically lower gas mileage?

 

Spark plugs and wires

 

how hard are you driving the car? that 25 to 28 mpg is only going to be obtained if you drive conservativly.

 

I'm a pretty conservative driver. I almost never push it when speeding up at lights and stuff. I mean, that might be what's doing it, but I drive like a grandma, especially compared to most of my friends. Of course, maybe their gas mileage is really bad.

I had the spark plugs and wires done a little less than a year ago. Would they need to be redone by now?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by bpetruzzo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I had the spark plugs and wires done a little less than a year ago. Would they need to be redone by now?</TD></TR></TABLE>
No you don't need them re-done... how many miles have you put on since then? change your oil and oil-filter if you haven't already, and you might want to look into seafoaming your engine

 

It's possible that you might need to clean your wires and plugs if your valve cover gasket and seals are bad.

 

try changing the O2 sensor

 

^^^Word

How could I forget an O2 sensor?? Of course! Likely suspect. Yes, check your O2!

 

make sure your s-stat is working properly

 

I don't think I've even heard of an s-stat.

I did some research on the O2 sensor and it seems that if it were the problem I would probably experience some performance problems, or even a check engine light. The car runs normal, no odd behavior at all, nor are there any warning lights.

I have a habit of only filling up the car about five or six gallons and running it on that until it's about empty. It helps me from driving unnecessarily. Someone said once that doing that can cause the fuel injector to get dirty faster.

Is that true? And if so, could that be my problem?

 

I think he meant t-stat (thermostat). If your car is not reaching operating temperature because of a faulty thermostat, it would not operate efficiently.

The O2 sensor can be bad, but not bad enough to trigger a check engine light.

 

yupp o2 sensor and try seafoam n clean ur fuel injectors