Ok I bought my wife a 2003 accord ex i4, I filled up the tank now the low fuel light came on at a WOW 225 miles from a full tank wtf is going on, not even my lexus v8 gives horrible gas mileage like this, I also get a hesitation cruising around 40 miles or so on the speedometer, the car air filter is clean car has 58k miles, I have new NGK Iridium plugs waiting to put in soon, to cold right now, I get no CEL, I also added a fuel system treatment on the last tank, please help me out, reason why I bought this car was for the fuel economy not in this case though!!! and YES I have the tires PSI at 38...
btw this car uses wires or coils as far as the ignition goes?

 

Lets see.......225 and about 10 gal of fuel = 22.5 mpg.

If you're driving this car around town all the time, you're about at the 'normal' mpgs for this engine. I have an 05' and that's about what it gets in town. On the hwy it'll get close to 29 mpg, but that's about it.

I'm assuming this is NOT a hybrid vehicle..........

That hesitation..........you might want to check your fuel filter. It may be causing this, or you may need to run another gas treatment thru to clean out the fuel injectors. If they are dirty, this will impact mpg somewhat. Use the Techron system cleaner from Chevron. Its the best!!

The new plugs might help a little, and new O2 sensors might help with mpg's some. But that will require some cash outlay.

 

the 7th gen accord has a distributerless ignition system= coils.

my gas mileage takes a hit every winter but nothing as severe as yours. in mixed 60 hwy/ 40 city i get 28-30 mpg on average in my '04 i4-5 manual.

investigate the hesitation issue. the plugs should be fine @ 58,000 miles, but who knows. could be a bad coil as well, but that would also be rare. is it certified pre-owned? private seller? any accidents? alignment ok? change the oil and filter, check all fluids etc. what kind of driving do you do? lots of idling or short trips?

no doubt, you should be getting better mileage, and the 7th accord is a great car imo.

let us know what you find out.

 

Let's see...225 and 17 GALLONS of fuel =13.23. I get at least 22 city in my 6-6. Something is definitely wrong here

 

I thought those cars had problems with the gas sensor, no?

 

1. How are you measuring MPG? Try using a more accurate method, judging when the light comes on vs how much you top off is not a good estimate.

2. Assume you are measuring right, IMO, the 7th gen Accord 4 cylinder does get bad MPG. That's because it's too big and heavy. On my Civic for example, no matter how I drive, MPG is pretty much the same range. It takes alot more gas to move that much mass around, especially in city-town driving for the 7th gen.

3. How does your wife drive? I get better MPG than wife on all of our cars. The difference is shocking on hungry cars like our new 09 Ody. Me - Ody is pretty good on gas, it should be my DD. Wife - WTF, something must be wrong with the car to use that much gas. I felt the same way with our (old) 06 Accord 4 cylinder EX.

 

It's my impression that the gas light comes on very early in the newer Hondas, with at least two gallons left in the tank.

Your example would imply that the car is out of gas the minute the light comes on.

Go and measure it properly and then update us.

 

I had an 03 I4 Automatic coup, I have never gotten worst than 25 MPG(I owned the car for more than 120K+ miles). Was the car sitting on the dealers lot for awhile? The oem plugs are also iridium and they should still be good. Also 38 PSI might be good for MPG but it will ruin your tires.

Put in a full tank and write down the miles(dont top off), write the the miles when you refuel. Get a actual MPG.

 

okay so 15 miles to the gallon, using 15 gallons in the equation. Either way in a 4 cylinder that bullshit MPG. Theres no way a mechanically sound 4 cylinder accord no matter who is driving will get that consistently.


Your turn...

 

my v6 6spd gets 22 in town.

to measure gas mileage:

once you have got to a point you want to fill up...do so write the gallons down and divide your trip miles by the quantity that you put in the car not how much the gas tank holds.

 

Are you running aftermarket wheels/tires?

 

Sure there is! alot of city driving and never allowing the car to warm up (frequent short trips) can do just that.

 

I use to have an 04. At about 75,000 miles my fuel mileage went in the dump. I found the O2 sensor was bad. It was testing good but still malfunctioned. After changing it the mileage went back up. Its not a hard part to replace. A ratchet, a special socket from the part store and about 20 minutes of your time. Hope this helps.

 

Short distance driving is the no.1 killer of fuel economy dude.

 

this is why it's more economical to live really far away from work. better mpg.

 

I've had the same problem in my swapped civic. Its very cold here so I posted this and got a few responses.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/honda-civic-del-sol-1992-2000-1/mileage-2719077/

 

To properly read your mpg:

1. Fill up tank, reset trip odom.
2. Drive the vehicle past half a tank
3. Refill and record gallons pumped into tank and miles driven
4. Apply formula: miles driven / gallons pumped into tank = mpg

An accurate reading would really help this thread.

 

i don't understand buying a car for gas mileage..

assume you spent $10k on your car that might possibly get 30mpg avg.
your current car gets 20mpg.

if you drive the average 12k miles a year and spend an average of $2.70/gal for gas the following applies:

12,000 miles = 600 gal @ 20mpg = $1620/year
12,000 miles = 400 gal @ 30mpg = $1080/year

$540/year difference in gas will take nearly 20 years to make your car pay for itself in gas mileage.

should have bought a $1000 geo metro.

 

I'm with you! My colleague bought a $25K Prius, I bought a 2nd EG w/ 64,000 miles and a d15 that got as high as 40mpg for $3K. My car has way more character, and tell me whose break even point is sooner!

 

And don't forget that they are going to have to replace the battery ever 5 years. Which = more cash down the drain.

Saving the enviornment = More cash out of your pockets.

They should have just stuck to those Electric cars. Damn you GM!

 

Its funny. The old USDM CRX HFs got incredible mileage. Every bit as good as the Prius. Honda had some 1.5 liter 3 stage VTEC that got 40 something? Don't quote me on that. But then mileage wasn't as much of an issue when gas was a buck and a half a gallon. Now all the money were sending to the oil producing countries may come back to us in the form of a smart bomb. So now if we want incredible mileage we have to spend what I could buy a kick *** S2000 for. Somehow I don't care to be like Leonardo DiCaprio enough to spend that much money on my Prius and put an Apple sticker on one side and a COEXIST sticker on the other. Sorry for being such a cynical jerk and turning this thread into socio-political commentary! I'll stop now.

 

I know I'm late on this, but have you had a chance to do the math on your gas mileage? Would be good to know if the gas mileage is actually terrible or if the low fuel light is whacky.

 

If it is cold and you are short tripping the car with the heater on full blast before the engine is warm, you will get horrible gas mileage. Also if you leave the car idle to warm and then take short trips, you will get horrible gas mileage. basically cold weather and short trips will yield horrible mileage. The cylinder count is irrelevant.

Start off and calculate the mileage correctly:

MPG=(miles traveled)/(fuel used)

You must always fill the tank to use this method.

To where has the OP disappeared?

 

I have a 03 5 Speed 4 Cylinder Coupe. I have been averaging 24-28 mpg. I get closer to the 24 mpg when its been below 32 degrees and I let my car run in the mornings, or anytime I leave for 15 minutes (on average an extra 1.5hours idle time a week). I do litterly half highway and half city driving. And I'm no light foot. I usually shift around 3000-3500rpm so it's not like I'm babying it to get awesome MPG or anything. Check your oil, oil filter, fuel filter, fuel strainer, air filter, and have your tires inflated to around 32-35psi and you should get reasonable gas millage.

 

/thread. The OP hasn't even came back and posted anything new.