Does anyone know how much gas (in gallons) remains in the tank when the Low Fuel Indicator light first comes on ?
I am trying to verify our mileage.......seems to be sucking gas... automatic SOHC DY16Y8.
Thanks

 

I also have a '97 EX. I believe it'll come on when there's about a gallon left. DON'T quote me on it, though, but that's what my gut feeling tells me. I think I read it somewhere. But anyway, what's your MPG? Stock, I was getting about 30-35mpg in mixed city/freeway driving, and it's still the same at 71000 miles with IHE. This is with a 5-speed, so perhaps yours might be slightly lower with only four gears. (I just recently filled up at 10.7 gallons after 339.0 miles of driving, which is 31.7mpg. )

 

...Getting about 18 mpg in town. The auto-trans (4 spd not CVT) seems to shift smoothly with no bucking or kicking in up or down shifting. It's a D16Y8 with about 76k miles. My 'Lead Foot' daughter does most of the driving. The Air Cond is on some of the time (it is summer) and it is mostly short in-town trips but I would expect more like 24+ mpg.....in town. The car runs great. New plugs, Dist. cap and rotor etc. I have read alot of complaints about auto-trans. Could it be one or more sensors or other transmission components going bad....causing poor mpg ?
Thx

 

18mpg is definitely NOT Civic territory, and you're absolutely correct in assuming that you should get more miles per gallon than that. Even with an automatic transmission equipped on a fuel-sipping Honda in the city, you should be seeing around 24-25mpg. (I get around 26mpg in straight city driving.) Hell, my mom's '00 V6 Accord gets 18mpg; a Civic should fair better than that. I doubt it's due to tranny problems. Seeing as how you've already replaced most of the "normal" engine things, it could be due to a bad sensor that's allowing your engine to run overly rich, which would definitely hurt fuel consumption. But if this is the case, you mostly likely would notice a bright orange light in the gauge cluster (the CEL). Another possibility is a stuck fuel injector or stuck fuel injectors. Or a bad (or clogged) catalytic converter. Also, when was the last tune-up that involved adjusting the valves, checking the timing, etc.?

 

coming back to the original topic, in the HONDA service manual for 96-00 civics, it says that the low fuel light indicator comes on when there is 1.1 gal of fuel left, hope that helps you.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Confucius37 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">coming back to the original topic, in the HONDA service manual for 96-00 civics, it says that the low fuel light indicator comes on when there is 1.1 gal of fuel left, hope that helps you.</TD></TR></TABLE>

ahh very good to know since I see it so often.