I came across another forum recently, that discussed mods people have done in an effort to increase their MPG. Gas prices in So Cal are about $4.80 for Super Unleaded. I thought I'd put some of the techniques to the test on my 2006 TSX (6 speed MT), to see what kind of MPG's I could squeeze out. Here is some background:

* I commute 50 miles each way to work, so roughly 100 miles per day
* My commute is 85% Highway / 15% City
* There is a a steep hill either way (2-3 miles)
* I have K&N CAI, DC Headers, Tanabe Exhaust, & Hondata reflash
* I typically get ~28 MPG

I started off the day with a full fill-up, and reset the trip computer. On my way into work, my MID indicated 42.5MPG. When I returned home, my overall MPG declined slightly to 39.5 MPG. Not too bad over 109 miles of driving

The techniques I used were:
* Very conservative acceleration
* Steady/constant throttle position (no cruise control)
* Coasting in neutral (when safe)
* Starting the car only when ready go
* Shutting the motor off immediately when parked
* No A/C (just cracked the windows)
* Cruising at a highway speed between 60-70 mph

I probably will only do this until I exhaust this tank. Hopefully I will make it to the 500 mile club! I'm not sure the savings are worth the trade-off (mainly time), but am determined to finish this experiment. I'll report back on Monday since my TSX probably won't be driven this weekend.

 

That's good stuff, thanks for the tips and the results. I, too, have backed off my driving habits as premium locally has gone above $4/gal. Mostly gentler acceleration and 70-75 mph on my mostly-highway commute. I have read that coasting in gear uses less gas than in neutral, because the manifold vacuum causes less fuel to be injected than just idling. (Read it in Sport Compact Car a couple months ago.)

I have averaged more like 32-33 mpg in mixed driving (75% hwy). You've given me a target to shoot for, though. I have intake, header, cat, pulleys, and reflash.

 

These are great techniques to use all the time. I learned a lot of those on my former car (Civic Hybrid). Normally you'd want to keep your speed right at the limit (wind resistance becomes your biggest problem at 40 MPH+), but the TSX seems to be VERY aerodynamic and highter speeds don't seem to affect it as much. Also, you may want to reconsider that A/C if it's really hot out - I've noticed the TSX also seems to be very immune to A/C hurting MPG. In fact, my best mileage is during the summer when I'm running the A/C. No sense in suffering too much if you don't have to.

I'll also turn of the engine if I'm at a light or in a drive-through where I know I'll be idling more than a minute.

 

also summer mileage are always higher because of ecu compensating for thinner air due to higher temp, and mostly because of the summer blend gas(has less ethanol content than winter blend)

 

Quick update. I still haven't driven my car since Friday, and will resume the experiment on Monday. I did an additional mod this afternoon. I bumped up my (cold) tire pressure up to 38lbs. We'll see if the lower rolling resistance contributes to improved efficiencies.

 

Well...not much more to report on yet. I managed to increase overall MPG to 39.9 according to the MID. I have logged 235 miles, with 2/3 tank left. I am quite confident I can get to 500 miles if I keep this up.

Ride quality is a bit firmer with the increase tire pressure. I also noticed that my terminal velocity has increased slightly, and can get the car to roll between 85-90 mph on a portion of my commute with a steep downgrade, where this was previously 80-85 mph.

Unless something miraculous happens, I probably won't post until I fill up at the pump and measure the true MPG.

While it is somewhat exciting to see how driving style can greatly increase the efficiency of the TSX, it is quite boring of a drive. At times, I actually find it more stressful to drive slow than fast, since few people drive at the posted speed limit.

Until my next post...

 

Have you done any truck drafting?

 

All very good techniques.. I've also been Hypermiling my last 2 tanks... my driving is approx 85% Highway 15% local as well.

to add to the techniques used by the OP

1. I removed my spare tire, along with the jack/tools (I only do this if I am going to be traveling locally.. i.e to and from work) - Replaced with a Can of Fix-a-Flat. I was surprised how heavy all this stuff was...

2. If I am coming up on a red light. I'll bake first and coast up to the red light - attempting to time it so that my car does not come to a full stop. Even if the car is just rolling along at 3 - 5 mph.. it will still be better off than starting from a full stop.

3. Shut the car off as I am pulling into a parking spot, letting the momentum carry me into the spot (if possible pull through a parking spot so you dont' have to back up to exit later on). - I used to pull in.. close all windows... pull up Hand Brake.. then shut car off. now it's the exact opposite - every bit helps.

4. Drafting trucks / Large SUVs - I had more opportunities to do his on my first tank. I was never closer than 2 car lengths to the vehicle in front. usually 3.5 car lengths away. this still helps.

5. as mentioned before.. minimize Idling!!! Idling basically means you are burning gas and getting 0mpg!


anyways... I will be posting results and pics to the 500 mile club cuz I got there by using these techniques!!

Results:
my first tank:
Half way mark - 257 Miles
Fillup - 503 Miles (WOOHOO!! I got to 500!!) - 13 Gallons. --- 38.7 Mpg. (I have an 04 w/o Nav.. so these are hand calcs)

I still had room to spare, as you can see I only filled up 13 gallons - I had to fill up because I was about to depart on a road trip - I probably could have gotten another 30 - 50 more miles easily.

Tank 2:
Fillup @ 390 Miles, 10.2 Gals---- 38.2 Mpg - I was in Jersey so I couldn't pass up the cheap gas

Current Tank:
I'm right at the half way mark.. and I have about 252 Miles on the odo.


so these techniques do work.. all you really have to do is pay more attention to how you drive.. think logically..

after I've started paying more attention to my driving style.. I look around and realize how inefficient other drivers are! - accel suddenly only to brake sharply 50 feet down the road to make a turn...

oh by the way.. before I started these techniques.. I usually avg around 31mpg.

sorry for the long read.. but if we all drive a bit more efficiently think of how much gas we'd save

 

Not really. However, I am usually not too far behind one since no one else seems to drive at or below the speed limit. I don't think the risk is worth the reward to get too close to trucks. Safety First!

 

This article blasts people doing hypermiling stuff. Surprisingly no mention of drafting off trucks, which is really really bad and dangerous.

 

There are certain things that I agree with this hypermiling. Some i do not. Like cutting off the engine while the car is moving and truck drafting. I will start experimenting with this more since I am only getting around 26 mpg due to all the city driving that i am doing.

Things I will try to change:

- Gently Accelerate (that is going to the hardest to change)

- coasting wherever possible

- limiting idling to less than a min.

- using the transmission to break down hill as opposed to the brakes.

- keeping distance between cars, so i can read traffic to increase coasting

thats all i can think off.

Gas prices are only going to keep going up so the people that care might as well start changing your driving style now, if you haven't done it already

 

FOX137, manual or auto?

 

hey guys i got a 06 RL so im not sure if your MID has the inst. mpg display and i use that to determine how i drive and going along with it im getting about 25mpg on the highway on a 28 mile commute to work and about 23 miles is str8 hwy

 

I like this thread. While I believe in maximizing my fuel economy through my driving habits, I refuse to go to the annoying and often dangerous extremes that the most fanatical hypermilers practice and promote. Drafting (tailgating) is a selfish practice that endangers the hypermiling driver but more importantly
endangers the occupants of the vehicles that are sharing the road. Tailgating is white knuckle behavior that will raise your blood pressure. Driving is better and more enjoyable when you can relax.
I also do not believe in driving below the speed limit, at least not on busy roads. I do not want to be passed by motorhomes and semis. I would be constantly replacing windshields. Even driving right at the limit brings on other annoying scenarios, such as idiots passing you while trying not to exceed the speed limit themselves, therefore creating a rolling roadblock as they take 5 miles to pass you. Now you have a whole convoy of pissed off drivers flying past you, many blaming you for the delay.
Instead, I start off by driving a well engineered manual transmission car like my TSX. I drive from 5 to 10 km above the posted speed limit and utilize the cruise control. At these speeds I'm not constantly having to pass slower traffic and I'm not being passed by big trucks. I find it very relaxing. And I use my air conditioning. I paid for a luxury car and I'm not prepared to compromise my comfort to save a few pennies a trip. My biggest saving comes from combining my errands into one trip, thus leaving the car in the garage more often.

 

I got 5.9 L/100km recently which is about 40mpg on a highway trip of 300km. I have basically the same Mods except mines an Aussie Honda Euro and a manual.

That being said if im going a bit hard i use 10L/100km which is 23mpg in the city.

The mods have improved my consumption a fair bit. Makes the case for a diesel hardly compelling.

 

My question: Does turning your car on/off at stop lights, etc cause unecessary stress on your starter (meaning it will need to be replaced sooner) and uses more power on your battery (due to the constant cranking)?

 

^most likely, so the mileage gained equals saved money but you may end up pay for a starter sooner. no one has tested how long it takes for the starter to go out, one should only turn off the car when you know youll be idling for more than 30 seconds, or when going down a hill. make sure to keep the key in the "on" position to log mile sin your MID and keep the power steering, brake booster ETC.

has anyone experimented on making a throttle limiter? or something that would make the accelerator a bit harder to press? thats my biggest issue, the TL's accelerator is so easy to press that im at half throttle before i notice

 

6 speed



on the drafting.. you don't have to be right up someone's behind to gain benefits... if you are driving behind a full sized SUV at a very safe 3 car lengths away.. you are still gaining some of the benefits of drafting.

 

According to the mythbuster episode.. even if you are 100ft back behind the big rig.. you are still getting a 11% improvement.

100ft = over 6 car lenghts back (based on the length of a full sized car .. such as the RL which is 16 ft in lenght)

Also, i'm not driving below or even at the speed limit to achieve my results i'm avg about 74mph on the highway.

Nor am I shutting my car off to coast or anything crazy.. I do value my life... (:

 

Are you running on OEM tires? I've found that tires' rolling resistance can make a significant difference on the TSX (~3 mpg).

 

Goodyear Eagle F1-GS-D3 (225/40/18), wrapped around Mugen NR's.

 

As of Thursday, I can say I officially qualify for the '500 Club!' I am still averaging 40 mpg's according to the MID, and have logged 508 miles on this tank. I have about a quarter tank left, and think I may be able to stretch to 600 miles. I'll keep you all posted.

 

I've been driving this way for years. Frankly, other than the gas benefits, it's just more relaxing. There's no freaking reason to go full speed into a red light...it's not like you're going to make the light change any sooner. I always thought it was funny how people just speed up to a red and slam on their brakes. So many people in a hurry...

 

Where did the term "hypermilling" come from anyways?

 

The former Miss Pennsylviania 2005's quickie interview with the AAA spokesman raised some important points. There are safe things you can do to enhance or maintain good mileage, and there are risky, extreme tricks which put the driver and other motorists at risk.

I, too, have been driving like this for years. It was easy in a 17-21 MPG Jeep Wrangler (normally aspirated), which couldn't compete with sport sedans, but definitely rewarded me for conservative coasting and modest acceleration habits.

Drafting is one that really bothers me. Here in the RTP Triangle area, I often have people creep up on my butt while talking on phones or eating yogurt ... I make a point of getting out of their way, which sometimes lowers my mileage (have to decelerate then regain the speed on a later downhill). Tailgating is dangerous as well as annoying. I make a point of trying to keep a 4 second or greater following distance. Alas, a lot of inexperienced drivers see that big gap and apparently think I'm "holding them up" (even though I'm keeping the same speed as the car I'm behind) ... and pull around and in front of me, sometimes even slow me down once they're there.

I've taken to driving 60 in a 65 MPH zone, in the slow lanes of course, on weekdays. Hectic commute-time drivers can battle it out in the left lanes all they want, I suspect I'm getting 5 MPG better on the highway during those drives. There are penalties. Last Thursday, 4 days after washing the car, a dump truck (they're all over I-40) passed me, pulled in front with < 75' distance (some have signs cautioning to keep back 200'), and showered me with dirt flying off its payload. No paint chipped, thank $DEITY, but a symphony of dirt specks and clods all over my front and windshield. Had to wash again on the way home, $10 at the brushless car wash (since we're prohibited from home car washing at present).

All the coasting and slow acceleration behavior helps, and I use that as an incentive to use my high RPMs once in a while for fun or to get ahead of numbskulls. If I keep it to a minimum, I shouldn't see 25 MPG averages for a while. I WOULD NOT recommend anyone kill their motor while they're in the roadway, or coasting to a stop, as this also robs you of power-assist steering and power-assist braking. Okay, I hear you, coasting to a stop in a parking space seems innocent enough, but you're going to feel silly gouging your front lip on a parking lot hump all just to save $2 at the next fill-up. I think killing your motor within 10 seconds of completely stopping is sufficient.

 

Jeez man, 508 and still going strong? Good job, you're an inspiration to us all!!

If I commuted all-freeway I'd give this a go too but I mostly do a 6-mile drop the daughter off at school then go to work routine. Soon her school will be really close, at which point I'll start riding my bike to work all the time. Nothing pushes gas tank refills farther into the future than not driving it at all...

Just have to ask, do you code perl? If so...
Yeah I've got some time to kill while my daughter is napping...

 

Haha, I work at RHT, and since we're an international audience on internal list-serv's, that variable gets used a lot.

 

SWEET!!! I've used Linux since '95 - I love it!

Ok, sorry, back to the topic... How's the mileage coming along etarui?!?

 

I believe it was a term coined by hybrid owners to describe folks who were taking fuel economy to extreme lengths. When I ran in hybrid-owner circles, a true hypermiler was someone who got consistently higher than EPA mileage, which for a hybrid meant 50-60 MPG depending on which one. People hypermiling an Insight would get 70 MPG sometimes.

The dangerous stuff is clearly a bad idea. Drafting and shutting off your engine while moving is just stupid. Before I learned better I tried shutting off the engine of my Civic Hybrid at the top of a hill to coast down it, only to learn towards the bottom that once the brakes ran out of vacuum (2-3 seconds of pressure) they were useless. One of the top 3 most frightening moments I've had in a car (since there was a sharp turn at the bottom). Never did it again. + 0.5 MPG is not even close to worth it. Keep perspective on these techniques - risking you and others over all this stuff might save you the cost of a cup of coffee per tank. Drink less coffee to save money, spend the gas on driving safe.

Anyway, these extreme techniques are all noise when it comes to overall benefit (I've tried all of these and tracked the change for years). It's really simple: watch your speed, accellerate slowly, maintain constant speeds when possible, coast when you can (with the engine on), keep you car tuned up, tires inflated, alignment straight. 90% of the total benefit comes from that list. The rest is just a distraction to your main job of driving.

LRR (low rolling resistance) tires can help, but they are also hard and noisy (hence, the low rolling resistance). Pick your poison on that one.

 

Okay guys and gals...my test finally was completed today! I finally exhausted my tank of gas, and managed to achieve a whopping 595.5 miles. I could have easily crossed the 600 mile mark, but decided to fill up at a Costco gas station that was, yup...you guessed it, 4 miles closer away than my house. I figured since this was a test of frugality, I might as well fill up at the cheapest station I could. Here are the stats and pictures I took (sorry...camera phone pix):

Miles: 595.5
Gallons consumed: 15.514
MPG: 38.38
MID MPG: 40.0
Delta: 4% Optimistic

Tank guage on empty:


Miles Driven:


Pump Picture:


It was fun driving away, and dipping into the V-TEC again! I'll probably end up driving normal again, but taking advantage of some of the techniques I picked along the way (e.g. coasting when safe). Hope this was helpful in displaying the efficiency potential of our TSX's.

Cheers!

 

WOW! just WOW! You even beat my 580 mile record! sorry I posted before reading this thread.

Hats off to you man.

 

Wow - nicely done! This was the reason I didn't bother with the Accord Hybrid - the TSX is just as good if not better when driven correctly.

 

The Accord Hybrid got TERRIBLE reviews. I think the long term test model from Edmunds.com had some pretty laughable editor blog entries. Like ... "now I know why the Accord is always available for me to check out on the weekend ... everyone hates it," and "the engine has a habit of cutting on and off during parallel parking, causing the car to lurch, something you really don't want happening when parallel parking in tight, San Francisco spaces." For only 1 MPG advantage over the I4, with the supposed git-up-an'-go of the V6, the $3000 premium was unanimously derided in the reviews I read. It was one of the first things X'ed off my list when I went shopping/researching last year.

My TSX has its first birthday (in my ownership) next week.

Wow, OP, all I can say is wow. You're inspiring me to try to improve on the mileage I get (average of 28.5 according to my fueleconomy.gov chart).

 

Nice job etarui.

 

Great job etarui!!

I heard that too, but the details you provide really bring home how crappy the car was, which is too bad, a missed opportunity.

I also heard that the Civic Hybrid (let me know if this is true, 1Louder, since I think you owned one) can't pull off the line in all-electric mode. This seems to defeat the point of a hybrid, since gas motors are most inefficient when they're moving in wide bands across the rev range. If this is the case I really don't see why Honda made it like that.

In the end though it would be nice to have an electric/gas mix, it makes it much easier to get mileage like this in stop-and-go situations.

 

Yes - I owned an 03 Civic Hybrid for 4 years. An important distinction to make is that Toyota (Prius) and Honda (Insight, Civic, Accord) use two fundamentally different approaches to implementing a hybrid. The Prius was designed for a pure electric mode that switched over to engine only mode at a certain speed. The Honda products were designed for the engine to run all the time, and the elecric motor supplements it at all speeds (mostly under accelleration). Very different designs. As a result, the Prius was generally better for city / stop-and-go situations because it would run on all-electric at low speeds. However the Honda products were generally more successful on the highway, because (at least in the Civic and Insight) the engines were smaller and used less gas to sustain speeds. In my Civic, with a 75/25 highway to city mix, I got a lifetime 46 MPG and milked it a few times for 50+.

I drove an Accord Hybrid, but to me by mating it to a V6 (as opposed to the I4) all they were doing is making an electronic turbo-charger, not using it for better fuel efficiency. It would have been a wildly more successful concept had they used the smaller engine. But, I've been told, that for some reason the orientation of the I4 engine didn't leave enough room for the electric motor so they had to use the V6.

I've always thought a TSX Hybrid would be a smoking car. More low-end torque if you want, and I bet you'd see 40 MPG easily out of it driven properly.

 

^^ Thanks for your insights, interesting stuff.
+10 maybe make it diesel too.

 

I know this is way OT, but I thought I read the diesel Accord was supposed to be available in the states in 09 (at around 40-50 MPG). How about a diesel hybrid TSX. They'd probably build it and only sell in Europe.