ant3821

i got my car at the end of january and have 4700 miles on it. I am only getting 17.6 mpg and i dont know why. Is it because i use 87 gas or is it becuase of alot of city driving i do? How can i make it better?

nj2pa2nc

more likely it is the city driving your are doing. Try taking it on a drive on a highway and see what you get. Alot of others will blame it on the gas but I average 32-35 MPG on my 06 6MT tsx using 87 octane gas. My car has almost 54,000 trouble-free miles with enough power and performance. But than again I am a conservative driver-no over-reving or racing 4 me.

visuelz

I can understand why you would want to buy 87 but why would do you do that to your TSX? Minimum octane 91 is recommended for our car. Any less will decrease performance. You're not using your engine the right way. Why not get a USDM Accord? It's cheaper and your car will go faster and you get to use 87 gas.

acn684

its both, the lower octane causes your engine to retard the knock timing so that the fuel will ignite properly. By doing so, you decrease the performance of your car, hence requiring you to push the car harder to maintain the same speed/acceleration compared to when the engine is running normally under 91/93 fuel.

City MPG generally tends to be low as well, however, from my experience 17 is quite low. Living in queens and traveling around city blocks a good number of times, my mpg with brisk acceleration a few times still gives me 22 mpg. If you really wanted to see if there's something wrong, try driving on a flat highway w/o traffic. set car to 55 mph and cruise control it. Then reset your MPG A value. Drive for about 5 miles and see what you average. A stock TSX can easily average 33+ MPG at these speeds under cruise.

Do you have any mods to your car? Perhaps carrying a heavy sub or aftermarket wheels/tires? they make a big difference sometimes, especially moreso when you're accelerating.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

Is that 4700 original miles? I wonder if your engine is broken-in properly. How did you break-in the engine?

ant3821

yea there original. What do you mean break-in? What should i do?

JTso

iTrader: (2)

Here is a link with some break-in info. https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43322

Btw, i would at least use higher octane fuel during the break-in period as you do need to apply some load to the engine. Most people experienced better mpg and less oil consumption after the break-in.

itsme27

What is your driving style, are you going to vtech every time you accelerate? do you break hard? are you just doing city driving?

I would assume that you are vteching every time you accelerate, that is why you are getting such a low mpg, with addition to the use of the 87 octane gas.

Are you constantly idling?

zguy95135

The car is pretty sensitive to how you drive it, I have to be conscious of trying to get good gas mileage if I want to get over 26mpg average (60 street/40 highway). City driving definitely kills your mileage a lot, just ease up and don't jackrabbit off the light and coast when you can.

EuRTSX

For the first year and a half, my MPG stayed 17-18MPG, and then after I hit about 15k miles, it raised to 20, now after two years, and 26000 miles on the odo, I do good 23-24 MPG on city driving.

davidspalding

Well, first off,... . There are break-in instructions in there. Too late, now, but not really, you can still treat it right (according to the manual).

I would start using 91 or 93 octane fuel, top tier fuel. See how that effects your mileage. Also, compute your miles by ODO difference divided by gallons at fill-up, not the MID (which can be 1-2 MPG off). See the mileage threads for more info.

I'm with Itsme27, don't do a lot of sitting and idling, that will also impact your MPG.

Ruserious

iTrader: (2)

Same here...

I was getting 24-25mpg city then I took it to the dealer to service it and soon after it dropped and now im only getting 14-15mpg city.. Wat the? I use 93 and I dont drive hard...

ATsxMan8305

Simple - b/c you live in White Plains. Try using cruise on the hwy.

odannyboi

Its probably your driving mixed in with your 87 octane and city driving.

Learn to coast and dont skimp on premium gas.

1Louder

I agree about the gas - first thing is use what the car needs so your engine works efficiently.

City driving is hard on MPG. However driving style is the #1 difference you can make in MPG. I'd turn on the real-time MPG meter on the MID (assuming you have an 06+) - this will help you train your right foot. You can accellerate just as well at 20 MPG as you can at 10. You can hold speed (on a flat road) on the 40 or even the 60. Because there is a very small difference in car performance, the MPG display will really help train your foot to use the least amount of gas to get the job done. On the whole, accellerate slowly. Maintain constant speed when you can, and coast to stops a longer ways out from a stop. If you have a manual, shift at lower RPMs rather than rev the engine high. Jack-rabbit starts and hard stops kill MPG.

Other tips: make sure the tires are at the right pressure. If the car is new the alignment should be fine, but that's another culprit. Neither will do the kind of harm you're talking about however.

ant3821

LOL, that's what i am thinking. today i went to fill up and put in 89, they didn't have 91 but had 93. Im gunna put 93 in next time and see what happens.

acn684

91 or above is good, yes get 93 next time if you can.

Mokos23

93

davidspalding

Um ... why 93 over 91, guys? whats the rationale?

JTso

iTrader: (2)

The octane rating for premium is different depending on locations. We have 92 in WA but other areas may have 91 or 93.

davidspalding

I know. I've never heard of a region having 91 AND 93. I probably misunderstood.

odannyboi

In illinois premium is 93.. but at some citgos in chicago, you have the option of 87, 88, 89, 91, or 93 (at around 5 cents apart from each other). Weird, huh?

getelevated

I would guess your mileage is down for city driving and the lower octane. Try a tank of 9x (whatever premium is in your area) and see what you get. You could also use the old pen and paper method with a tank and calculate it out to be sure that you're computer isn't calculating wrong (unlikely but possible).

litesout

There's a FEW stations here in Florida that I've run across that have 91 and 93. For the most part, 93 is the norm for premium and ergo the only gas my TSX ever sees. I do often wonder if I would get better mileage if 91 was available though. My old (1982) Accord was very picky when it came to gas. It called for 87, but it ran like crap on it. The idle was rough and acceleration left a lot to be desired. It ran great on 89 and 93, but consistantly got better mileage when I ran the 89. And I had over a year's worth of gas receipts to prove it.

1Louder

One more thing you want to check - fuel with 10% ethanol will hit you for about minus 1-2 MPG. Some states use E10 exclusively or exclusively during certain seasons, others you may have a choice.

losothefatso

Ooo another person from WA .
I get horrible gas miles in the city too I average like 18-19. But on the freeway I get decent 23-24.
Probably pressing on the gas too hard.

northbridge

i dont know what happens under the hood of a car at all so this may be irrelevant... but here goes.

I used to get like 15.6 - 16.4 as my average mileage when i first picked up my certified 05AT tsx. Needless to say i was not happy. I brought it to Miami Acura and they told me it was normal which made me even more angry. Since i had no luck with the dealer i tried to use those fuel system cleaners and my mpg improved 1-2 mpg.

I was due for an oil change a while ago. Miami Acura quoted me a ridiculous price for an oil change because they said i needed to have the whole fuel system flushed or else the oil wouldn't last another 3000 miles. I declined. I took the tsx to jiffy lube and got it changed with Pennzoil Platinum Synthetic. After the oil change i am getting 26 - 27 mpg average.

Does this even make sense? Maybe its worth looking into for the thread starter?

LukeaTron

For an oil change to make that huge of difference, your oil must have been way overfilled. If it's filled too high the crank will will have to slosh through the oil constantly. This puts a considerable amount of drag on the engine.

davidspalding

OMGWTF....

odannyboi

wow... thats horrible...

mixed city highway (about 40% stop and go, 60% pure highway) i get about 29mpg a week... including some brutal stop and go traffic on the highway.

I coast alot... I am one of those guys who has 4 cars lengths ahead of him.

Use Shell V-power... you'll notice a huge difference.

northbridge

yeah.. thats what i was thinking. I'm glad its fixed now though.

club_euro2

City Driving is the culprit.
I have a 08 with 72xx miles auto that i leased in August last year. I use BP Premium Gas. After the first oil change mileage should improve.

Mokos23

i've never seen 88 or 91 gas in IL.

spoiledkari

When I had my Celica...it took 91 octane. The service manager at Toyota told me that I should be buying 93 octane to be 100% sure that I was getting at least 91 octane. He said that since there is sometimes water in the gas at the stations, you'll want to buy the next higher octane than what is recommended for your vehicle to ensure that you are getting what the engine needs. So...I always use 93 to make sure that I'm getting at least 91.

Just thought I'd share. Not sure if it's relevant or not though.

LukeaTron

Er, the octane makes zero difference about any water that might be in the gas. That makes no sense at all.

spoiledkari

How do you figure?? The more water in the gas...the less actual gas you're getting per gallon. So...yes...it does matter!

If I mix 2 oz of water in with 10 oz of Coke...I'm technically getting 12 ozs in my glass but only 10 ozs of it is Coke. It's diluted. Same concept with gas. It gets diluted and you get less per gallon.

Either way...I always try to buy 93 to make sure that I'm at least getting the recommended 91 octane. Take it for what it's worth...but I think I'll take the advice of a service advisor.

wstagner@yahoo.com

The Murphy Oil stations outside some WaltMart superstores sell either 91 or 93 octane. Varies by station. The Plano IL station always has 91. The Oswego, IL station always has 93.

Murphy Oil is always 10 cents/gal, or more, cheaper than the "big" boys.

losothefatso

Wow the best I ever got was 27.5mpg and that was like over 45 mins on the freeway.
I drive an AT, the thing is I don't really drive fast non of that jack rabbit starts and my rpm never exceeds over 4.5k

Ruserious

iTrader: (2)

I'm getting 14.5 now!! It just DROPS.. WTF... Im not driving hard...

odannyboi

I drive an AT too.... but alot of time I wont go over 3K RPM... however once in a while I get the urge and just floor it.

I am a nut when it comes to watching the MID... I try to keep that instant mpg bar full.

BTW: I just did a 45 mile trip with about 85% highway... the reading said over 38 mpg. If it were near 95% highway, it would probably have been near 40. I guess my car was blessed (the OP's TSX was probably built on a friday).