I have an 06 TSX with ~11k mi. i bought the car 'new' this past spring from a dealer; I'm the first owner but the car had ~2k mi. Not sure if this is relevant but providing anyway.

The fuel/distance range on the info display is never accurate. I've had the range hit 0 mi. and when I've filled the tank I've had up to 3 gallons remaining. (17.1 gal capacity - 14.1 filled = 3gal) The analog fuel gauge isn't on "E" but also isn't at the 1/6 mark where I would expect it. This is annoying.

More troubling is the mileage I drove between recommended oil changes. My last oil change was 6/11 at 5k miles. I drove quite a bit this summer, mostly on the highway. Relying only on my info display, I changed the oil on 9/18. Only then did I realize how many miles I drove in three months: a little more than 6,000!

Does anyone else experience this? I'm clearly wondering if I have a faulty computer, but want to hear from others before I go to the dealer and they tell me this is normal.

Thanks.

 

The fuel guage issue is common. It has been discussed that the gauge is on the conservative side. People have gotten 3 gallons once that stupid orange light comes on the dash.
I have no experience on the oil life because 1) have an 05 and 2) change my oil every 7500 miles

 

i own an 06 6spd/w nav tsx, bought new 11/17/06, with almost 25,000 miles. my 1st oil change the oil life showed 1,230 miles past due (aprox) 7,177 miles, 2nd oil change oil life was 1,962 miles past due 18,000+miles and 3rd oil change oil life was 5% 21,130 miles. the oil life on my car is at 30%.

 

The scoop on "oil life" is that it has nothing to do with actually measuring anything about the oil, but is based on how you drive.

Long trips, lower RPM driving = longer oil life.
Short trips, higher RPM driving = shorter oil life.

Cold starts in particular are believed to sap the reported oil life.

 

^^ rb1 is correct

and about the Fuel Range it's like that on purpose - can you imagine how many people would run out of gas if when it hit 0 you were actually empty and your car just stopped dead?

Plus it continually recalculates Range based on fuel consumption, avg fuel consumption, current fuel consumption etc, so when you notice it change quickly it could really screw you over if you're 30K from the next gas station and you start driving heavy footed and you now run out of gas...

i've gone (in a pinch i don't make a habit of it) about 40K past 0 and still had 3 litres of gas left in the car when I filled up...

 

All sounds normal (agreed; a little annoying and a little surprising). I knew from experience (the 05) that the low fuel warning light is way conservative. I went over 60 miles with it on in the 07 and still put in only a little over 14 gallons (this in a brand new car). The oil thing is what I have found surprising. The recommended oil change interval (Acura) for the 05 is 10K miles (dealers seem to want the change at 7500 or even 5K, gee, big mystery there)(I use full synthetic and have the dealer due the 10K mile services, but change just the oil in between at 5K miles myself in the 05). The 07's first service (A1) was called for at around 6K miles (all highway by the way). It's ready again (B1 service) at 12K miles (still all highway). Of course we can't know what variables the service computer uses to judge oil life (we can guess, but that's all). Evidently, even under the best of circumstances (all highway), 6K seems to be about it (for our 07 anyway).

 

Imagine if you have 0 gallons when the "stupid" orange light comes on!

 

In my Jetta, the manual said you had just over 1 gallon of gas (4 liters) if memory serves) when the low fuel light came on, and it was almost exactly right every time.

I'd prefer accuracy over pampering and would be more impressed if the MID were correct than if it deliberately displayed pessistic data to provide additional "protection" against running out of gas.

 

Well, your Jetta is accurate at 1 gallon, while the TSX is accurate at 3 gallons. I think design-wise, the TSX was set to have the fuel light come on so that you knew that you had 100 miles of range left (on the highway) or 60 miles in the city.

 

I recall my 1982 Accord hatchback, the (E) light would flicker and tease for about 20 miles or more, depending on angle-of-attack, braking, etc. Finally, when it was on solid, I found I had ... 60 miles left or so. When I picked up this car, I determined that it came on (and stayed on, I'm glad to say) about about 14 gallons expended, and the capacity is supposed to be 17.7 gallons. So, I can't complain ... except that I have to ack the MID warning so much. I fill up just to avoid that crap.

 

Hats off to Honda for having light come on with 3 gallons left. Who would want to know when 1 gallon is left - suck up all kinds of crud from bottom of tank. At least with 3 gallons left you have plenty of notice before tank crud becomes a factor.

 

my change oil light comes on at about 3000 miles sometimes less

 

You also have to keep in mind that if you live in a mountain-area, 1 gallon in the tank might stall the engine when you're on an incline. Just imagine the fuel level going up and down while you're in the mountain. By having it at 3 gallons, you have a chance of getting out of the mountains and reaching a gas station.

I remember 1 night, our '04 honda odyssey fuel light turned on in LA. It was bumper to bumper traffic, and top speed was maybe 20 mph all the way to the valley (25 mph commute). It took about 2 hours (snow on the freeway in burbank; lightning was lighting up the sky from the driver's window...across the windshield....and to the passenger's window...at the same time). Anyway, I didn't bother to get gas (I said to myself...either I'll make it or I'll run out of gas...I don't feel like getting off to look for a gas station). lo and behold, I made it home lol

 

i have 28000 miles on my 06 an i have changed my oil 9 times

 

Whoa! Thats only 3000 miles every oil change. If I remember correctly, the owners manual recommends every 10000 miles. I use synthetic and go 7500 miles, never thought it would be an issue until today.
And I too would rather the gauge be accurate rather than conservative. In every other vehicle, the light means * GET GAS IMMEDIATELY * In the TSX it means just relax you could travel across the state. Of course, I hate the light so I put gas just so I dont have to see it.

 

i guess you do not go by the oil life indicator-i used to do the every 3,000 mile oil change until i found it was not necessary. i had only 3 oil changes on my 06 with almost 25,000 miles (10 months old,bought new)

 

I'm another person who likes the fuel low indicator to come on early. Gives me time to choose the gas station I want depending on where I am.

 

I definately vote for a customization, does anybody know how to override or customize this feature? Some people love it, but I drive so much that I can't rely on it at all. Id rather just turn it off.

My low fuel light is on about 50% of the time because of this hard coded limit. I have to rely on the fillup auto-resetting trip meter, (very nice feature thanks to Acura) without which, I would just rely on the day of the week to get gas.

I've owned my '07 tsx about 5500 miles now. I get 500+ miles to a tankful, the light comes on about 300+ miles. 200 miles is overkill (4/10 of a tank still left) with gas stations every exit, corner and grocery store in my area. I drive almost 100 miles a day roundtrip commute to work. (Baltimore to northern VA). I fill up on Sunday night, the low fuel light comes on Thursday morning. I drive all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday over 200+ miles with the fuel light on, and then fill up on Sunday night again. So literaly I drive with my fuel light on 4 days a week, that's not very useful to me. I tried obeying the low fuel indicator and it wants you to fill up at the 12 gallon mark.

Honestly I guess this is why Acura added the auto-reset trip meter when you fill up, but still, low fuel should mean you need to start looking for a gas station, not wait 4 days and 200 miles then get gas. I don't live in Arizona or Nevada 1 gas station every 100 miles! I can drive less than 1 mile and pass 10 gas stations here in Baltimore/ North VA area.

As for Oil life, I haven't had to change it yet, but is there a way to set if for the 15,000 mile synthetic oils? The Minder appears set for the older 7,500 synthetics. I don't care if I have to do a dvd hex edit like the nav hack, because it would be worth it to have an accurate car.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I appreciate it.

My last car (1993 Honda Accord) had a fuel warning light that flickered and eventually went steady, like those mentioned above. When steady I knew I had two gallons of fuel. I had the car for 14 years and never ran out of fuel, often tempting fate but always eluding her. It was precise.

I don't mind if the fuel light in the gauge goes on at 3 gallons, but I'm surprised and disappointed that the engineers would allow the fuel range calculation in the info display to be so far off. If I have 3 gallons of fuel and it is telling me my range is 0 miles, it could be off by nearly 100 miles!

I want the thing to be accurate. After all, the car's make is Acura.

I don't like that they're engineering for morons/the lowest common denominator nor do I see that the computer constantly calculates fuel range based on recent driving -- if it did it would be accurate.

I guess I can be thankful that Acura didn't engineer my clock to be 10 minutes fast so I would never be late.

 

Where are you buying your gas?

 

The reason the fuel light comes on is a marketing/imaging solution. I mean, when you see a car pulled to the shoulder, you usually think "must've broken down." They don't want people to have 1 gallon of gas left when it reads empty and have them stuck in traffic or driving too long to find gas, only to end up running out of fuel and pulling over on the road. Although thd driver knows that the car just ran out of gas, people driving by might think "oh look, another acura/honda is on the shoulder, their engine must've died or something." which would give them poor quality images, when in reality its just the stupidity of the driver.

 

I'm not so worried about the accuracy of the light as I am the range indication, which can read 0 even when you could easily drive 50 or more miles in some situations.

 

Sorry, mine doesn't have the range indication.

But, having it say 0 while you can easily drive 50 more mile is better than it saying 50 and you actually having almost zero range left.

 

Turns out the TSX isn't even really all that accurate in this regard.

My low fuel light came on today, and after driving 5 more interstate miles, I put 13.5 gallons in with a careful top off. Without topping off, it stopped at about 13.2, or almost 4 gallons shy of capacity. With the top-off, it was still 3.6 gallons short.

At the mileage I got on that tank (27, mixed city/hwy, actual not MID), that's almost 100 miles of driving. On the highway, I've routinely gotten 33-34 mpg, so that's 120 miles or so to empty when the light comes on.

 

This is definitely true, and obviously it needs to be at least slightly pessimistic - maybe 1 gallon's worth.

 

It depends on the gas station that you use as well. Some have very sensitive cutoffs that don't let you top it up to the end. I've used pumps that cut off early and even when I try to top-off, I can't fill it till a little "flooding" occurs at the hole, while others have filled non-stop till a little fuel spurted out onto the floor before cutting off.

 

I don't mind the light coming on a little early. I can live with an early warning light. No big deal.

But the fuel range indicator drives me crazy! How can you say I have 0 miles left when clearly the car is driving? When my light goes on, the fuel range indicator usually says I only have 20 - 25 miles left until I run out of gas. It is way, way off. I filled the car up after it reached "0 miles to go" the other day and only filled about 14 gallons. I know it's an estimate and I don't expect it to be exact, but that's pretty bad. I just never look at it now. Except to drive my fiance crazy because he thinks I wait too long to get gas. Heh.

And the MPG is never right either. But it's at least close. I'll take it.