I've had my TL-S w/ 62K for about a month or so and I could tell right away that the gas guage liked to go down fast. I didn't have an official MPG until tonight when I finally filled up after the gas light came. 16.5 MPG was the all around town mileage I got. That's pretty bad, isn't it? Let me start by saying that the tires are properly inflated, air filter was recently replaced as was the cabin filters. Oil was changed same time filters were changed. No CELs whatsoever. I just threw in some Gumout in the tank with some 91 Chevron. Premium was used in my last tank.

I think the tires could be balanced and an alignment would be helpful, but I doubt that would take 4-5 MPG away from me.

So what do you guys think? I can't find a reason it would be getting such poor mileage. I'll probably wait another tank before I call the dealership.

 

it depends on your driving habits....how often are u in vtech ?

 

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that I drove like a grandma the whole tank just to see what kind of mileage I could get. Probably never got above 4K.

 

Its not good but not horrible either. Maybe seafoaming it would help.

 

I have a 2002 TL-S and I get the same exact mileage pretty much. The best I have gotten was like 17.5. I have tried everything short of replacing spark plugs but I really doubt it will make much difference. Replaced air filter with a K&N, always make sure tires are properly inflated, I have ran Chemtool and Techron through the tank a few times. But still same mileage pretty much, for a little bit I was averaging 14.5 . I have about 81,000 miles now next oil change I am going to swap the plugs and seafoam, I will let you know if that helps out any.

 

I have a 2003 TL-S, and I drive pretty aggessively, hitting VTEC often. I get no lower than 21-22 mpg per tank, even with my mods . I've gotten as high as 25mpg on long highway trips + a few miles of city driving.

 

19-20 MPG would have been acceptable to me, but 16.5 is not. I'm sure on the highway I wouldn't get any better than 22-23 or so.

Billy Sacco - Keep me updated!

 

i can get up to 30-31 all hwy. and i usually get reallly low 20's with mild spirited city driving starting the car frequently, but thats nyc area, traffic is a pain all stop and go. and like down to 16-17 with "drive it like you stole it" local driving. i have an 03 tl-s with 40k. i love the mileage on the long trips, even if your a little agressive, its stays easily in the very high 20's.

 

Wow - I got 28 on the highway with the cruise set at 80.

(02 TL-S that had an icebox & OBX headers at the time)

Now that I've put the stock manifolds back on I think my mileage has actually improved a little bit as well. I really don't miss the headers.

 

I drive hard and my car idles all day when its not being driven and i never get less than in the 20's I get in the 30's all hwy usually

 

so what do you guys all think? go another tank and then call up the dealer? i don't know what else to do.

 

there is no need to try another tank. Just talk to dealer. My average is 20, and highway is always good at 30.

 

Most likely the will tell you nothing is wrong. There are SO many ariables that could be contributing to your mileage.

 

yeah i can definitely hear them telling me nothing is wrong with the car. what if i had a clogged injector or egr? i guess i would have bad engine performance as well which i don't have. the car hauls ass! plus i'd probably be getting a CEL, right?

i wonder if that induction service they offer would do any good. i don't want to be throwing my money away.

 

If there is nothing wrong nothing will fix it. You can save your self alot of money and clean the injectors yourself if you want to try. Its as simple as putting the cleaner in your gast tank (just like the dealer would do) Try seafoaming the motor. Like i said, there are WAY To many variables that could be causing your mileage. Change the things that i lilsted before..

 

Do you make a lot of short trips so that the engine does not warm up properly? That can hurt milage. Also, do you just put it in D5 and leave it there or do you use the sport shift a lot?

 

Yeah, f1 is right. more likely they will tell you there is nothing wrong. YOu will have to observe everything closely, and see what is different and abnormal compare to before the problem with the mileage.

 

This mileage was just around town to and from work mostly. The car does get warmed up properly. It's probably 6 miles to and from work all city streets with plenty of stop and go. I just put it into D5 and leave it there.

f1-last night when I filled up I threw in the bottle of Gumout injector cleaner so we'll see what that does. I'm sure in the 4 years the first owner had the car they never did any fuel system maintenace. The paint never looked like it had been taken care of.

 

Most likely your mileage is due to the short trip and stop and go. Take it for a road trip down the hwy and calculate your mileage off that.

 

Yeah I was going to mention that earlier. I want to see what I get when I take my trip to Oregon next month.

 

A lot of stop and go driving can kill your mileage.

How you drive can be a huge factor.

And as mentioned above, there are many variables that can effect you mileage.

What octane gas are you running?

How are you making your MPG calculations? You really need to fill the tank competely and you have to run multiple tank loads or gas to get any sort of meaningful results.

Bob

 

I used 91 for the last tankful, however it still had about 3 gallons of 87 in there from my friend filling it up. So maybe it might bump it up a bit this tankful. As far as my calculations go, I just divide the miles on the odometer by the ammout of gallons it takes to fill it up.

 

I see that you ran 91 octane in your last tank. Are you always running premium fuel?

Acura cautions that running low octane fuels can damage TL engines.

Bob

 

I dunno man..that seems real low.. 16 mpg? damn..I consider low 20's bad mpg..and sometimes i occasionally floor it. I normally get 26ish. Going from bay area to LA, I got between high 30's to low 40's mpg.

 

Bob - I've had the car about a month and I have used a mix of 87 and 91. This will be my second tank of premium in a row. And I'll always use 91 from now on.

reloaded - there is no way you could get 40 and over MPG!?! I'd be happier than a pig in shit if I got 30.

 

That must be a downhill drive all the way. Or someone's filling your tank while you're not looking. ;-)

Bob

 

Low 30's yes, ive gotten those. Low 40s i dont think so

 

it probably was low 30's to mid 30's because i know for sure i got into the 30's. this is with 89 octane and going between 65-75 mph the whole way.

 

damn, wanna trade cars straight across?

 

Well maybe if you were doing hwy driving and not all city you would get those #s

 

We'll find out, but I kind of doubt I will. When I took a trip to San Jose it was all freeway and the gas guage was going down fast!

 

i drive in traffic often going to and from school 4 days a week about 15-20 miles each way + driving to work with traffic... i just filled up today did the avg im getting about 22.5 mpg ... 16 is incredibly low.... my stepmoms mdx avg's 17 mpg

 

im gonna have to search some, but i wanna try this seafoam shit. the best mileage ive ever gotten was low 20's. although i do alot of short trips to and from work and stop-n-go... san jose always has traffic.

but then again, even cruising on the freeway im always going 75-80mph.

 

I may end up using it if all else fails. Maybe we can do our cars at the same time Shane? I'm not that comfortable doing it myself.

 

neither am i, not to mention i have no idea what the fuck id be doing.

 

Just took a road trip to cali and got 26 miles a gallon. I am very pleased as this is probably the best I have gotten out of my car ever. I am still going to seafoam the car and change spark plugs to see if that helps at all with my city mileage. Anyone heard of Halo spark plugs? They are supposed to improve gas mileage so I was thinking of trying them. Would that just make the car way less powerful because the car was not designed for them?

 

I guess 26 is OK. I'd still like to get 29-30 all hwy. That is what I'm used to on my trips to Oregon when driving my old Accord 4 banger. I could make it there on a tank of gas depending how fast I drove. It's about 390 miles one way from my house. The gas light would just start coming on when I got into town.

I have a feeling with the way things are going with my TL-S, I'll have to fill up in Redding!

 

Once you get over the initial fun full throttle excursions and settle down, the mileage comes up. Learn to drive smooth, braking and gentle accelleration

Driving 6 miles in stop and go is NOT warming the car properly, which leaves moisture in the oil and other bad things. 10-15 miles at temp and freeway speed is consider "normal warming"

Your trip from Modesto to San Jose also includes crossing 2 big hills, probably at 80+ if you are like most of us, with the a/c on right?

When you do a longer trip, on cruise control, you will be amazed.

Oh, and get a K&N air filter.
I like Lucas or Redline fuel sysytem cleaner

As for changing the cabin air filters, I don't know how that would help except less fan speed/electricity required to move air through clean filters.

Keep us posted, many people considering seafoam, spark plugs, different tires etc.

Tire selection comes into mileage. Sticky tires with low treadwear and high traction numbers should not be counted on for supreme mileage.

We all bought a 4 door sports car that will blow the doors off most anything and is the coolest looking car around. It certainly beats a 4 banger honda for comfort and style AND cruises at 80 plus in the low 2000 rpms range...wow!


I am currently at 23 mpg combined on a recently aquired and not yet fully sorted 01 TL, that includes some 100 mile trips over 80. Complaining softly here!

And my recently installed Hawk HPS brake pads got a real life test when traffic stopped from (ahem) 60 and the semi truck ahead of me dove for the dirt to the left. I gave a firm push on the pedal, waited till the truck swung clear of the road to see if I needed to follow him or there was now room, all while giving the guy behind me the race car wave off to keep from getting rear ended. We slowed and let the truck back on the road. My wife looked at me and said "So these things are going to get even better with age?! They produce a lot of G Force now!"

Since you are in Modesto I would like to invite you and all members in our area to check out thunderhill.com see the driving school section for the opportunity to take your car on a road race course with a professional race driver as your in car instructor. Learn more about yourself and your car than you can imagine. Still a few spaces available for this Sundays class, then 2 more before years end.


Tom
01 TL
Stockton

 

I am wondering on these fuel mileage checks...

Are people using the factory odometer with different size wheels and tires? That can really throw off the numbers. Using a portable/handheld gps, you can determine actual speed and exact miles driven.

A rep from Acura care says the computer chip speed limiter is set at 145mph, and while the car will certainly do that, it will take a REALLLLLLLY long road!
Lets keep that sort of driving on the racetrack.

 

Trust me, I drove like a freakin grandma on that tank. The RPMs did not get above 4K. However I did have a few gallons of 87 still left over when I filled it up with premium. This tank should be all 91 w/ Gumout. I've been getting more spirited tho on this tank since I was sick on driving slow. How can you with this awesome engine?

Also, traffic has been getting much worse lately in Modesto. I had a grandma flip me off on my way home from work!?! WTF? I also seem to hit every single light(and theres plenty of them) on my way to and from work.

So I guess I won't start taking drastic measures until I make my annual thanksgiving trip up to Oregon.

Hey, that driving school sound fun! I've always wanted to do that. I might have to check that out provided it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.