I have 2500 miles on my '02 tl type s and it's gone from 19mpg from when i first bought it to 12mpg! I thought it would progressively get better mileage, but unfortunately, it gradually got worse. I'm taking it in for service asap. Anyone here getting extremely bad mileage? Also, any ideas on why this is happening is appreciated.

I'm guessing my 90% street driving at short 3-5 mile intervals has something to do with it (qualifies as driving in severe conditions in the manual so the oil needs to be changed at about 3500miles).

Btw, i drive very conservatively.. as if my mother is sitting in the backseat.

amcl

 

I drive about 50/50 city and highway. My first tank of fuel averaged 14.5 mpg. On the second tank that increased to 18.6. I went out of town last weekend (70% highway) and averaged 24.5 mpg......and I was driving hard. I now have 1200 miles, and no matter how hard I drive the car I can't do any worse than 18 mpg.

 

Something must be wrong, as I've never gotten mileage in the teens. I do a lot of highway, lots of acceleration (VTEC) and average around 24mpg....

You might have a bad setting or component.

 

AMCL,

You might be calulating incorrectly.

1. Fill tank, note odometer and /or reset trip odometer.
2. Drive
3. Fill tank again, note gallons pumped.

Divide gallons into miles driven since last fill = mpg.

If you fill by looking at the guage, you'll undercut your mpg
numbers.

 

I get better gas mileage around town in my Chevy Tahoe. You must be making a mistake or something is seriously wrong w/ your car.

In my TL-S, I never get worse than 22 mpg in town.

 

AMCL, I think you mentioned this problem before.

If you are correctly calculating your mileage, and I assume you are, then I would suggest you take it back to the dealer. That is way to0 far outside the Acura specs to be acceptable.

My wife gets 19-21 during day to day stop and go driving, mostly short 5 mile trips. We also have about 2500 on the odo.

12mpg is NOT acceptable, especially if you are conservative in your driving habits.

 

I've done all that. I cosistently get ~14 gallons at every fill-up. Also, switching from chevron to shell didn't help either. I guess i should add that i feel my car lacks the power i experienced during my test driving of other tls'.

amcl

 

time to stop driving like a grandma..
hit the throttle and listen to the sweet sound of VTEC...
maybe ur car just needs a little push..hehe

 

I get 20 mpg in the city and 30+ highway.

 

stop racing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I'm getting around 17 MPG.....70% highway. So we are about the same I would guess. The dealer has check my engine more than 20 times and found nothing. They have replace some many parts that I don't even remember all of them. I recently got new spark plugs and coils. New head gasket, bunch of other stuff. My radiator broke so many parts on the engine melted and had to be replaced......total cost $2,700.00 The only thing that improve my MPG from 230 miles a tank to 280 miles a tank was Halo spark Plugs. I have new plugs from factory, because they replaced the other ones after my engine cooked. I never told them to replaced them, so they didn't charge me for them. It was like $17 a piece....I'm like I don't think so. So I already order my halo sparkplugs from www.haloplugs.com.

 

Im getting pretty bad gas milage as well, but I am constantly in the VTEC range, so I expect it. If you want better gas milage, I would suggest staying below 4000 RPMs at all times.

 

amcl................maybe you are having "actuator problems". Hop over to the acura-cl website and do a search. Since you are experiencing a loss of power that could be the problem. We've had quite a few guys losing their VTEC when this little solenoid fails......................hope that helps.

 

When does vtec kick in? I rarely have the car go above 3500rpm.

amcl

 

12 mpg? Ouch! Maybe that right foot is staying a little too close to the floorboards?

We got 29 mpg on the drive home from the dealer (200+ mile drive), and 24-16 on the next two fill ups.

Since the wife's ute gets 15 mpg on a good day, this mileage is terriffic.

 

Comment:

If the car is only warming up and the car is sitting is stop-and-go traffic, the mileage can be terrible.

I've gotten everything from 13 MPG to 30 MPG depending on conditions. The worst has been short trip with stop-and-go traffic (and a few pops on the throttle).

If you head to the very same pump for a fill-up, then go for a drive on an open/free-flowing hwy or freeway, then go back to the same pump and don't get 20+ mpg, perhaps a trip to the dealer is required.

Worst --> 13 MPG
Average --> 20 MPG
Best --> 30 MPG

 

vtec kicks in at about 5000 rpm -- you will notice a drastic change in the engine note and little more of a kick in the pants.

 

Well... i took the car in for service. They used a "dyno," whatever that is, and said that fuel consumption is perfect. Sucks.. oh well, like i said, it must be my short 3-5mile drives with the A/C on full blast. I usually get 19-20 though... weird.

amcl

 

Naw something is wrong.

Is your car loaded with stuff (weight kills gas mileage)?

Punch it a lot that kills mileage too.

But 12 mpg from a v-6 is horrendous, check the dealer....

 

Do you idle for long periods during every start-up ?

 

I don't have any extra weight in the car and I don't idle at startup. I don't accelerate to hard either. I'm thinking about taking the car to another dealer if the problem persists. The first one I took the car to said they used a dyno, but it looked like my car's odo didn't move one bit... assuming that running the car on a dyno would register on the odo.

amcl

 

It would be great if we could compare mpg with and w/o using the A/C, but unfortunately it's just too hot in most places NOT to use the A/C. I am convinced the A/C is costing me 2-3 mpg.

 

Ok... now i'm getting 14mpg. Hmmm. Here's something funny... with such a bad gas mileage, i can actually see my fuel meter move as i drive.

amcl

 

I know one thing, this car will make you pay in gas for jack rabbit starts and pushing it, speeding up and slowing down, in traffic. I also find it sucks gas on the highway when I push it over 70mph; which is almost always

 

Man that sucks!! How long have you had the car now? Make sure your using 92 octane gas because you will notice a significant difference in fuel economy.

If the dealer can't find any problems with it, then i guess your stuck with a 12mpg car.

 

I just took a trip to Canada from NYC which was about 550 miles each way. I started the trip with about 1600 miles on my TLS. On the way to Canada I got a little under 30MPG. On te way back I got a little under 32MPG. However, before this trip I thought there was something wrong with my car as well because I was getting 12-14 mpg on city driving. Havent checked the milege since then because it was this last weekend and I'm waiting to refill my tank again. I don't know what it is about this car with the milege thing but I always hear about other people getting 19-24 mpg on city driving ad I havene't seen that yet. I now have 2700 miles on my car and it seams like the gas gauge goes down just as fast as it did before the trip to Canada. I have also noticed a loss of zest in the engine and breaks. I used to get a biger kick off the start before the trip and acceleration feels slower. It might just be me but that's how it feels right now. I'm a little disapointed right now. good luck with the milege thing but you are not alone.

 

I use premium chevron or shell. I got the car in the middle of May. It has about 2700 miles on it now.

I guess i feel better if you're also getting 12-14mpg, big ped. Hopefully, i'll have time for a long trip where i can measure the economy for highway driving.

As for the loss in acceleration, maybe your ECU scaled back a bit because of your 1000 mile roundtrip.

amcl