I Bought My 03 TLS about a week ago, I got it from the dealer with a full tank of gas, The car has about 60 Miles on it, and I 've noticed that the tank of gas is almost half empty!!! At this rate i'll get less than 200 off the tank!!! Anyone else experienced this or did I get V8 without knowing it???? I have no idea whats going on, but I'll burn out this tank of gas fill it up myself and see what happens, If i get less than 200 than this things going back to the dealer.

 

how did u drive the car??

u hit VTEC??

 

Nope, I haven't even floored it yet, i wanna break it in nicely. I dont even take the car past 45 MPH and I have never hit Vtec.

 

don't reallie trust the oil level...

coz i always have 25 liters remaining with a quarter on the meter

 

let the car brake in, your mpg and your speed will improve (1/4 mile)...

 

I agree.

 

The first 1000 miles or so, my TL-S really seemed to be drinking gas as well. I have 1300 miles on it now, and the last two tanks were much better. One tank was about half highway, half commuting and was 24 MPG. The last tank was all commuting and came out to 20 MPG.

Rusty

 

i experienced the same thing when i first got my tls but after 4000 miles and a oil change inbetween.........its gettin better

 

Although mileage does improve with age (up to a point), yours does seem rather extreme for a brand new car. Here's my thoughts on what might be happening (in order of likelihood):

1. Tank wasn't really full when you got it. It has been shown repeatedly that as a general rule gas gauges do not read linearly. That is, it gives you a *rough estimate* of how much fuel you have left. Many manufacturers purposely make the gauge stay at full for longer than true so the owner thinks "Wow! I'm driving all over the place and the gauge hasn't even moved." It makes up for it somewhere on the other end (usually between 1/2 and 1/4) where it drops much faster than true. This is just a marketing tool (invented by the good folks at Cadillac back in the 80s). So it's possible you were short two or three gallons of a full tank when you picked up the car but the gauge still read full. You can determine this on your next fill-up. If you drive somewhere in the order of 75 miles and the needle hardly moves off "F", you've used about 3 gallons of gas and have nothing to show for it.

2. You really are getting crappy mileage. A combination of a brand new motor, maybe some excessive idling, and stop and go traffic (or dipping too often into VTEC range) could all contribute to a very low MPG. I would go through at least three fill-ups and monitor my mileage before declaring a low MPG problem.

3. Faulty fuel gauge sending unit. Although rare, they do go bad. Most telling is when the gauge fluctuates sporadically in *both* directions (or reads E all the time). Again, I would go through three fill-ups and monitor my mileage first.

4. Tank leak. Highly unlikely, but because gasoline evaporates rather quickly, if it is a small leak (either at the tank end or say, near the fuel filter), you might not see an actual puddle. However, you would definitely *smell* gas outside the car. No odor means probably not a leak.

Conclusion: No need to panic just yet. It could be the car getting broken in or it could be a problem. Just monitor it diligently for a few tankfuls and go from there.

 

i definately got more than 200 miles off my first tank of gas...

i have 03 TLS

 

For those who care why the fuel guage stays at full longer than it should or why the last 1/2 goes faster than the first read here.

How Fuel Guages Work

 

Worse, After drivng my CLS for a while... I Park and come back to find out that the gas gage had dropped 2-3 notches while parked...:wow:....
Amazing!

 

I agree letthe car break in then check the gas mileage.
I see that you live in Florida could you be using A/C or climate control this would burn more gas also.

 

I think the dealer didn't really fill up the tank of gas. I never go into vtec, i don't use the AC and I never drive faster than 45MPH. Im going to wait till my next fill up before I start going to the dealer and Complainin.

 

Mine is about 3 weeks old and am experiencing the same thing. My third fill up this weekend and it seems like if it is doing a little bit better, hopefully it gets much better! Will keep all posted.

 

I got 285 Mph on my first tank, and that was almost empty. Still could go some more

03 TLS w/ Nav

 

Just had my second fill-up. I have not hit VTEC, but I do use the A/C frequently.

Here are the stats, based on the trip meter.

Tank 1: 321.2 Mi - 15.041 Gal - 21.355 MPG
Tank 2: 356 Mi - 15.201 Gal - 23.420 MPG

All recorded on a neatly organized Excel workbook.

Total vehicle miles... Somewhere between 700-750.

2003 SSM TLS-Navi

 

wait, i have a TL-P and our tanks are 17.2 gallons, i usually get 325-330 a tank, highway or city, i don't know why, i think this works out to be 19mpg...

does driving on the highway at 80-90mph equat to the same milage as a city driving, b/c thats what i expericance....

 

I would think driving fast on the free way would use less gas because when your driving in traffic your just sitting there and wasting gas.

 

sitting at 50-60mph is the best way to save gas...

 

Why would you not use the AC in FL? I don't get it.
45MPH is right where the engine may/may not drop into 5th, so you may actually be running the engine at higher RPM.
That's not the right way to calculate, since you don't completely empty the tank. Fill it up, reset your trip odometer. Next time you fill up, divide the trip miles by the amount of gas you put in the tank (from the receipt). That's your mileage. Try this for a few tanks to get a better, more accurate average.

Lastly, I don't want to offend anyone here, but if you can hardly afford the gas for the car, what the heck did you buy a $30K car for, in the first place?

BTW, I get 20.0 all city, and about 26 on the highway/backroad driving (sometimes as high as 30, but not usually). Climate control is ALWAYS on, 70-72deg.

Todd

 

So, if gas prices were $3/gal or more (like it is in quite a few foreign countries), you wouldn't complain one bit, right?

I don't think it's fair to put someone down by implying that he's cheap on gas even though he could afford to spend $30k-something on a car; you make it sound as if he spent $300k on it. Or--that because he could afford to drop $30k or so on a car, gas shouldn't be a problem no matter how much it costs. Someone who can spend $30k on a car isn't necessarily in the same financial class as someone who can spend ten times that much and not sweat the details.

Besides--I would imagine not everybody who owns a TL (or just about most any other car, for that matter) paid for it outright; would you say that if such a person can't pay cash for a $30k car he shouldn't buy one at all?

No flame towards you--just some friendly constructive criticism.

Tony

 

If it would get some damn giant SUVs off the road, then you wouldn't hear so much as a PEEP from me.

Let's do the math- let's say my TL-S gets 20mpg, and yours gets 17mpg. We both drive 1000miles/month. I use 50 gals/month, and you use 58.8gals. At $2/gal, that's $17 more per month.

So, yes if you can't afford $17 additional per month for gas, then you have no business buying a $30K car. It doesn't matter whether it's financed or paid for with cash- it's still YOUR money spent, in the end. If $17 breaks the bank, then you should have bought a more reasonably priced car. I bought my car just like most "regular folk" (few thousand down, $550/mo for a long time, and $800/yr insurance), and I can assure you, I'm definitely not wealthy.

Todd

 

i'll try that, thanks, actually i pick up my car for 17k rather than 30, i can't say that i more than enough money to spend on gas but i just wanted to know if my car was running right...

 

I gotta agree with those who believe your tank was not completely full when delivered from the dealer. It's just like rental cars. THEY ARE NEVER FULL, although the gauge indicates full or very near full.

If you're that worried about it after only a few miles... TOP IT OFF! and find out what's really going on. You don't have to wait until it's empty to put gas in it, you know... Then you can fill it up again after 50 miles and have a rough check.

After 1,000 miles, I get 20mpg in a stop and go commute. I recently drove to Vegas and back from L.A. with AC on and cruise control at 80-90mph. I even hit 100mph on a couple of open stretches just to see how it felt. I got 29mpg both directions on that trip and made it nonstop in less than 3-1/2 hours. With that kind of performance and that kind of mileage, I WAS IMPRESSED!!!

As I recall the window sticker shows 19mpg City, 29mph Highway... That's pretty much right where I find things to fall. If you're looking to get 30mpg in the City... then you should look to buy a "4-banger".... NOT a performance sedan weighing over 3500lbs. Like I say, I'm impressed with my mileage vs. performance numbers. And as T Ho says, if a few bucks a month is going to deter you from enjoying your ride, then perhaps it's out of your league, and you should have purchased something with a lower monthly payment so that you could afford the fuel bill. I know that sounds like a flame, and I don't mean it to be... It's just plain logic... You're worried about the little things way before you know if they are a problem or not... Worry about the Tranny, before you worry about the gas mileage... Just my .02cents worth... SORRY if this post sounded like a flame, I really don't mean it to be... My point is to just chill, and wait and see how other things on the car perform to your satisfaction. If the tranny holds together, IT'S A GREAT CAR!

 

My experience with gas mileage may be different than yours (I live at a higher altitude in Denver) but I was getting okay gas mileage at 23mpg and then it suddenly dropped down to about 17mpg. I always got gas at the same gas station location (it was a Conoco) and as near as I can tell, they started dumping regular in the premium (I saw on Dateline or 20/20 one time where what goes into the tanks is not regulated in many states and they can pretty much dump whatever they want in there as long as the pumps are close to accurate abuut how much they dispense). As soon as that happened (as near as I can tell), my mileage went way down. I went to a different station and, on a full fillup, suddenly my mileage shot back up. Went back to that Conoco and it dropped right back down. Needless to say, I don't go there anymore.

Also, (for those of you who're cheap b*stards like me) I get my gas at Costco now and I figure I'm saving almost $100/year just by getting my gas there. Makes it well worth the cost of membership.

By the way, when I drive ONLY highway miles at about 80mph, I get GREAT gas mileage at 27mpg. So, if you're driving 45mph on the highway, GET OUT OF MY WAY!

 

Well I filled up my gas tank the other day with premium at a mobile gas station, It only needed 12 gallons witch led me to believe that there were still at least 4 gallons in the car, which would explain why I didn't get the other 100 miles outta it. But what was strange was, the needle was on the last line of before the red line. O well, The car ran much better than usual, i guess the dealer gave me the cheap crap when they filled it up. Im about 290 miles with about 2 lines before the red so Its doing alot better than last time.