someone tell me why im only able to get 15-16 mpg on average, its very frustrating because my 2000tl i got a lot better gas mileage. my current car which is a 04 tl, I dont drive very fast and do all city driving. The city that I live in is not congested at all. My driving habits have not changed so why do I fill up once a week with my 04tl, however when i had my 2000tl a full tank would last me about a week and a half to two weeks. As a matter of fact I notice myself even driving a lot slower because the prices of gas are 4.13 a gallon, and I still only get about 16mpg is something wrong with my car or does this seem normal.

 

Could be lots of things... As late as last year, the gas stations near my house did not use oxygenated gas, even tho the ones in the next town over did. However now, all the gas stations have oxygenated gas. Ever since that happened, my fuel economy dropped a couple mpg. I used to average 24, now I average 20.

I used to have a 2G TL as well, and I averaged about the same fuel economy. What brand gas are you using? I only stick with Shell or Chevron. For grins and giggles, I tested out grocery store gas in my other car... Fuel economy dropped by 2mpg when I did that...

 

have you changed the air filter? since you have an 04, must be really dirty by now. recently changed out the air filter in my 05TL, gas milage improved depending on conditions.

avs007, love that color...

 

run fuel injector cleaner, change your plug's and air filter !

 

wonder what a s.c tl gets gas milage wise...

 

Make sure you are up to date on all your maintenance and stuff like that.

D

 

Take these steps:

1) Purchase a bottle of STP or other brand Fuel Injector Cleaner.

2) Drive your gas tank til your "Range" says 0mi.

3) Drive to a gas station

4) Empty out the whole bottle of Fuel Injector Cleaner.

5) Pump 11 gallons of gas into the TL (Most fuel injector cleaners can only handle 11~15gallons otherwise the solution becomes too diluted, since the TL has roughly a 3 gallon reserve you should only apply 11 gallons as 11+3 = 14. )

6) Drive as you would normally, although I think you're supposed to take it easy, however I'm not sure. Do not refill the tank with gas until you're back at 0mi, that way all the Fuel injector cleaner is used up.

7) Go service your TL, change your oil, fuel filter, oil filter and spark plugs.

8) Enjoy the increase in MPG!

As a note make sure you're using 91 Octane or better otherwise that could be the sole cause of poor gas mileage.

 

Yes I agree with the assertion that 91oct or better should be used. Unfortunately the octane rating through out the country is different. Like in Cali I know 91 oct is considered premium while 93 oct is here in Atlanta. Also I don't know if it has been mentioned before but perhaps it has to do with how much ethanol is in the gas.

D

 

The greater the ethanol content the worse the gas mileage, which is why these ethanol based fuels are counter intuitive. I guess people want two mpg less for 15 cents saved?

 

I think it burns cleaner too. But yea I would rather have 0% ethanol in my gas.

D

 

I still have my 00TL as a beater & I agree with the OP that 2G Tl gets better MPG than my 3G TL .... maybe it's the extra HP ? But shouldn't be that much of difference ...

I love the gadgets in the 3G so I try not to look at the MID about MPG too much ...

 

I have seen a drop in my MPG. Hawaii recently received ethanol blended gas I believe last year. I was averaging around 20, now I'm at 18. And here the gas goes up about 2-4 cents every week. Premium is now $4.25 at some Chevrons. Last week it was at $4.21.

 

Well that's cheaper than it is here, $4.70 in some places. I just paid $4.60 right now.

 

Yeah it does burn cleaner, but it robs power.

 

seafoam!!!!!!

 

I'm getting the same low mileage in the city sometimes. On the highway, however I'm getting about 30 MPG. However, I've found another problem. Today on a trip my dash computer said that I was getting 33 MPG. When I filled up and calculated the actual mileage it was only 30 MPG.

 

Finally got around to changing my CAI filter. Before I was getting 16 MPG... Since I changed it i've been getting 18 MPG in city driving...

 

What is a CAI filter, the clean air intake?

 

They have also been steadily increasing the ethanol percentage across the country since the late 80's. Thats why in 1990 there were a dozen small cars getting 50 MPG or greater with shitty carburated engines but now it takes a hybrid to do that.

 

Couple things...

The ECU should be spot-on-accurate, becuase the ECU knows precisely how much fuel is metered into the engine. If it didn't, the engine wouldn't run right.

Does your state require inspections of gas station dispensers, for both quality check as well as accuracy? Oregon for example, does not mandate any type of inspections, unlike Washington state, which requires regular inspections, and as such there will be a sticker from the Department of Weights and Measures affixed on the dispenser displaying what month/year it was inspected.

They even did a report on the news about gas stations in Oregon, and I have personally witnessed pumps in Oregon being off by a couple gallons.

But anyways, also are you simply relying on the nozzle to click off the gas? That is an inaccurate way to measure gas, as when it clicks off is fairly arbitrary, as it will depend on how you situated the nozzle and how the gas is foaming, etc. I have had the nozzle click off when the tank was no where near full.

Are you topping off your tank? Many jurisdictions require dispensers to have a fuel vapor recovery system. (Easy to tell if yours does, cuz the nozzle will have a suction cup looking shield around the nozzle that fits over your filler neck when you insert the nozzle. If you top off your tank with this type of dispenser, fuel can and will actually get sucked through the vapor recovery lines, and put back in the gas station's holding tanks (while charging you for said gas at the same time) if you over fill your tank. In which case, you aren't actually receiving the amount of gas you think you are.

So if you are seeing a 3mpg difference between what you calculated vs what the ECU reports, most likely you have an inaccurate number representing how much fuel you dispensed. Unless you want to assume Honda engineers can't do basic arithmetic.

 

$4.60 a gallon? Ouch, that sounds painful. I live in Kansas, but am two blocks from Missouri, so I buy my gas there. Kansas gas is roughly 10 cents more than MO because of the taxes, so I refuse to buy Kansas gas.

The Midwest is notorious for having "cheaper" gas than left and right coasts, but the news said the other day that Missouri has some of the cheapest gas in the country... I paid $4.09 on Tuesday for premium.

 

Yes, certain stations will put up to 10% ethanol without advertising it. If you look, it's probably marked on the pump but not easily seen. In the Southeast, Hess is the biggest offender in that area. From the fuel distributor that I talked to, any ethanol blended fuel should be between 4-7 cents cheaper per gallon at the pump than 100% gasoline. Reason is that the ethanol is cheaper (although that is changing with the shortage of corn), and the feds give the distributors a tax break for using ethanol. Stinky thing is that it is rarely cheaper at the pump than 100% gasoline. The one time that Hess actually kept their price lower locally, they ran out of gas! Interesting thing is that both Exxon and Mobile execs this week actually admitted that about 50% of the current price of a barrel of oil is due to commodities speculators running up the price.

 

As most of you know your driving habits have a direct correlation to fuel consumption. I by nature am an aggressive driver (i.e., heavy right foot) and I was averaging between 17-19 mpg (280 miles per tank) during my first three years of ownership.

Since gas prices started to exponentially increase I have been much more conscious about my driving habits and mileage has increased to 23-25 mpg (320+ miles per tank). It took about two full tanks of gas with my new driving techniques to get the mileage to increase to where it is now. The first tank I averaged 20-21 mpg and it has now increased to the 23-25 mpg with the same consistent behavior.

My new techniques are much slower 0-60 starts and cruise control on the highway with the windows up and AC cranking. Take note that there are a lot of pissed off people behind me when I am taking off from a light, but I hope they recognize the benefit of a slow start, LOL!

Anyway, I am very pleased with my new mpg.

 

Unless your state (like Oregon) passed legislation requiring E-10 in all stations year round, for "cleaner air"

My fuel economy took a dump when this happened, as normally I could still find stations that didn't sell E-10, since it used to only be required in the winters months in some cities.

 

I don't mind people that accelerate slowly on city streets, but I hope you aren't slowly accelerating on the freeway on ramp. It's pretty irritating when the guy in front of you is going 35 on the onramp, when the rest of the freeway is going 70+, forcing you to enter traffic doing 45 with everyone else going 70+, it can be pretty dangerous.

The only other time I get peeved when people accelerate slowly, is when there are 2 lanes that go straight... And the guy that is 2nd, 3rd, or more back in line... Cuts you off to jump in the open lane at the red light... Then when the light turns green, they allow everyone in the other lane that was in front of them to accelerate ahead of them.... They may as well have stayed in the other lane.

 

Trust me - I am with you. I am not an extremist radical, LOL! In fact, just the other day I was averaging 25 mpg per the MID and I had a short encounter with a G35 coupe on the highway. Needless to say my 25 mpg dropped to 22 mpg when all was said and done. Since then I am back up to 24 mpg on this tank of gas.

 

I had a weird thing happen on my MID the other day. Started my engine, drove for a block, and switched my MID from Odometer to Trip Computer to see what my MPG since my last tank fillup was (when I had reset the Trip Computer). It showed something like 8 MPG, and was changing every 10 seconds or so (going up, as my speed increased). It was like the trip computer had reset itself, however it couldn't have (completely), because the average speed and distance traveled indicated it hadn't been reset. After 10 minutes of sort of highway driving, the MPG was back up to 24 MPG and I stopped to fill my tank. If I hadn't seen this happen, I would have concluded my tank MPG was the MID's 24 MPG, however, manual calcs revealed my actual MPG for that tank was 21.

 

^^^
Yup many people have reported this anomaly...i

 

my 04 TL gets 16 to maybe 19 in the city (usually 17 to 18)

I don't think there is much you can do about the city mpg

even when I try to "shift" the auto trans myself (higher gear asap) I maybe get 1mpg better.

TL's just hate the stop/go

yet 30 to 32 on the highway (65 - 80mph)

 

I personally to get steps 2 and 4. What are you talking about "Drive your gas tank til your "Range" says 0mi." Can you please explain more details. Also in step 4, do I empty the STP bottle into the hole where the gas goes? How much does it cost to change oil oil, fuel filter, oil filter and spark plugs? Thank you.

 

I personally like to use techron. FWIW, on my other car, the owners manual explicitely says that the only approved fuel additive is Techron, and that the use of others may void your warranty.

But anyways, it comes in two different varieties. One that says treats up to 12 or 15 gallons or something like that, and one that treats up to 20 gallons. I bought a case at Costco, that IIRC says treats up to 20 gallons.

I use it everytime I change the oil.

Also, personally, I'd only use Tier-1 gas, like Shell or Chevron or something. My dad used Costco gas and such almost exclusively. When I helped him replace the intake manifold gaskets, I noticed he had a lot of varnish and gunky stuff on his intake valves.

I replaced the same gaskets on my other car, which has the same engine as his car. I had 50,000 more miles than he does, but my intake valves were clean as a whistle. (I use exclusively Chevron and Shell)

 

I only use Chevron mainly but also 76 or Shell from time to time. I Seafoamed my 04AT with 52000 miles on it about a month ago and recently took a long trip. On my trip back I made a point to re set the MID and 750 total miles later I had an average of 36 MPG going between 70 and 75 MPH mainly. I was able to go 500 miles on a tank with ease and I'm quite sure I could hit 600 if I pushed it. I normally get about 24 in town unless I floor it everywhere and it drops to 20 or so. This trip I ran air the entire time and had about 250 lb worth of stuff in the car. I also had to climb like 6000 feet and descend and hit some traffic for about 15 min in Sacramento. Great car