I just bought my first car--a 2003 Accord LX. Overall, I am extremely pleased with it. I love the way it drives/handles and aesthetically it's a perfect match for me: blue with gray and black interior. I'm also excited to have a (presumably) more reliable car. My last car (technically my parent's but in my posession for a number of years) became rather expensive to maintain toward the end, though I suppose they all do that to some degree.

I do have a couple minor complaints, however. First, the gas pedal moves loosely about an inch or so before engaging the mechanism to actually accelerate. Not the worst thing in the world, but it makes accelerating smoothly a little more difficult. I'm getting used to it, and probably won't even notice eventually. Second, I've read about problems with brake rotors warping causing vibration in the steering wheel when braking. I haven't had that exact issue, but I have noticed that sometimes it vibrates quite a bit while idling. Is this normal? Any thoughts on what may be causing it?

Lastly, I've been getting significantly lower gas mileage than I'd expected. I've seen a couple different ratings for this model: 21/31 and 24/33. I drive roughly equal amounts on city and highway roads and while I wouldn't say I'm a particularly conservative driver, I'm not overly aggressive either. I've driven the car about 600 miles, and have averaged 22 mpg. I know, the car is seven years old, but it only has 52000 miles on it and it seems to have been maintained well (I have most of the service records). I'm planning to bring the car in to get checked out, but does anyone have any thoughts on what might cause the mpg to be so low?

Thanks.

 

Check and correct the tire pressure, because that can decrease the gas mileage.

How are you calculating gas mileage? My accord doesn't tell me the MPG, so I start my trip meter on full tank of gas, and divide the mileage by the amount of gas when I have to refill the tank.

 

Your throttle cable might be loose, explaining the dead movement of the gas pedal. You can tighten it at the throttle body, but be careful. The cable MUST go slack a little bit when you're not pressing the pedal. Sounds like maybe there's excessive slack. Don't adjust ALL the slack out.

Automatic trans?? The front engine mount is vacuum-operated to get soft when idling IN GEAR. Is that when it vibrates? Check out this thread:
https://www.hondaaccordforum.com/for...ad.php?t=30711

Another cause of vibration is the air-conditioning. If you direct the air to windshield or mix (windshield+floor), the A/C will run. The green A/C lamp will not light up, you can't turn it off, but it will run. So between the A/C compressor & the radiator fans, that will cause the engine to vibrate more. Try floor or dashboard vents (no defrost) & see if that stops the vibration.

 

Thanks to both of you for your replies. PAHonda, I will check the tire pressure to see if that's causing the issue. I have been calculating mpg the way you described.

Jim, it is automatic trans, and the problem does occur when the car is in gear and idle, so it sounds like you're probably right about the cause. I will check on the solenoid/mount connection and how the problem is affected by AC.