Bad MPG....
 

Ok wasnt to sure where to put this but anyway....
So I have been noticing this car gets bad mpg... I had about half a tank yesterday and started calculating from there. Im about at 1/4 right now and I have driven 38 miles.... I changed the spark plugs prior to this (There was some autolites in there so I put some NGKs) and I have no idea why Im getting such bad mpg. The car does have an oil leak and I dont know if that would effect it any but if someone could give me some advice on what to do that would be great.

Is your Check Engine Light ON?

Glad to see im not the only one up :D

But no its not. The only light that is on is the srs light. But the thing is with this car it doesnt have the cluster that its supposed to have. Which means that It doesnt have the Park Neutral and Drive lights so I dont know if it may be on an it just wont turn on or what. But gas is killing me right now and I dont think it should be with this car.

Lol, well it's 1:22 here so it's not too late.

It might be a possibility that the CEL isn't working. My old 94 accord had all kinds of problems and not once did my CEL come on.

You should try to figure out around how much MPG your car gets. Once your gas light lights up fill up. Put exactly (x amount) of gallons and reset your trip meter. Once it lights up again count your miles.

Also, do you drive like a mad man? Accelerated starts? speeding?

Well thats the thing. The gas light never lights up either. It has been way past E and has never lit up once. And normally drive only five over the speed limit but normally stay within the speed limit. I dont floor it or anything.

You should take it somewhere to see if they can pull any codes. It seems like your cluster wasn't even hooked up right. So there is a possibility your CEL isn't illuminating, but just because it isn't doesn't mean you don't have codes. Is there an autozone near you? Maybe they can run a free scan for you,

Also, when was the last time you replaced the air filter? that can help a little towards mpg.

By the way, do you fill up with Arco gasoline?

Ya theres an autozone right down the street actually :D
Only had the car a year and havent changed the air filter but I did take a look at it and it looked pretty damn clean:) I was reading on another accord forum and a guy said "if AC is not working in your 95 accord, it could mean the clutch of the A/C compressor is seized and it would lower the gas mileage without throwing any CEL."
This car does not have a/c and I dont know if this could be the problem. Im going to take the car to autozone in the morning and hopefully there is a code for something that way I can fix it. No way this car can be doing that bad on gas...

Arco?

GREAT! Take it in the morning and tell them to pull the codes, make sure you write them down(if any) and post them on here.

My AC compressor is seized, but as long as there is no power to it then it stays in "neutral position" I guess would be called. Once you give it power the plate pulls in and you cant spin it.

In my opinion I don't think that would cause bad gas mileage,

I'm guessing you don't have that type of gas station over there?:confused:

What I'm trying to ask is if you fuel up with the cheapest gasoline or the decent one that costs 10-15 cents more?

Hmmmm dunno if I should just unplug the compressor if I can or what. The a/c is never on. Never mess with any of that.

I guess I use around the average gasoline. Normally just go to the circle k by my house unless the price difference is really drastic then I will head over to walmart and use their gas.

Yeah, you can unplug the wire to the compressor if you want but I do not think it would matter if youre not attempting to turn it on.

Oh okay, What I was getting at was that when I had my 94 Accord, I was a cheapp skatee and I would put the cheapest gas around, it would waste so fast. On a night out I decided to put circle k, decent gas and it lasted way longer. Really cheap gas is watered down. It actually messed up the fuel pump in my dads Chevy HHR and I am going to replace it tomorrow! :P

Well gas prices have been dropping over here so they are almost all the same price haha. I think walmart is like 10 cents cheaper then circle k but its about 2 miles further.

Been reading and found out it could be a clogged catalytic converter or a bad o2 sensor. Or a few other things. Hopefully codes come up. If not I dont know what else to do lol :confused:

If you want, go ahead & unplug the wire from the compressor. Not sure about 1995 but many years will automatically turn on the AC when you select the DEFROST position.

Just got back from autozone and they cant check to see if any codes are there. Said the car is to old to check it and I would have to take it to a shop. I just got the inspection done on the car and it passed so I dont know why Im getting such bad mpg. I have the emissions report but dont know if that would help to see what could be wrong.

Also did the test with a paper clip or whatever to try and get a code. The CEL just stays on. The light never turns on when I am driving though.

I noticed that the fuel gauge dropped quickly from 1/2 to E compared to F to 1/2. That was on my 95 accord.

One thing you want to check is the brakes to see if they are dragging. That can kill gas mileage. Check your tire pressure too.

The proper way to check for gas mileage is to fill up the tank, drive it and record the miles. When you fill up the tank, just take the miles driven divided by gas you added.

EDIT: If you decide to replace the O2 sensor, I have a Denso one that is an exact fit for your car. I sold my accord before I had a chance to install it. Send me a PM if interested.

Well the thing is I almost had a full tank on friday. And now its down to 1/4. The gauge on this car seems to sit really low when its low on gas. Past the line. Dont know if that is normal or what. How can I check the if the brakes are dragging? Do you think it could be the o2 sensor. I have no idea if it has been changed.

How many miles did you drive since Friday?

You really need to calculate the mpg by dividing the miles driven by the gas used.

Are you doing a lot of city driving with start and stop traffic?

Not really to sure but I know it wasnt more then 150. Its mainly city driving and do all the driving at night when there isnt to much traffic.
Here are some pictures of how much it dropped just driving eight miles.

and ya right now im just seeing how much I get out of half a tank. Waiting until it gets to E then im going to fill it up again and calculate from there. Shouldnt take much longer to get to E at this rate :(

Also... How would a stock exhaust sound. The one on this car is stock but my friend had said it sounded like it had an exhaust :/ I actually listened to it today and it sounded odd.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

Here is a video on how to find exhaust leaks:

EricTheCarGuy - YouTube

I don't think there is an exhaust leak. I seafoamed the car on Tuesday and was watching to see if I could spot any smoke coming out. Everything seemed fine. Other then the fact that the car didnt smoke as much as I would have liked to to. I have been at about 1/4 a tank for a while now. I just think this gauge is messed up.