Hi all,

I'm in the UK and I just bought my first Honda - it's a 1995 Accord 2 litre ES Automatic and I love it

However - it does seem to suffer from quite poor fuel economy! Admittedly I have only been driving it around town and haven't done any long motorway trips in it yet, but I've been seeing between 10 and 20mpg (imperial) at best which seems quite poor!

The facts:

- It seems to idle a little high - in park or neutral it usually idles slightly above 1krpm when warmed up, though occasionally it does drop to around 800 which seems a bit more normal.
- Check engine light is off.
- The temperature gauge tends to read at about 1/3 on the gauge when the engine is warm - not sure if this is normal; most cars I've had seem to register at the halfway point.
- I've recently changed coolant and thermostat, thinking it may be running cool - no effect.

Since my last tank of fuel I've been doing short town journeys so I'll get a proper MPG reading next time I fill up - but it does seem to drink petrol!

Anyone got any suggestions?

Cheers

Edit: here are some pictures:

 

Temperature gauge reading 1/3 is about normal for a Honda. It should be nice & steady, not up & down.

 

Thanks Jim - looks like I can put my mind to rest about that one then.

I still think I have a fuel economy problem, though. I know it's an old car and quite heavy, but surely 10-20mpg is extremely poor? From a quick read through the forums it seems some of you are getting far more than that from your US model accords, most of which have the 2.3 4-cyl or even the V6 engines!

Anyone got any suggestions for the most likely culprit? Cheers

 

And since imperial gallon is about 20% larger than USA gallon, then 10-20 is pretty poor. Are you measuring miles and actual gallons? Conversion from liters at the pump? Any number of things might be going on.

Well, here's a pretty standard list of things for you to check & rule out...

- tire pressure too low?
- suspension alignment?
- general tune-up (fresh NGK sparkplugs & check spark timing is OK, etc...)
- the car IS 15 years old - how's the compression?
- are the brakes dragging?
- driving habits?

Last item is really subjective. Around-town driving can mean many different things. City-center driving where you're ALWAYS stopping & going, you maybe only go 50 or 100 meters to the next traffic light. In that case your accelerator foot has a TREMENDOUS influence over fuel usage.

Some people here in USA (myself included) might live where "city" driving isn't nearly as slow or nearly as much stop-go as others.