Hi,

I bought a used 2004 Honda Civic SI (1.7L V-Tec), 5-speed with 60,000kms. I did a car check and everything, and the seller had all his receipts from the dealership following the schedule in the Honda manual for tune-ups, oil changes, etc.

The car runs AWESOME! I have no problems with any noises or anything. It's smooth and the tires have plenty of tread left. However, I had to go to Toronto yesterday and filled up the fuel to FULL. I decided to reset the Trip meter to 0 see how good of mileage I get out of it.

To my astonishment! when I got back from Toronto, my fuel indicator was AT HALF. I thought this was a bit odd so I pressed in the button to get to my Trip A and I've driven 267.9km!!!! ON HALF A TANK!!! APPROX. 25L!!! FOR 267.9KM!!???

I checked the manual and it says it is a 50L tank. WOW!

To do some calculations:
50L tank
Filled up to FULL
267.9KM (half highway driving, half city)
Fuel gauge is now exactly at half

267.9km/25L
= 10.17km/L
= 9.33L/100km (30 miles per gallon)

I always thought that 5-speed civic's in excellent condition would AT LEAST get around 7.9L/100km for city, 7.0L/100km on highway.

Can this really be?? Is around 9.33L for 100km right or is there something wrong with my Civic???

Help please!

Thanks

 

Three things...
1. The only way to accurately check your gas mileage is to fill all the way up, reset the trip, drive a certain distance, fill all the way up, and then divide the miles on the trip counter by the amount of fuel the pump says you just put in.
2. Just because the gauge says 1/2 doesn't mean it's necessarily half. The amount of fuel in the tank is measured by a floating thing in the tank that sends a signal to the gauge. The only way for the gauge to be completely accurate would be that the tank would need to be symmetrical from top to bottom, which I am pretty sure is not the case. This also explains why you may notice that a certain half of the tank (according to gauge) goes down more quickly than the other half... in my case, the top half of my tank (according to the gauge) diminishes in amount faster than the bottom half.
3. The engine in the 2001-2005 Civic Si is only rated for a little less than 30 MPG, so really you are getting pretty good gas mileage. The reason is because that particular engine is designed for performance and uses more gas than the lower model Civic engines.

EDIT: Wait, are you in Canada or is your Civic a Canadian Civic?
If so, disregard my third reason, as the engine in the Canadian Si is equivalent to our EX, which is not the higher performance engine that uses more gas. But once again, to properly check your gas mileage follow my first point. My second point explains why the mentioned method is the accurate way to determine gas mileage.

 

hey,

sounds good! ill do your method and check again..however, i cleaned my battery yesterday and my trip A was deleted so ill have to start over with another fill up.

thanks

and yes i am in canada...i have the 1.7L v-tec si model (4-door)

 

is it a canadian civic though? cuz the canadian si is the american ex

 

Yes. I realized this after my first post:
In his original post he said 1.7L, which would mean that it has be a D17 motor, because the American Si motor is like a K20 or K24 or something; therefore, this would indicate that his Si is Canadian.

 

i think it's k20 cuz my mom's crv has a k24. (we are a complete honda family, dad has a del sol, i have a civic, mom has a crv and we have the family odessey)

 

lol, all you need is an s2000 now

 

ironically my dad is trading the del sol for an s2000 this weekend so he can have an actual convertible instead of the t top

 

Hey guys,

Update: Ok, so I filled up the tank again to the point where the nozzle clicked off the first time. I drove 365.7km and filled up again to the point where the nozzle clicked off the first time and it read 24.227L.

To do some quick calculations:
365.7L
24.227L
= 6.625L/100km which is AWESOME! And that's with about 1/2 city and 1/2 highway.
(35.504 miles per gallon!)

So the Civic is riding great!!! Thanks for the help.

 

we didn't really help though, trust just told you how to actually check how much fuel you're using.