About a month ago, my wife and I bought a 2002 Honda Civic LX w/ automatic transmission. The car only has about 28000 miles, and we bought it from a Honda dealership. It is "Honda Certified" and still has manufacturer's warranty.

Anyhow, yesterday we took it on its first long road trip. The owners' manual says that the car has a 13.2 gallon tank. After filling up, we drove on a straight, flat, uncrowded highway for about 150 miles until the gas tank was under half full. Unless my math is bad, that's under 23mpg, a far cry from the 38mpg the car is rated for.

The car was not overly loaded, with only 2 passengers and a small suitcase. We did run the A/C occasionally, but not the entire time. The tires are relatively new Dunlop's and appear well-inflated, although I haven't actually checked the pressure. I expect that the vehicle underwent a full tune-up at the dealership as part of the Honda Certification process, but I don't know for sure.

I read some of the other gas mileage related threads on these forums, but none of them mention if the manufacturer's warranty in any way would cover repairing problems that cause poor gas mileage.

I'm wondering if anyone has advice as to how to handle this particular situation, and what to expect if I take the car back to the dealership and complain that the gas mileage we're getting is ridiculously poor.

Thanks,
Adam
Boston, USA

 

I know what you're talking about... I have the 04 lx and since I put my stock airbox back on it has been back to crappy on mileage... they must figure the mpg with perfect weather conditions like back winds of 60mph, drafting behind a semi, being towed by another civic... who knows... Your car should go 350 miles until you should really consider filling up...

Dont pay much attention to the meter, use your odometer and it will tell you the truth once you push the car to its limits, then you just remember the number...

Putting something as simple as a short ram on it will (at least for my civic) give you TONS of gas mileage and just a little more power... just a little power... With an injen short ram I was going at least 420 before I started to look for a gas station within the next 30 miles. I never ran my car dead to see how far it would have gone, I probably will one day just to have my wife save me and feel like a hero!

Ps. If you are considering a short ram I have one (our cars are the same) I used it for the summer and I am switching to a full cold air induction kit.... let me know if you want it. I got it from injen new for like 210 bucks but I'll sell it super cheap since it is used

 

whats the difference between short ram air intake and cold air intake?

 

Short ram is short and usually sits next to the engine above the wheel well or tucked in between wheel well and engine... you can see it all when you open the hood... CAI is alot longer and sits waay down where your front tire is... it goes in between the front tire's splash guard and the bumper.. you cant see the filter but you can see the pipes...looks cool.

SRIs and CAIs suck in more air than the stock air box HANDS DOWN.... this gives you more MPG and a little bit more HP. CAI does the same thing as the SRI, it just sucks in colder air (since it is down low and not by the engine)... making it better but not by much when you have a lower end civic like my LX.

They both suck air and both are fantastic. I just bought a CAI from WestImports in a group buy deal in the forum (it is down at the bottom of the main forum page).. the guy sells SIMOTA CAI kits for super crazy cheap and mine comes in hopefully a couple days.

If you got an 01-05 Civic I have an extra short ram intake I wont need anymore.. I freaking loved it but I want the CAI now... I just want a little cash for shipping and to make it at least worth owning it in the first place.

Here is a perfect picture on SIMOTA's website of the CAI
http://www.simota.com/pro_in_new.php

And this is the SRI... it is an installation guide cuz it shows how simple it is to install it
http://www.kandn.com/instructions/57-3513.pdf

 

Thread jack!

 

one more thing you would also want to know, it also depends on were u stay. if it rains alot and u have cold air intake you would have to watch out for puddles cause u dont want the intake to suck it up... but i guess it also depends if ur car is lowered... My cousin had a 96 prelude that he drove it threw a puddle and hydrolocked his engine...

 

I have never personally experienced a CAI in a car but I hear from both sides that CAIs are bad in puddles and that you can do anything but submerge the car to hydrolock... I still havent met anyone who has had a personal experience of hydrolock in their own car... I have experienced hydrolock in a short ram last fall here in Oregon... thats why I put the stock box back on... If I was keeping my revs high I could take it through everything, but from 15-40 it was always a little problematic... but it only went bad in RIDICULOUS amounts of water in ruts on the freeway

 

on my 01 LX I get 36 mpg. You have some type of problem, getting 23, thats terrible. Check the tire pressure, filter, the easy things. Thats bad though. Better run a whole tank, just in case, and if its bad take it in.

 

i would check the timing and then do a tune-up

 

Try seafoaming that