Project "Save the Flea!" Winter beater: 2007 Civic 1.8L, 5-speed

[MetroMPG]

Well, post your trip results. With your taller auto gearing and a locked torque converter, you should win out on any strictly highway drive, all else being equal.

[xavi]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

But this porker of a Civic loves to coast! A bunch of aero mods and pumped up tires sure help.

50 mpg at 50 mph average speed seems quite doable with P&G, maybe even engine-on P&G.

Next fill-up soon

There's 931 km / 579 miles on this tank, and the low fuel light just came on today (down to 1 bar left on the gas gauge). The ScanGauge says this tank is sitting at 48 mpg US. We'll see how accurate the 10% fuel offset is.

In your Civic should be more easy to coast because it should be heavier and more aerodinamic then mine. Mine is the 5d hatch FK2...

You will reach the 1000km/tank!
The higher number I saw was 800 kms with just 1 liter left in the tank...
No mods though...

[MetroMPG]

Xavi, do you keep a fuel log online? You should make a garage entry here.

[xavi]

I track everything in an excel sheet, from the previous 4 cars, and 2 bike I had...
Now just have the Civic and a 49cc 2 stroke 3 gears bike that makes 130mpg...

Try to do it here at the forum, but didn't find my car... and don't know the EPA values... How do I do it?

[MetroMPG]

Start here: Add new vehicle

As for EPA values, I would just enter the value for the 5-speed US version of the same engine. It would be close: Find and Compare Cars

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by xavi

You will reach the 1000km/tank!

I was close, but too chicken to keep going. I had ZERO of 20 bars showing on the digital fuel gauge for the last 20 km! Only the orange low fuel light remained.

I put in 47.8 L at 972 km / 604 miles, which means there was ~2-4 L left in the tank (if you count some in the filler neck). But I didn't know that until after I filled it up!

The ScanGauge was very close: It said 49 mpg.

So now obviously a 50 mpg US tank is a goal. That's twice I've been very close. But it's going to be a hard challenge with winter conditions upon us.

Now I should take my own advice and post a garage entry and fuel log.

[awcook]

Man, I would kill for a 45+ tank. Hopefully in a year or two I will finally hit that mark, when I start doing ecomods. Right now I am not doing it because I want to keep my car under warranty and don't want it to look too ugly. Once I start, I assume that it will be extremely easy to get 45 MPG, as long as I don't redline and keep the engine idling.

For this tank I have started to shift to Neutral and coast to stops (except when other people are in the car) and hopefully this improves MPG a bit. I've done some reading and it appears that shifting to Neutral does not damage the transmission, only when you shift back into drive does it damage the transmission.

Also, while searching, there are a ton of people that are stupid about coasting to stops (they say that DFCO is better because it doesn't use gas).

[MetroMPG]

DFCO is useful if you're *trying* to slow down. In other words, if you shift to N and then end up braking, you might as well leave it in gear and use no-fuel DFCO to decelerate. But if you timed your coast perfectly for a no-brakes glide right to your next transition (stop, turn, whatever), then N makes sense for sure.

----

Eco cam LED indicator in progress...



Getting ready to put in the LED indicator (instead of using the voltmeter) to monitor eco i-VTEC.

I raided my junk electronics goodies box and found a dead circuit board that had an LED and resistor all ready to go for 12 volts. Chopped off that piece off the board, tested it (works!) and soldered on some wires.

Tomorrow I'll hook it up along with a fuse and figure out somewhere to stick it on the dashboard.

[awcook]

I think for the most part you will have to end up braking eventually when shifting to N (like coasting up to a stoplight or stop sign) but that still would use less gas than leaving it in gear and using gas up until you have to DFCO.

Yeah, hooking up an LED to go off when Eco cam is on is great. I don't like how in most other Honda vehicles there is a little ECO button that lights up when driving sanely (Honda Odyssey used this in 2006, I believe the Accord has been doing this since 2002) but they never put one in the Civic. Putting the LED in the dash is what I would do, that would make it more fun to drive IMHO, since I will be trying to keep the light on.

[pletby]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

So now obviously a 50 mpg US tank is a goal. That's twice I've been very close. But it's going to be a hard challenge with winter conditions upon us.

Very impressive! You can totally do it as long as it isn't too cold.

You live in southern Ontario right? You'll have a good shot at it for a little while yet. It's getting cold on the prairies, I hit 50.61 on the 21st of November with winter tires but I think I won't see that til spring again.