Mileage drop of 21 MPG - need mechanical advice

[pounsfos]

if they broke it, they should be paying for the fix not you .

your problem is it's a honda.

in all seriousness though, sounds like your torque converter is slipping and your ecu has gone all haywire (if it is fuel injected which i believe they are)

take it to a respectable shop with a fault diagnostics thing and get them to check the codes (you dont need the check engine light on for that)

and whats this about his car being old, mines 9years older than his and goes like a dream , its not ages its how well its kept

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by darcane

Definately don't go back to the shop you had it at. Bad vibes there.

The tranny behavior seems very concerning to me. High revs without acceleration generally means it's slipping. Are there certain gears that slip and others that don't? All gears slipping? It may be worn clutches, a failing pump, or clogged filter/valve body... Try taking it to a shop that specializes in either Hondas or transmissions.

My brother owns a transmission repair shop and has mentioned that Honda's 90s era autos provide regular work for him. Those and Jeep Cherokees.

Mike

+1 on the Transmission.

[Cd]

Wow ! Where did all of these replies suddenly come from :-) ?
I will try and answer as many questions as I can when I read what everyone here has to say.

Thanks for all the feedback guys !

[Cd]

Originally Posted by buglao

In your case i believe your o2 sensor is the mess up your MPG. Change that then you have your MPG back to your original

Funny you should mention that. I bought a new one and had this very shop install it around three years ago ( a Bosch ) I couldn't get the old one out and didn't want to break it off, so one of the guys there did it for free.
Not all the guys at that shop are jerks.
The guys that recently worked on my car are some twenty something year old guys. One of them happened to be my neighbor a couple of years ago, and he seems kind of shady.
I plan to take the car back to the shop on a day that one of the other guys are there.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Lots of potential causes and dealers are not well versed in diagnostic repairs on 18 year old cars. They seldom see anything over 10 years age. Most of what they do these days is warranty, maintenance, inspections, and brakes.

Some easy tests.

Can you push the car in neutral with the brake off. If not you may have some sticking brake calipers, which would also show some signs of heat at the wheel where the bad caliper or wheel cylinder was located.

Your mileage change is not clear to me. How many MPG were you getting before and after the cnage occured? If the difference is 21 MPG then there is something dramatically wrong like jumped timing, or a stuck fuel pressure regulator.

If the compression test OK, then I would test fuel pressure to see if the regulator is functioning properly. Even a bad O2 sensor would not cause that dramatic a drop in fuel mileage.

Being a Honda, there are probably independent repair shops in your location that are much more familiar with your car than even a factory trained dealer mechanic, that might not work on an 18 year old car more than once or twice a year, if even that much.

regards
Mech

Thanks Mech.

I'll do the rolling test, but I'm pretty sure it's not the calipers, since I coast in neutral just fine. I personally changed out the fuel pump around three years ago, but I'll research the regulator. As mentioned previous the O2 sensor is pretty much new.
the car was getting around 44 MPG a few months ago. It's now getting around 23 with the same type of driving ( mostly highway driving )

[Cd]

Originally Posted by darcane

Definately don't go back to the shop you had it at. Bad vibes there.

The tranny behavior seems very concerning to me. High revs without acceleration generally means it's slipping. Are there certain gears that slip and others that don't? All gears slipping? It may be worn clutches, a failing pump, or clogged filter/valve body... Try taking it to a shop that specializes in either Hondas or transmissions.

My brother owns a transmission repair shop and has mentioned that Honda's 90s era autos provide regular work for him. Those and Jeep Cherokees.

Mike

There is very little power up to 45 MPH. past that it seems to act normal.
The "kids" that worked on my car said that the transmission was fine and that it wasn't slipping.
When I say very little power, I mean that 0-60 stock was like 12 seconds and now it feels like 20 something, so it's not drastic, but I can certainly notice it.
I think I just need to find the guys at that shop that I have dealt with in the past ( the honest ones ) and ask them if they could reanalyze it since the car still has the same problem.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Lazarus

+1 on the Transmission.

The first thing that had me wondering about the transmission was the lack of power, but then the speedometer started failing several months ago as well.
What causes this ? Just age, or is it a symptom of something wrong with the transmission ?

As far as why that I paid them even though they 'broke' the part, was because they said that the part was so worn that it sort of just broke on its own as they were removing the distributor cap. I don't see how that is possible, but I'm also not a mechanic.
I had two choices : Pay for a tow truck to tow my now dead car home and try and fix the problem myself, or pay the money and hope that the shop actually fixed it.

[Cd]

Originally Posted by pounsfos

your problem is it's a honda.

Shucks. I new i shoulda bought a Dodge.

Originally Posted by pounsfos

whats this about his car being old, mines 9years older than his and goes like a dream , its not ages its how well its kept

No kidding !! " With a car of that vintage " ?

I always thought of vintage cars as ones from the 1920s .

[gone-ot]

Originally Posted by Cd

No kidding !! " With a car of that vintage " ?

I always thought of vintage cars as ones from the 1920s .

...nah, vintage cars are the ones that still use CORK gaskets in their CARBURETORS (ha,ha).

[Cd]

I just went to start the car. It's dead.
It just sits there turning over.
It was running fine just before I last shut it off, other than the poor mileage and poor acceleration.
I'm just glad it decided to die now, rather than somewhere that I'd have to get it towed.
I might have a slipping transmission, but Its obviously either not getting spark or fuel.
I'll check there next.