Honda Car Forum

i have a 2002 honda civic lx and i have taken all the excess weight out (stuff i dont need) of the car, i make sure the tires have enough air, i drive very efficiently but i have some questions about making it more efficient. there has to be a speed for each gear that would give me the least fuel consumption for distance traveled so is there a place like maybe an internet site where i can find that info? also is it true that if you keep the fuel tank above half that your car uses less gas? and will getting an octane booster be worth it because ive heard that even though the fuel costs more your car will be much more efficient if you lightly press on the pedal is this true?

i don't know of any websites, but just use common sense. getting rid of excess weight (things you don't need), is a step in the right direction. as for the speed thing it might not be practical (is it an automatic or standard)? as far as the gas thing, they are wrong. just remember that the more gas you have in your vehicle the more weight you are lugging around. now, having at least 1/3 or a tank or more of gas actually helps your fuel pump run cooler, thus extending the life of you fuel pump! i'd say it cost roughly $400-700 or so, to replace your fuel pump as it's in the gas tank. when you take off, you should slowly take off (lightly pressing on the pedal), and this in the long run should also save you gas. a/c on uses more gas. having the windows rolled down uses more gas (especially at highway speeds).you should change your air filer, oil, check tire pressure (as you mentioned), on a regular basis to get the best milage you can.edit: i couldn't resist! i know this thread wasn't about the fuel pump (ccgriffi…), but the part alone thru autozone is Pricing: $134.99 (for a 1 year warranty), not to mention the markup and labor involved (pulling tank, emptying if need be), strainer, fuel filter (if need be), etc., etc.

the slower you accelerate the better.1st-10MPH2nd-25MPH3rd - 40 MPH4th - 50+and 5th as soon as you are at speed.Your car is fuel injected so the amount of fuel has no effect.

i own a shop,and you have the right idea on all of this,anything like starting out easier will help on fuel,and always keep the car tuned really well keep all the filters changed also ,when it needs them, and Honda,s are good on gas anyway ,but with a few changes in driving habits you can actually save a little more on fuel.stop and go driving is hard on fuel so take of real easy and you will notice a difference in the mileage on it,and keep all you tires inflated to exactly what they should be ,they say that over 1,2 million barrels of oil is wasted each year due to under inflated tires,and it can be true,it seems like a lot, but it takes more effort to get the car moving with low tires,just try and keep all this stuff in good shape and it will help,good luck with it.

PAINT IT WHITEIT'S A PROVEN FACT, THAT WHITE CARS ARE BETTER ON FUEL ,THAN ANY OTHER CAR ,OF THE SAME MAKE AND MODEL,PAINTED A DIFFERANT COLOUR.SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE SUNS HEAT ATTRACTABILITYAND THE BURNING OFF OF FUEL VAPOUR EVEN IN YOUR PARKED VEHICLEIT'S TRUEIT SOUNDS STUPID BUT IT'S A FACTUP TO A 1/4 GALLON OF GAS PER TANK(1 LITRE),HONEST

To get the "most" fuel efficiency out of it then leave it in the driveway. lol.

Hmmm, not sure where jetskibratttt got his information from, if he would have done more research he would have found that the fuel systems on cars are sealed systems. The only way you lose fuel is if the vapor has a way to escape. All fuel injected cars have a sealed fuel system. The new OBDII and OBDIII system put out a check engine light if you have a leak in the fuel system. As far as color I have both white and black neons. They both get the same gas mileage, so I doubt color has anything to do with it. Metal heats up at the same rate no mater what color the paint is. Anyway, on to the subject, the slower the acceleration the better you get mileage wise. The more you car stay moving the better as well. Look at the lights and see when you’re going to need to stop. Start to slow down before you get there and try not to stop. It takes more fuel to get moving then it does to keep a car moving. A lot of the stop lights in a lot of cities are set up to where if you are doing the speed limit you should rarely ever need to stop. Also keep in mind that if your going to be doing a lot of city driving and your speed is below 45 mph. it's best to turn your vent blower or AC off and roll down the windows. The reason why is if your blower is on the Alternator needs to work harder to power the blower. Turning it off helps save fuel on that front. Also having the AC off while in the city saves fuel too. Again the AC compressor makes the motor work harder to turn the AC compressor. While at highway speed roll the windows up and turn the AC and blower on to 2. Again you’re not forcing the engine to work harder turning the alternator when you have you blower cranked all the way up. On the subject of octane booster. All octane is, is an anti knock rating. Increasing the octane may give you better mileage because your motor no longer needing to richen or lean out the mixture do to a knock. So if you find that you do get better mileage with a booster then why not spend the extra 3 or 4 bucks for the booster per tank. It’s now cheaper then buying the higher octane. However most cars perform just fine with the 85 or 87 octane. Another thing to help keep your mileage up, keep a watchful eye on your air filter. In the summer time you have more pollution and dust floating around in the air. Most manufactures say to change the air filter every 30,000 miles. I find if I change mine every spring before summer, I keep my mileage up more often. A better air filter like the K&N performance filters also help. Offering more air in to the engine to give you that little extra boost of power can help out a lot when it comes to mileage. Make sure you keep your oil changed as well. Every 3000 miles, and changing the gear oil on your car will help as well. This needs to be changed every 30,000 miles so if you have never had it done, then get it taken care of. One other thing that will help you is to keep the out side of the car clean as well. Dirt does change the aerodynamics of the car and this will also create drag. Hope this helps.

put the tires to the max pressure printed on the sidewall of the tiresinstall a vacuum guage on the instrument panel, if you can hold the vacuum "high" you will be getting max mpgdrive the speed limitlook far down the road for red light and stopped traffic, accellerating from a dead stop is a gas wasterair filter less than 20,000 miles old?spark plugs replace per the owners manual ?

> will getting an octane booster be worth itNO. If one bottle / can of octane booster is $5 and a tank of gas is $50, then that 10% extra cost. Octane booster will not increase your MPG by anything (and especially not 10%).I think it was consumer report (a while back - the last time gas was at "record high" - like last summer) that tested various methods to improve MPG. First-off, those additives and "tornado" mods did not work. And in fact most made MPG worse. All of the standard recommendations (like proper tune-up, tire air pressure, clean air filters, driving like a grand ma) all improved MPG. Of them all, surprising proper / improper tire pressure and tune ups only hurt MPG by very slim margin (much less than 5% each). But of them all the sedate driving style increased the MPG by a huge factor (something like 10% to 20%). I'm not absolutely concrete about those number but basically driving like a "bat out of hell" all the time would hurt the MPG the most. 10% to 20% seem like big numbers but a car at approx 30 MPG, hurting or improving MPG by 10% to 20% is only 3 MPG to 6 MPG (so that does sound about right).Though I was surprised to read that tire pressure and extra weight in the trunk didn't do much, it also makes sense. My Civic is way over 2,000 pounds. I would need to carry over 200 pounds of extra junk to make a 10% difference. And the same goes for tires but given tires have their own structural rigidity, even lowering the PSI by 1/3 didn't make a huge difference.A/C vs. open window: This is controversial mostly because the efficiency depends on many factor (your car speed, ambient air temp, how much/many windows are open). But in general leaving all the windows open on the HW is probably not as good as A/C... but also blowing A/C at low street speed is probably not a great idea either. But it is those in-between conditions (30 MPH to 50 MPG, only few windows open or cracked) that's hard to predict.===Conclusion: Do all of the above but driving sedately does the most to improve the MPG.

trade it for a honda scooter 50cc size. very good fuel milage now