Honda Civic Fuel usage

Cianos

I put €40 of petrol into my Civic which brought the dial from almost empty, to past the top of the dial. Now after around 350km, the dial is back to where it was. Is this normal? Its my first car so I just want to get an idea for fuel usage.

Thanks

MargeS

There are a few factors here: the way you drive is a big one, do you do much city driving, what's your cars displacement (cc's). Do you know what the manufacturers suggested MPG is?

The reason why I ask all this is because I went from a 20euro a month car to a 50+ euro a week car. It was a bit of a shock - but I can vary my mileage between 280miles per tank to 320miles per tank.

Cianos

I have only been driving for less than a month so I dont know if I'm driving in an economical way or not yet.

It's a 1.3L and I have used it mainly for city/suburb driving

MargeS

you could be revving the engine alot - as a new driver you may not be engaging the clutch and accelerator properly. Besides city driving is severe on fuel usage, stopping - starting is the most severe. You might also be driving alot more then usual if you are taking lessons in an urban area. I'd give it a while longer so you have a longer time to gage your fuel consumption.

Cianos

Yeah that sounds accurate:rolleyes:

I'll give it another while to see how it goes. I guess I was just suprised that it seemed to go from half way to near empty a lot faster than full to half empty (or half full, depending on your outlook on life!)

Stky10

Cianos wrote:

I'll give it another while to see how it goes. I guess I was just suprised that it seemed to go from half way to near empty a lot faster than full to half empty (or half full, depending on your outlook on life!)

I've seen that happen on other cars before. I remember driving the bosses Nissan Patrol once, and it went through the last quarter of the tank like as if there was a huge hole in the tank so I limped in to the petrol station doing 20mph thinking i was lucky it was there.

Anan1

Cianos wrote:

I guess I was just suprised that it seemed to go from half way to near empty a lot faster than full to half empty (or half full, depending on your outlook on life!)

That's actually quite common in cars - I once had a Golf that would seemingly go forever on the first 1/4 tank. By the way, if you want to know how much fuel you're really using then brim the tank and reset the trip meter to 0. Drive until almost empty and then refill the tank (to the brim) Note the figure on the trip meter and the number of litres the second fill took. You will now be able to calculate your exact fuel consumption over the previous tank.

cpoh1

If its an older civic (91-95) then the 1.3L engine is a carb fella and they are thirsty beasts. Short journeys make a msssive dent on petrol consumption aswell.

Dilbert75

First thing - how much are you paying per litre? €40 @110.9 gets a lot more than €40 @ 125.9.

Secondly - work from fill to fill. Brim the tank, reset the odometer, run it to near empty, brim the tank, calculate the kms/miles per litre. Do this for at least five or six tanks and take an average. That's the only way it'll be accurate.

JHMEG

Ok, well you don't tell us which model it is, from the 1.3 carb, up to the 2.0 Type-R? And you don't tell us how much petrol cost you per litre.

And you don't tell us how much you used (by going back to the petrol station again an seeing how many litres it took to refill to the brim again)

40 euro @ 120c per litre is 33.3 litres which is 7.326 gal, and 350km is 217 miles. Works out at ~29mpg. Unrealistic for a Civic (unless it's a Type-R?).

Have had 3 Civics, 1.3 - 1.6, all non-VTEC. Never got less than 39mpg.

You need to be more accurate...

bazz26

Cianos wrote:

I guess I was just suprised that it seemed to go from half way to near empty a lot faster than full to half empty (or half full, depending on your outlook on life!)

That is common on most cars as it depends on what shape the fuel tank is and what size it is. It varies from car to car but on average a fuel tank holds between 50 and 60 litres of fuel.

JHMEG

Civic (and most Honda) fuel gauges are non-linear. When the gauge reads 1/2 full it's closer to 2/3 full. When the fuel light comes on, there are usually about 10 litres left.

Most Civics have 50 litre tanks, but I've never managed to get more than 41 litres in, and that was with the fuel light on for 2 days of light driving...

MargeS

You have to remember that Cianos is a learner driver who is driving for less than one month! Stopping, starting, lessons, urban driving, heavy on the gas, etc...