What is wrong with my Fit??
#322
07-12-2012, 01:52 PM
Nobody asked you for your input, and the fact that you waited until 27 other people on here had already railed against me before showing your face to make sure your view was supported makes me think you are too much of a chickensh*t to have ever taken any risks in your life.
#323
07-12-2012, 02:05 PM
and to answer your first post...
try to know a little background on your car... you should have did a little reading or research before posting things I put in bold you prick.
My mom purchased a 2011 Honda Fit last fall, on my behest. She was looking for a nice, compact 4 door hatchback for getting around town that had decent driving characteristics and good cargo space, but the most important thing to her was fuel economy. I had owned a couple of Accords before and had been very happy with them, plus I read several owner reviews (including several on this board) about how they were constantly getting better fuel mileage than the EPA estimates, so I pushed her in the direction of the Fit.
Well it has been about 8 months since she bought it, and we have NEVER, not ONCE, hit 35 mpg even in constant interstate driving, but worse, we cannot even top 30 mpg anymore. I have been driving this thing to work the last couple of weeks to try to figure it out using different driving styles and trying to work the pedal a bit but to no avail. My driving during this time has consisted of about 80% highway (interstate) and 20% city. Yet I am averaging 30 mpg dead on. I could get that in my old Accords! What gives??? The one thing I will comment on is that this is the 5 speed automatic and it shifts ALL OVER THE PLACE. It shifts if you breathe, then it shifts again. It shifts if you look at it wrong. If I am pulling a hill to get on the insterstate for example, and it has shifted down into 4th and I am accelerating up the hill just fine, it STILL shifts again down into 3rd even though it was having zero problems pulling the hill in 4th, and without my pressing the gas pedal down any more. Is there something wrong with the tranny, that would explain the poor fuel mileage? Someone please help! I feel like I did my mom a disservice! Thanks
Well it has been about 8 months since she bought it, and we have NEVER, not ONCE, hit 35 mpg even in constant interstate driving, but worse, we cannot even top 30 mpg anymore. I have been driving this thing to work the last couple of weeks to try to figure it out using different driving styles and trying to work the pedal a bit but to no avail. My driving during this time has consisted of about 80% highway (interstate) and 20% city. Yet I am averaging 30 mpg dead on. I could get that in my old Accords! What gives??? The one thing I will comment on is that this is the 5 speed automatic and it shifts ALL OVER THE PLACE. It shifts if you breathe, then it shifts again. It shifts if you look at it wrong. If I am pulling a hill to get on the insterstate for example, and it has shifted down into 4th and I am accelerating up the hill just fine, it STILL shifts again down into 3rd even though it was having zero problems pulling the hill in 4th, and without my pressing the gas pedal down any more. Is there something wrong with the tranny, that would explain the poor fuel mileage? Someone please help! I feel like I did my mom a disservice! Thanks
#324
07-12-2012, 02:05 PM
Ok silly question. What sort of shoes do you wear? I've noticed that the thickness of the sole has a lot to do with feeling that pedal. Have you tried the spring trick or an etc perhaps crepe sole shoes.
#327
07-12-2012, 03:31 PM
I read about the spring trick a little while back, and thought about trying it, but haven't yet.
#328
07-12-2012, 03:33 PM
You take a spring and hook one end of it into one of the holes in the sheet metal by the ECU box and then the other end hooks around the accelerator pedal bar. The theory is that the DBW system is so sensitive that doing this increases resistance feel on the gas pedal and you aren't as likely to push it further down than necessary.
Or something like that.
Or something like that.
#329
07-12-2012, 03:38 PM
Is there anything you actually like about the car?
---
Good lord this is a ridiculous thread. So much energy expended by everyone. I hope it was worth it guys. Would love to see people put that much fire under their hoods.
#330
07-12-2012, 03:50 PM
#334
07-12-2012, 06:51 PM
Gotta comment on the instant fuel economy thing that Seb posted. Many people will know this stuff but hopefully helpful to anyone who doesn't yet.
Accelerating a car up to speed takes a LOT of energy, and it's because you are having to impart kinetic energy, ie motion, into a body at rest. Once you've got it moving, it takes very little effort to keep it going - in fact, aside from friction from 1) the tires 2) the whirring metal bits inside 3) the air, you wouldn't need any.
You can see this if you try to push your car by foot a hundred yards. (With a Fit, it's light enough you might actually be able to get it moving if you try; this was easier when cars were lighter). Getting the thing moving is very tough, but once it's going it's not so bad. And if you try this on a slope, you'll see why the slope makes a difference to your fuel economy - getting a car started rolling downhill may not require any pushing, but if you're pointed uphill even half a degree you can forget about doing it by hand unless you're a lot stronger than I am. You might even think, after doing that, that it's pretty amazing your car can go as far as 30 miles on only $4 of magic yellow fluid, since it takes so much effort.
Why do I ask you to do manual labor? To show how much more energy (coming from gas of course!) is needed to get the car up to speed or go up a hill. But once you're there, dandy, the only gas needed is to overcome the friction that I listed above. That's why your instant MPG drops to something horrible when you start off - 10 is not so bad actually - and shoots up to 60 when you're going downhill.
One of the reasons carmakers resisted for many years instant fuel economy readouts is because it is confusing to have the needle go up and down so far. But it's true - briefly while driving downhill you are getting 80mpg, and if you could drive only downhill, you'd really get 80mpg! (Or infinite, in which case you wouldn't need an engine at all). Of course, you can't do that. You won't likely be driving from 0 to your cruising speed all the time either, which is good because when you're pulling out of your driveway and getting up to 40 you really are getting terrrible MPG.
But here's the key - you are only accelerating BRIEFLY, and then probably you go at a constant speed for a while, and your overall MPG will be the weighted average of those two periods (and the period when you slow down, burning no gas at all).
Take me as an example. I often take about 10 seconds getting up to 30mpg, then I drive for perhaps 2 minutes before getting caught at a light; this I repeat over and over. During those 10 seconds I get terrible instant mpg, but then for 120 seconds I get 40. Average it all together, that 10 seconds doesn't have TOO much of an impact. Now, if my town put in another stoplight, then maybe I'd only get to drive straight for 60 seconds before having to stop and then accelerate up again. If that happened, then that 10 seconds is looking like a more significant part of my overall time, and my overall mpg has dropped by quite a bit. So the key is to maximize the amount of time you spend in that very efficient cruise mode - just enough throttle to maintain your speed.
Having said all that, and now that you probably get that the instant mpg is just a tool to help you think about your driving habits, I will also point out that the instant mpg displayed when you are doing that minimum-energy cruise (maybe it reads 45mpg or something?) is what you can expect to approach by driving efficiently. You won't be able to hit it, because you have to spend SOME time accelerating during your day. But you can approach that as a goal if you want to put in the effort. At the other end of the range is the goal you could approach if you floor it all the time - that's whatever the bar is at when you're accelerating.
That's the basics on instant MPG! Oh, just as a side note, I live at the bottom of a hill. This puts me in the unfortunate position of having to go UP the hill every time I go somewhere, and for no good reason: I then throw that energy away (as heat from the brakes) every time I come home. Shoot!
Accelerating a car up to speed takes a LOT of energy, and it's because you are having to impart kinetic energy, ie motion, into a body at rest. Once you've got it moving, it takes very little effort to keep it going - in fact, aside from friction from 1) the tires 2) the whirring metal bits inside 3) the air, you wouldn't need any.
You can see this if you try to push your car by foot a hundred yards. (With a Fit, it's light enough you might actually be able to get it moving if you try; this was easier when cars were lighter). Getting the thing moving is very tough, but once it's going it's not so bad. And if you try this on a slope, you'll see why the slope makes a difference to your fuel economy - getting a car started rolling downhill may not require any pushing, but if you're pointed uphill even half a degree you can forget about doing it by hand unless you're a lot stronger than I am. You might even think, after doing that, that it's pretty amazing your car can go as far as 30 miles on only $4 of magic yellow fluid, since it takes so much effort.
Why do I ask you to do manual labor? To show how much more energy (coming from gas of course!) is needed to get the car up to speed or go up a hill. But once you're there, dandy, the only gas needed is to overcome the friction that I listed above. That's why your instant MPG drops to something horrible when you start off - 10 is not so bad actually - and shoots up to 60 when you're going downhill.
One of the reasons carmakers resisted for many years instant fuel economy readouts is because it is confusing to have the needle go up and down so far. But it's true - briefly while driving downhill you are getting 80mpg, and if you could drive only downhill, you'd really get 80mpg! (Or infinite, in which case you wouldn't need an engine at all). Of course, you can't do that. You won't likely be driving from 0 to your cruising speed all the time either, which is good because when you're pulling out of your driveway and getting up to 40 you really are getting terrrible MPG.
But here's the key - you are only accelerating BRIEFLY, and then probably you go at a constant speed for a while, and your overall MPG will be the weighted average of those two periods (and the period when you slow down, burning no gas at all).
Take me as an example. I often take about 10 seconds getting up to 30mpg, then I drive for perhaps 2 minutes before getting caught at a light; this I repeat over and over. During those 10 seconds I get terrible instant mpg, but then for 120 seconds I get 40. Average it all together, that 10 seconds doesn't have TOO much of an impact. Now, if my town put in another stoplight, then maybe I'd only get to drive straight for 60 seconds before having to stop and then accelerate up again. If that happened, then that 10 seconds is looking like a more significant part of my overall time, and my overall mpg has dropped by quite a bit. So the key is to maximize the amount of time you spend in that very efficient cruise mode - just enough throttle to maintain your speed.
Having said all that, and now that you probably get that the instant mpg is just a tool to help you think about your driving habits, I will also point out that the instant mpg displayed when you are doing that minimum-energy cruise (maybe it reads 45mpg or something?) is what you can expect to approach by driving efficiently. You won't be able to hit it, because you have to spend SOME time accelerating during your day. But you can approach that as a goal if you want to put in the effort. At the other end of the range is the goal you could approach if you floor it all the time - that's whatever the bar is at when you're accelerating.
That's the basics on instant MPG! Oh, just as a side note, I live at the bottom of a hill. This puts me in the unfortunate position of having to go UP the hill every time I go somewhere, and for no good reason: I then throw that energy away (as heat from the brakes) every time I come home. Shoot!
#336
07-13-2012, 09:21 AM
To be completely honest, the Fit's gas pedal is very flimsy and doesn't offer much resistance. The car I just traded in had electronic throttle, and the pedal was a LOT stiffer.
In the Fit's defense though, that car cost $10K more, and that was 10 years ago.
In the Fit's defense though, that car cost $10K more, and that was 10 years ago.
#337
07-13-2012, 09:37 AM
I still have just over a half tank in the car from when I filled up last, and have worked this pedal and my driving habits to no end trying to eek out the higher mileage, but my trip odometer which I reset at the last fill up is only showing 136 miles right now. And the fuel level drops like a brick after the gauge passes halfway.
I suppose I could wait until the tank is dry before calculating, or hell I could just go fill back up right now and see how much gas I have used, but do the simple math- it's a 10.6 gallon tank, and I have only gotten 136 miles on a half tank. Not even 150 (which would give me 300 miles on a whole tank, and thus 30mpg, if the level didn't drop faster after a half tank and all else being equal) and it's nowhere close.
Now, about that article linked-- I notice everyone on here wants to defend Honda by jumping all over Hyundai for their 40mpg claim. Fact is, Hyundai didn't lie or exaggerate their numbers knowing there is no repercussion. They simply said "the 40mpg Elantra" in their ads which is not as much a lie as it is stupid people not doing their own research. The Elantra WILL hit 40mpg highway. Honda flat lied about their numbers on the Fit at least with regards to the auto tranny- yet some on here want to justify it by saying its acceptable. One poster on here even tried to accuse me of not doing my research before buying the car. Well if I didn't do my research, how would I know to be upset that my car isn't living up the standards Honda claimed??
Yes I am upset that the car is not giving me the mileage I was led to believe by Honda. That is blatant misrepresentation on Honda's part if they knew the EPA numbers were off yet did nothing to fix it. Hyundai never claim that everyone will get 40mpg all the time on their Elantra, yet they are under fire from people stupid enough to not have taken the 2 minutes to look it up. I understand the "well we bias our numbers toward the EPA findings to stay competitive" comment, and I have no idea whether it was a Honda rep that said it, but fact is Honda used to take care of their customers by if nothing else being honest and having some integrity with respect to their cars, and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. My Fit is proof positive of that.
Last edited by seb9316; 07-13-2012 at 09:40 AM.
#339
07-13-2012, 10:19 AM
I can already tell you right now that trying to drive this car any differently than I have in the past and concentrating hard on working the pedal to increase my fuel mileage, isn't helping at all. And trust me I have REALLY tried.
I still have just over a half tank in the car from when I filled up last, and have worked this pedal and my driving habits to no end trying to eek out the higher mileage, but my trip odometer which I reset at the last fill up is only showing 136 miles right now. And the fuel level drops like a brick after the gauge passes halfway.
I suppose I could wait until the tank is dry before calculating, or hell I could just go fill back up right now and see how much gas I have used, but do the simple math- it's a 10.6 gallon tank, and I have only gotten 136 miles on a half tank. Not even 150 (which would give me 300 miles on a whole tank, and thus 30mpg, if the level didn't drop faster after a half tank and all else being equal) and it's nowhere close.
Now, about that article linked-- I notice everyone on here wants to defend Honda by jumping all over Hyundai for their 40mpg claim. Fact is, Hyundai didn't lie or exaggerate their numbers knowing there is no repercussion. They simply said "the 40mpg Elantra" in their ads which is not as much a lie as it is stupid people not doing their own research. The Elantra WILL hit 40mpg highway. Honda flat lied about their numbers on the Fit at least with regards to the auto tranny- yet some on here want to justify it by saying its acceptable. One poster on here even tried to accuse me of not doing my research before buying the car. Well if I didn't do my research, how would I know to be upset that my car isn't living up the standards Honda claimed??
Yes I am upset that the car is not giving me the mileage I was led to believe by Honda. That is blatant misrepresentation on Honda's part if they knew the EPA numbers were off yet did nothing to fix it. Hyundai never claim that everyone will get 40mpg all the time on their Elantra, yet they are under fire from people stupid enough to not have taken the 2 minutes to look it up. I understand the "well we bias our numbers toward the EPA findings to stay competitive" comment, and I have no idea whether it was a Honda rep that said it, but fact is Honda used to take care of their customers by if nothing else being honest and having some integrity with respect to their cars, and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. My Fit is proof positive of that.
I still have just over a half tank in the car from when I filled up last, and have worked this pedal and my driving habits to no end trying to eek out the higher mileage, but my trip odometer which I reset at the last fill up is only showing 136 miles right now. And the fuel level drops like a brick after the gauge passes halfway.
I suppose I could wait until the tank is dry before calculating, or hell I could just go fill back up right now and see how much gas I have used, but do the simple math- it's a 10.6 gallon tank, and I have only gotten 136 miles on a half tank. Not even 150 (which would give me 300 miles on a whole tank, and thus 30mpg, if the level didn't drop faster after a half tank and all else being equal) and it's nowhere close.
Now, about that article linked-- I notice everyone on here wants to defend Honda by jumping all over Hyundai for their 40mpg claim. Fact is, Hyundai didn't lie or exaggerate their numbers knowing there is no repercussion. They simply said "the 40mpg Elantra" in their ads which is not as much a lie as it is stupid people not doing their own research. The Elantra WILL hit 40mpg highway. Honda flat lied about their numbers on the Fit at least with regards to the auto tranny- yet some on here want to justify it by saying its acceptable. One poster on here even tried to accuse me of not doing my research before buying the car. Well if I didn't do my research, how would I know to be upset that my car isn't living up the standards Honda claimed??
Yes I am upset that the car is not giving me the mileage I was led to believe by Honda. That is blatant misrepresentation on Honda's part if they knew the EPA numbers were off yet did nothing to fix it. Hyundai never claim that everyone will get 40mpg all the time on their Elantra, yet they are under fire from people stupid enough to not have taken the 2 minutes to look it up. I understand the "well we bias our numbers toward the EPA findings to stay competitive" comment, and I have no idea whether it was a Honda rep that said it, but fact is Honda used to take care of their customers by if nothing else being honest and having some integrity with respect to their cars, and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. My Fit is proof positive of that.
#340
07-13-2012, 10:29 AM
I guess the bigger question at this point is what do you want done. Your car is working as designed with no obvious fault that you have described here. (clearly there could be something like a stuck brake caliper affecting millage but there's been nothing like that described). You stubbornly refuse to accept the idea that your driving methods can affect shift patterns and millage numbers and get extremely annoyed when anyone suggests that you need to adjust your driving methods.
The car is clearly a bad match with your style of driving. Continuing to come on here and insist that we tell you the magic button to better fuel economy over looking at your own habits means that you won't change anything. Buy a different car.
The car is clearly a bad match with your style of driving. Continuing to come on here and insist that we tell you the magic button to better fuel economy over looking at your own habits means that you won't change anything. Buy a different car.