I've had my Fit Sport MT since July 29/06 and have about 26,000 miles on it now. I was in the middle of a 2,200 mile journey a little over a week ago and had been averaging ~360 highway miles per tank (@ 10 gallon fills +/-) however the last three tanks have lasted considerably less. Figured the first was a fluke; bad gas. Actually, since it was a full serve only station, I figured the pump may have shut off prematurely and the attendant failed to top it off as my warning light came on at about 275 highway miles (320 or 330 highway miles was the usual warning light point) but the next tank did the same thing. My last tank was mixed city and highway but it's still poor given my past experiences and especially poor compared to those who claim 40mpg on here! Anyone have any ideas as what may be causing this and/or tips about what I can do to improve it? Should I try a bottle of injector cleaner before my next fill up? I'm driving another 2,200 miles tomorrow and I'm hoping it will only take the usual 6 tanks and not 7! With gas prices these days, a tank of gas is not cheap! Thanks in advance!

 

Check your tire pressures (edit: use a digital or dial gauge; don't trust pencil gauges or gas station air pumps); check that your parking brake isn't sticking.

Failing that, have you made the same 2200 mile drive before? Might you be driving somewhat faster on the long trip than you normally do? More A/C recently?

 

I also would consider changing your oil. Check if it's old.

Before my first oil change (after I got my car), my mileage would go up as the engine broke in. Second oil change, the mileage went down that I could barely get 270 per tank (i usually get 310). After the 2nd change, mileage immediately went back up.

 

yeah gordio is right less resistance to the engine = more performance and efficiency outa it. if ur oil is dirty, it will affect a lil.

 

Are you just going by miles per tank, or dividing by gallons used? Are you using the same gas pump? Driving into or with the wind long distances?

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I haven't checked the tire pressure in a few weeks so I plan on doing that when filling up today. I use the pressure gauge built into my portable air compressor.

The oil was changed not too long ago. The oil life meter is at 60% and was done probably about a month ago IIRC.

I've done this drive probably a dozen times before (at least) however this was the first time with the Fit. Other times were with a 1995 and 1987 Nissan Sentra. The style of driving does change from 4 lane highways to 2 lane with passing lanes up hills in many areas (most of NL, 2.5 hours worth of NS, maybe an hour in NB) and is a bit hillier. Perhaps the Fit just doesn't take this style of driving as well as the Sentra did as my fuel economy never took such a big hit on that section before. In fact, I was able once in my 95 Sentra to make it from Whycocomagh, NS to Grand Falls, NL on the same 50L tank. I don't know if gods blessed the gas in that native gas station or what but I got 750km on that tank, and if the next decent gas station wasn't another 100km, I probably could have squeezed some more out of it. As for A/C usage, I used less A/C as the temps around here have been unseasonably cool.

I haven't checked the air filter. I will do that before heading off.

Miles per tank, but double checked by dividing by gallons used. I'm pretty good at looking at the gauge and knowing how much gas it will take after filling my Fit up close to 100 times now ;-) As for wind, sure it's windy but with the direction of the road for those last couple of tanks I'd say it was pretty evenly divided between head on, directly behind and from the sides when you average it out over all those hours. 2200 miles in 46 hours using the same gas pump? I don't think so

I'll report back in a couple days and let everyone know how the milage faired on this trip. Thanks again everyone.

 

Honestly there are ALOT of variables there, I woulden't be suprised. A 10-20% sweep? I'd also drive with the cruise control on and minimize any other usage of the system. I think it maybe because you are driving a little faster than usual. Anyways good luck
-bix

 

Re: tire pressure-- I would suggest that you NEVER trust the gauge on your compressor. Instead, buy the best tire gauge you can find. And, obviously, check pressure when your tires are cold and have been stationary for hours.

 

A lot of it depends on how you drive. My first tank I got 41mpg babying it as I broke it in. I received 36 the next tank with the AC on for about a total of a half hour and opening it up a little bit... Next time I filled up I had the AC on for the last half of a tank... 225mi at the half tank mark, and then only got about 75 on the last half with the AC on.

My theory? Biggest contributing factor is the Air Conditioning. I've still yet to receive any less than 36mpg.

~Peace

 

I have no idea what to do on mine .Ive been getting 170-180 with a full tank its insanely crazy!

 

275-300 miles per a tank.........about 28-31mpg.

 

There's a low mileage thread. Some people with automatic transmissions, mostly the Sport version, report what looks like unreasonably low mileage; however, other people with the same models have normal mileage, and so far nobody with bad mileage has seemed terribly interested in finding out why.

 

quick and easy just change the air filter,,,,then look for other reasons if that dos'nt help..

 

I have played around with average highway speed from ~63 to ~75 on about a dozen 215 mile trips where I fill up at the same place, about the same time of day using cruise control as much as possible. At the same time, I used a scangaugeII see differences on the overall trip. Differences between 63->75 resulted in about 15% worse mpg on flat, open, relatively windless roadways. I know its not a controlled experiment, just observations.

Like others have said: tires, air filter, oil, and SPEED.

Cheers,

Gil

 

Are you running to empty all the time? That's not a good practice as the filter and injectors could get clogged, especially in an older car (high mileage).

 

I generally run until the reminder light comes on and a bit beyond depending on where the cheap gas is. I never have had less than a half gallon in the tank, and typically end up filling up with 10 gallons. Makes for easy MPG calculations!

Checked the air filter, a little dirty but definitely not clogged. Tire pressures were O.K. Fuel economy remained as poor through the 2 lane roads/hills and improved slightly on the 4 lane flatter roads but only by about 10 miles a tank. The biggest improvement was when I returned to the US where it seems to be averaging back to normal (36.1 MPG mostly highway last tank). Is Canadian gasoline that different from US blends to cause such a reduction in fuel economy? Perhaps the winter blend is 365 days a year there? That's the only parallels I can draw right now because every tank I had across Canada yielded the same poor fuel economy and then as soon as I filled up in the states things were back to normal again (and I've filled up 2x since then, same back to normal results). Up to 28,100 miles now. Got a good sized hole in a fog light and 3 new paint chips on the hood now too... Think I can convince the dealer to fix them when I take it in for the airbag recall? LOL!

 

Winds can play a huge role in mpg. If you had head winds for a few days that would explain a few low tanks.

I have had mpg vary from 45 going out to 33 coming back because of the wind.

Anybody really interested in their mpg and finding out what is wrong needs to buy a scangauge.

 

After at least 14 tanks in a 2 week period I'd say the winds pretty much averaged out over time. For a single one tank trip, sure, I'd say there is a case, but I covered one heck of a lot of terrain for there to be a strong head wind the entire time. In fact, when the MPG finally improved heading across the border, I was actually traveling east to west AGAINST the wind. When it first got bad, I was traveling with the wind west to east. Of course, the wind changed directions many times, as did I as no roads on that part of the continent are straight. Also, I might add that my old Nissan Sentras would reliably work out roughly the same MPG regardless of winds. I used to do this same trek in the dead of winter having to wait out crews to carve a path though 10 foot snow drifts in the highway and didn't see as big of swings in fuel economy. I guess my Fit is just a lot more finicky with how you drive it, driving conditions and weather than my past couple cars.