These two positions:

 

Nah, always just leave it in the bottom left position.

 

Koi, I feel your pain. I have been trying to get advice here and on other similar discussion boards regarding the fuel economy of my FIT. And everyone just keeps on telling me to learn to drive more conservatively. Trust me, I've tried! I've driven a whole tank literally without letting it rev higher than 3000 rpm, as well as driven it from Queens to the end of long island and back in the middle of the night maintaining a 55-60 mph on the high way, without stops except for when I had to turn around and only ended up getting 32 mpg, which is ridiculously low even compare to some "City" numbers you see here. Granted, my FIT is only at 4000 miles (so I guess I still have a while until it is "properly" broken in...) but I share your thought exactly that if by 10k miles I am still getting the same mpg, I am just going to trade it in.
I also ordered the scangauge this morning, let's compare numbers when they arrive, shall we?
The best way to tell whether it's the car or the driver is if I traded cars with a 45mpg FIT owner for a week. Then we'll really see what's up.
Who's up for that?

 

Koi, I'm not trying to crap on you. I'm just going with Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

I'm doing so for several reasons. If you looked at all the technical factors that affect fuel economy in our cars, you'd have to suffer from probably ALL of them - old oil, clogged air cleaner, bad tires, low tire pressure, bad alignment... Each of those things independently will only affect your economy a few measly percent. Compound them, and you MIGHT end up with numbers like you're getting.

The fact is, having all of those things affecting you is very unlikely. If you want to rule those things out then change your oil, put a new air cleaner in, have your alignment checked and wheels balanced. Throw in a bottle of Techron to clean your injectors.

The simple fact is that the easiest way to knock the car's fuel economy down is to drive it poorly. (I should say 'not perfectly' instead. You'll learn with the SG) You'll see what I mean when you get the ScanGauge in. You'll see that in some conditions, pushing the throttle just 1/4 inch MORE drives the instantaneous MPG gauge down by 10-15mpg. You'll be able to see that while you think you're being soft on the throttle, you may be giving it just that extra 1/4 inch. You'll see when you coast, that fuel is cut off, so you'll learn to use that. The feedback it gives you will teach you more than anyone can explain here.

Since having the ScanGauge (not even two weeks) I can already tell I've improved my economy. If I had to guess, my average went up to 34-35 from 33-34. Not a huge difference, but it is still a difference!


I will give you a few numbers to compare to. Set the SG to show you GPH (gallons per hour). What I get from my car are these numbers:

Idle, at operating temperature (cold usually ends up at the higher numbers)
In neutral, no AC: 0.18 - 029 (usually around 0.22)
In neutral, with AC on: 0.25 - 0.38
In drive, no AC: 0.21 - 0.38 (depends on engine/transmission temperature)
In drive, with AC on: 0.35 - 0.40

If you're burning significantly more fuel at idle, you may have a problem.

 

Fray,

I understand your point completely. However, that stand point is really taking the huge assumption that every FIT (and for our discussion every AT FIT sport) is built exactly the same in every little detail. AND also assuming that those first few miles on you FIT before you drove away from the dealer's lot is also driven exactly the same way. I am not disputing that the driver's technique probably has a lot to do with the Car's fuel economy performance (that's why I ordered my SC this morning), but I also share Koi's feeling that perhaps we both do have a more guzzling FIT, or perhaps that ours haven't yet been properly broken-in.

Thanks for the numbers, even though they weren't really directed to me.

 

not sure if we've been through it but... check your oil, is it overfilled? Same goes for the A/T fluid. How's the tire pressure?

 

I dont have Scangauge, it might, i have no idea, i doubt it does, ask around here, lots of fitters have it.

With our old hondas, theres a specific spec like 650 +/-50 rpms on idle. Theres a screw that you adjust by the throttle body with IAC valve connector disconnected to get it right on spec through the tach.

Dont know if that applies to our fit, all I know is you can do Idle Learn Process with our fit, I think theres a thread about it here, google it. Its pretty easy, or if you could get the helms manual or honda service manual for the fit, it should be well detailed in there.

On the scangauge for sale on ebay, it says you can read horsepower ??? really? wow.

 

Man, i would have to guess that it's only showing what the car's computer is estimating, as stock. The place I ordered from didn't list HP in the available monitoring options.

 

practice makes perfect. you will achieve better mpg if you just keep trying. The SG will most definitely help you but even then it does nothing to your car or you.............you control you and you make the decisions on how you drive. Better mpg is something you work for(for most people) because everyday will be a different driving situation even if you take the same route at the same time. You must adapt to your surroundings and take advantage of them. This is exactly what I do and I have worked hard at squeezing every mpg that I can(ask my wife because she swears I just roll around instead of driving or using fuel).

You must become one with the FIT!




The philosophy of better mpg.

 

Well, to apply another philosophy to the ScanGauge, and how it gets you better mileage...

"If you can't measure it, you can't manage it"


The ScanGauge allows you to measure things you normally wouldn't see - information you normally do not get from your car. You then use that information to adjust your behavior, and affect your efficiency accordingly.

And I just gotta say it again - THE biggest thing that affects your fuel economy is


YOU

 

Actually, this IS in the xgauge section! Check the PDF from the scangauge website. It says "all vehicles" for HP, will have to try it. [It works!]

 

If I had a Fit that was getting 20mpg I would check the following, looking for something that is radically wrong:
- check tire pressures
- check alignment (front AND REAR)
- reset the ECU via battery disconnect or whatever method is popular here
- test for fuel system leak

Again, there would have to be something terrifically wrong in order for any one of the above to have a 10mpg effect. Multiples of the above could add up to that kind of number.

But I suspect conditions, as much as you don't like to hear it. For example, based on the GPH numbers above, sitting at traffic lights with the the car in gear and the AC on for a significant number of minutes during your commute is going to utterly wipe out any amount of easy acceleration etc. that you might try to do while in motion.