Hello everyone,

I'm an owner of a 2008 Honda fit sport with automatic transmission.
The sole reason I bought the car was "good" advertised gas millage, however my average with the fit is around 11l/100km!

I'm not racing or raving the car at all, my wife drives it as well and she is getting same millage without pushing the car too much. Our best tank (once i tried to shift around 2200 drive slow etc.) was 10l/100km!

I'm very disappointed!
I took the car to the dealership (Vancouver Honda on marine drive) and at first they told me that i need to brake in the engine and that will fix the millage.
My car has 25 000 km now and nothing changed.
I took the car to the dealership again and they told me to collect 5 gas receipt and write the km driven on them and bring it back.
When I did they looked at it and they told me there is nothing they can do since the gas consumption depend on my driving habits!!!
I have an 1992 acura integra (1800 cc, 145 hp, automatic) that I drive the same way as the fir and that car is using 9l/100km!!!!
How the hell is this possible?

I even called honda Canada and they just told me that's normal consumption based on my driving???

I'm so pissed at this that I'm considering starting a class action law suit and I would appreciate if people with similar problem would send me a message if they are interested in joining.

I'm avare of a similar case in USA, and Honda settle the claims which makes me think there is a chance it would happen in Canada as well.

So please, send me a message or reply if you are interested!

Thank you,

 

I'm not sure what 10L/100km is in MPG but if you're shifting at 2200 RPMs you are just bogging the engine out since its no where near its efficiency range when you shift and going to kill your fuel mileage. You have to let it rev up (around 2.5k to 3k depending on traffic) before you shift.

Shifting at 2200 would be ok for a torquey 3 liter and up engine but this a 1.5 liter, you have to rev it up. Mine is also a '08 A/T and I've gotten mid 20 MPGs by shifting at 2k RPM with my steering mounted paddles since I was used to driving a torquey twin-turbo BMW 535I. The reason I got that mileage is due to a combination of the torque converter staying open as well as it forcing itself to go into VTEC in effort to get my Fit to speed. Once I started shifting at 2800-3200, it was an easy 5 mile increase in mileage since VTEC wasn't forced to engage.

 

10l/100km is ~23.5 mpg, and an Auto in city traffic is probably using almost a half kilo/hour of fuel just idling...

Spot on as usual Hootie!

Additionally he admits to the majority of his driving being city mileage...
https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/grea...uestion-3.html

This can be resolved with a driver mod and a tune-up wouldn't hurt.

OP: The gearing and torque curve in your Fit is far different than that of your old Integra.

You can still drive slow and short shift and return crappy mileage.

 

I thought he said it was an automatic trans? Why would he manual shift that low? If your in sport mode you would shift as high as possible for the excitement of it. If your driving around town the auto will shift up at the proper rpm and if you loaded the motor it would down shift to the proper gear. Unit Conversions That 10L/100km comes out to 23.52 mpg which is bad compared to what I getting.

I would disconnect the neg term and put in higher octane and see what happens b4 suing. Every one wants money but they dont change their driving habits or spend a little money to save money.

 

I don't know about the OP's method since Canadian A/T GDs don't have the paddles if I recall correctly. However, in my case I used the paddles with the gear selector in S and basically treated the trans as if it was a SMG (Sequential Manual Gearbox). When it that mode, it will not downshift for you unless you hit a predetermined shift point.

So the trans will say 5th until the vehicle speed falls below 30 MPH (at which it shifts to 4th), then downshift into 3rd once the speed falls below 21MPH, then it skips 2nd and goes straight to 1st gear once the speed falls below 6 MPH. The opposite holds true for upshifts, you will not gain access to *insert gear* other than second which can be accessed at a stop unless you exceed the listed vehicle speed above.

 

I asked him to expound on his driving habits and what he has done to remedy the matter... waiting on replies here and there.

Hopefully we can help him resolve it cheaply..

 

Thanks for that info, My Fit was a manual and my civic is a 5 speed auto that runs 2000 rpm at 60 mph. I do like the SMG, I test drove one that my son wanted.

 

I did research the neg.battery to reset the ecu and I was told to do it every season change. I never did it to the Fit and now wished I did. I did it in the 04 Civic and it seemed to keep the mpg constant.

 

Just want to clarify for any confused or mislead readers here, the Fit doesn't have an SMG trans. It has the typical automatic trans with a torque converter as well as a hydraulic manual valve body which is the key to allowing it to be shifted with the paddles. SMG and other electronic clutch transmissions like Porsche's PKD, BMW's DCT, and Audi/VW's DSG are a totally different transmission types.

 

This would certainly be a good idea for OP and anyone else suffering poor mileage, but I have a feeling this won't resolve his issues.

He will need to change his driving habits entirely as well as make sure he is not having say something like a dying/faulty Oxygen sensor, which is not necessarily something that will throw a CEL until the voltage output gets really weird. Bad Valve lash adjustment will also hurt mileage.



This is true.

The DSG for instance have two seperate electronically operated manual clutches.

One for 1-3-5, and the other for 2-4-6.

This is how they hand off gear changes so smooth and seamless.

The only way to make the Fit's Auto better would be to fiddle with the solenoids and find a way to keep full line pressure. This would make it feel like a Sequential gearbox, even though it is still using the bands/servos and fluid converter.

I wonder what sort of stall-up the stock converters have... That could be fun at the drag strip under boost! Clicking off consistent clean shifts at full pressure with a little boost and/or a little giggle spray...

 

I did not say i shift at 2200! i just said i did it once to see what the millage would be.
Usually i drive normally, sometimes shifting myself but most time just letting the automatic doing its thing.
The 2200 shifting was a one time thing to check if the millage would improve!
and, surprise, surprise, almost no change!

 

i dont know what driving habits you guys are talking about! My driving habits are "normal" i would say.
Not speeding from light to light to brake as crazy after or anything like that.
I'm not driving fast neither.
I tried different types of gas as well, little or no change! my worst tank was at summer while using a/c, 12.5l/100km

but to be honest i don't even think people should be scared of their driving habits just to keep the advertised millage!
We talk about 50% higher gas usage than advertised here!

 

Thats the problem though... that is merely your uneducated opinion on the matter.

Your commute and your operating style are the two biggest factors in determining fuel economy. With fuel quality and weather coming in after that as the next most influential.

In this thread and the other one you posted we have given you suggestions on how to go about fixing this situation.

If you could provide some actual detail on your driving, we may be able to help you resolve your headache quickly and cheap.

 

I'm glad you guys are trying to help but at the same time i'm kind of frustrated since most of you are basically telling me my driving habits are the problem.
I bought this car to drive it, not racing, not keeping it in car but driving it to work, grocery store and the rest.
I'm doing all of tis but the main factor (gas savings) is not there.
So the car doesn't have power and it's not good on gas, why would anyone want a car like this than?

I drive a bmw x3 3.0 as well and even this suv is better than my car on gas!
My driving is the same for both car!
No explanation about the reason here can make any sense to me since a car with a half the engine size should be better on gas?!!

And when you guys ask me what are my driving habits what do you mean?

I drive short, 10 km drives to work, max speed 80km/h, few traffic lights and stop and goes. Nothing major, no rush hour with lots of idling or anything like that.
I tried to:
drive slower - no significant change
shift around 3000 - no significant change
shift at 2200 - no significant change
high octane, low octane, no a/c, no defrost... still no significant change!

i found lots of people talking about bad millage and most of them have an automatic version so it might be that is the problem?

 

Do a ecu reset and try higher octane. The fit has high compression and regular doesn't cut it. Go to a top tier station and find one thats busy. Fresh gas also makes a big difference.

Whats happening is the ecu is retarding the timing a causing the car to run rich. Is the CEL on? Dont warm the motor for no more than 2 minutes before driving, Dont run it hard until the engines is warm.

I had a similar problem but I am getting almost summer mpg now. I believe they still might have transition gas and the aromatic freeze and the fuel separates causing lower octane and the ecu pulls timing and the engine runs rich to prevent detonation.

I was watching Top Gear and they tested a Hybrid to a M3 and the M3 got better mpg then the hybrid. They said to change driving style.

 

I also wanted to add you need to coast as much as possible 0 fuel used. If you let off the gas pedal a little after reaching speed it saves up to 40 percent or more mpg. On the highway I noticed its easy to just leave the pedal in a position but you can ease up on the pedal a little and maintain the same speed but gain mpg. At 70 I was getting 45 mpg on the scan gauge. At 60 almost 70 mpg. I am surprised because its still cold when I drive with lights on and heat, Ive tried not to warm up the car and noticed the engine sounds different in open loop and you can hear it go into close loop.

 

i get about 500km a tank in the winter and 550km in the summer, i thought it can be better when i got the car, mine is M/T

 

Thats 31-34mpg.. which is pretty good for combined driving.

 

What they are asking when it comes to driving habits is how do you literally drive when commuting normally. Do you leave each light by creeping away as if you were driving Miss Daisy to market or do you dart off quickly from the light once it goes green? When coming to a red light, do you stay on the throttle and brake at the last minute or do you anticipate it and coast to a stop? Things of that nature is what we would like to know in order to help you improve your fuel mileage.

 

OK since I live in Greater Vancouver myself, hope I can help a bit here.

As far as I can see, u got a 08 Fit AT w/approx 25000km? Anyway, here are a few questions before comments:

1. How many services did you do so far? At local garage or Honda dealership? What kinda services are they?

2. When & at what mileage did you do these services?

3. What kind of gasoline do you use?

4. What kind of engine oil do you use?

5. What tire pressure do you use? Any mods or no?

6. Which area do you live in and which route do you take to go work & shopping etc? 10km driving means how long?

Looking forward for your answers.