ah, yeah, all good suggestions. i went to service my civic this morning, and, here's what the tech said:

living in chicago, the cold weather affects gas consumption significantly. he said something like he is getting 1/2-3/4 the mileage he would get in summertime. i mean, it makes sense to me b/c i've heard that elsewhere too.

driving wise, i do about 25-30 miles a day. stop and go, quite a bit, oh, and, i haven't modified my civic, yet. just b/c i bought it recently. thanks for the tips.

peace

 

Yup. Your mech is right. In addition, many oil companies change their 'mix' in the winter to allow for a cleaner burn in the cold. This cuts efficiency, too.

 

Yep I think I saw it some where on this forum too.

 

i thought that was it, i was about to comment on it but it seemed more comlicated.

 

using thinner oil in the winter helps a lot. or even a synthetic if there arent any leaks present. if there is, it will leak like a sieve with synthetic.

 

I have a 2003 civic si. It has about 35K now. When I got it, it had about 26K. I record my mileage at every fill up. Typically, I get about 280 to 300 miles to a full tank. Keep in mind that new cars dont get great mileage untill they've been broken in. Initally I was getting 25mpg on 87 octane gas and 27 mpg on 89 octane. I just bought the K&N Typhoon FIPK and now I get 27 mpg on 87 octane and high 29's to 30 mpg on 89. I always keep an eye on fuel consumption because it can foretell engine problems. A good way to check actual mileage is this. Fill your car completely with gas, should be between 10 and 11 gallons. Reset the odometer. Drive the tank empty. When you go to fill the tank record the miles driven and divide it by the amout of gallons you just used to fill. Here is the equation. Miles/gallon=mpg. Its actually so simple I might get ridiculed for posting this. If you drove 300 miles, and it took 10 gallons to fill up, it would look like this. 300miles/10 gallons=30MPG. If using a calculator, first enter the miles and then divide by the amount of gallons. Naturally if you hammer on it all the time the MPG will decrease.

 

Yes but I redline a shift on every drive (almost) and i get the same mileage as the time I granny drove for a week. I think it was like 1 or 2 mpg difference. Nothing groundbreaking.

 

Have you done a compression test? Redlining on every shift will sure put extra wear on your engine.