Colder winter temps vs. f/e

[Chalupa102]

With the colder temperatures, what are u guys with the 2nd gens seeing now for f/e? Is it a big difference from summer temps, or not too bad?

[jraynor196]

So far about ~5 MPG drop, but I expect that to go down a little more once we hit the 10s and 20s in Jan and Feb.

Temps have been in the 30s and 40s, today was the first day I've noticed below freezing.

In the summer I was averaging 55-59 MPG, now around 51-53 MPG.

[waterdog]

I'm seeing a similar decline, though from a lower starting point. My October 44-45 has dropped to 41-42 on my current tank (MID readings). I put a piece of cardboard in front of the radiator in late November, so I don't really know what the mpg would be without it. I have just been in the habit of blocking part of the radiator in the winter on all my cars for the past quite a few years, so didn't bother to experiment.

[Purplegate]

End of the summer, I averaged 57-58. We are in the low 30s now and I'm down to 53-54, so 4 to 5 mpg down. Last week-end, I installed the grill block nameless00 introduced, I think it's a very easy, clean and cheap solution. The lower grill is almost all blocked, just a little opening on each end. I will see if it has any effect on FE. Will update in few weeks.

With temperatures dropping, I expect another 1-2mpg down getting to February when we are in the low 20s.... or lower.

[BlueIMA]

Hello all, this is my first post in the forum. I own a Sky blue with Navi, that I bought 2 months ago. I am experiencing the mentioned 4-5 MPG drop in fuel efficiency since the temperature dropped as well.

[nameless00]

I'm seeing an improve mileage but we haven't had a long bout of 30 F or below temperature yet.

I was seeign a drop in October below I hit my break-in period stage one (according to the various sources here this is 2K miles), so I saw a slight increase, then I started my block grill mod and I'm seeing a slightly better increase from that.

I'm recording things and I do notice MUCH longer idle times required (about 40 seconds), if you start the car up before that and drive, you will feel the engine jerking.

[The Beard]

We were averaging around 46-47 mpg in warmer temps. Now that it is getting colder in the morning we are getting anywhere from 40-43.


I can live with that. There's numerous things that kill mileage and right now I am doing almost all of them.

We park our car outside so in the morning while I brush off the snow and scrape the windows the car is running. The speed of traffic is much less consistent on the slippery roads so there is more accelerating and decelerating. The heater is on.


This is off topic but I have to say that I am impressed with how the I2 is handling slick roads so far. We have not had any deep snow but have had some icy and slushy roads. We have the stock all season tires on and have so far had no issues. The traction control kicks in and the car feels very sure footed. it feels much more secure than the 99 Civic LX that it replaced.

[Brian1]

When it was the warmest, I was getting 50. Now with temps in teens and twenties, last tank was 41.9

[bish79]

Preliminary results are about 6-8 MPG based on the MID estimates (which I know are off but my MID estimate difference is about 6-8 ).

This is due to a combination of snow tires and temps in the 20's - 30's.

I also have a very short commute to work so the car runs cold alot.

So the net result is that in the worst of conditions, I get the EPA estimates...

[jpleong]

I haven't had much time driving the car recently so I can only see how my wife is doing. In the spring/summer/fall she was averaging between 42-45 and now the average is 37-39 (trip B is reset with every fill-up). In the winter, we tend to idle and warm-up the car (for the sake of the interior, not the engine) so this has a big part in the drop in numbers.

JP

ps- forgot to mention we turned off Econ mode to help the heater cycling.