911! HELP! I got a gas problem...

[whiteracer]

and i wish it was with my stomach...
ok now i'm starting to get concerned. I don't know how much the rest of you get, but i get about 260 miles per tank of gas. And i'm starting to think my needle is off too. When full, the needle is higher than the F. Anyways, last week i noticed that my needle was almost on E at about 160 miles. That's a full 100 miles less than i usually get! Now i understand that my front left tire was slowly leaking for a couple days, and on a couple occasions on that tank of gas i floored it and shifted at 5-6k rpm. but that was only twice. So i thought that week was a fluke or something, but today again at about 160 miles it was on E. I'm sitting on a flat rode on for some reason the "hey dummy! you need gas!" light comes on. So i know about 5 miles away is an Arco. Sometime before i get to the gas station, the light had gone off and stayed off. So i had gotten about 170 miles out of this tank. still a good 90 short of what i should get. My question is, is the "gas light" trigerred by the needle, or by how much gas there is and the sensor in the gas tank? Or do they all work together? I'm not leaking gas or any other fliuds. I just don't want this to be anything big. So today it cost $16.10 at $1.68 per gallon. That means it took about 9.5 gallons to fill up. I don't think the gas tank is that small, i thought it was near 12 gallons. What could it possibly be? HELP!

[chris26969]

SAME HERE , same thing in my civic , i was getting around 200 miles per tank .. Which is aweful , and i cant even rev hard i have an automatic. So if you find an answer let me know..lol

[INdEcEnT]

I've never gotten 260mpg... .... umm.. ever.. lol.. (Possibly because I drive it like I stole it)
When I bought my car.. I was getting around 210mpg... But then I started working with the engine and shit.. porting shit.. and I advanced the timing 8 degrees.. So.. I get a good.. 144-160mpg.. And my car does the came thing... My needle is gay... I put 5$ worth of gas in the other day ... and I was close to E.. and it went almost to F.. And then I put 5$ in gas today.. and It was barely over the half tank line.. so.. Im thinking.. With that small of a tank (12 gallon I believe) Theres almost no accuracy on the needle.. Just Full and Empty is all it knows... :\

[RedBetta]

Guys, quit worrying about this. I think all Civics' fuel guages are like that. I guess most of you guys are running 1.6L engines to get 200 to 260 miles to the tank. My 1.5L gets about 300 to 360 miles to the tank depending on how heavy my foot is.

About whiteracer's issue... Do you drive the car hard? Is the engine in good mechanical condition? Have you kept up with tune-ups and maintenance? Have you checked for vacuum leaks? Does the car have driveability problems?

Tell us more about anything about your car and let's see if we can figure things out.

[Dblade]

i have a 98 civic dx

when i drove it really hard like racing everyone doing stupid shit... my car is a turd and i still would beat ppl lol

well when i raced adn shit id get like 260 miles to a tank.. but once i started eazing up i got around 300-350 miles to a tank... i believe my dtank is 11 gallons.. ive never put more then 10.5-10.9 gallons into my car...

[RedBetta]

Oh yeah... mt owners manual says that I have a 12 gallon tank. So I guess that may go for all Civics.

And another thing whiteracer, how has you mpg changed? Do you have numbers?

[chris26969]

mines always been 200 miles per tank, on a 1.5l , makes no sence i should get much better than that.


BTW , the civic is bone stock.

[RedBetta]

Yes you should chris26969.

Again, mpgs have a lot to do with HOW you drive. For best results, change gears around 2.5k - 3k rpms. And it is very important to keep your air and fuel intakes clean. i was getting about 27-28mpgs when I first got my car and after cleaning the intake, TB, and regular maintenance stuff like PCV and all, I average about 37mpgs now. I once got a 40mpg tank too. And make sure your injectors spray nice and clean too.

Hope this helps.

[chris26969]

its auto... and new air filters

[whiteracer]

I'm driving a manual transmission where i shift around 3.3k rpm's. And i've always done that and gotten about 260 miles per tank. The only engine mod is a AEM CAI, and since i've gottent that i've still gotten 260.
Used to get 260, now 170. When the light came on i put in 9.5 gallons. Subtracted from 12, i get 2.5 gallons left in the tank. So it should be a sensor problem right?
The car is in decent condition, the only thing that hasn't been changed in awhile are the spark plugs. No leaks or anything. Good oil and coolant level too.

[wheel1856]

Dont know about out there in Cali, but here in Ohio, it's summer...and HOT. heat+engine=bad.

entirely possible that with the heat, the engine isn't running as great. and a low tire will cause poorer gas mileage, I think that the two combined could be the cause of your lower m/gal. I wouldn't worry about it if you're not leaking anything.

and yeah Honda needles, oi. full tank before the on ramp...half way through the turn, on E. dont sweat it, keep an eye on things, but I wouldnt lose sleep if I were you.