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I have an 06 Honda Civic Hybrid, and have about 5000 miles on it. I have been on this site a few times and read the many articles about hypermilling. I have been trying these different techniques everyday and have gotten pretty good at it. However, I still have pretty poor fuel consumption for a hybrid, IMO. I am at half tank right now at 150 miles!!!. I am not sure what is going on. Could there be a problem with the engine? I do not run the air-conditioning, I run the the air at about 70, and sometimes go to 80-85. I coast as much as possible, and brake only when I have to. The roads in my area are pretty flat, some hills, but none are steep. I drive city and highway but more city driving. My average fuel consumption on my computer says about 39.7. This is a great improvement on the 31 mpg was was getting earlier, when I first bought the car. However, I will sometimes get close to 41. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

How are your tire pressures? What is your speed on the highways? How good are you at timing the lights in the city?

Also keep re-reading the HCH II hypermiling article and try to just focus on one thing at a time until you get real good at it and then add more stuff.

Also, don't try too hard to do everything at once. Gradually incorporate the techniques where applicable and don't try to apply them all the time as they can hurt when done at the wrong time. For instance a pulse and glide will work great when you have a long glide, but trying to apply it in the city between stop lights can hurt if you cant get a good enough glide to offset the pulse.

How are your tire pressures? What is your speed on the highways? How good are you at timing the lights in the city?

Also keep re-reading the HCH II hypermiling article and try to just focus on one thing at a time until you get real good at it and then add more stuff.

Also, don't try too hard to do everything at once. Gradually incorporate the techniques where applicable and don't try to apply them all the time as they can hurt when done at the wrong time. For instance a pulse and glide will work great when you have a long glide, but trying to apply it in the city between stop lights can hurt if you cant get a good enough glide to offset the pulse.




My tire pressure is set to 36 psi. I usually go 60 to 65 mph on the highway. Sometimes though I will get up to 75 mph and coast along. When I accelerate, I try not to pass 2000 rpm in the city and 3500 rpm getting onto the highway. My timing has gotten better with the lights and I really do not have any trouble there. It just seems like every time I turn on my car another bar has disappeared from the gas gauge.

You could try to see if you can deal with the tire pressures up to around 40. I'm not sure what the max psi rating is for them, but 40psi shouldn't be bad. It is up to you though.

My mileage the last month or so is bad as well, but in my case it is the cold.

You could try to see if you can deal with the tire pressures up to around 40. I'm not sure what the max psi rating is for them, but 40psi shouldn't be bad. It is up to you though.

My mileage the last month or so is bad as well, but in my case it is the cold.



Actually I found that the cold weather improved my mpg. I am not running the air conditioning right now. During the summer I was down to 31 mpg. :confused:

Great point. You must live down south ;) A/C is a killer.

Hello globalwarming.

Put some air to those tires. I'm running max sidewall psi in my tires on my 06 EX Civic Sedan. Then slow down just a hair. I try to keep my shift points in my EX 5MT under 2k rpm in town and under 3k rpm for freeway on ramps. Even lower if possible city and hwy.

Hybrid aside,,, There is one thing for certain. Honda makes a wonderful ICE. Drive your HCHII like it dosent have a battery. I just drove a 300 mile round trip in my Civic. Most of it was hwy. I didnt hypermile the car much. I was on a mission. I averaged 39.1 mpg for the trip. I ran 65 to 75 mph on the hwy.

There is more mpg in your HCHII. You just have to let it come to you as your skill set changes.

psy

My tire pressure is set to 36 psi. I usually go 60 to 65 mph on the highway. Sometimes though I will get up to 75 mph and coast along. When I accelerate, I try not to pass 2000 rpm in the city and 3500 rpm getting onto the highway. My timing has gotten better with the lights and I really do not have any trouble there. It just seems like every time I turn on my car another bar has disappeared from the gas gauge.

Try not to exceed 55mph on the highway and definitely get as close to max sidewall pressure as you can stand. 75mph will severely hurt your MPG regardless of what coasting technique your are trying. If you have to go 60-65 to be safe on your stretch of highway, you need to find Semis, RVs, UPS/FedEx trucks to draft behind most of the time. I usually run in the slow lane or the lane second from the right with the cruise set at 55mph. Driving with load is more disruptive if there is traffic around. By going slower than most of the traffic you can use cruise control most of the time. If I see a good draft vehicle pulling up in a lane further left, I'll pull in behind it and slowly speed up to match its speed. Using distant drafting helps reduce comute time without hurting FE.

Ditto on following trucks to stay safe. I don't like to get close enough for a draft, but a huge vehicle in front of you draws a lot of attention. You can keep pace with that big, slow vehicle without much fear of folks running up behind you. They see a huge object and think "change lanes." Ridge riding, which basically involves positioning yourself well to the right-hand side of the lane, also draws attention if you are running without larger rig. Not as effective but it does help you stand out a little better. Personally I run ~60mph or so on 65mph limited interstates without much trouble.

Like Psyshack said, just take it easy and the HCH-II will do most of the work for you. Tarabell's article is gold, too, if you haven't read it.

Hi Globalwarming:

___Just about everything has already been covered and after you have pressed up those tires, get onto a long and open stretch of country or deserted road. Take her up to a relatively steady 35 - 40 mph, reset your Trip A aFCD at speed all the while maintaining that 35 - 40 mph with your right foot. After a mile or so, you should see the aFCD up in the 80 - 90 mpg range. I think after that short test segment, you will learn all you need to know about how speed kills FE in the HCH-II ;) Tarabell really did a bang up job in her article showing a great range of results as speed increases from 30 to 40 and above …

___We have other techniques we use that can really punch her up but for now, let us get you ready for the basics and we can move on from there.

___And welcome to CleanMPG :D

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Thanks guys for all the tips. I tried the driving on an open highway today at about 40 mph, without inflating my tires. I have not gotten around to this yet. However, I saw my mpg meter jump up to 140 mpg!!! I am not sure how much I should inflate my tires. It is an 06 HCH II with factory dunlops. Any suggestions??

Global--

You should be able to find the Max Sidewall pressure listed on the tire itself. I have the Dunlops and I haven't looked myself yet (car's four days old, it's cold out and I'm lazy), but I think someone said somewhere else on this site that it's about 44. But check first. --RN