I've been steadily improving my gas milage since I've owned my HCH, from a first tank of about 45MPG to a recent average in mixed city / highway of around 48.5. This weekend, I had to drive a LOT and drove about 2000 miles in 4 days. Of course, during the heavy highway stuff, I got good milage, but the last two tanks have both been above 50 MPG (and the highway stuff was VERY hilly through western PA...like 6 percent grades up and down over and over again for hundreds of miles).

The last tank was 53.3 MPG, which is way above anything I had gotten before. I thought it might have been all the highway, but today's mixed city / highway
driving like I normally do (when I was averaging 48.5) showed 52.5 today on the dash (for 150 miles), which is probably closer to 54 actual based on my experience. That's a HUGE jump. The only difference I can think of is that I crossed the 5000 mile barrier and the car finally completed its break in. I didn't think it would be so sudden and apparent, but maybe I was wrong. It wasn't just easier driving either...same roads I usually drive and same speeds, and I noticed the instant MPG gague showing 60MPG while cruising on flat ground at 68MPH, where it usually showed 50. Cool!

 

Welcome to the promised land

 

Bravo, JordanCS, and finally there is someone aroudn in the area who has driven the same roads I have. I've been out the PA Turnpike to Breezewood and back and those are the same 6% hills that you climbed and descended. Even though the total altitude gained and lost from Pittsburgh to Breezewood and back worked out to zero (since I started and ended at the same place) the car never regained the mpg that it lost going up the hills so old-school Physics still apply and you waste more energy going up the hill than you gain coming back down. Q.E.D.

I hit 5,000 miles today but won't be able to test out the possible increase in mpg until tomorrow and throughout this week. I'm on vacation today so drove only 20 miles instead of my daily average of about 150 miles. I'll try to report later this week when I should hit almost 5,750 miles. I saw less-than-ideal FE last week when I was at 50% oil life and 4,500 miles so I'm hoping I can get up from 42 mpg to 48 mpg like I was before. Maybe this was a bad batch of gas or something.

 

I know I don't regain all that is lost with my commute driving up mountains but, I try as I on the way down I normally drive in EV mode on the way down. This is done for a couple of miles at about 62mph. What gets me is wondering what my commute mpg would be on flat roads? I had to drive in a few other cities in Cali that were flat and could easily kill EPA.

 

I seriously doubt that the car suddenly hit any magic mileage number as I am sure the break in period is more of a linear function than a step function. Having said that, you should look more at temperature, A/C and other factors like where you purchased your gas from and type of roads traveled. I live in MD and typically get 5 mpg more on average if I buy the gas in PA, where it is real gas with no Ethanol, vs. the RFG/Ethanol blend that is forced on us near Baltimore. I live north of the city and travel up to PA periodically. Also, I believe the gas will switch to a winter blend soon in MD.

My car is just above 2200 miles now and I am averaging just around 50mpg on the last 2 tanks. I actually just came back from Ocean City this weekend and was in a hurry to make it home for the Ravens game. I was traveling in the fast lane with traffic doing close to 80 mph most of the trip and still got 45 mpg. Since I went through Delaware, the trip was mostly flat until the last hour.

The car is definitely breaking in the more I drive it and I plan to leave the original oil in the car like the manual suggests until about 7,000 miles. If you watch the HCHII video on the web, they talk a lot about the special rings and cylinder honing done to reduce friction, which means they are harder than normal and require a bit of time to really seat. I also plan to go another 7K miles on the second Honda oil before switching to Mobile 1 synthetic to make sure it is fully broken in.

 

I totally agree with Dave on this breaking-in issue.

The actual breaking-in of the vehicle is often described as a linear function affected my many operational variables, such as the ones that Dave referred to.

To roughly illustrate this, we only have to look at the "reported" breaking-in miles and how much they vary. Some folks don't even report an observable breaking-in until they're well into the 20K's or even 30K's... and some are said to occur much later than this.

Then, there's the issue of the driver-breaking-in as well ... when you put it all together it hardly is a predictable science and becomes instead a highly subjective issue that can vary wildly from person to person.

In any case, I am glad that you are seeing a measurable FE improvement - that is a definite good sign. I will eventually say the same... someday (it is a little too early for me still). For now, I'm just having too fun breaking myself in.

Cheers;


MSantos

 

Hey Cherokee - I have a friend in Elkton just up the road from you. Maybe the next time down that way I can stop by to shout hello. Glad to know our gas is good enough to use.