i was going to ask you guys about the MPG. when i took mine in i was getting around 48 mpg, and never less than 46. when i got it back it was around 43. i've had my car (AT-PZEZ CVT) since about march. in the last few month my mileage has only gravitated between a high of 48 to a low of about 46. now, after driving it since last friday i seemed to have stabilized at 45! this kind of peeves me. i was hoping to get to 50 soon. by the looks of the posts i am the only one who has been negatively impacted mileage wise by this.

 

I had my software update completed last week. When I dropped the car at the dealer, the mpg readout was at 45; when I picked it up the readout had dropped to around 41. The odometer had barely changed, so this tells me that the engine must have idled for some period of time while diagnostics were being run. The readout is steadily climbing as I drive it, and I expect it will return to my normal range as I commute. I won’t really be able to judge if there’s a significant mileage change until I start a new tank. In any case, I’ve noticed no change in performance or behavior whatsoever.

One thing occurs to me. Many owners have noticed that the instrument panel average mileage readout tends to somewhat optimistic compared to actual mileage as computed from fill-up to fill-up. It will be interesting to see if this discrepancy narrows at all in the wake of this software upgrade.

Another note: my upgrade was clearly referred to as a recall. Perhaps the reason it doesn’t appear on Owner Link is that it’s not officially a “safety recall.” If it were anything other than a minor software upgrade, it is unlikely Honda would make the free upgrade available through July of next year. They would have made it a matter of some urgency.

 

No, you aren't, and I'm frustrated but kinda glad there's someone else. My current tank is about dry; you'll see it posted in the next 2 days I'm sure. It was not a good tank to begin with because I spent about 200 miles of it moving across town into my new apartment and was carrying loads well over 1,000 pounds with constant AC. Suffice it so say not good MPG driving style. When I dropped it at the dealer on Saturday I was only at 43.5 MPG with over 300 miles already on the tank.
Here's the thing: the fact that the tank was so bad to begin with makes my MPG since the recall frighteningly bad. My subpar 43.5 has since plummeted to 42.7, and it's been bouncing to 42.3 constantly. What's upsetting is that the 100 miles I've put on it since the recall have been on perfect roads (50 MPH driving) with no AC and most importantly, NO LOADS of 1,000 pounds because I'm done moving in. I'd really like to know if anyone else has had a baffling MPG experience because I'm doing all the tricks in perfect circumstances and have actually managed to drop steadily from a tank that had been started by speeding, AC, and heavy load. Again, no way to tell for sure, part of it may just be getting to more fumy gas at the bottom of the tank, though I've still got 6 or 7 bars, so I'll let everyone know how the next one starts to take shape when I fill up. In the meantime, wish me luck.

P.S. - The dealership only put 0.3 miles on my HCH and the MPG readout remained unchanged when I drove it off the lot, so it couldn't have been caused by excessive idling like I know many were. The work order receipt also shows they only had it for 47 minutes on Saturday, so I know it didn't just happen on the lot.

 

Wow, I've just read everyones' post on this. Being ****, I'll record the odometer mileage and the FID before I leave it to the grease monkeys. (Is that not PC anymore?) It's funny, on one hand, I hope that our CVT doesn't need the "upgrade", yet on the other I'll be disappointed because I like the idea of having our battery management system upgraded. Oh well, I better not let my wife drive it home from the dealership if we're going to have a funky IMA battery readout.

How many got a free car wash from the dealer when they picked it up? With only 2800 miles, this will be the first trip into service since we bought our HCH in March 05.

 

Hi Michael,

I got a free car wash from the dealer when I had the recall (update) service done. Usually, I don't send my vehicles through carwashes (other than the dealership) due to other vehicles going through with grease, road grime (tar, oil, and other junk), and most importantly rust. My car is over a year old and although I would love to garage my HCH, it's not an option so it sits outside year round. I also equipt my cars with Weathertech rainguards which I'm always afraid they'll break when sending it through a carwash (I love how the owners of these carwashes wipe there hands clean of any damage done in the wash). I once saw a brand new Acura come out of a Shell carwash with his rear spoiler broken in two hanging off the car. He had NY plates on the car and I saw him park the car and storm inside (I wonder that could of happened and how he made out).

As for me, The dealership just built a new car wash and they send all their new cars through it. I've sent it through the last two times I've been there without incident.

 

I had the recall done on my 2005 HCH today; went in at 51.3 MPG (80 miles into tank) and got it back with 48.0 mpg. The full IMA battery also showed as completely discharged when I got it back. Within a short distance it was recharging up a few bars, , within half a mile I looked down again and suddenly it was 90% charged! By the way, I've also noticed in the past that when the battery gets to 50% the car starts trying hard to recharge it (2 bars green). Even if driving uphill, there is no assist anymore unless I push hard on the gas.

 

Noticed that too. Not too much "assisting" compared before I got the software update.

 

Maybe they implemented this fix to give a longer life to the battery, seems like they know it's a problem using up too much battery on hills.

 

Odd, I still get the same effort from the battery in acceleration in basically every instance. They couldn't have tinkered with it too much or what's the use of even having that power source.


I will say this, however: many of you talk about how the battery-o-meter was significantly drained upon pickup and others have said it took mechs several hours to work on their HCHs. My car is only 3 months old and took them under an hour, and my battery readout was perfectly normal, almost topped off, when I drove out. I've heard others say their dealers told them the software was already updated and all they did was check it out to make sure. Perhaps mine was one that was already updated, and the reason I'm not noticing any changes is because my engine wasn't having the problem of running lean to begin with, which (*totally theoretized here*) may even be why I've never gotten the astounding and prodigious numbers for MPG that a few others have consistently carried. The only thing I am sure of is that the techs lowered my tire PSI causing for a bad rest of the tank, but that problem has already been solved. I do truly hope (and I know mine will be staying about the same if mechs did nothing to it) that we don't see a noticeable fall in MPG stats around here postrecall due to the more involved engine and less involved IMA many of you are talking about.

 

Got my notice this week. I really don't like the idea of some meathead grease monkey driving my car. Do you all think this recall is worh doing? So far my dealership has impressed me not at all...