Hello,
I bought this car a month ago it gets only 19 MPG, this is city and highway mixt, a bit more city then highway. According to other posts I seen, similar accords get the fuel consumption in the twenties MPG. A few details about the car: 2003 Accord, 4cyl, 2.4l, 5spd auto, it has 190k miles. So far I changed the air filter and sparkplugs, cleaned the fuel injectors. I noticed that the gas cap does not make the hissing sound when opened to fill the tank. All the other cars I owned were having an "air vacuum" noise when opening the tank cap. Is this easy fixable by replacing the gas cap? I drive conservative, there are some hills but most of the drive is on flat land. I don't have many stop lights where the car is idling, mostly 4way stops and side roads. The car has lots of power and is very nice to drive. I checked to see if any of the breaks are blocked on (checked the disks temperature after driving) and they were all good.
Does anyone knows what else to test/check? I am not very familiar with the newer cars. On my old cars I owned I would have check if the chock was stuck on, but not sure what to check with this all-computerized engines. There are a lot of sensors on this engine, is there one in particular responsible for checking the fuel mixture?
On another topic, I noticed the car starts on the 4 or 5th crank of the engine. Always - engine cold or hot. Once started, everything looks and feels great, good power, smooth running. I will try to test starting the car with another battery (jump my battery with my neighbor's car) to rule out the week battery case. The headlights are strong with the engine stopped, as well the starter cranks the engine fast so I don't believe is the battery. This is not such a big deal, as the engine always starts; is just questionable why is happening as my older honda odyssey I owned always started from the first crank. If anyone experienced similar symptoms and found a remedy, please share the knowledge.
I am in the process of buying one of the OBD code readers but I am not sure if it will say anything, as there are no engine lights on on the dashboard.
Any ideas/suggestions are greatly appreciated. Tank you, Basil