Rep Power: 511

i'm pretty sure this belongs here... if not, mod move please..
i have a question.. (i have a manual tranny, just for reference..)

what wastes more gas: low RPMs with a fully open throttle or little throttle at high rpms?

 
Rep Power: 359

Doood. . what? Lemme read this again. . low rpms, open throttle. . when you open the throttle the RPMS go higher. . Ok . . little throttle high RPMs. . You can't get high RPMs without opening the throttle. Maybe I'm misunderstanding. Are you talking about downshifting?

edit...

Maybe I do understand. .

Do you mean the difference of:

Driving 30mph in 1st gear with very high RPMs and not pressing the gas?

and

Driving 20mph in 5th gear with very low RPMs with the throttle wide open?

Seems to me (if that is what you are talking about) the higher RPMs would use more gas. . At highter RPMs your engine is turning faster, sparking faster, sucking in more air, thus using more fuel.

 
Rep Power: 511

rephrase:

5th gear, low rpms, low speed (~20ish), with full throttle
vs
3rd gear, high rpms, high speed (~60ish), keeping constant speed by barely pressing the gas...

i dont do the second one as much as i used to before i got my intake to save gas, but i like the sound of my intake around 2k rpms with full throttle, so i do that every now and then, and i dont know if its all my speeding or what, but it looks like my mileage does kinda suffer... i just wanna know if a full throttle affects your mileage, even if its at low gears

 
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It really doesn't matter what gear you are in. The amount of gas all depends on the engine RPMs. So lower RPMs will always use less gas.

 
Rep Power: 353

i leart something when i took my resonator off. when u floor the gas, it take a little while till the rpms actually go up, but you are using more gas then, even though the rpms are not high yet.

i fugure this bucause the intakes gets really loud, which means it is is sukung more air, i.e. more fuel too. and thats what leads the roms to go up.

this is so confusing becase they lead to each other. anyways the throttel is what sucks gas, so if the throttel is hard on, then gas usage is alot

i think

 
Rep Power: 511

^^thats what i kinda figured by looking at my mileage goin down while listening to my intake make a pretty purring noise by flooring it in 5th gear.. if we can get a verification on what you just said, player, then that might explain a lot..

 
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don't know but if you get 91 oct then your gas will last a little longer, and I drive pushing my car all the time and I tend to see that 91 last a little bit longer than 87 I say by mabe extra 20 miles

 
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same here with me dude... if i have money i'll buy the premium 91 octane... if not i'll buy 87. Premium on the island of Oahu is about 2.19 now ?? i think at chevron in pearl city.

 
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I pay 1.69 for 89 and sit in the middle. I tried a tank of 91 with few results. The car was a bit smoother but that was about it.

mileage stayed around 280, not enough to be worth the extra .20-.30 a gallon.

 
Rep Power: 282

Keep your RPMs around 3k for best gas mileage (remember Honda recommends to shift around 3k). It's hard to say which extreme of low or high RPM would lead to using more gas. I bet bogging your motor down, say in 5th gear 1k RPM up a hill, throttle floored, is harder on it though.

 
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def. If you are shifting gears and say your in traffic. Sometimes holding 1st for a bit longer rather than going to second, letting it slow to almost a stop and starting off in second again is worse than just going higher in first.

 
Rep Power: 511

hmm.. i put nothing but chevron 91 octane in my tank... my dad put 87 octane one time and my car felt really sluggish.. i dont know if it was just me, but thas what it felt like.

the low rpm full throttle thing i'm talking about is chillin at about 30mph in 5th gear, where i'm chillin at 2k rpms... i love the way my intake sounds (low purr, its great) so i do that every now and then when i pass some 16 year old riceboy in their mommy's accord that sounds like a lawn mower

 
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Id rather hold second right at 4k or just below and get close and rip it so they real a real sound and not their muffler tip

 
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i was ponering the same theory recently. does flooring it waste gas if its not going fast. (5th gear at 30 or so) Anytime (and this is with my expierence) i keep it in the proper gear i get better gas mileage because the car doesnt have to work as hard and use as much gas. when the throttle is wide open the computer thinks it is suppose to dump more gas in and therefore waste more gas, if you floor it to much in 5th gear you might eventually get a backfire to because of the extra gas being dump and not burned but since these cars are fairly new it shouldnt be to much of a problem. But yes wide open= crappy gas mileage

 
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The higher rpms will consume more gas. You consume less gas going 60 mph in 5th rather than 60 mph in 3rd gear. Its because the civic uses less gas in the engine to make the car go at lower rpms. Thats why the civic is a economic car and not a gas gussler.

 
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well like I said, I get 280 to the tank beatin on it a bit here and there. Im sure if I drove nice I could pull 300+.

 
Rep Power: 511

wow.. after looking at the site a little bit, i should stop bitching about my "bad" gas mileage... it seems that most people on this site get an average of 260-300 miles/tank..
my average has always been 300-360, and i drive my car somewhat hard.. at least i think i am...
the lowest mileage i've ever had on a tank was 260, and that was when i decided to go out with my friend one night and we were racing/drifting around vegas.. heh