Hi fellow hybrid owners,

I have recently bought a second hand HCH2 2009 car with 17k miles on the clock.It was purchased from an approved Honda dealer in UK.

ah!! before I continue let me introduce her.This was an UK model that I imported.I live in South east Asia where the weather is tropical and mostly the temperatures range from 25deg celcius to about 31 all day (hence no cold early mornings). When I got the car down, she had to be jump started her since she had been sitting in the ship for around a month.

my problems

before I even took her for a ride my smart brain said, "dude reset all the trip computers so u can get the correct fuel consumption" smart idea,but I forgot to record the previous numbers so thats all gone.and now I cannot compare the fuel consumptions before purchase and after purchase.

now here is the problem

I am consistently getting around 32mpg and I have done about 1.5k km on it.I have got the tyre pressure to 34psi, checked oil and every possible thing that I could minus the plugs /valves/cc and so on that I don't know much about. I still am not getting even close to 45mpg which I was expecting out of her...

I have noticed that the poer window on the drivers side isn't working properly either.It kind of goes off rail half way up and goes back down and hence never fully close unless i put some pressure from the outside of the window to get it back on track..

I can't see any warning signs/lights etc or any weird noises and I must say I love the interior and the look of the car,although I must say it does not have the kind of power that I'm used to. Now you might think that the poor mileage is due to my driving style and I can assure you that I have adopted all possible driving styles that hybrid owners have recommended in here.

also one thing that I noticed was ,when I go and get a full tank of petrol( I fill about 42 litres) I usuall reset my computer trip A.and as soon as I start and go after filling up,the computer slowly shoots down to 36-35 mpg within a couple of minutes and then slowly down to about 32-31mpg and fluctuates there depending on where i drive.mind you I drive mainly in the city.

So this was the time for me to get proffessional help so I went to the only official Honda dealer in the country and they said that they don't yet have the equipment or knowledge to check the hybrids..... hmmm..

now I feel like a looser so I come looking for help from you guys.

any sort of help would be greatly appreciated..

Thanx

 

Your journey begins with this:

hch2 faq
get 70+ mpg
basic hypermiling for hch2


ks

 

Important: Right away, bump your cold tire pressures to 42 PSI. Make sure the tires were not swapped for a non-LRR (Low Roll Resistance) type. Make sure your oil is 0W-20 and nothing else.

Then follow Kevin's links to make sure your driving techniques are up-to-par.

We'll be waiting for a report back – good luck and congrats!

 

thanx Kevin, that was a good lot of info..D you reckon I should do a power reset? would that improve the mpg's by a bit at least???

 

Do you have any sudden drops in the IMA battery bars ?
Did you checked the 12 V battery, I know it's 2009 but maybe it's broken while had been shipping..
Do you have any vibration while you stop with the engine running ?
I have the same problem, I got my car imported from USA and my local Honda dealer told me that he doesn't support any Hybrid
So don't be so sure about what the other mechanics doing, to me I replaced my valves with wrong type (which was specified for Toyota hybrid) but I replaced it again with the correct one (so I paid 2 times !)
With your car milage, no need for valve replace ( just 17k miles) but what I wanna tell you that you should be carefull when you deal with any unofficial mechanics.. You have to read your owner manual before you do any thing with your car, for example the valve, oil, tyres and transmission fluid specifications... all this specification you can found it in the owner manual

 

Several thoughts:

1) 12v Battery - The computer operates off of the 12v battery. When my 12v got flakey the car operated odd and the MPG dropped. You might try changing out the battery.

2) 158v Battery - The 2006 HCH owners manual has this notice. "If the vehicle is unused for over one month, the service life of the 158v battery will be reduced and the battery may be permanently damaged". Possibly the 158v battery has already been degraded, which would impact performance and MPG.

 

On the subject, how long do most people get from their 12V battery?

Maybe it would be good to (re)explain such battery symptoms in detail for those who might have problems and not realize they could be 12V battery related.

On my '09, I had never had a recal in 30K miles, but recently have had several of them – with a seeming drop in MPG. I'm wondering if it could be time to swap the 12V battery, or at least have it checked.

 

@Steve The recommended tyre pressure as per the badge on the front door is 30psi only.So isn't 42 a bit too much?? the roads here are not super smooth either so I don't wanna be singing "it's gonna be a bumpy ride" all the time and it does get a bit hot as well.what do u suggest? still go with 42psi ??

how do I check what oil is there currently? it got the scheduled service done just before being shipped by the Honda dealer in UK.So I assume they would have fused the correct 0W-20 oil.

and yes I'm following Kevins driving techniques.

@drabood and cali06. I did notice a few recals happening when I had parked it in the sun and driven it I assume its because the cabin is a bit hot.Now I try my best to avoid parking it in the sun. I don't seem to have any issues with the 12V battery.The car always starts in one go, but i'll check it's health from a battery dealer anyway.Anyway how is it done in a hybrid?? do u have to disconnect the battery?? how do you retain the codes n stuff??

now about the NiMh battery, my OM does not have any such notice.So I hope they (Honda) must have an improved battery that does not die just because it hasn't been used for a month.Either way how do I check the health of that battery?? i'm not getting any warning lights so I think the OBD computer thinks everything is fine and ignores the fuel consumption factor.

I'm thinking would a scangauge give me any error codes without check engine light or is there any other diagnostics device that I could use to find any mechanical issues the engine might have??

 

I have an '04 and replaced the original 12V battery in '09. So for me it was 5 years. This is for a car that was always driven in the northeast: hot summers, cold winters.

To the original poster, I agree with Steve that you can raise the pressure in the tires. You can do it in increments; if you feel that 42 is high for your road conditions, see how it does with 38 psi and then decide if you want to go higher.

With the warm temperatures in your area, I'm guessing you may be using the air conditioning a lot; this will impact your mpg. The other big factor is that you do mainly city driving, in which the mpg is much lower that what you would get if you drove mostly on the highway.

 

@Gairwyn. Yeah I do use the A/C almost always,but i only set it to either 24 or 25 degrees celcius.we cannot run without the A/C at all cos it's too humid as well... yeah i'm gonna bump my tyres to 36psi n see how it feels,any chance of them blowing off??? I hope not

but my problem with all these A/C and other factors considered still 30mpg is the same as a non hybrid car would do which has 1500cc engine (like a Toyota Allion) and I wonder if the hybrid system works in mine at all?? why did I buy a Hybrisd when I could have bought a more powerfull car with same mpg and emmisions?? I seriously wanna find out what the hell is wrong here...Honda should have had some sort of warning function when the mpg is not at an acceptable level like mine.I mean 30 compared with 45-50 quoted??? truely dissapointed....