Steve, thanks for the response! I am going to pick up a bluetooth obdII piece hopefully this evening and see what I can do with operating temperature.

For the last 8000 miles I had been commuting 41 miles each way to work 21miles of 60mph flat easy driving, and 20 miles of "inner city" highway driving at 65mph. Over this time I never had a tank over 40mpg and the average was 37mpg for that whole 8000mile stretch. During the these 3 months we have had average temps of about 30degrees Fahrenheit the first month was more 40-50 second months 20-30 and the last months has been 0-25. Even in that first month I couldnt get anywhere near the epa estimates. The trip to NY temps were in the upper 30's over that period when she got an average 36.8. Hopefully this tampa trip will let her shine, im just frustrated I cant even get city fuel economy with 95% highway driving. I understand that winter affects mileage drastically but the consensus has been people still seeing low 40s and I cant get that no matter how hard I try.

I am tempted to go test drive another 09-10 hchII to see how it compares with my driving habits. Anyone in the central ohio area before I go give false hope to some autosales person?? lol

Once I get the scanner, what values should I be looking for other than operating temperatures?

 

Get the paid app. The free one works great for a few things, but the paid version is just so much better. Again - for Android only.

Realtime Information. Long press display and "Add Display". From list, put each of these on their own screen:

Raw Data Display (look for coolant temp, 90-92°C)
Emission Monitors since DTC clear (all should read complete)
Current Drive cycle Status (all should read complete)

On another blank page, insert the following as SMALL display types of your preference laid out 2X2:

Air Fuel Ratio (measured) ---- Catalyst Temp (Bank 1, Sensor 1)
Mass Air Flow Rate ---- O2 Voltes Bank 1 sensor 2

On another blank page, insert the following as above:

Engine Load ---- Engine Load (Absolute)
Timing Advance --- Throttle Position (Manifold)

The Load and Timing Adv are LOD (40-60) and IGN (30-36) equiv to the Scanguage, respectively. The numbers in parenthesis are when you hit the special "lean burn phase that's supposed to happen between 50 and 62 mph.

Aside from those target LOD and IGN numbers, your AFR should be about 14.7. I don't have anything more specific for you, but I'll try to gather some data this weekend.

I'm not saying these are the best things to go for, but I know they are what I monitor and they pertain to diagnostics and mileage in general.

Even slight, undetectable grades can prevent lean burn from initiating. That's why I encourage 5 mi of the same route in forward and reverse routes. You may find a shocking difference between the two. On certain stretches of seemingly flat road, I will see 40-50mpg in one direction and 60-75mpg in the other.

I would also discourage manual control. No matter what anybody says, cruise control is more consistent and repeatable. I like to simulate the "back off and ease in" by setting the cruise, letting it settle and quickly press the set button again. This causes the car to back off and resume throttle while dropping no more than 1 mph.

Additionally, the comparisons I've seen between manual and cruise control are extremely slight - less than 2%, and we're WAY outside that margin of error.

Oh... one more thing... avoid disconnecting your 12V as you will clear pending codes too.

 

BTW... these are the EPA targets... which are the same for the '06.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find....n=sbs&id=29712

You're not too far off, but you should be able to do better... cold weather is a significant factor...

 

Thanks Steve! Hopefully I will have it soon.

On a side note, today my cvt was behaving horribly. Anytime I let off the pedal to slow down, such to make a turn, when I pressed the pedal again it would rev up to almost 1800rpm as if in neutral and then would engage and jerk the car. It has always done this when extremely cold and for the first couple hundred yards of driving but then was fine. Today it did it all day! I ran errands for about 45min and it didnt stop, if I pressed the brake to slow down for the a railroad track (everywhere here) and pressed the gas again bam rev and dump, make a turn and let off while turning bam rev and dump when I returned to the pedal. Moving in 15-25mph traffic when I would let up but still have foot in pedal and when I applied more pressure it would do it again. I counted it doing this 19 times over this 45minute period of errand running. CVT fluid is clear, level is perfect, no burnt smells. Just a small rant... not sure if its related or not but just another variable...

 

If I could even get an average of 40 I would be thrilled, especially with how frugal I am with driving habbits. I consistently got 26.5-28mpg out of my last car (high performance 3.5l v6 nissan) that was only rated for 19 city and 24highway. My current tank average per the computer is 33.8mpg with all of these "test runs" ive been performing. In the past my fill up computation has always been within 1.5mpg of this, but will know soon as ive got less than 1/4 tank. And my tank average is usually 320-370 miles with the light on.

 

color/clear with CVT fluid does not apply like typical auto. You'll never get a burnt smell unless there's a catastrophe. The CVT operation typically doesn't generate a lot of heat. It's my opinion that the CVT heats more from being near the engine than it does from its own operation.

I recommend you change your fluid ASAP. Like... this weekend.

The "slipping" you're describing increases with cold, low fluid or old fluid. You can at least get rid of one of those variables. It's not good. It's possible that while they may have changed it when they said they did, it might have been its first change, or it might have been replaced at less than the recommended interval (30k mi?). I recommend you change it every other oil change (closer to 15k mi).

Get 3 qts of the genuine Honda CVT fluid from the dealership (should be about $35-40). Get it as hot as you can and drain it. Put all three quarts in. Your level should be good. If you don't notice an improvement, the CVT is likely going to turn on you unless it's purely a cold weather phenomenon.

I know our CVTs don't like cold with the same slippages and revving you describe when taking off when dead cold, but once the car is at operating temp, they almost completely go away. Ours also have 133K and 212K on them, respectively.

I'm hoping that we find something silly like a thermostat that's partly stuck open, and you're falling a few degrees shy of operating temp resulting in rich burn and cool CVT temps... maybe block off part of your radiator and experiment?

 

I just watched the vids. That thing is LOUD! I'm going to do a "cold start" recording of both of mine to see if it's maybe a product of the recorder.

I think your throttle method is counterproductive. Every time you eased off, I saw a bar of regen... that's going to hurt you. This is another reason I recommend using cruise control.

I can't say for sure, but your rpms seem high. At 44 mph, I'm at 1300rpm. Your CVT may be "slipping" even at higher speed, or it's operating in a different range due to the cold.

I've attached 3 pics. Car reported 78°F. I had been driving about 10 minutes

The first is steady-state at 44mph, straight and level. 7 bars of SoC, no assist/regen and about 60mpg indicated with cruise on.

The second pic is in the driveway. It went from 42.8mpg to 43.2 over 6.8 miles. In order to see that gain with 212mi already on the clock, I averaged 55.7mpg for those 6.6 miles, and it included 1.5 miles of freeway at 60mph and a few stop/go's.

The last picture shows the temp gauge... almost to half, and Torque reported 92°C.

 

Steve to get it at that low of rpm at 44mph conditions would have to be super super perfect. It loves to hit 1800 as soon as u lightly touch the pedal and will stay there even if you completely let off.
Today it warmed up to about 37 degrees and I just drove to get the obdii scanner (actually just got here) and over the 38.3 miles it's showing 51.5mpg on the screen and it behaved much better today with slightly warmer Temps. The cvt still "flares" but not as bad as it did the other day. I'm also picking up the cvt fluid while up here in the city. Car boggles my mind.

And that noise is about the same in person.....

 

What speed where you running to get the 51.5?

I'm thinking it's either the CVT having a problem, needs new fluid and/or is running the car at higher rpm due to cold.

Given your "slippage" issues, I really think it's a major contributor to your less than optimal mileage.

 

To get the 51.5 I was running 55-60 for 3/4 of it then 60-65 for the rest. Tach never over 2300rpm. However for the complete trip including the return home resulted in an overall average of 46.5. Never exceeded 65mph most of it was 55-60mph. Over a total of 100miles.