i think part of the problem is that most dealerships DONT have a knowlageable hybrid tech.

 

I would really watch your FCD. I'd bet that you're not getting much above 60 mpg unless you've got your foot off the gas.

If that's the case, it seems that you have some extra drag on the car. A few things to check:

1) Are your front tires wearing properly?
2) Check the front end alignment. A front end not aligned would be enough to cause this problem. Enough drag to prevent you from entering lean-burn often will definitely hurt your mileage. Lean-burn would really help.

Mark

 

Hey Mark,

Thanks for the info. I'm taking the car in on Tuesday to have the aligment checked out.

I find myself having a hard time keeping my eyes on the road and not on the FCD.... LOL ... probably, at least 6 or 7 times/minute :unsure:

That is the case now.

Right after I got the car back from the dealer (the last time I took it in out of concern) I was able to maintain 60+ without any problems. The Dealership said they did absolutely nothing to the car because everything checked out A-OK. But now (same as before my last service dept. visit), this is exactly what I'm experiencing.

To maintain speed, the FCD will drop below 60 and it's very difficult to keep it above 40. If there's a hill or the need for acceleration, it drops to 20 or below.

I've also noticed at times when accelerating or going up a hill, that my IMA can be indicating no charge or assist, yet my FCD has dropped to 20 or below.

When it seemed to be working correctly, there was a direct correlation between the drop on the FCD and the assist on the IMA. <_<

 

Let me also add:

I'm really happy that I've got a car that can get 36 MPGs with the price of gas, today.

But....

 

Hi Tmrpro:

___I haven’t a clue as to what is going on with your particular HCH but is there another HCH driver in your area that you can swap cars with to see if there really is a problem possibly? 36 mpg is simply to low and god only knows what it could be. Going up hills with the Instantaneous at 20 mpg can be easily recreated even in an Insight so that description doesn’t help at all. You can even climb hills without the IMA if you are careful as well … A tell tale comparison would be the Instantaneous on a 65 - 70 degree day w/ no wind on the most flat road you have with no traffic at a steady 50, 55, and 60 mph w/ no A/C and the windows up. Also make sure all 4 tires are at least to the Door specs and the oil currently used is 0W-20 between the hi-lo marks and not some 10W-30 garbage that was overfilled by a local lube shop … This test could be used as a direct comparison for Hot_Georgia_2004 or other HCH owners to look at as they can duplicate this in their own locales but what you have provided so far is really not comparable imho.

___Good Luck

___Wayne R. Gerdes
___Hunt Club Farms Landscaping Ltd.
___Waynegerdes@earthlink.net