Situation:

My car is a 2002 Honda Accord SE with ~144,000 miles on it. It had 95,000 miles on it 2 years ago when I bought it. According to the car's listed stats, it should get close to 29 miles to the gallon on the highway. However, over the past 2 years my car consistently averaged 25 mpg or less even with little or no stop-and-go driving.

I had the car undergo a tune up when I bought it 2 years ago, BUT I don't believe the mechanic replaced any of the "nuts and bolts" like spark plugs, air filters, etc. The air filter I've maintained myself, but the rest hasn't been touched.

So, should I:

1) get a full-tune up?
2) Get the "plugs, wires, pipes, etc." inspected and replaced as needed? (If so, what specifically should I ask them to look at - I obviously don't know much abou the anatomy of a car :beatup

3) Get some tips and look at a few things myself first?


PMs are welcome.

5/9/2008 1:39:52 PM

umm yeah, id go ahead and just get a full tune up.

you can goto honda and get a brochure or list of what they do at different intervals. then take that to your mechanic.

5/9/2008 1:41:22 PM

what he said. Do not let them charge you for any "pipes."

5/9/2008 1:43:16 PM

Spark plugs,dist cap w/ rotor,spark plug wires,fuel filter and maybe even a timing belt and water pump for preventative measures, dunno the intervals on a Honda. 60k?

5/9/2008 2:07:15 PM

144k in 6yrs, goddamn fleet vehicle g

5/10/2008 1:41:54 AM

So your car has coil on plug or some type of direct ignition, meaning you probably don't have a distributor, or wires to worry about. Furthermore, probably have 100k mile change intervals. So for how the car runs/fuel economy, you could replace the plugs and the air filter.

25mpg in actual mixed driving is not bad at all, so I wouldn't sweat that too much. If your pure highway mpg is much lower than advertised, that could be a cause for concern, but not much you can do other than maintain tire pressures/spark plugs +air filter.
Ahmet

5/10/2008 1:46:56 AM

plugs and fuel filter

5/10/2008 1:27:21 PM

If its a V6, 25 mpg is pretty typical. Maybe slightly low for a 4-cylinder though not abnormal, especially if you only make short trips (5-10 miles). However, its probably not a bad idea to replace the spark plugs, and check your tire pressures. Try keeping them a few psi over what the recommended pressure is. I don't see any reason to see a mechanic unless you want to be extra cautious.

5/10/2008 2:49:06 PM

The car's listed stats are bullshit. The EPA tests at the time were very far from anything that could be considered real world driving. They changed them recently, but they aren't much better.

5/10/2008 5:12:13 PM

I've found that on most cars you can figure your average gas mileage will be right around the EPA city (maybe 1 or 2 mpg more) rating, even if you do a decent amount of highway driving.

5/10/2008 9:02:11 PM