Stanleywinthrop
Senior Member
I don't own a FL5, but I've owned various versions of 9th, 10th, and 11th gen civics. In each generation the "range calculation" is usually fairly accurate at fill up, but the accuracy drops as the range drops to zero.
To test this, the first few thousand miles of each civic I have owned I kept meticulous track of fuel mileage independent of the onboard computer, in order to verify the computer range, mileage and fuel tank size. I usually use the fuelly app, but a simple spreadsheet will suffice.
These are my conclusions after hundreds of thousands of miles in civics:
I ignore the range and fuel low light. First step is to know your fuel tank size (12.4 gallons for both the 10th and 11th gen civics I have owned). Next is to look at your computer calculated fuel mileage (important: for this figure to be accurate reset your trip A odometer at each fill up). Subtract by one and multiply this by the tank safety factor. What is my tank safety factor? I used 12.0 for my 10th and 11th gen cars, which leaves .4 in reserve.
For example, if my current computer MPG shows 35.5, I multiply 34.5 x 12 to get a current range of 414 miles on that particular tank. I almost never push it to the fuel "calculation" before I refuel, but I keep that number in mind and fill up when it gets fairly close. So in this example of 414 miles I would almost certainly fill up before I get to 400 miles on the tank. This usually has me filling up when my range reads 0, but it also keeps a solid reserve of about 1 gallon in my tank at fill up (this has proven pretty consistent in my cars).
I don't see why this method wouldn't work for the FL5. It takes the guesswork out of it.
To test this, the first few thousand miles of each civic I have owned I kept meticulous track of fuel mileage independent of the onboard computer, in order to verify the computer range, mileage and fuel tank size. I usually use the fuelly app, but a simple spreadsheet will suffice.
These are my conclusions after hundreds of thousands of miles in civics:
I ignore the range and fuel low light. First step is to know your fuel tank size (12.4 gallons for both the 10th and 11th gen civics I have owned). Next is to look at your computer calculated fuel mileage (important: for this figure to be accurate reset your trip A odometer at each fill up). Subtract by one and multiply this by the tank safety factor. What is my tank safety factor? I used 12.0 for my 10th and 11th gen cars, which leaves .4 in reserve.
For example, if my current computer MPG shows 35.5, I multiply 34.5 x 12 to get a current range of 414 miles on that particular tank. I almost never push it to the fuel "calculation" before I refuel, but I keep that number in mind and fill up when it gets fairly close. So in this example of 414 miles I would almost certainly fill up before I get to 400 miles on the tank. This usually has me filling up when my range reads 0, but it also keeps a solid reserve of about 1 gallon in my tank at fill up (this has proven pretty consistent in my cars).
I don't see why this method wouldn't work for the FL5. It takes the guesswork out of it.
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and when you inevitably forget to look at the meter before filling up, it records the mileage of each reset in one of the car apps - trip or mileage info or something.
