Does anyone know the fuel consumption per hour when idling a 2016 Honda 2.4 Liter Earth Dreams engine?

I can relate to the OP. In 2005 I have a 5 speed manual Corolla, was driving from Rhode Island to Louisiana and around PA I hit the snow storm that was heading our way, I was following an 18 wheeler and got off at an exit and got a hotel, had to spend two days there.

When I got back on the road two days later, I saw several 18 wheelers on their sides and I lost count of the number of cars that were covered in snow or stuck in ditches with snow. All I could think of was I’m glad I stopped when I did ( even though it cost me $150 for the two nights in the hotel) and I hope that the people that had to spend the night stuck in their cars on the highway stuck in snow had enough gas to keep the heater on
 
That engine should be great at keeping heat. The exhaust is channeled in the head to one exit port, allowing the head to transfer more heat to the coolant. The high compression helps too. I would agree with the estimates already given of about .15-.25 gallons per hour. I would change the oil after idling it for a day in this hypothetical emergency situation.
 
I can’t remember what vehicle it was but my scan gauge would show .2 gph at idle. That might’ve been an 06 VW TDI but at least gives you and idea.
Man that is incredible to me.

I basically lived in my car during grad school years. Home was an hour awake from work, which was also near school. So I regularly spent hours in the car somewhere either to do homework, study, or sleep. I drove about 450 miles per week and knew that gas gauge really well... I had to fill the car every 2-3 days. I had 2 vehicles I drove during that period... a 97 2.2 Subaru Legacy, and a 2002 3.3L town and country minivan. With the AC on, set at fresh air, they both consumed far more than that. it ended up being around a gallon per hour or slightly more in the DC area heat.
 
One thing I never thought of but discovered earlier this year. If it's cold enough, the car could go back into warmup mode!

I was sitting in my car for about 45 minutes over this winter on a -12f day. After 15 or so minutes of running with the heat on, it bumped the idle back up to 1500-2000 to warm itself back up
 
use .25 gallon/hr.

My FIL uses a Mazda5 or Ford F-150 i6 to power his 3000w inverter for boiler/lamp/tv/cable/internet router/modem/coffee pot during extended power outages up to 30 hrs.

That number based off that. He runs vehicle though heat off
 
Last edited:
Here is some additional information I figured out and posted on the Honda CR-V owners forum:

I did a test several weeks ago when I had to drive somewhere and then wait for someone to show up at the destination. It was a cold day and it took a little over a 1/2 hour for them to show up, and I continued to run my already warmed up engine just to provide heat inside my 2016 CR-V EX.

I started the trip with the trip A set to 0 and recorded the miles and MPG when I got there, and then recorded the MPG after sitting there for exactly 1/2 hour. Then figured out the fuel consumption to get there, and total after the additional 1/2 hour, and subtracted the fuel to get there. It turns out that the fuel consumption for my 2016 Honda CR-V K24W 2.4 Liter normally asperated engine that was already warmed up when I got there, was exactly 1/8 of a gallon for 30 minutes. Which would be 1/4 of a gallon each hour.

So if you ever have to run your generation 4 CR-V just to keep warm, you can expect it to use 1/4 of a gallon per hour once the engine is past the initial warm-up running time. ( Of course engines run rich when cold so they use more during the initial warm up ).

But 1/4 of a gallon per hour is not really a lot of gasoline. At that rate, you could stay warm for 24 hours and only use 6 gallons.

I just thought I would pass this information along incase it might come in handy with all the power outages and snow storm going on.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have trip B set to automatically reset when I open the gas cap door. So I record the trip B info just before pulling that lever. When I fill my tank and compare the indicated MPG indicated for trip B, to the actual MPGs ( miles driven on trip B divided by actual gallons to refill ) when I get home, it is always within 1/10 of a MPG of indicated.

And the actual is usually 1/10 better than indicated. So the fuel consumption indicated is very very close to actual for my CR-V.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you ever do have to run your engine for a long time to keep warm in a snow storm, be sure to clear all the snow away from the exhaust area, and also from both the sides of the vehicle on a regular basis.

Years ago there were reports of people getting CO2 poisonings from exhaust because of snow build up.

And more recently there was a report of a vehicle going up in flames because the sides were blocked and no air circulated under it and the catalytic converter got the bottom of the vehicle above it so hot it caught fire. The person inside did not get out in time and died in the fire.

So while the engine in our CR-Vs is a nice fuel stingy design, there are a couple of other things to be concerned about if you ever have to do that.
 
Last edited:
I was once working with British expat and we were headed out to a site on the backroads near Edson, Alberta , where temps were routinely below 0 degrees F and the bush roads might or might not be plowed. It was his turn to drive. I asked him if he gassed up. He said we had a half a tank of fuel so we should be good. I explained to the boy that you never leave town with less than a full tank of fuel in these parts.
 
I know when I am out ice fishing watching tip ups for Northern Pike the trucks I have had used a lot of gas idling. I know the Honda's are efficient but I think they still burn quite a bit when it's cold out an idling. My Honda Civic gets warmed up a lot in the winter with the auto start. It burns lots of extra gas however I don't monitor it. I would say about 3/4 of a gallon on my Honda Civic idling in the cold winter with temps 32 degrees or less. Probably more like a gallon an hour but totally guessing here.
 
ice cold idling uses a lot more fuel... rpms are higher, the alternator is recharging a just used battery, often there's lights or heaters on, and of course the engine ecu tries to get the cat and o2 sensors up to temp. That last part could include spark or injection (diesel) timing that's not optimal for fuel efficiency.

I can confirm about 1/4 gallon per hour for a fully warmed engine and with radio and AC on, more like 1/6th if those loads are off, and quite a bit more should temperatures drop and if it's cold enough they will drop on efficient engines.
 
I ran my 1.5 turbo on idle for four hours and it didn’t move the gas gauge, probably not helpful but bottom line is it don’t burn much.
 
A safe number is 0.5 gall per hr based on fil experience. My father in law uses either their F150 I6 or Mazda 5 idling as backup generator with 3000W inverter to run their heating boiler, small tv/cable box, lamp and coffee pot waiting out outages oceanfront.
 
I ran v10 ford 6.8 l engines and 460 v8 engines for over 40 years. We never shut engines off. They drove or idled. We used about a gallon per hour. My trucks were 42 gallon tanks. Or my modified 2nd tank trucks held about 70 gallons.
Driving the 10200 pound vans we got 6 to 10 mpg. So we gassed up front and end of shift.

Your question on the car useage ?? My feeling is 1/3 to .45 gallon per hour.
 
Yeah, our 2019 Nissan Pathfinder cycles the compressor and cooling fans at low speed with any/all HVAC mode selected.

So flipping annoying when you start it in extreme winter cold and you hear it at least trying to cycle and the cooling fans blowing away on an ice cold engine.

Such advanced technology....the 1984 Chevy Cavalier I have won't turn on the cooling fans in defrost mode until the AC high side pressure exceeds some value like 225PSI.

That was 38 years ago.
 
My father in law runs a 3000W inverter in power outage off his old F150 with i6 and it does not consume much fuel at all. He went a three days with shutting vehicle off when he slept and did not run his fuel tank low.

In an emergency you just do what you need and what wou have .
 
Hi fellow BITOG People,
...

I am wondering if anyone has information on the actual fuel consumption per hour when idling in winter conditions in park for this engine? ... ...

If it were really around 0.2 gallons per hour and you had a decent amount of gas in the tank, you could probably easily idle all night and more and still have enough gas to go when things got moving again. ...

.... It sure would be nice to find out without having to filling it up, run it for something like 5 hours at idle, and then refill, just to find out what the numbers are. Though that may be the only way to get the answers.

Thanks in advance for any information.
The DIC on my Ford /Mazda 2.o liter D.I bounces between 0.1 and 0.2 gph in the DIC readout. so at least 5 hr/gal
 
Back
Top