side effect of VSA/econ

[CivicChina]

I've been playing for a while with the buttons on my 6mt 1.5 and tested in many different conditions the effect of various combinations, especially in traffic, where i spend most of my driving.
VSA off:
1- the clutch is definitely more direct and easier to modulate in heavy traffic. Not sure why.
2- steering becomes terrible! it loses all the feeling off center and lacks the sharpness and quick response this car usually has. Rear end is lazy and slow!
3- 1st gear has more power.

Econ on:
The shifting green light fades to white earlier and I can definitely feel the engine runs much better at low rpm. If i want extreme economy I can shift into 6th at 55km/h instead of 64-65. In this way i can drive around town always under 6l/100 km.

So I drive with VSA off and econ on in very slow stop&go traffic, i turn on VSA as soon as the speed is a little higher and turn off econ when i have room to push a little more.

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[gtman]

Econ on:
The shifting green light fades to white earlier and I can definitely feel the engine runs much better at low rpm. If i want extreme economy I can shift into 6th at 55km/h instead of 64-65. In this way i can drive around town always under 6l/100 km.

My experience with the CVT and Econ is totally different. I find it doesn't increase fuel economy at all. Reason being, it dulls throttle response so much that I find myself pressing the throttle much harder to compensate.

 

[CivicChina]

My experience with the CVT and Econ is totally different. I find it doesn't increase fuel economy at all. Reason being, it dulls throttle response so much that I find myself pressing the throttle much harder to compensate.

yes, i drove a CRV with the cvt and I had the same feeling, while with the mt, if you are motivated to save fuel (give up any desire to accelerate quckly) you can take advantage of the low rpm and there is a sensible difference. This doesn't mean I always want to drive that way
How about the steering with VSA off?

 

[a c i d.f l y]

My experience with the CVT and Econ is totally different. I find it doesn't increase fuel economy at all. Reason being, it dulls throttle response so much that I find myself pressing the throttle much harder to compensate.

From a CVT perspective, getting up to 60mph with ECON on took so looonnnng, and I really only gained about 3mpg on long distance trips with zero impact to city mileage. Pretty much drive with it off permanently. I also turned off the "green dash" light in the dash settings, so it just stays white.

Only ever turned off VSA once, didn't seem to have any impact on acceleration and I didn't make any significant turns to notice a difference. May experiment with that.

 

[Schmullis]

I agree with GT Man.
Econ only on long highway cruise with light traffic volume. The car does coast more in Econ. I drive my CVT in standard Drive and Sport if I'm in traffic where I need a fast throttle response. Never turn off VSA.

 

[Axatax]

AFAIK, VSA is a passive system in that it's not "doing" anything until conditions call for it. It's ABS on steroids.

 

[Manual]

I had mostly written the eco button off (only using it on the highway for a 'softened' cruise control) --- but i've been utilizing it constantly for the last week or so and -- surprise, it does appear to actually help (60 mpg on a 45 mile highway trip (no CC), 50+ mpg on a few town runs). This is the first time I've used its for city driving with 91 E0, so it may have something to do with the fuel/eco button combo .... , I dunno.

/add ... a logical guess would be that I wasn't driving as disciplined as a thought I was , and the "eco marm" is helping to reap the efficiency benefits of the higher grade fuel.

 

[a c i d.f l y]

Had a test run without VSA and turns feel like power steering is almost turned off. It made turning very annoying with the level stiffness.

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