Car feels sluggish when temps reach around 0c outside

[Aurelleah]

Hia, my car's power output felt greatly increased on 4-6c days, but today it's extra cold (for october at least) at about freezing. Engine's warmed up. On WOT pulls, it feels like the engine takes much longer to rev up and the transmission feels like it takes longer to deliver torque, when driving in D. Shifting to S fixes the low-end torque "problem" of course but even then still takes awhile to rev high and hear that vtec kicking in.

Anyone else notice similar things? Maybe it's the traction control or something; I'm not getting any beeping/indicators tho

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[civicdabest-foo]

I live in Regina/Saskatoon. We have had wacky weather here. Snow at -2 for 2 days then 20 degrees celsius a week later.

I have noticed something similar.

Whenever I noticed these changes, I noticed, the temperature outside had changed quite a bit since last notice.

On one occasion it was about +5, and I was struggling to get >39 mpg on a highway run. Then next week when it was 0, I was getting 46 mpg.

Didn't bother me, but when I see a drop in mpg I get the chills, making me wonder if the injectors are clogged or the intake valves are dressed up in carbon.

 

[raynist]

A car should in theory make more power in cold temps - denser air. Mileage usually goes down in cold temps also, I get my best gas mileage in warm days.

 

[Aurelleah]

I live in Regina/Saskatoon. We have had wacky weather here. Snow at -2 for 2 days then 20 degrees celsius a week later.

I have noticed something similar.

Whenever I noticed these changes, I noticed, the temperature outside had changed quite a bit since last notice.

On one occasion it was about +5, and I was struggling to get >39 mpg on a highway run. Then next week when it was 0, I was getting 46 mpg.

Didn't bother me, but when I see a drop in mpg I get the chills, making me wonder if the injectors are clogged or the intake valves are dressed up in carbon.

Yeah it recently went from like +5 to zero over the course of a short time. Went out for another spin and felt similar hesitations and did see my VSA light come on a few times intermittently even with traction control turned off. This vehicle sure is funny, you know. The first few pulls of the trip my wheels spun out before traction control got em sticking again, but after that it seemed traction control kicked in almost early. It's almost as if the computer adjusts the traction control based on previous spinouts, as I spun out less and less as the drive went on. Maybe it was just my tires heating up tho.

I'm guessing traction control plays at least a decent part in this behaviour

 

[civicdabest-foo]

Anyone know if the CivicX learns your driving behaviour and adjusts its throttle profile or whatever based on your habits?

I know some BMW's do this and you could reset it by having the car in accessory mode and holding down the brake or gas or whatever for so many seconds to reset something.

Wondering if the CivicX has something like this. Might be something for the OP to try.

 

[civicls]

Anyone know if the CivicX learns your driving behaviour and adjusts its throttle profile or whatever based on your habits?

I know some BMW's do this and you could reset it by having the car in accessory mode and holding down the brake or gas or whatever for so many seconds to reset something.

Wondering if the CivicX has something like this. Might be something for the OP to try.

No, the civic does not have a mind of its own.

 

[nizarz]

This reminds me of something that happened with mine. I Started the car, waited 30 secs like i usually do before driving, about 30 secs later I got to the end of my road and wanted to cross the main road. I wanted to turn left so waited for passing traffic to clear and there was one more car waiting to go passed before I can cross. So with this junction a PITA to cross, I pushed my pedal down around 90% of the travel distance and......nothing, the car just crawled like it was in D and the brakes released. I removed my foot and pressed it down again for it to finally wake up and move. Kind of felt like an old car with a carburettor when it hasn't warmed up, or even pulling away from a stop in 5th gear or something. ECO was off. Temperature was +10c and it was the first drive of the day for the car. Im not easily freaked out by stuff but this was a definite "WTF Move!!" moment.

 

[civicdabest-foo]

This reminds me of something that happened with mine. I Started the car, waited 30 secs like i usually do before driving, about 30 secs later I got to the end of my road and wanted to cross the main road. I wanted to turn left so waited for passing traffic to clear and there was one more car waiting to go passed before I can cross. So with this junction a PITA to cross, I pushed my pedal down around 90% of the travel distance and......nothing, the car just crawled like it was in D and the brakes released. I removed my foot and pressed it down again for it to finally wake up and move. Kind of felt like an old car with a carburettor when it hasn't warmed up, or even pulling away from a stop in 5th gear or something. ECO was off. Temperature was +10c and it was the first drive of the day for the car. Im not easily freaked out by stuff but this was a definite "WTF Move!!" moment.

Was there grit or gravel or anything that would have caused even the slightest loss of traction for a moment? I notice that when the CivicX does spin a little, the traction control light flashes on the dash and it gets sluggish until you release the gas and give it some.

This has almost gotten me into accidents while turning onto highways from gravel roads. I always leave plenty of extra seconds of distance between me and oncoming traffic on the highway when turning onto, because of this.

 

[Giltibo]

The solution? Ditch the CVT, get a 6MT! No such problem.

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