Just a quick FYI for you Civic GX owners -- if at all possible, fuel up at the natural gas pumps that are rated at 3600 psi. Use the 3000 psi pumps and, as my colleague Mr. Clark suggested, you best not be in a hurry. I recently filled the GX twice in succession -- once at a 3600 psi pump (near LAX airport) and once at a 3000 psi pump (located near our office in Santa Monica).
In each instance, the GX's tank was down to about a quarter (five bars showing on the gauge). It took less than five minutes to fill it (19 bars -- though it reads to 20, that's the most we've ever seen) at the 3600 psi pump, where, after nearly 20 minutes at the 3000 psi pump, it still wasn't full.
Both times, the pumps quickly filled up the tank to 80 percent or so (the fuel pump shows the percentage of fill) but where the higher pressure pump topped off the tank in short order, the lower pressure one took forever and still didn't fill it. Which brings up another FYI -- even though the pump shows "100 percent", the tank isn't really full until the "100" stops blinking. That sucker blinked for a quarter of an hour (while the pump gauge's "Gallon's Equivalent" numbers moved ever so slowly) before I had to abort the mission and get back to the office, the end result being 17 bars showing.
John DiPietro, Automotive Editor @ 32,250 miles
adavis2493 says:
07:21 AM, 06/11/09
Does anybody own one of these? I have not seen any.
e10rice says:
07:21 AM, 06/11/09
So is there a safety feature that prevents you from over filling the tank, like on most gas pumps that shut off once the level gets high just before it spills out?
ckk2 says:
07:22 AM, 06/11/09
How long does the home filling take?
brn says:
08:11 AM, 06/11/09
Isn't home NG around 4 or 5 psi? I assume you'd need equipment to bump that up quite a bit.
adavis, not only haven't I seen any one the road, I haven't seen any on the lot. Not a dealer in my metro area has one.
firstwagon says:
09:02 AM, 06/11/09
Anyone know what the tank pressure is on the Civic?
I have a hunch it's close to 3000 psi which would explain why the slow progress once it's get near full. A 3600 psi pump would still have a large pressure difference once the tank is full thus the faster time.
johnnyturbo says:
09:06 AM, 06/11/09
adavis,
Yes, the GX is a rare sight, even here in Los Angeles where you see a lot of everything.
e10rice,
The pump fills and shuts off automatically; there's no squeeze handle to dispense the fuel on your own as with a gasoline pump.
ckk2,
According to John O'Dell's blog here, it can take anywhere from 9-12 hours. Yep, it's that slow.
http://blogs.edmunds.com/roadtests/2008/03/2007-honda-civic-gx-cng-comes-home.html#more
brn,
I'm not sure what the home pressure delivery is, but the Phill system compresses the gas further, to 3600 psi, to fill the GX. Which explains why the 3000 psi pump station I used wasn't filling the car up much after a certain point!
jackson611 says:
10:28 AM, 06/11/09
is it LNG or CNG?
e10rice says:
12:39 PM, 06/11/09
Man thats got to be a weird feeling just plugging it up to something and waiting for it to finish. Im so used to holding on the the handle, what to do with all the extra time. (95% of the pumps in my area dont have the latch on the handle so you dont have to hold it)
brn says:
01:01 PM, 06/12/09
e10rice, you live in a strange area. Nearly 100% of the pumps in my area do latch. I never stand there and hold it.
norman_1 says:
09:07 PM, 06/15/09
According to Wiki, Civic GX, quoting Edmunds Sept 2006, "is a very limited-availability car with fewer than a thousand units per year being produced by the factory."
brn,
I think gas stations in my area has almost all eliminated the latch, for fear of static spark I think.
ron_orr says:
05:55 AM, 06/16/09
This is normal, expected behavior. The gas gauge on all CNG vehicles is a pressure gauge. If 3600 psi is 20 "bars" on the GX then 3000 psi would register about 16 bars. Pumps labeled 3000 psi stop pumping when the tank pressure reaches 3000 psi by design.