Civic transmission identification and tire size

[cems70]

Scott,

The cheapest price I've been able to find for a used VX/CX tranny shipped to my door is $300, although I haven't checked any local junk yards yet. Since my car only has 68,000 miles on it, I'm trying to find a tranny w/ 120k or less on it. If I can't find a relatively low mileage tranny, my other option is to pay someone to replace the final drive in my existing tranny w/ a new VX/CX final drive gear ($150 for the final drive gear plus more for gaskets etc., $100 - $150 to pay someone to do it). The VX/CX and DX trannies have the same 1st, 2nd and 5th gear ratios, so a VX/CX final drive gear will make the DX tranny the same for all intents and purposes (5th gear being the most important).

My driving is about 90% highway. I've only had the car for a week. Bought it in NC and drove it back to RI. The only full tankful from that trip (70 - 75 mph, all highway except 5 miles of stop and go traffic in Washington DC) with 36 psi in my tires (thought it was 44 lbs when I filled them at the car dealer, but I think his gauge was wrong) returned 37.3 mpg...uggghhh! When I got home, I put 45 psi in the tires and blocked the front grille (except for the fog light areas on either side of the grilles). So far the FE seems to be better w/ a projected 45mpg or so on this current tank....some engine on and engine off coasting, 60 mph highway driving.

I have a feeling your potential base FE will be better than mine because of a more aerodynamic coupe body, but I should be pretty close.

By the way, where is the needle on your temperature gauge when your car is at operating temperature? Mine sits just below the bottom-most wavy line (never touching it). This seems to be slightly lower than my previous VX and lower than my wife's '98 HX. The heat seems to be as warm as it's supposed to be, but if the thermostat is not closing all the way, the ECU will never let the engine go into economy burn mode, which could be a cause for poor FE.

Steve

[GasSavers_Ryland]

when I called around to a number of differnt repair shops to ask about replacing my main bearing in my tranny, they quoted me $1,200 to pull the tranny, rip it appart, and replace the main bearing, ($30-40 part) put it all back together, and re-install it, the cost would be higher if more parts were needed.
I've changed trannys on both my '83 and my '92 civic hatch backs, and it's not hard work, it just takes some time laying on your back removing large tight bolts, an impact wrench, and air compresser help alot (you can rent them) I paid around $150 for each of my trannys from local junk yards, and spent about two days, a day ripping it all appart, a few hours replacing drive shaft seals, cleaning crud off, and installing the new clutch (machineing the flywheel is a good idea), I figured that doing the clutch and seals was preventative matenice that should be done w hile everything is appart.
I think all in all, I spent about $350-400 to swap trannys on each car, for the tranny, seals, and other parts.

[GasSavers_scostanz]

Steve,

My needle is exactly where your's is at operating temperature. I think if you're patient, you can do better than $300 for a tranny. I picked up mine for $70 locally here and it supposedly had about 100k on it. They last a really long time, I think someone here has over 400k on his. Try craigslist and car-part.com as well as honda-tech.com. At one point, SVOboy had one for sale....you may want to ping him and see if he still has it. We should be pretty close FE wise, I'm interested to see what you average will be.

-- Scott

[cems70]

Ryland,
Thanks for your reply. I remember on another thread where I asked about the cost of replacing the final drive, you advised me it would cost more to have this done than to simply buy a used VX/CX tranny. I may be able to have the final drive done fairly cheap by a friend who is a Honda mechanic. But a new final drive is $150, so a used tranny might be the the best option since I can swap this myself.

Scott,
Thanks for the info. I guess my thermostat is fine...at least I can eliminate that as a problem. I'll be patient and try craigslist and car-parts.com as well as ping SVOboy about a VX/CX tranny. I'll start posting my mileage to get a benckmark of where my FE is w/ the DX tranny until I install a VX/CX tranny in the spring.

Steve

[GasSavers_Ryland]

because you can shift whenever you want to, the only time that having a dx tranny will be noticed is at higher speeds.
I checked my shop manual, and for 92-95 civics they seemed to all use the same tranny houseing as best as I can tell (if I'm wrong correct me) so it really is just the gears inside that differ, so as best as I can tell they didn't stamp any identifying numbers on them to tell you what you have in front of you.