Hello from a VX owner!

Danronian · 08-30-2007, 02:43 PM

Hello everyone!

My name is Dan and I my current car is a 95 Civic VX.

I didn't buy the car since it was great on gas, but because it was a great deal, is my favorite car color, and was worth more than the asking price.

In around March, I got rid of my old car, a 1995 Acura Integra LS, to go with something that wouldnt be as profiled by police (I am a very safe driver, but was given a bogus ticket last September that ended up costing me $800 in the end...), and less likely to be stolen.

The car was just painted when I got it, but the body work was not done very well. I am accustomed to doing body work, so I didnt really see this as a problem, since this car is only a daily driver, and the body work is something I can fix when the current work decided to bubble and fall apart. The car had 238k miles on it when I bought it, and I could tell it had a hard life before it came into my hands. The car has Bondo work in most of the panels of the body, the interior was partially painted yellow, it had the wrong seats installed in it, it had a small electrical problem (due to a wire that rubbed through going to the front corner light), and it smoked a little bit. Luckily, much of the suspension on the car was replaced before I bought it, and the very pricey wideband 02 sensor.

After owning and driving the car for about 2 months and 4k miles, I decided I was going to replace the motor with a non-smoking one, and also fix everything else wrong with the car, along with replacing the clutch for good measure. (details of the work are in my garage)

The mods on the car when I got it, are the same ones on it today.
These include:
Stainless Apexi WS2 Exhaust (very quiet)
Short-ram intake and K&N Filter
Performance struts and adjustable coilovers
Antenna

Overall this is a great car, and I would like to get even better gas mileage out of it. So far my best combined is 45 mpg, but I have heard of many people getting over 50 mpg with these cars.

Here?s some pictures:

New car next to my old car:

The best picture I have of the finished outside and inside product:

Cleaning the engine bay and fixing the small wiring problem:

2nd day I owned the car:

The old motor out:

mrmad · 08-30-2007, 02:48 PM

Welcome, look around here for tips how to get your mpg higher, your car certainly has potential. When you say it was a good deal, how much $ did you pick the VX up for?

1993CivicVX · 08-30-2007, 03:01 PM

Yeah I'd like to know! as I just became the happy owner of a 1993 VX with 175k miles and a few problems but otherwise in good running order for $1800

Danronian · 08-30-2007, 09:28 PM

I picked this one up for $2000 in North-Central PA...in Sayre to be exact.

These civics are very hard to find in my area near Philly for this price, especially the VX models with most of the VX stuff still intact.

With new paint, two good tires, and much of the front suspension replaced, this was a pretty good deal.

GasSavers_TomO · 08-31-2007, 08:34 AM

Welcome aboard fellow VX owner! My VX was originally teal colored as well, but I couldn't stand it, lol. not to mention I had replaced damaged body parts with ones from a milano red Hatch...it didn't look pretty, so I painted mine Navy Blue, similar to the color the DX hatches were available in.

1993CivicVX · 08-31-2007, 11:36 AM

I love the color of mine. Wasn't something I thought about when I bought it, but when I noticed the color I noticed I liked it.

I have a meeting with my mechanic to talk about all the tips and advice I've picked up from this forum and this forum and what he thinks the best way to approach the hesitating acceleration. Thanks TomO for all the help so far.

Oh, while I'm here, and maybe this will be useful to you do Dan, do I risk wrecking my car if the timing belt breaks on it? I don't want to have the mechanic check if it needs to be replaced if it doesn't need it (the last owner who put 30,000 miles on it did not replace it) but if I run the risk of wrecking the car then maybe I better do it! Any thoughts on that one TomO?

Danronian · 08-31-2007, 06:40 PM

Yes. Replace the timing belt. Chances are it was done at 100k miles, and now it will need it done soon anyway. If it snaps, chances are, you will bend valves, and your engine could become ruined. It is both cheap to replace in parts and is easy to do if you want to devote some time to doing it yourself.

Good luck with your VX.