Hello! Owner of 3 Civics reporting...

[Cosworth]

Howdy, all.

After lurking for a few months, I have finally joined! (Got frustrated writing a grant that's due in 3 weeks!! )

A short intro... I have 3 Civics and a "big block" Honda.

In order of best gas mileage... (FYI, MI has 70mph speedlimit on freeways)
1. '99 DX hatch 5sp (~45mpg: 10%/90% city/hwy driving)
- I've had it since brand new, and been kept up pretty well.

2. '92 VX hatch 5sp (~40mpg: 40%/60% city/hwy driving)
- Just bought it a couple of months ago... seriously needs to be fixed back to stock.

3. '92 Si hatch 5sp (~38mpg: 100%/0% city/hwy driving)
- Had it since '01. O2 is flipping out, and can't go faster than 55mph.

I hope to get some help fixing the VX back to its glory.

-Sean
p.s. My best MPG to date is ~52.5mpg (~300mi trip) from '99 DX hatch using hypermiling... it was painful and the process will not be repeated.

[theholycow]

Welcome. Which hypermiling strategies did you use on your record trip that were so unpleasant?

[Cosworth]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Welcome. Which hypermiling strategies did you use on your record trip that were so unpleasant?

I extensively used pulse & glide technique... the problem was that there were too many hills, and it was too stressful to maintain at least 60mph in 70mph zone. (3-4 lanes on I-75).

Plus, it was sunny & toasty, and I had to manually control A/C on & off... which was not pleasant.

From now on, I'm sticking with less rigorous pulse&glide with A/C, and I'll sacrifice mpg at ~44mpg on long trips (10/90 city/hwy).

[theholycow]

Comfort is far more important to me than fuel economy. Pulse & Glide is something I do when it's easy and produces the results I want, and I don't bother when it's not going to be very worthwhile. If I'm hot, I ALWAYS leave the A/C on, and I avoid doing anything that will stop it.

Hills make P&G easy, as long as you take advantage of them properly -- glide down, pulse up and over.

It's pretty close to natural behavior anyway, doesn't hold up traffic, and maximizes the savings by running the engine more efficiently (look up "BSFC" and pumping losses) while keeping a steady speed that's good for aerodynamic drag -- if you pulse down and glide up, you have to go really fast down, and aerodynamic drag increases as a square of speed, as does engine friction which you'd have more of at the higher RPM of the downhill pulse.

For your highway driving, what if you configure one of your Civics specifically for highway with higher gearing and aero mods?

[smccall]

Congrats on the VX purchase!! You're on the right site to get help fixing it back to stock and running great.