New VX owner with questions.

[ToBroketoCruise]

Hi all,
I just bought a 94 Civic VX. The PO did some mods to it that I plan on taking off the returning to stock.
They are, 1) Raise suspension back to stock height if possible. 2)Remove noisey muffler and find somthing closer to stock. 3) Remove aftermarket header and go back to stock manifold.

But first I've seen some postings about downloading a sevice manual. Where do I find that?

Thanks
Andy

[1993CivicVX]

I just downloaded the service manual thanks to hypermiler on here.

You'll find the service manual for your car on this page: http://hondatech.info/downloads/Auto/Manuals/Civic/

Click here for a direct link to the download.

[thornburg]

Originally Posted by ToBroketoCruise

Hi all,
I just bought a 94 Civic VX. The PO did some mods to it that I plan on taking off the returning to stock.
They are, 1) Raise suspension back to stock height if possible. 2)Remove noisey muffler and find somthing closer to stock. 3) Remove aftermarket header and go back to stock manifold.

But first I've seen some postings about downloading a sevice manual. Where do I find that?

Thanks
Andy

The lowering and the header MAY actually improve FE. Many of the same things that are good for power are good for FE too, if you just drive it right.

[1993CivicVX]

most mods done to a car to make it faster than don't involve the drive train generally are better for fuel efficiency for the obvious reason that the less power a car needs to go a certain speed, the better performance it will have. So lowering it lowers the aero drag, improving your highway fuel economy. My car has the opposite problem. It needs to be lowered or at the very least get the right size tires on it so it doesn't have so much ground clearance.

You should setup a garage and start logging your mileage. I've found in the VX the easiest way to get super numbers is to accelerate nice and slow, and avoid putting the pedal to the floor even at low RPM. Better off down shifting and avoiding wide open throttle to get more power than to floor it.

[Beelzebubba]

Originally Posted by ToBroketoCruise

Hi all,
I just bought a 94 Civic VX. The PO did some mods to it that I plan on taking off the returning to stock.
They are, 1) Raise suspension back to stock height if possible. 2)Remove noisey muffler and find somthing closer to stock. 3) Remove aftermarket header and go back to stock manifold.

But first I've seen some postings about downloading a sevice manual. Where do I find that?

Thanks
Andy

Hey Andy,

I'm a newbie on here, too. Your post caught my eye because I bought a '92 (first year) Civic VX new back in October 1991. It was teal green with black interior and I averaged about 48mpg overall with mostly highway driving. I drove it for 3.5 years (until I graduated college) and racked up 188,000 miles in that time! I lived in rural north Georgia and averaged about 1000 miles per week driving to school and work.

VTEC was brand new technology that year, so I was a little concerned about reliability. I used Castrol Syntec from the first oil change and and changed it every 7500 miles (for warranty compliance) during the 36k warranty, then every 10k after the warranty expired. In all those miles, the only thing beyond oil changes and the "major" service every 30k, I only had to replace one single thing- the clutch was shot at about 140k.

I felt the need to trade-up, so to speak, after I finished college and I bought a new '96 Accord EX. Even though the Accord was nice, I never "got over" my VX. I loved that thing...and I'd kill to have it back with today's gas prices!

How many miles on yours? Color? Any MPG calculations so far?

Hope all is going well with it so far. Enjoy!

[ToBroketoCruise]

Well I actually took possession of the civic this morning. It bright red with 173K. First thing I did was fill up since it was on “E”. $29 buck to fill at 4.29 a gallon. Yes! Way cheaper than my diesel truck. After about 5 mins of driving when I would come to a stop it would idle down and start to die and the CEL came on.  Figured I better get it home and take a better look at it there. Once I got on the freeway. It ran like a champ. Made it home the 60 miles with no problems. Turned it off, did some homework.
Then fired it back up and went to town for oil, filter, spark plugs, cap, rotor and wires. Funny thing was the CEL was off and it didn’t have any trouble idling any more.???? Any ideas?
When I got to the parts store the ding-a-ling behind the counter told me that Honda didn’t make a VX only CX, DX, LX, EX and SI. Finally convinced him to go out and check. He did and ate crow. All they had were the plugs and oil filter. But he did quote me the prices for the rest of my list. WOW this sucker is expensive. I think I’ll wait till payday.
Came home and changed the spark plugs and raised the suspension. Also checked the timing. Everything looked good. But on the connection that your supposed to jump, mine was a brown and black wire. Is that right?
The wife and I then went back up to my work and picked up my truck. All in all I put 187 miles on it today and my fuel gage is about 5/8. Man its been a busy day.

[suspendedhatch]

With gas prices as they car sellers leave you with an empty tank. That sucks.

Didn't you test drive it beforehand? I imagine you could have talked the price down if the car stalled out during the test drive.

Make sure you get VX specific spark plugs. The part number is on the valve cover. The heat range is different than all the other trims. If your parts store doesn't even have a VX application, I'd go somewhere else. They're going to give you all DX parts.

There is a little green case to the lower right of the glovebox. One is a three pin, and the other is two pin. You want to jumper the two pin. All this does is ground one of the wires.

Did you set base timing according to the sticker under the hood?

I suggest you remove the IACV and clean it out with carb cleaner. Repeat this step once a year.

[gork57]

Welcome to the forum. I've had my '92 VX for 10 years now, and it has hardly missed a beat. I think you have already discovered the "uniqueness" of the VX model; many auto parts people don't even know it exists. Maintain yours properly and I think you'll be a convert like so many others on the GasSavers site.

There seems to be a difference of opinion when it comes to the VX and "performance addons" here. I've posted some questions concerning intake enhancements for the VX, and most of the responses were in the vein of "this will most likely not help your mpg". The argument here is that the VX was precisely engineered for fuel economy rather than performance, and too much tweaking will have an adverse effect on mpg.

In summary, I think you are headed in the right direction in taking your VX
back to OEM status. I'd also suggest doing a search on this site for the various quirks of this model, such as LAF (O2) sensor, Electronic Air Control Valve (EACV) and rough idle/puffing (aka IACV, already mentioned by suspendedhatch), and replacement tire size issues. I think you'll find them informative...

One more thing. I've found that RockAuto.com http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/raframecatalog.php has great prices, and many parts for the VX (some OEM, many replacement, but not everything by any means). I've also found that local auto parts stores often don't have what we need, and online is the best place to find them. Here is link to a list of places to get Honda parts, including the VX: http://honda-tech.com/zerothread/2059889

[smccall]

Congrats on the VX purchase. I swear we are going to change the site name to VXgassavers.org. lol jus playin dont want to offend any non-VX members.