VX is purchased
 

drove home on half-inflated tires today with the new VX. It handled great on the freeway... acceleration is non-existant, but what do I expect from that engine/transmission?

So, here are my observations.

the ride is nice. Alignment is off, so that needs to be fixed. Interior is clean with a few exceptions... all fixable/ignorable.

back hatch squeeks when I hit a bump.

shocks on the hatch need replacing

o2 sensor needs replacing.

clutch cylinders need a looking over.

the front calipers scrape the rotors. That's gotta kill gas mileage.

Parking break is lose. I can barely engage it. need to adjust that.

I need a haircut, as my hair is touching the roof.

You would be surprised. My fronts have been scrapping since I started driving the VW, but mileage has been ok AFAIK.

Sounds like a decent VX that needs a little love to be perfect.

I'm surprised to hear your reaction to the acceleration. It really is no b18 motor, but it does have some pep for a SOHC econo-motor. Is it that much worse than the Fit?

Good luck with it!

back hatch squeeks when I hit a bump.

that is cured by replacing the gas struts on the hatch. Rock Auto has a good price on these.

how do you know the LAF sensor is bad?????

well, it looks like an original... which means it's over 200k miles old.

Oh yeah... the car takes a long time to heat up, and only heats up to 1/5 of the dial. At first I assumed someone removed the tstat, but it blows hot air

Remember, the Fit has 102 HP out of the box... has a shorter geared tranny, and runs on all 16 valves right away.

I remember the hatch squeak, it will grow on you. When you change the O2 sensor, get the special tool from autozone. It is a lifesaver.

Dan

That's really strange. Takes a long time to warm up and low reading on gauge..... hmm. Thermostat's stuck open is my best guess. I've had that happen before.

Good deal Matt!

I went thru a lot of engine temp issues at one time.
Best test I know to confirm a warmed up engine is: grab the upper radiator hose firmly with one hand. If you can keep you hand on there firmly, it's not fully warmed up. If fully warm you will want to pull your hand off.

If heater blows hot, there's a thermostat that's working at least partially.
Could be the t'stat is old/tired/gunked up. Maybe the t'stat spring can weaken, then it doesn't shut like it should. Could be ancient, you know. Cheap part too.

OR it's the wrong one.
Wrong t'stat happens easily. They only come in a few shapes/sizes but each size comes in various temperatures. Very easy for someone to put in one that's built for a lower temperature. Especially if they're scared of overheating.

OR the gauge is bad. I think to test/verify that you'd need a spec for what the resistance of the temp sender should be when warmed up and verify that with an ohmmeter. Probably you won't have to get involved with that process.

Good luck!

I already own two of those things... love them.

As for the temperature, part of it could be due to the o2 sensor... part of it could be the tstat. Since I've replaced a few tstats before, I might just go to Honda on Monday and get new plugs/wires/tstat just to ensure that they are the right ones for this car.

Oh yeah, the distributor was recently replaced, so that's nice.