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Hi everyone. Just bought a 1993 Honda Civic VX this evening with a little under 174,000 miles. I paid $1800 for the little gem. It has a little rust on the back wheel panels, the speedometer sometimes doesn't work and it has some idling issues that need to be fixed. Other than that the car seems to be in great shape. Drives smoothly and seems in good alignment. The undercarriage is whistle clean. There's a few scratches and a dent on the front. Here's looking forward to many miles and years ahead! :thumbup: I definitely enjoyed the 50 miles I drove home, mostly on the highway, and seeing the gas gauge approaching E barley budge.

A question about the lean burn while I'm introducing myself. I notice that at highway speeds of about 70mph on the drive home I was constantly getting feedback from the throttle: it'd start lagging, then suddenly surge forward, then start lagging, then surge forward-- this was very subtle, but still noticeable. The car didn't seem to want to just stay at a constant speed or rate of fuel consumption. Also, sometimes a lag after shifting for the car to accelerate. I assume these are all normal quirks of the lean burn engine?

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Thanks for your thoughts. I'll look into it!

Welcome aboard! Chalk up another one for an unmolested VX ;) Check out the links in my signature for helpful links for your new-found source of FE enjoyment. :thumbup:

EDIT: I also PM'd you for a reply in the other post you posted in.

nice deal for 1800!!!

Welcome!

Let's hope so... I never had a chance to bring it to a mechanic and its inspection sticker runs out at the end of next month... so maybe that was the reason he was selling it, because he was afraid it wouldn't pass (safety--should pass emissions with flying colors). Also, the hood suddenly won't shut. I drop the hood but it just bangs without shutting properly. Can't seem to figure it out! Am I missing something?

hmm.. one more question. How do I tell if its burning oil? He said it went through about a quart of oil every 3,000 miles but there's no smoke and I don't see a leak. Once I get the car inspected and looked at thoroughly by a mechanic, then I'll know if I got a good deal on it! :)

Thanks for the welcome to the site everybody :)

The hood latch not latching is a common thing too. Just stick your finger in the mechanism where the cable enters on the lower left side. Push the tab that the cable passes through as far to the right as you can. Then the hood should close. A dose of WD-40 daily for a week or so should help fix the problem.

And yes, your mileage is about right for burning oil. you won't see smoke unless you get on the throttle hard and in the higher revs. Valve stem seals are the usual suspect for this case, although rings can be at fault as well. But most commonly, it's the valve stem seals.

Should I try to do anything to prevent it from burning oil or is it just one of the things that comes with age? I'm gonna go see if I can figure out the hood right now. Thanks again for all the help! Really glad I stumbled upon this site!


:D

By cable to you mean the metal latch thing on the underside of the hood that clicks into the latch? I'm gonna post a photo in a few.

https://www.imagestation.com/picture/...7/e8111207.jpg
Pictures > Words, lol. I took a picture to help visualize what I typed.

The Valve Stem Seals can be replaced without taking the motor out of the car. If you have good mechanical confidence then it's cheap and easy. If you have to take it in to get done it can be expensive.

https://bp2.blogger.com/_Y8WoJeZ-J4c/...+Latch+004.JPG
https://bp0.blogger.com/_Y8WoJeZ-J4c/...+Latch+001.JPG

pics from my car

the cable is under the left lower bolt in your last pic. My finger is pushing the metal tab that the cable goes through to the right in the picture I took.

Haha!! I feel like a newborn that has just discovered his opposable thumb ... or something. I would have NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS ever figured that out. I see why it got stuck. It's kind of caked with sand in there. Any suggestions on how I can clean it? I could just spray WD40 in there, but it seems like sand and grit is causing it to get stuck. easy enough to just move it out of the way, too, tho. Thanks!! By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a complete n00b to tinkering with cars. I know absolutely nothing about them, but bought this car with the hope to learn how to do some things on my own and not rely on a mechanic all the time! Seems like I found a good place to get started! Thanks again! That was a surprisingly easy fix. Hehe.

You're extremely welcome, in fact, I'm going to add this thread to my links for anyone else looking for a fix for the sticking hood latch.

You should take the time to set up your garage and gaslog on here. as well as filling out your location and such.

Well, there's only one small problem... the speedometer sometimes doesn't work as well. I was told I can get the part for like $40, but I don't wonder if it's not just a loose cable that needs to be tightened?

It could be a loose connector. I've had several of the connectors (speedometer, backup lights. oxygen sensor) toward the front of the engine compartment fail. I put a touch of conductive grease on each of the connector's contacts and reseated the connector to fix the problem. I've also had the speedometer sending unit fail too.

The rust problem in the back wheel well is caused by a poor design feature in the wheel well. On the inside of the wheel well underneath where that rust spot is there is a small shelf that collects road debris and moisture. I cleaned that shelf off and formed a slope of JB Weld on that shelf to eliminate the flat area so it wouldn't collect debris anymore.

JB Weld? I've got a lot of learning to do before I do these DIY projects myself! But thanks for the tips! At some point I want to scrape out all the loose rust, prep it, chemical treat it to keep it from continuing to rust, then fill it with bondo, smooth it out and finish it with some touch up paint!

Umm.. how do you get 70mpg with your Civic CX? did you convert it to a hybrid!? Oh, I see, coasting with the engine off. Highly illegal doncha know! Do you have any write ups of your fuel saving tips and techniques?

Edit: I didn't recognize what your pic was until I looked at your profile. Now I understand why your average is so high.

1993CivicVX -

Welcome to GS! As you can see, there are already lots of "VX Advisors" in your camp, :) .

From looking at the pictures, if I were you, I'd try to clean the hood latch with a cheap toothbrush and WD40 like you said.

CarloSW2

Actually that is not accurate. It is a traffic violation (like speeding) to coast in neutral in some areas of the world, but you CAN coast in gear with the clutch in if you are really worried about it.

Note, Washington (and Colorado too I think) has specifically made it illegal for semi-trucks to coast with the clutch in, but stopping a fully loaded truck (which frequently runaway) and stopping a metro are two completely different scenarios.

https://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.630
(1) The driver of any motor vehicle when traveling upon a down grade shall not coast with the gears of such vehicle in neutral.

(2) The driver of a commercial motor vehicle when traveling upon a down grade shall not coast with the clutch disengaged.

But with the engine off?

I haven't seen any laws against it. Have you?

I'm still in full control of the vehicle, far more so than someone distracted by a cell phone at any rate. It doesn't take an appreciable amount of time for me to bump or key start the engine when need arises. It wasn't something that took an inordinate amount of practice to learn either on a smallish car with a stick shift.

I'm not against it, I'm just not sure it's legal. of course if a cop would somehow know you could just say "the car stalled." With small, stick cars with no power steering it's very seamless to drive with the engine off. I was surprised how seamless it was. I can't tell when the engine is on or off--there's no difference in how the car performs (except that it doesn't go when you hit the gas). So today as I was driving my "new" VX around I'd just kill the engine down hills and then pop the clutch -- sometimes at slow speeds it would slow down while trying to start, but when jumping into 5th it is pretty seamless. If you do it at stop lights (and I did several times) just gotta pay attention to the lights and the traffic so you don't hold up traffic starting the car.

Don't forget, you have to be able to stop the car when the vacuum assist runs out, so that may needs some practice too.

I'm pretty sure that it's driving without the car being in gear that is, or should be illeagle if any of it is, if driving with the engine off was illeagle hybrids would have some fancy hoops to jump thru, I can turn my engine off, and as I'm coasting up a hill bump start it and run for a few seconds, and the only way to tell is that the oil presure and battery light come on when the engine is off, and they go off again when I start it.

the varrying throttle in my expearince is the o2 sensor, but going thru and doing a tune up might make it go away as well, make sure your EGR valve is working properly too, as I was told by the dealer mecanice that if that is not working right that it can sometimes have the same affect, to check that simply pull the vaccum hose off the EGR valve and plug it with a pencel.

Cheers Ryland! Thanks for the input. My friend is actually coming over in an hour to finish the tune up we started a few days ago. So we'll see if that smooths things out a bit.

My VX has the same sensation around that speed on the highway...I wonder if there is something wrong with it too.

I've done all maintence to the engine that constitutes a tune-up other than replacing the 02 sensor (though I was told it was replaced just a few months ago), maybe upgrading some grounds that are looking like they need it, and cleaning out the EGR.

Maybe those things will make the car run smoother and get better than the 38-45 mpg average it was giving me.

does it ever hesitate while accelerating from low RPMs?