1997 Honda Civic LX on a paper route.

[Promising_Confinement]

Mine's about 99.9% stock with a 5 speed manual (brand new clutch) the person who had it before me thought it'd be a great idea to stick glasspacks on it, so it sounds a lot meaner than it actually is. heh

The O2 sensor was bad when I got the car (the people at the dealership told me about it heh), just gotta get the money to have it fixed. I'm not a car guy, about the extent of what I can do with one is change a tire and do brakes. Begrudgingly ... most of the time I just call one of my friends with "Hey, wanna make 20 bucks? I need brakes done." :P

I've been using an Android app called FuelLog to keep track of things, filling up once it hits the E marker and my lowest MPG is 31.66 while the highest is 32.06 with my driving it kinda hard running late and trying to get people their paper as early as I can. heh I do still do a few little tricks just out of pure habit day or night when I drive, like coasting down hills or in between close together stops in neutral, or when I'm driving 55 or 60, if off in the distance I see a light turn orange, no matter how far away I am I keep my foot on the clutch until I can either go again or come to the stop at red.

This is with a rather extreme form of in town driving (delivering papers is a constant start, stop affair) for about 75 or 80 miles a night Monday through Friday.

In the past before I got the phone and the app just keeping track of it myself, with REALLY trying ... doing things like on the way out to where I deliver the papers ... speeding up to about 60, keep my foot on the clutch, turn the car off -leaving it on accessory-, coasting down to about 45, pop the clutch, speed back up, rinse repeat and doing that as often as I can on the route itself. Something I would NEVER try during the day, but at 3 or 4 in the morning with barley any traffic at all it's not such a big deal. heh

But doing those little tricks I've managed 41 MPG.

Oh, and right now the car is sitting at almost 277,000 miles and other than the O2 sensor, is running beautifully.

[jedi_sol]

Nice! so you basically discovered what we call "Engine off Coasting" on your own. One thing you can do to make that process easier is to install a kill switch on your PGM-FI relay. This way, you don't have to keep constantly turning the key between "OFF" and "Acc"

kill switch 5th gen honda civic

Essentially the same principle for your car, however, your pgm-fi relay is on the passenger side, underneath the kick panel.

[Promising_Confinement]

Eh, I'm poor and it comes kinda naturally to me. :P I didn't really find it out on my own, I've read this site in the past and saw what the hybrids were doing, and they also explained the way a manual can do it with about 0.1% more effort.

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by Promising_Confinement

Oh, and right now the car is sitting at almost 277,000 miles and other than the O2 sensor, is running beautifully.

Hondas! ...I swear they run without motors

Another quick, tried and true mod would be disconnecting the power steering... we don't need it on these cars and it is a parasitic draw on the motor.

[bestclimb]

Originally Posted by Promising_Confinement

In the past before I got the phone and the app just keeping track of it myself, with REALLY trying ... doing things like on the way out to where I deliver the papers ... speeding up to about 60, keep my foot on the clutch, turn the car off -leaving it on accessory-, coasting down to about 45, pop the clutch, speed back up, rinse repeat and doing that as often as I can on the route itself. Something I would NEVER try during the day, but at 3 or 4 in the morning with barley any traffic at all it's not such a big deal. heh

Something to keep in mind, by just releasing the clutch at 45ish your engine is instantly going from 0 rpm to about 1800. It is also doing this before the oil pressure has an opportunity to build up. This may have a negative effect on the life of your bearings and what not. One thing you can do is release the clutch just a enough to get the engine spinning then press it back in while it stabilizes at idle. Then release the clutch and start accelerating again. If you are doing it right a full glass of water sitting on the dash would not be disturbed while bump starting (I wish I was always that smooth