Hi, all. I've found quite a bit of info here. One thing I haven't found, however, is anybody else driving the hf model of a crx, and only a couple of any model of crx. I wonder how close the civic is to the crx, in terms of which tricks work best. The crx is a lot lighter, and probably a little more aerodynamic as well.
Here's a little rundown on my car and it's tortured existence. It gets driven 9.9 miles to work, and then home, so it's driven 1/3 to 1/2 of it's miles before it even gets warmed up. Good for mileage, that (insert sarcastic smiley here). It's been overheated many times due to a ghost water leak. The oil never used to get changed as often as it should have been. It even saw duty as a pizza delivery car for a while. I've beaten it pretty regularly, making sure I'm not late for work. (Not much of a morning person. Never really understood that crew.
) It's got nearly 148,000 miles with the original O2 sensor(s) and cat. The vacuum lines need to be replaced. I think either the IAC needs to be replaced (not gonna happen) or the throttle body needs to be cleaned, because it surges at low rpm sometimes. It also is a little hard to start in the morning. (It also hates mornings. Takes after it's owner, I guess.) It also makes a loud sound from the rear that sounds like a bearing going bad. I'll have to check that, soon. the bumper is missing the bottom half, due to a dog crossing in front of me at night on I-95. I was pretty unhappy about that.
With all this, I'm averaging about 48mpg. I do use a few hypermiling tricks, such as driving more gently, coasting and turning the engine off when I don't need it. I needed new tires, so I put on 155/80/13s @ 40 psi, but haven't had them on long enough to check the mileage. I haven't made any changes to the alignment, either, other than having it set to factory spec a few months ago.
So what do you think? What is the potential of this model car with all the faults I mentioned repaired? I'm sure it can do very well if I'm already getting 48 with no experience and all those things that are wrong.