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Old 10-23-2008, 10:34 AM   #1 (permalink)
Tango Charlie
Deadly Efficient
 
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Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Goshen, Indiana
Posts: 1,234

Olivia - '03 Pontiac Vibe base
90 day: 36.01 mpg (US)

R2-D2 - '00 Honda Insight
90 day: 58.81 mpg (US)
Thanks: 134
Thanked 176 Times in 91 Posts
My Reticent Vibe

When I started driving the Vibe as my daily driver, I had a devil of a time just learning to shift it half-way decent. I attribute it to how quiet the darn thing is compared to what I had been driving, an '88 Accord. The Accord gave a lot of wonderful aural and tactile feedback. It was definitely a butt-dyno friendly car. I loved it.

My wife said it drove like a truck.

So I'm trying to get Olivia to talk to me. Not an annoying ricer-fart-can buzz, just some kind of sound. One of my coworkers mentioned that some high performance guys drill holes in their air boxes to increase air flow, with the side effect that you get intake noise. Sounds good to me. I'm not after more airflow, just the noise. So last weekend I grabbed a 1" hole saw and chucked it up in the ol' Makita. Popped the top of the air box off and drilled three holes in the back of the box, pointing right at the firewall. Swept out the debris and reassembled it. (I have no expectations that warmer air from the engine bay will improve my numbers, but we'll see.)
How'd it work? Well, a little. If I don't have the radio on, there is a slight bit more 'buzz' during acceleration. I guess it's a step in the right direction.

Am I the only guy that would welcome his muffler rusting out?

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