Project "Save the Flea!" Winter beater: 2007 Civic 1.8L, 5-speed

[awcook]

Wow, you guys have it really rough. Here in Oklahoma we just had 75 degrees Fahrenheit weather, and the rest of the week we will be above 0 degrees Celsius (except for Monday, ugh).

The previous owner of my car said that he got better gas mileage during the Winter, which I find hard to believe. However, I am actually starting to see my numbers go up, which I am really surprised about. Of course, this is with Oklahoma's Winter, which hardly gets cold at all. I think it might be because when the engine is cold it doesn't engine brake like it does when it is warm, so I can coast for a very long time while staying in gear. By the end of this week or next week I will be able to post results of the tank, and that should include a 180 mile (289 kilometer) trip, which will probably boost my MPG up to 40+.

[OG VX]

This thread is AWESOME! I just read all the way through. Not sure how I missed this, maybe confused it for the thread featured on the homepage featuring many of the mods a while back. Great build! I really like what you did with the hybrid-style decklid spoiler. I bet something similar could easily be done on my VX to my hood, just before the wipers. Been thinking of a similar lip. How is the Gorilla tape holding up to the painters tape? Is the painters tape holding well to the body, even during the rain and colder temps?

Are you still planning to sell next year for a profit, or is your "heart into this one" now that you've driven it around a good bit and liked it so much?

[xavi]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Eco cam LED indicator in progress...

I raided my junk electronics goodies box and found a dead circuit board that had an LED and resistor all ready to go for 12 volts.

You should try your led with 4-5 volts before mount it, as it is the power that goes to the solenoid... It may not light enough to notice behind the dash.

[xavi]

Yesterday I pump up 2 psi in the tires (now with 32 front, 30 rear)...
Will try to stand the harsh ride to compensate the mpg drop due to winter cold...
I have started the current tank with the eco cam led and I have been learning to maximize it... and for know it seems to get 2-3 mpg more...

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by OG VX

This thread is AWESOME! I just read all the way through.

[...] How is the Gorilla tape holding up to the painters tape? Is the painters tape holding well to the body, even during the rain and colder temps?

Ha - thanks!

Gorilla + painter's tape is holding up fine. Ask me next year if it was paint-friendly or not.

Are you still planning to sell next year for a profit, or is your "heart into this one" now that you've driven it around a good bit and liked it so much?

It's definitely the nicest car I've owned, and I feel pampered every time I drive somewhere. But I'm almost definitely planning to sell it. I should make enough on it to cover all my expenses including gas & insurance, plus make extra. I'll pick up something else for next winter.

Originally Posted by pletby

You live in southern Ontario right? You'll have a good shot at it for a little while yet. It's getting cold on the prairies,

Eastern. Not quite as balmy as southern. But definitely not prairies cold!

Originally Posted by awcook

The previous owner of my car said that he got better gas mileage during the Winter, which I find hard to believe.

I've seen that in "southern" cars -- where the A/C is run for half the year, and then the winter weather is relatively mild.

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by xavi

You should try your led with 4-5 volts before mount it, as it is the power that goes to the solenoid... It may not light enough to notice behind the dash.

I checked my wiring first with the voltmeter, and the wire carried full voltage (~14 v) when the solenoid is active.

Here it is!



Wasting fuel ... (LED is just above the temp gauge)



Wasting less fuel ...



The LED is attached to a thin strip of origami'd metal stuck into the gap between the upper dash (grey) and black bezel surround of the gauge cluster.

In those 2 pics, you see that passing the 1000 RPM threshold under light load activates the light.

[Daox]

Nice mod Darin. It sounds like quite the bang for your buck.

How useful do you really think the light is?

[MetroMPG]

I'll need more time with it to see how useful it is.

I've already noticed sometimes I'll be cruising at very light load thinking it should be on, but it's not. I'll have to figure out if there are ways to coax it onto the eco cam. In those cases, it seems if I give it a little gas, then back off again it switches over.

Need more seat time to be sure.

[OG VX]

Cool stuff. In for the long-term results over a tank or two. Nice mod!

[xavi]

For what I can tell, it engages easy under 20-25 LOD, but it disengages above 65-68 LOD... LOD should be the primary factor...

So what I do?
After putting the gear I wanted for that road speed, I speed up a little so I can lift the throttle enough to engage it, and then I can acelarate some more with eco cam on... but even in Eco-cam operation, it can show from 2 to 8-9 lt/100km...

So, within eco cam operation, other variables still change the instant consumption a lot such as rpm, LOD, speed, etc...

Negative thing I see is when taking the foor off throttle, it desengages, and when I am obligated to take it off due to traffic, I then find dificult to engage it again...
Example, I activate it when on flat so I can overtake a small hill... So I activate it keeping it at low LOD, but since I now go on 50 LOD it stays on...
Some traffic make me loose the throttle for a second or 2, then it disengages, but with the 50 LOD I need to go uphill I cannot engage it again...
2 chance here: I speed a lot to loose throttle again and activate eco cam, or I stay with the 50 LOD without eco-cam...
If the hill is big I make 1st option, if is small I do the 2nd option...

With the led we start to "feel" when it goes out of eco-cam, cause it makes a small bump every time the led turns off if we are still acelarating...