1998 Civic - Newbe Questions

[saramac]

Alright. I'm pretty new to this. I've been trying this for about a month now and have two fill ups entered on this site. My fillup today showed that I got 28.63 mpg which really discouraged me b/c my previous one was a bit over 31 mpg.

Here's my question: What is the best way to squeeze mpg out of a 98 Civic DX with auto transmission? I'd love to do the pulse and glide stuff but I can't do it quite the way it should be done. I have been putting it in neutral and taking advantage of hills, planning ahead for stops, shutting off at traffic lights and not running my A/C.

After reading through some threads I think one of my major problems are my wheels. I have aftermarket wheels (14 inch) that are pretty heavy. I don't know exactly how they stack up against the originals but there's got to be a significant difference. As a mountain biker I know that wheel weight plays a big roll but hopefully I can overcome it. My dad installed the rims by the way... I personally don't care.

Here's what it looks like:


I'd love any advice I can get, particularly from other Civic owners with some tried and true advice. I'd also love to know what the best mods are for my car.

Hopefully I can get my husband on here. He has an 05 Tacoma, manual which gets surprising great mpg. We've gotten over 27mpg with it with normal driving.

[saramac]

Oh, and I don't have a Scanguage yet but it's on my wish list... I might just fork over the cash for it without telling my hubby... until later.

[SVOboy]

Get the scangauge! There's a group buy for it here on ecomodder.

Welcome!

[saramac]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Get the scangauge! There's a group buy for it here on ecomodder.

I'm all about saving some $. I'll give them a call first thing tomorrow. Thanks for the info.

For others who want to see the thread in question (group buy) here it is:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...info-2469.html

[LostCause]

I second the ScanGauge. It will take awhile to recoup the investment, but seeing instant/trip mileage is invaluable.

I would only switch out the wheels if you have them or can get them extremely cheaply. Heavy wheels are only really going to hurt you during acceleration. Their effect will be neutral on the highway.

Apart from driving style, which you seem to be doing very well on, your greatest gains will probably come from doing aeromods. I'd push in the radio antennae, get some coroplast to mock up some fender skirts and a grille block, start thinking about an undertray, and lose the passenger mirror.

- LostCause

[cookie96civic]

I have a 96. I finally overinflated my tires by 6psi, and am taping off my upper grill and am blocking out the majority of the lower grill. I figure about 4 mpg just from these.

[MetroMPG]

I second (third? fourth?) the advice to invest in a ScanGauge. If finances are tight, you could always re-sell it in a few months and get most of your money back (after using it to tweak your technique).

As for the wheels: if the tire diameter of the ones your dad added is larger than stock, your odometer could be under-reporting your distance travelled. The result of that is your MPG calcs would show that you're getting worse mileage than you actually are. Just a thought.

[garys_1k]

A budget alternative to a real scan gauge is a vacuum gauge. Not nearly as much info. as a scan gauge but you can tell how hard you're pushing on the go-pedal from it pretty easily, and how much to back off to JUST keep your speed.

[saramac]

I'm going to be ordering the ScanGuage today. $149 isn't bad and won't break the budget so no worries there.

To answer a question about the wheels, I don't think the diameter is different than the stock wheels. My dad is a mechanic and is pretty fastidious about that sort of thing.

I'll keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully the ScanGuage will let me know what's going wrong.