2007 Civic Coupe Modifications
 

I have seen some other threads following car updates and upgrades and figured I would show mine on here as well if that's alright with everyone. I have a 2007 Civic Coupe EX (yes I know lots of weight for the extra features). I bought this last summer new from the dealer and have gotten between 28 and 35mpg driving aggressive.

I am currently on my first eco-friendly tank of gas (driving better). For the time being I am looking at non-damaging modifications as it is a new car and I'd like to keep it fairly shiny for awhile.

Next week I have a trip from Albany, NY to Buffalo, NY and back (around 300 miles each way). I have created fog lamp covers and an upper grill block out of plastic document holders ($.79 at walmart) and plan to drive out stock and add them with wire ties and tape for the drive back I should have my SG2 by then but it won't be calibrated but it should still help.

I would much rather work on getting better at P&G and drafting on the way out but i'm thinking set the cruise at 65 and just drive to get the best results on a comparison of before and after. What are peoples inputs on the test method?

Also I know everyone likes pictures so here are some of my bug covered Civic, modification ideas are welcome. I will have pics of my fog lamp covers and grill block later tonight (I left them in the car when I came upstairs whoops).

The picture under my car is a huge void on the opposite side from the muffler (so ricers can put in dual mufflers i would guess). That's going to be a priority too I believe.

Hey Blue07CivicEX, welcome! :thumbup:

Nice to have another Albanian Civic driver here. :cool:

Here's another thread on the same topic:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ivic-2276.html

yay, can us civic owners have our own part of the forum now? i think we have enough civics to form a club.....

Temporary Fogs and Upper Grill
 

Ok as I promised here are the pics of my temp fog and upper grill covers, they will be held in place by zip ties and painters tape (does anybody know how well that will hold in the wind if the surface is clean?)

I didn't see that other thread! Thanks for the link, it'll be good to see what some other new school civics are up to, I know most of the folks on here like modding the older ones.

The way they are sitting is how they will be on the car, I basically took the file folders marked out one side then folded it in half and cut out the two mirror images. They are slightly oversized to allow for taping and smooth transition into the stock bumper. I may have to add some reinforcement behind them as they're a little flimsy. Depending on the mpg increase I see if I want to make them permanent I'll do them out of fiberglass.

the painters tape will stick but dont expect it to hold those on, many firebird/trans am/camaro (fbody) guys use painters tape on the front of our cars on longer trips to prevent stone chips and bug splats

Nah, it won't need to perform much work I just need to keep the edges down and I don't want to tear up the paint on my car. I plan to fasten the actual plastic to the fog lamp covers, I put some loops on them today with zip ties that should hold the pieces relatively in place.

Alrighty, So I worked with foam to fill in the front bumper, didn't really work out so well. The pieces were warping after I took them out, the foam slid while it was setting up and some places still had holes.

So I decided to scrap the foam/fiberglass idea. Instead I decided to go low-tech plastic I went and got some coroplast from a sign store ($20 for a 4x8 I know it was a little pricey but oh well).

The last pic if one of the fog lamp covers I made this afternoon, I will get more pics with them installed once I put them on the car, I'm going to attempt to get some measurements without them first.

One question though, will coroplast hold form if you heat and mold it or does it not work like that? as it stands now i'm trying to fasten it so it will hold tightly to the bumper.

too bad the foam technique didnt work so well for you, i havent had a chance to try it myself (i have been way to busy)

the corroplast cover looks great! i dont know anything about heating it though, hopefully someone more knowledgeable will chime in

yeah, I was very impressed with the coroplast, I put a coat of black and a coat of clear on it, developed a zip tie system to hold it on, I'll have some pics maybe tomorrow of them installed, I am driving to buffalo without the covers at 65mph (it's about a 300mile trip) going to get a mpg avg, then put them on for the drive back, I understand other factors (weather and what have you) will come into play but if I go back out next week i'll keep them on for the drive out, then take them off for the drive back which should give me a little more accurate A-B-A comparison.

This test sucks but it is for the good of science going 65 steady is boring and not extremely efficient I will have results in 3 hours.

Ok, so the results of the first part of the test, driving the 300 miles at 65mph with cruise control and no hypermiling. The result was my best ever gas mileage 37.29 with no aero-mods. I plan to add my fog lamp covers, upper and lower grill blocks and then drive the 300 miles again next week (same direction for consistency).

I understand this test does have variables, such as wind, weather, other vehicles, construction. I believe over the course of 300 miles, traveling the same direction on any two weeks, pending a hurricane of course I figure the variables will more or less cancel out.

Any thoughts on the test?

I'd like to see you just find a semi to draft for 300 miles!

Mythbusters found that you get a 40% reduction in FC by staying 10 feet behind.

That might be tough to do for 5 hours!

Have you considered deleting the passenger side mirror?

Here is the fog lamp cover that looks decent, the other side isn't quite as good and might need to be re-done

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...x/DSCF0043.jpg


Here is the whole front end.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...x/DSCF0042.jpg

Opinions? I have the lower block done but I need to figure out an attaching method and get it painted.

Those covers look great (unlike that foam ... which brought me back to my firefighter days.) :)

Fortunately, my 4-door comes with fog light cavity delete. ;)

Planning on wheel skirts? That's what I'd like to do ... if I could find the right aluminum stock. :confused:

Actually, after I finish the front bumper and the parachute under the rear bumper is where wheel skirts come in. I'm thinking around 2 weeks till I get to it, I could have more accomplished at this point except I'm trying to do some kind of testing to see the improvements which is hard cause I want to just do the work and make the changes.

I thought about the 4 door but at the time I was single and I like the look of the 2dr a lot better. I think it's funny that none of the '06 '07 civics came with fogs standard, only the place to put the fogs. I'm glad you think they look alright, I finished the lower grill block today I just need to paint and attach (maybe tomorrow if I finish up work early). Still trying to find a way to do the upper.... ideas are welcome.

how did you get the Coroplast to stick on over the fog light spots?

Looks great. Here are the results of my lower block testing on an 05.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ivic-1822.html

The coroplast isn't "sticking" :-) it took me a decent amount of work to find a mounting method that wouldn't put holes in the car. What I did was take zip ties and cut holes in ONE layer of the coroplast, slide the zip ties in one hole and out the other. I have two on the big side, one on the bottom and one on the pointy side, the two on the big side go through the bumper and attach together in the back, the bottom and one on the point are attached to an I bolt that is fastened through a hole in the center of the fog lamp spot. I used the I bolt to adjust how tight the cover fit.

I have since bought nylon string and will be using that for the LGB on the corners with zip ties being used for the center around the license plate. For the UGB I have no idea what i'm going to do yet, I will try to get pictures of my mounting setup next time I'm messing with it.

Nice mods on the civic. I unfortunately can't install grille blocks during the summer because the temps here are already at 104 degrees! I attached some cardboard with painters tape and monitored my temperature and it started to overwork the fan. Any savings in gas were nullified by the engine over working.

I'm definately going to put it up in the winter though.

Been there, done that - almost. ;) 8 hour trip leg from Olympia, WA to Boise, ID (521 miles) on less than one tank. Drafting about 2-3 cars lengths behind tall semis whenever possible and safe. Otherwise driving the speed limit (70 in WA, 65 in OR). Could have probably gotten 43 mpg out of the car if it wasn't for the extra weight (wedding presents and luggage), 8 hours on the road and the boring drive wouldn't have driven me insane. Still, 41 mpg isn't bad, right?

41 mpg is not bad, i havent broken the 40's in my civic but it is used primarily for city drivingwith maybe 15% on the highway

Alrighty, so I got the lower grill block on before my trip from Buffalo back to Albany, the pic is below (both sides look the same).

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...x/DSCF0044.jpg

Now, with those two mods, and with some drafting, about 2-3 miles of EOCing, lots of pulse and glide. I was able to to follow a double trailer UPS truck for about 50-60 miles and he waived to me when he turned off it was great. So..... *Drumroll* what kind of gas mileage did all this get me you ask? 46.66mpg almost 10mpg better then the steady state 65mph cruise control run (granted it was different directions, better data to follow next week when I go to buffalo again).

So, that's my results so far.

Wow, that's pretty impressive. I know I had to work every drafting chance to achieve over 40. Hm... maybe 50 mpg isn't unrealistic after all. I've been eyeing a temporary upper grille block - maybe it's worth it. ("it" being the hassle from the missus... :D )

That's really good. Thats about what I got on my 4dr coming down from Oswego. I think the gen 8 civics have a lot of potential. Do you have any other mods planned?

Ok, updated the pic to what the current front end looks like. I am planning to fill in the "extra muffler hole" in the back end, I would like to cover those MASSIVE rear wheel wells (something like 26") I need to find a way to make wheel skirts that will look good on my car though, I would also like to move the license plate and make the upper grill cover but again have to figure out how to do it so it looks good.

I would suggest slowing down to 60mph if you can. On my 8 mile (mostly highway driving) in the early morning I can achieve 50-55mpg average on that trip staying inbetween the 55-60mph range without any aero mods. Try it and see how it turns out.

More Data
 

With the Fog covers and the lower grill block doing my 65mph test the result was 43.01mpg over 290.6 miles, the weather was extremely similar to the first round, wet roads around albany but no rain, roads dried out and the temp was between 65-75 for the entire drive, very little wind in the beginning, stronger wind toward the end of the trip.

Using this prelim data it would appear the modifications are in fact helping a reasonable amount. The increase of 5.25mpg seems pretty significant even with a margin of error built in for weather and traffic conditions it wouldn't be a 5mpg swing.

Next project is covering the hole in front of the rear bumper I will post more data if I get a chance to do another run from Albany to Buffalo in the near future (which will likely be in 2 weeks for work).

Just an update, today on the trip back from Buffalo (still with just the grill and fog blocks) I was able to come within .25mpg of my new goal with a 284.4 mile trip using 5.717 gallons working out to 49.75mpg! Hopefully this weekend I can get the underbody started and the rear wheel skirts, I am going to work on getting some aluminum waterjetted (I might have a connection from my old college).

that sounds great!! awesome results!!

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/m...x/DSCF0044.jpg

I just wanted to say. This is a perfect example of a text book curb parking, look at the turned wheels.LOL Well if the hill goes down behind the car.:thumbup:

Those are awesome results, Blue07CivicEX! You can see my results for "Chiro" (My '06 Sedan) in the 'garage' here. I'm getting just close to 37mpg for the last 90 days. Car is stock ... but my drivin' style ain't. :cool: What brings me down is my short commute ... which is 1/3 to 1/4 city traffic (along with ethanol, of course).

What tire pressures are you runnin'? :confused:

The ambient temps for your driving are kinda low. Expect another 1-3mpg when the temps are solidly in the 80s ... or even 90s. I got 4 tankfuls in a row over 45mpg with my '95 Civic DX Coupe back in the day during an August heat wave ... and I was drivin' it like I stole it. :o

I'd like wheel skirts for mine so if you get your design fleshed out, I'd like to see it/them sometime. I can't weld, but I should be able to shape aluminum strips and bolt them together with itty, bitty bolts then use button-headed screws to attach the plastic to the aluminum 'frame' and any other attachment points I've rigged up . I'm also a little leary about drilling into the fender lip ... but sacrifices must be made. ;)

Meet in the SUNY parking lot or similar place after you're a little farther along?

Thanks for the kind words, I am currently running about 44psi (haven't checked it in 2 weeks going to check today). The new civics have a stock CAI which I may get rid of and make it a WAI I was checking the intake temps yesterday and they were around 90 degrees on a 80 degree day, so the nice thing is it works but the bad thing is it's not going to help my mpg any.

I will post more pics once I get to work on the skirts, today I am filling in that big gap behind the rear tire on the drivers side. depending on whether tomorrow i might start making some mock up skirts.

I am working with SVO to possibly put together a rally in the area this summer or next you should bring your car if we get it going.

Wai
 

I put a WAI just before my last tank. I got 47 mpg which is about 3 mpg better than I normally get. Far too early to tell wether or not it's effective. The WAI is really easy to do on the gen 8. I pulled off the rubber connector from the CAI then pulled out the battery and removed on section of the plastic part of the CAI to give myself enough room. Following that I just snaked some aluminum tube towards the exhaust. Sealed it off with a hose clamp, put the battery back in and called it today. You have to enter in that security code into your stereo after you reconnect the battery, so you might want to make sure you have that before you disconnect it.

Ha! I like it :-) thanks for the tip. Do you have any grill blocks done? How's the car run on temp? Glad you gave me the heads up on the radio I'd be lost without it :-/ I checked and it doesn't add any noticeable load to the engine so it stays on all the time.

The temp has been fine, a few ticks below 1/2. I want to get something together to monitor when my fan comes on. My brother is an electrical engineer. He described how to hook up a LED to go on with the fan. Since I am not familiar with the electrical lingo I forgot what he said. I should have him write it down. So far I just have the upper grill blocked. I'm starting to put together ideas for a lower grill block, but I might wait until fall to go through with it.

Also I just killed my daytime running lights by pulling out fuse #37 out of the interior fuse box. I want to hook it up to a switch so I can turn the daytimes on and off at will.

I forgot to mention in my last post that I would be down for a meet up in the New York area.

Good stuff! I am actually an EE as well, I'll look into the LED and DRL switch and get back to you with a circuit diagram if I can get them working.

I have a question. What kind of adhesive did you use to mount the grille block to the front bumper?

Zip Ties! No adhesive at all, I made one hole in the "fog lamps" the spot where the fog lamps would go if they were there and put an I-Bolt through it with zip ties going through one layer of the coroplast. I then tightened the bolt and it snugged up the covers. I also had two zip ties going through the small holes on the side of the fog lamp cover that is already there to hold that side in.

For the grill block I did the same basic thing with zip ties around the license plate going through the grill and connecting on the back, with the pointy end I have a piece of string going through the hole that is already in the corner of the grill and the string runs to a zip tie under the license plate (it's not as clean as the fog covers but the extra zip tie allowed me to adjust tension).

If I can find the time this week I will do more work and post more pics of what I have done so far I apologize for the stalled progress just been busy traveling for work.

If you want to cover your whole front lower grille you don't have to use any more coroplast. Just flip your license plate like I did. Here's a DIY from 8thcivic.

DIY- Front License Plate Flip W/ Pics - 8th Generation Honda Civic Forum

hey guys, i'm new to this hypermiler stuff, any good tips with regards to the civic? im not ready to do anything drastic (cutting, pasting, drilling...) but i'd like to see how close i can get to the 40mpg mark. With simple driving habit changes i went from a 30 avg to a 35 avg, and am looking for that hint that'll get me the next 5