98hx only getting 25-28 mpg?!?!?!
 

I'm the 2nd car owner of this 98 honda civic hx. I bought it with 125,000 miles and now it only has 130,000. I just changed the spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap, oil,oil filter, air filter. Nothing is wrong with the car but a ticking noise from the engine but its not my valves. I just checked them. Shouldn't I be getting over 30mpg easy? I'm going to sea foam and clean my egr up next. Any other advice?

"Ticking" noise might be:

bad rod bearings?
piston slap (especially when cold)?
noisy PCV valve?
valve rocker arm(s) needing adjustment?

You should be getting close to 40mpg highway.

I just checked my valve rockers and they're fine. The noise is coming from the engine. I'll check pcv valve and piston slap. I have no idea why I'm not getting good mpg either, I've never driven my car to empty but my gas tank will be half filled when I get close to 150milesof driving.

Only way to find out... fill it to the brim, drive a bit and fill it again (preferably without turning the engine off in the interim) to get your ballpark economy.

Bad:

Thermostat.
Oxygen sensor.
Timing-distributor.
Compression.
Fuel pressure regulator.
Timing belt installed incorrectly.
Brakes dragging.
Plugged converter-exhaust.
Low air pressure in tires.
Dragging brake calipers.
Very short driving distances.
Alignment.
Injectors-ecu fried.

As well multitude of additional potential causes working individually or in conjuction with each other.

Need much more information.

regards
mech

Sorry, I'm in the process of learning how to take care of a car. Just bought a Chilton book about a week ago and have been reading it. Any other advice will be great. How would I know if I have bad rod bearings or if I have psiton slap?

Commute distance?

How easy is the car to push of a flat surface?

Does the temp gauge read in the middle of the range and does it warm up in less than 2 miles in moderate ambient temperatures?

Shift points in rpm?

Engine rpms at 60 mph?

regards
mech

My daily commute is less than 5 miles a day. It takes a while fory car to warm up and it only reaches 1/4 of the way on the thermostat. I shift between 2k-2.5k rpm my rpm @ 60mph is 2.5k or less

You can do way better than the Chilton manual. I can share the 1996-1998 Civic factoy manual (1500 pages) witn you. It is a big file, but if you PM me with a gmail account or something, I'll try to email it to you. Among other things, it has useful trouble shooting flow charts and such.

Xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx ^ when I reply do you guys get notifications? I'm new to this site so I'm not sure if you guys are getting my responses.