civic owners

[California98Civic]

Originally Posted by hamsterpower

Here we go again... This is incorrect. It has been discussed on many forums and caused many heated debates, but no the fluid is not needed for lubrication. There is no fluid in the manual rack. Many people just open the lines and let all the fluid out. When I did my conversion 5 years ago I removed all the flex lines and the pump and I found some threaded plugs to cap the holes after all the fluid was drained. I have had no problems since. Be sure to work the steering wheel back and forth to get all the fluid out. If you plug the holes with any fluid left inside it will restrict movement.

There is only the slightest addition resistance in parking lot driving over the powered steering and no increase above 15 MPH. Much better than pushing fluid through lines if you loop the lines, or worse just remove the belt.

This is what I did several thousand miles ago. Minus the plugging. I completely concur about it. I got got all the fluid out. Some left over got forced out as I drove. Parking is slightly more difficult. There is no big diff after a few MPH. I like it ALOT.

[PaleMelanesian]

I concur that the steering doesn't need any boost. Half my driving is without power steering because of EOC. On many other cars it's different but these Civics are ok.

Originally Posted by jedi_sol

Not to jack the thread, but since this is a "Civic Only" thread, i'm still having a hard time trying to figure out the whole "accelerate with 80% load" thing. How can I determine 80% with only an mpguino?

Does the mpguino have instant mpg? Aim for 25-30 mpg while accelerating and you'll be close.

HX drivers would do well with the mpguino since OBD readers (Scangauge and Ultragauge) can't calculate lean-burn mpg correctly.

[98civicDX]

do you guys know much about wheel bearings? would replacing them make coasting better? Maybe they even have upgraded bearings. Let me know what you guys think.

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by justjohn

Bruce, do you have the speed nailed down that you loose lean burn at? For my 96 HX it's about 54MPH on the speedometer. If you hover just above that point and keep it in lean burn you should see good numbers....

I wish my HX would run lean burn (LB) down to 54 MPH. It will do that briefly after first permitting LB but after a few miles the minimum is 61.x these days for me (in 5th). Oddly, I've had times when it just went on and on in low speed LB, 10-15 miles and maybe more, but I never could identify what permitted it.

This car has a history of oil burning so the exhaust is all carboned up, and possibly there are issues with the cat and/or oxy sensor for the same reason. I've heard of HX and also Insights doing lean burn at much lower speeds. To keep LB I'm limited to about 1/3 throttle, and minimum speed as noted.

I use an MPGuino for mpg. I have a ScanGauge that I've programmed to show LB. I also use it for Throttle Position (very helpful in getting and staying in LB), and engine temp and system voltage.

If you need the ScanGauge procedure for the LeanBurn X-gauge setup, just send me a pm.