I finally got a new job! except its 27 miles away

[GRU]

i had a 5 speed civic coupe, with lots of hypermilling i got 42mpg stock. now i have a auto trans civic sedan and my last tank i got 37mpg stock with just smart driving. so my advice is even if it's auto trans civic it's stillworth buying because you will be driving more than just to work and back, so the more you drive, the more you save

[Regenerit]

So I spoke with my dad today and he seems willing to let me use the civic and also help fix it. The. Break pads are fine he said, just the air conditioner pump failed, the window fails to go up, there is a pretty serious oil leak somewhere, and a check engine light.

[Brad9660]

Glad to hear you got a better paying job, I lost a pretty good job two years due to the company moving, the commute was to much for me, 120 miles round trip. I am currently working for minimum wage, and working harder than I did before, hope your new job works out. I wanted to add that it is very common for Honda engines to leak oil at the camshaft plug. It's a black plug located on the left side of the cylinder head, should be fairly easy to spot. I changed mine on my Integra, it was not to hard. I have a different engine than you, but imagine yours would not be to hard either. I think you should easily get over 30 mpg with the Civic, even with it being an auto. My Integra is a few hundred pounds heavier than most Civics, and has a bigger engine, and I was getting 28-30 mpg all city driving, before I started hypermiling.

[brucepick]

Congrats on the new job! Something like a 50% raise is a good thing.

First topic:
I have a '97 Civic, same generation as yours. The left sided cam shaft leak location is an o-ring where the cam shaft drives the distributor, off the passenger end of the engine. Look at the top of the transmission case. If it's all slimy and icked up with oil, it's a safe bet that o-ring is leaking. Mine was cracked, with a small piece missing too.

My replacement was about $4 or $5 from a Honda dealer, the indy parts stores I went to wanted to see the old one to match it visually. That was a deal breaker for me. Took me about an hour to change it, maybe less. I'd had a Civic distributor off once before, so I was familiar with what you need to do.

Second topic:
I can get some of my best mpg on my commute when bogged in traffic. If you can kill the engine and coast, if you can avoid braking so you don't kill the momentum you've created, you can do well in traffic. Gotta have a manual tranny and be able to kill the engine though. If you're stuck with an automatic, traffic will really drive down your fuel economy.

[btracing]

Good thing the a/c has gone bust, get rid of the belt and save some engine power! Who needs a/c? Just roll with the windows opened up a tiny bit. Saves gas!

By the way, ditch the Lumina and go for the civic!

[pletby]

Yes, I'd say go with the Civic. If you can't get better gas mileage than me in my gas hog I'll be embarrassed for ya. You gotta be able to beat a clapped out Ford V6 Contour auto with enough lights flashing on the dash for a Christmas tree. Civics rock. I miss mine. Alot.

My Commute is 197km round trip. 25% City 75% highway. Expensive. I need a Civic. Argh. I AM thankful to have a job though.

Congrats on the job!

[Regenerit]

Plans are now into effect to bring the civic back to great condition. Yesterday I paid to get the plates renewed and in a few days my dad will be sending the civic to get the oil leak fixed (he said its somewhere near the front of the engine) and the timing belt replaced. I also did a full interior cleaning of the civic using a Blue Corral Dry Cleaning can and some ArmorAll dash protector. Two tires are going to have to be replaced still, AC needs to get fixed (sorry I want my AC, I've never had AC ), the driver window needs to get fixed (it has trouble going all the way up without manually pulling it up), and I think thats it.
And pletby, I'll most likely be doing better than you right now average so Im looking forward to it. Hail! Civic!

[Regenerit]

Good news, the civic is now in my possession.

It had the following repairs done to it this weekend:

Timing belt replacement (it needed a new one)
water pump replacement (for the engine coolant)
front crankshaft seal replaced (to stop the oil leak)
inner tie rod on the driver's side was replaced.

This came out to be a whopping $500.

Add the $100 for plate renewal: $600

Lastly the oil was changed to bring it up to $630.

Two tires still need to be replaced so I'm looking at $60 to $150 depending on if I buy used or new.
The driver window still needs to get fixed so that could be another $100 to $200.

Definitely quite a bit money coming down on this. I hope its all worth it.

Lastly, I want the AC fixed, even if it hurts fuel economy a bit. (probably another $100 to $300)

[btracing]

Car looks very nice! Let's get driving, haha. Selling the old car or keeping it as a back-up?

[Regenerit]

Keeping it as backup for now. Maybe ill sell it in the future after I make it pretty again.