new (to me) crx owner

[mikehallbackhoe]

Hi, I am new to this forum, but have been in other fuel saving forums over the past few years. I ride a valkyrie motorcycle that gets me between 45 and 50 mpg. my latest purchase is a 1984 crx, with ethe 1300 cc engine, and high gear ratio. I am hoping for 50 + mpg. I live in the mountains and practice eoc, whenever I can. The crx , with a standard transmission, manuel steering and manuel brakes, should be much easier to coast with than my 95 nissan 4x4 pickup, with power steering and power brakes. I have gotten 26mpq with my nissan, but I really had to work for it. Hoping to implement some of the ideas on this forum.

[MetroMPG]

Congrats on the CRX find! Lucky you.

I had an '85 breadbox Civic hatchback for a while with the same engine (don't remember which transmission - though it was manual). This was before fuel economy became a big interest for me, but I do remember being genuinely shocked at how good the mileage was just by keeping it to 90 km/h (55 mph) on trips on rural roads.

Are you sure it has manual brakes? I don't remember that.

Anyway, welcome to the site.

[MetroMPG]

PS - post a pic of the car!

[larrybuck]

You have me drooling! I love my '87. My best is 62.9mpg. Do you know if yours is stock,
or maybe someone inserted the 1.3 later?
If stock, you are supposed to have an energy efficient special alternator which is quite rare now.

I have traveled through your area on vacations twice. Once on a motorcycling camping
trip, and last fall in the CRX. Beautiful area! Love the twisty road to the coast!

If I had an original 1.3, I'd be planning on how to get mid 70's mpg., but where I live
is much flatter!

Hope to read more posts of your ventures!

[mikehallbackhoe]

pictures are beyond my ability, I don't own a camera, or even a cell phone. this is definitely the original,unmodified 84 with 1.3 and high gears. when I say I am hoping for 50 + mpg, I am really hoping for the +. with the hills, comes lots of opportunities to coast. just turn the key off. and you can't even tell you are coasting, except that it speeds up . the guy who owned it before me didn't have it very long, but he had the carb rebuilt, major tune up, new exhaust system, new cv joint covers. IT is fairly clean, except the left front fender, which is mostly duct tape painted white. it has 130 thousand miles and runs like a champ. the guy I bought it from complained that after he did all those repairs, it started leaking oil really bad, and his mechanic told him it was either the oil pan gasket or the rear main seal, so he sold it to me for 1700 . I checked the leak, and found the oil filter had been put on too tight. new oil filter, and no more leak.

[GottaCruise]

Congrats on the purchase - owned a '89 CRX si what seems like forever ago, have lots of fond memories of that car.. Wish I still owned it today.

In high school, my friend owned the '85 carb'ed version, it got crazy gas mileage (for mid eighties), over 40mpg consistently, not that he used any hypermile techniques while driving..

Looking forward to hear of your experience w/ the CRX.

[mikehallbackhoe]

I too have heard something about a special alternator on some of the crx's .anybody know what years had the special alternator?

[MetroMPG]

My understanding is that the HF model (and Civic VX) had the special alternator.

- The high efficiency Honda Civic VX and CRX HF models reduce alternator charging under certain cirucumstances. The VX computer instructs the alternator to drop from 14.5 volts to 12.5 (ie. not charging the battery) when all of the following are true:

- Load below 10A
- Speed below 40 MPH
- Engine speed below 3600 RPM
- Coolant temp above 140 F
- A/C off
- Intake air temp above 65 F
- Brake switch off
- Fuel cut-off not active

In other words, the alternator is essentially "idling" when the load on it is low, the car is warmed up and being driven gently. Note that the alternator reverts to normal charging when braking or decelerating (fuel cut-off mode), which is like a simple form of regenerative braking found in modern hybrids and electric vehicles.

Plug-in Blackfly: going alternator optional nets +10% mpg - MetroMPG.com

Info came from EcoModder member Randy. I forget which one

[mikehallbackhoe]

I was conidering doing the alternator delete, but now I don't think so. what gets me. is that the new honda hybrid has a 1.3 liter engine, plus an electric motor and a bunch of batteries, and gets 48 mpg. why don't they drop that electric motor and heavy batteries, and just run the 1.3 like they did in 84? if honda could build a 1.3 in 84 that could get over 50 mpg, surely they could improve on that concept 28 years later.

[MetroMPG]

Mostly because the motoring press and the automakers have trained the public to think that a 0-60 acceleration time in excess of 10 seconds is ludicrously slow, bordering on dangerous.

Well, that's one reason, anyway.