New Member in Western NC (bought a Civic VX)

[TDFbound]

So, went and picked up the car last weekend! What a crazy trip! I'm the proud new owner of a 1992 Honda Civic VX. A buddy and I drove from the mountains of North Carolina down to Columbia, SC to fly to Palm Springs, CA to buy this car and drive it back to Western NC in time for work on Monday. Whole trip took 53.5 hours. What a blast, and for a almost 27 year old car with 246,780 miles on the clock, it handled the 2200 mile drive back home with ease, including a random snowstorm in the high deserts of New Mexico while we crossed 300 miles of NOTHING in the middle of the night with no cell reception and no spare tire or any tools other than a $10 socket/screwdriver set from Walmart. The car has a few quirks for sure but, for the $1700 asking price, $160 plane ticket and $120 of gas to drive back, I'm all in under $2000 and pretty stoked about the whole thing. I do have plans for the car, but nothing crazy. I want it to retain a mostly stock look, and to just be a super clean example of a vehicle. I plan on keeping the D15Z1 engine, maybe buying a second one to rebuild and swap in so there's as little down time as possible since I'll be daily driving this car. I have ZERO knowledge of cars or how to work on them, so this will be a learning experience for sure. I'll start a build thread once I begin doing things, but it will be a slow going thread for sure as I get money to fix it up. I look forward to learning from all of you and maybe eventually being able to help out somebody else too!

FYI, I totally lost track of miles per gallon of gas, but it only cost me $120 to drive like 2200 miles at a highway speed of about 80 mph the whole way, plus several hours of slow stop/go traffic due to snow. Maybe averaged out to 40-ish mpg. This car does NOT like to drive a normal speed. 50 mph is great, 80 mph is great, but trying to hold like 65-70 on rolling highways is right in between 4th and 5th gears. Thankfully most of my daily driving is in the 45 mph range, great for 4th gear.

[whaemmel]

Good job!. Sometimes you just have to go for it. Learning to drive in WNC snow and curves pays off. Sounds like you hit the I-40 from I-10. W

[TDFbound]

Yep, hit I-40 after getting lost and heading through various wilderness areas and national forest lands. I recorded the whole trip with my GPS watch I use for running and hiking- here's a link to the trip: https://www.strava.com/activities/2001794293

[whaemmel]

Almost forgot, I would recommend putting a ground kill switch and maybe a steering wheel club to prevent theft. Honda hatches are extremely popular and putting a hidden toggle in can stop a thief. A $10 kill switch can dissuade thieves.W

[TDFbound]

I don’t think I could get over the grief of having my new baby taken from me. Hopefully living in the middle of nowhere helps- most people here like their lifted diesel and think people who drive little imports are fags. Lol gotta love the country.

[whaemmel]

Sounds a lot like here, lots of diesels, even mechanics can't tell an echo from a Matrix.LOL. Middle of nowhere as well. Somebody took care of that one, should last a long while. That's a great car to learn to wrench on.W

[MetroMPG]

Belated welcome to EcoModder, TDFbound!

Glad the VX acquisition and retrieval adventure went smoothly.

Here's one thought I had, maybe a bit too late for your purposes: the MPG magic in the VX lies mainly its ability to go into lean burn mode, which it really only does under lighter engine loads.

So, if you're mostly driving on hilly/mountainous roads, you're not going to be seeing the benefit of lean burn. It's more useful to a flatlander. The car's unusually tall gearing might be counterproductive, too. A vanilla DX or CX (though they're geared pretty high too) might have been easier to find, and do practically as well under your particular circumstances.


PS: mountain driving can be more fuel efficient than flat land driving. The key is not using any fuel at all on the descents! Same reason as "pulse and glide".

[TDFbound]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Belated welcome to EcoModder, TDFbound!

Glad the VX acquisition and retrieval adventure went smoothly.

Here's one thought I had, maybe a bit too late for your purposes: the MPG magic in the VX lies mainly its ability to go into lean burn mode, which it really only does under lighter engine loads.

So, if you're mostly driving on hilly/mountainous roads, you're not going to be seeing the benefit of lean burn. It's more useful to a flatlander. The car's unusually tall gearing might be counterproductive, too. A vanilla DX or CX (though they're geared pretty high too) might have been easier to find, and do practically as well under your particular circumstances.


PS: mountain driving can be more fuel efficient than flat land driving. The key is not using any fuel at all on the descents! Same reason as "pulse and glide".

For sure, the mountains are not it's strong suit. I don't usually go up or down the big hills- thankfully my commute follows a river all the way into town, so elevation change is pretty subtle, though still several hundred feet of gain/loss in a round trip, but a fairly windy road where 40-45 is about as fast as I go, so mainly fourth gear easy cruising with third gear going into tight curves or up steeper sections.

To be honest, part of the reason I bought it was simply because it is an odd car. There are probably less than 10k of these left on the road, which is a shame considering how well it's held up over the years. I will probably get the same year CX model later to do a motor swap into it and make it a fun car for spirited mountain driving- I think about 250 hp to the wheels should be super easy and super reliable, and pretty dang fun in a car that weights 2000 lbs. But, this VX is going to remain a VX through and through for the rest of it's life, and that's probably a good thing.

[Mrtony5]

Welcome to the site man! Looks of great info here. Speaking from experience you have a great car. I once owned a 1992 civic cx it is the only car I miss as I put well over 150000 miles on it. The cx and vx have the same transmission gearing. Dx and lx are same. My cx motor blew up so I got a d16z6 and swapped it into it that's out of an ex. Then I discovered the vx and its wonderful mpg. I actually rebuilt the vx motor in my bedroom while I was at college because I bought it with bad rings. I think I spend about 200 on everything needed. First one I rebuild(have done 3 other motors more since) it was by far the easiest. Once I got it done I swapped the vx in my cx and paired it with my original cx tranny. It was a dog compared to the ex engine and tranny. But I couldn't complain went from 35mpg to 55 to 60 it was amazing.

Something to check for. Right behind your driver rear wheel there is a "gap filler" molded plastic box thing...hard to explain but it was only on the vx hopefully yours is still there. It will help with keeping air from getting into the rear of the bumper which will cause drag.

Your new car also has the wrong wheels in it. The vx ones where designed for areo and low weight at I believe 8 lbs each. I never found a full set for mine 😢

Congrats on the new purchase. There is plenty of info on honda-tech.com and YouTube on how to rebuild and what not for that car. Enjoy !

[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by stargrit

It's more useful to a flatlander. The car's unusually tall gearing might be counterproductive, too.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

... So, if you're mostly driving on hilly/mountainous roads, you're not going to be seeing the benefit of lean burn. It's more useful to a flatlander. The car's unusually tall gearing might be counterproductive, too. A vanilla DX or CX (though they're geared pretty high too) might have been easier to find, and do practically as well under your particular circumstances.

Bin da bot!