The 'Vic - 96 Civic DX

[hawk2100n]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

I think there's too much real-world variation to claim anything for sure. I don't doubt the mods helped, but you need ABA all-else-equal testing to know how much. Temperature, rain, wind, routes, traffic, your mood, your driving style... each of these can be a 10% difference or more.

I have read up on the ABA testing but don't people here generally under test? I usually don't see enough trials to be confident in the results. And unfortunately I don't have time to do 7 independent trials.

I have fairly consistent driving habits too. But as always, correlation does not equal causauation. But I do have an exciting correlation. Maybe someone else wants to try the mods similar to mine?

I can't spare the time to do ABA testing until maybe I do an underbody tray, but I stand by my results at the moment.

[hawk2100n]

I advanced the timing on the car today. I advanced it as California98Civic wrote about on an older post. It took me a while to find the tick mark and find a way of mounting the timing light so I could see it but I was able to figure it out.

I also was able to sort out the problems with the two stuck bolts with the one of the rotor caps bolts sheared off and the rotor screw was stripped. Both were removed and replaced.

I put the car under high load after making the adjustments and didn't get any detonation or misfires so I think the car is in a safe setup timing wise.

Idling the car for the timing adjustment burned .10 gal on the scangauge.

[hawk2100n]

After a hiatus from the site and a lot of driving, I finally decided to install underbody panels. I track my own mileage in a spreadsheet and since I bought this car in February, I have driven 22,473 miles or 97.5 miles per day. Lifetime average is 37.7 MPG. On the highway, I typically make several hundred mile trips and really need to get there over saving gas so I average around 78. I have been thinking about installing the underbody panels to clean up the underside and hopefully eek out another mpg.

I picked up a white sheet of coroplast from the sign shop and I found some aluminum tile finish strips from Lowes for $1.44 each on clearance. These have plenty of holes and are stiff so they provide plenty of rigidity. Zip ties provide attachment. I'll post a finished photo when I can take one but here are the two I took. Overall investment is about $25 and a half a day.

[GRU]

Originally Posted by PaleMelanesian

I think there's too much real-world variation to claim anything for sure. I don't doubt the mods helped, but you need ABA all-else-equal testing to know how much. Temperature, rain, wind, routes, traffic, your mood, your driving style... each of these can be a 10% difference or more.

This is very true, temperature alone can change your fuel economy by 10% or more on the same exact car

[hawk2100n]

General update:
Summer brings lots of highway miles and to get ready I have been doing some work on the car. Maintenance wise I have been been busy replacing the brakes, with new rotors and drums, pads, shoes and rear drum cylinders. I got lucky and got a great deal on the front rotors and pads brand new off Craigslist. I fixed the common oil leak from the distributor O ring. It felt like old hard plastic but was a simple fix. Timing was readjusted and slightly advanced.

I'm on version 2.0 of my grille block. My underbody trays were a failure due to faulty attachment. They barely lasted two weeks however the coroplast was salvaged. I replaced some crudely cut plastic with a much cleaner grille insert made from the white coroplast. It has been there for about 5000 miles.

Today I was fortuitous to find some gently used and trimmed lawn edging in my dumpster. I rescued it and 11 screws later it was installed cleanly. It looks pretty good although there were some unavoidable wrinkles/bends. Made a 500 mile drive for Mother's Day and can look forward to the return home to get some numbers on the modification. There is a smooth radius as the air dam reaches towards the tires. If you are looking at the platform, the air dam extends to approximately 60% of the width of the tires so I think the function will be sufficient without creating excess frontal area. Underneath, the car is extremely (aero) dirty so I'm looking forward to something better than the 35.1 mpg I got on the way here driving 78-82 mph with A/C.

[hawk2100n]

ISO view. Also showing off my much improved painted wheels.

[hawk2100n]

I got my tires balanced 2 weeks ago and during that process I found out that my stock steelies were bent pretty severely. So after surfing ebay I found a nice set of aluminum rims from a 1st gen Civic Hybrid (7th gen civic) that are 14", 4x100s and have the same offset. I ordered a set of 175/65r14 Michelin Defender LRR tires from Sams Club and I am currently waiting for them to be delivered and installed. Looking forward to getting rid of my cheap Primewells for a better tire. The Primewells were only 40k mile tires and they currently have 38k miles so I view them as amortized. There is ok tread left so I'll see if they can offset the cost of the new tires on craigslist.

One note on cost is I did a cost analysis on the Michelin Defenders versus BF Goodrich Touring T/As. The BFGs were significantly cheaper and had a 75k mile warranty. Michelins have 90k mile warranty. Looking at pure costs, the BFGs would be slightly cheaper to operate, but only by a little. However they arent a LRR tire and reviews are lower although I have had a set in the past and liked them. So I decided to go for the LRR Michelins and hope to recoup the cost over time in fuel (michelin claims up to $250) as well as have a better tire on the car. Time will tell.

[hawk2100n]

I finally decided to get some new tires for the car. The steel rims were bent pretty severely and creating an annoying vibration at certain speeds. About 10 mph and the car would bounce for lack of a better word, 40 or so mph would be another harmonic and 75 mph-85 mph would be a shake that would cause the steering wheel and trunk lid to rattle.

I bought a set of wheels from an 04 Honda Civic Hybrid. These wheels aren't praised for their light weight however they are aluminum, were in good shape and a fair price. I shopped around and eventually decided on Michelin Defender tires at 175-65R14. These are one of the highest rated tires on the Tire Rack and have an excellent 90,000 mile warranty. They are also advertised as low rolling resistance. I installed the tires at 189,000 miles and would like to keep the car to 300,000 miles so these will put me well on my way to that. Michelin seems to have sales on their tires quarterly so I waited for this one to come around, $70 off via rebate or at the register at some stores, and I got them. Really happy to have the new tires, no more vibrations and a slightly quiter ride. Visually the car is much better looking now too.

Fuel economy numbers are TBD. New tires typically have to be broken in before their rolling resistance gets to where it should be. I am also fighting a bad master cylinder that has been loosing pressure and causing the brakes to drag when my foot is off the pedal. New parts on order so hopefully that will be sorted out this week. I'll wait a couple of tanks to see if the new wheels make any noticable difference in my numbers.

[hawk2100n]

The transmission in my car has always been loud and I suspected the input shaft bearings. No noise when on the clutch and louder when I release. After 40,000 miles of ownership the bearings are failing and the grinding sound has gotten quite loud. The car is currently parked but I have been working to get everything together for to fix the problem. Some research showed me quickly that I didn't have the time or desire to rebuild the transmission. I'm lucky since I have access to a fully stocked "hobby shop" with lifts and presses but its more of a time/effort issue to me which I don't want to do. I looked around, first for a rebuilt transmission. $2600 at Autozone so that's a hard no. Rebuild kit was $330 so also discouraging.

Enter Craigslist. Searching for Civic transmission turned up 3 compatible results. I got one response from a guy with a trans out of a 96 EX coupe with allegedly 58,000 miles on it. Was able to pick it up for $220 within 24 hours of knowing that my input bearing was shot.

Unfortunately this has the highest final drive of any of the Civic models at 4.250 vs my 4.058 but with the condition that it is in and the price I couldn't say no. I needed a transmission now and couldn't wait much more than a week. Also, used transmissions with roughly 150-250k miles were going for north of $350 on used parts sites so I definitely had a deal. The transmission is extremely clean on the outside however it doesn't look like it has been cleaned, just like a very low mileage example.

I also ordered a new clutch and flywheel from rockauto. I figured I would have the transmission out of the car and my flywheel was already bent pretty severely that it would be a good time to replace it. The flywheel was bent so bad that the car would shake violently at launch until it got warm if I wasn't careful. Those parts should be in tomorrow so Thursday will likely be the day for the whole swap. Hopefully I can do it in 8 hours or less.


Looking forward to a quieter, smoother car.

[cbaber]

Originally Posted by hawk2100n

The transmission in my car has always been loud and I suspected the input shaft bearings. No noise when on the clutch and louder when I release. After 40,000 miles of ownership the bearings are failing and the grinding sound has gotten quite loud. The car is currently parked but I have been working to get everything together for to fix the problem. Some research showed me quickly that I didn't have the time or desire to rebuild the transmission. I'm lucky since I have access to a fully stocked "hobby shop" with lifts and presses but its more of a time/effort issue to me which I don't want to do. I looked around, first for a rebuilt transmission. $2600 at Autozone so that's a hard no. Rebuild kit was $330 so also discouraging.

Enter Craigslist. Searching for Civic transmission turned up 3 compatible results. I got one response from a guy with a trans out of a 96 EX coupe with allegedly 58,000 miles on it. Was able to pick it up for $220 within 24 hours of knowing that my input bearing was shot.

Unfortunately this has the highest final drive of any of the Civic models at 4.250 vs my 4.058 but with the condition that it is in and the price I couldn't say no. I needed a transmission now and couldn't wait much more than a week. Also, used transmissions with roughly 150-250k miles were going for north of $350 on used parts sites so I definitely had a deal. The transmission is extremely clean on the outside however it doesn't look like it has been cleaned, just like a very low mileage example.

I also ordered a new clutch and flywheel from rockauto. I figured I would have the transmission out of the car and my flywheel was already bent pretty severely that it would be a good time to replace it. The flywheel was bent so bad that the car would shake violently at launch until it got warm if I wasn't careful. Those parts should be in tomorrow so Thursday will likely be the day for the whole swap. Hopefully I can do it in 8 hours or less.


Looking forward to a quieter, smoother car.

I have the exact same problem. It's the input shaft bearing. Mine has been making the noise since I bought it... 75,000 miles ago! It hasn't gotten any worse so I guess I'll just drive until something breaks.

If you want your good gearing back, consider replacing the input shaft bearing yourself. It's actually a straightforward task. Google "honda civic input shaft bearing replacement" and you should see a couple different DIY guides that people have created with pictures and everything. The part is pretty cheap, and with some basic tools and a few hours you could have it working properly again. I'm considering doing this but my car is a daily driver and I don't want to risk not getting it put back together in one weekend and being without a car.