Nikon123

Hi.
I have a 2002 Honda Civic. The mileage now is around 110,000 miles. Recently I drove my car from Chicago
to Texas, total around 1200 miles almost exclusively on the highway. I had some luggage in the trunk,
on back seat and three bicycles at the back of the car. The total weight is around 650 lbs (those are my
weight, luggage and bicycles), not exceed the carrying weight limit of the civic (800 lbs). However, I
noticed that the body of the back was depressed: please look at the attached picture. I had a bad gas
mileage, around 30 mile/gallon in this trip. Normally I get 40 mpg without luggage and attaching bicycle:
that is the combined mileage, including some city driving.

My question is: by put up 650 lbs luggage and three bicycles on the back of the car and drove 1200 miles,
did I somehow damage my car?
I do remember that in the owner manual, it is again to tow a trailer. I am not sure if carrying three
bicycles is the same as towing a trailer?
Thanks.
Dan

POQbum

From the pic it looks like you still have a bunch of stuff in your rear seat and probably trunk that is making it still depressed, right? If you take all of it out and it levels out then I don't think you have anything to worry about- unless you ran over a pothole or speed bumps really quick and your tire hit against the inside body of your car, that would probably do some damage.

got2run5

Well, the back end is going to go further down when you add weight to it. If it doesn't go back up again after you get rid of the weight you probably need new struts.

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

the worst thing u could have done is blow out ur shocks, which are replaceable...

weighing down the car so much, traveling 1200miles, and already having 110,000 miles will take a toll on ur rear shocks.

sdaidoji

iTrader: (1)

i did same.
Quebec to TN, full of stuff. Only difference was that i have springs and shocks aftermarket.
Mine was even lower than that. After removing all the stuff, it came back up just fine.
Like mentioned above, if you hit bumps too fast you could have hit the bumpstops too many, too much and shocks might leak if seals are broken. IF. Not "I am sure of it". It's an IF.

The mileage is because the bikes are not what you would call aerodynamic...

maxtierney

iTrader: (5)

Agree

Nikon123

Hi. Guys:

Thank you all for the replys. After I took out every thing (bicycles, stuff in the trunk and on the back seat). The rear body of the car rise back to normal. I checked the real shock and it is good. What I mean 'good' is that I pushed down the rear end and the rear end bounced back without going up and down.

Again, thanks for everyone. I plan to run my little civic to the ground (at least to 200,000 miles). I changed the timing belt last summer while the mileage was around 100,000 miles.

Dan

FordSlayer

ive had 1400 pounds of lead in my car. no problems.