htowncivicEX

It all depends on the dealership. Some dealerships will stick to the cheap stuff (Pennzoil / Quaker State). Other dealerships are more generous and use only Honda Genuine fluids.

GideoN

All dealerships are not the same. Once you find a good dealership, you should try to stay with it. I HAVE!!!

Bowlcut7

this could be true, i work for the one by my house, they use quacker state, haha. to tell you the truth i dont think that is going to make THat big of a deal when it comes to gas mileage though

Ronin

The dealership I go to uses Castrol GTX 5w20. Is that better than Quack State?

choiceracing

To add to Htown,

I added the following to my car and others at the shop, and saw great improvements on all vehicles:

Mobil 1 5w-20
Mobil 1 Oil Filter
Sparkplugs ((Denso or Bosh Platinum 4) dependent on vehicle)
Exhaust (i.e. Cat back 2" I.D. (for civic) pipe w/twister muffler)
CAI
Helix Tower

W/ mentioned mods on my 01 EX Coupe 5spd and doing 78 to 80 (speedometer speed) on highway ((w/o cruise) saw better mpg). I had an average mpg of 59 - 62. All time best, was from North Carolina to Dallas with an average of 66.2 mpg, last December.

I used to travel 1000 - 1260 miles a week. I originally purchased my civic for the mpg/decent performance for compact.

Since then I have opened a shop and started building my car for show and race.

If you are serious about mpg, those mods, installed your self, are relatively cheap. Just remember, don't fix up your car for something you only do 10% of the time. Set it up for what you do 90% of the time.

I no longer drive those miles, so now I am setting it up for race, and thanks to the people on this forum, I have decided against several vendors product. I am currently looking at going with the SF turbo kit, that catalyst uses.

htowncivicEX

Are you sure about those #'s? 60+ mpg just doesn't seem possible with an EX. An HX won't even get that high. You're talking about Civic Hybrid or Insight mileage here. I've never gotten more than 40 mpg.

htowncivicEX

I would say yes, that Castrol GTX is higher quality than Quaker State / Pennzoil. If you change your oil every 3000 miles, there really shouldn't be much difference however. Having said this, I still use Mobil 1 10w-30 Supersyn and change my oil every 3000 miles. But I'm the **** type that likes to play it safe.

Even though Honda recommends 5w-20 for the D17A2 (and 5w-30 for the K20A2), I still stick with 10w-30, because I live in a warm weather state. Even when I had my D17A2, I still used 30-weight oil, because I feel better going with the added protection that 30-weight oil provides.

GideoN

Yeah, 60+ mpg seems too high. The best I have had was 40.8 and that was I was driving from Waco To Houston. I also have been using 5w - 20 for awhile and it has works just fine for all of my families vehicles.

choiceracing

When is the next time you guys are going to come to dallas. Or, maybe we can meet in Shreveport for the show in July? I will go through whatever tests to back up my numbers. It is possible, I have even considered doing the water injection kit with ignitionsolutions plasma coils to bump it up.

spacemanspiff

I have a question. I have an 02 coupe automatic tranny. Everything's stock (including the tires). Recently, I've been getting only 22-23 mpg on city roads. I recently got my tires rotated. However, it's been like 3000-3500 miles since I got my last oil change. My mpg is kind of bad isn't it? One more thing, I almost always drive with the windows down.

choiceracing

What did your car get before?

spacemanspiff

It used to get like 25 mpg when it was brand new and when people would get pissed cause I drived slow. Now, it has 7500 miles on it (still new).

<edit>What kind of numbers are you guys getting?</edit>

GideoN

Try driving with the windows up for a tank and see what happens. It might do better, it might do worse. Also, don't gun it at every stop and then you will do fine. That is the only thing I can think of unless there is something physically wrong with the engine.

aznboysrfr

iTrader: (10)

sorry about the stupid question, but what is a helix tower ?

Ronin

Honda Insight MT:
city - 61 mpg
hwy - 68 mpg

Civic Hybrid MT:
city - 46 mpg
hwy - 51 mpg

You're telling us that your 01 EX coupe gets the same mileage as a manual trans Insight, and more than the Hybrid? lease:

Looks like you've just solved the world's energy crisis.

Kape

again, if a few modifications would result in such great mpg, why didn't Honda think of it too and just put it in both their regular civics and hybrid, then they'll all go 60MPG - 100MPG respectively.
I don't buy it either. My civic gets about 6.5L/100km according to my calculations, which is about 30MPG (all time best). Again, the calculations are ballpark, so don't quate me on it.

cambo

iTrader: (1)

city roads thats why ur mpg seems lower than everyone else's. Stop and Go city driving is more fuel consuming than highway cruising.

Samari

iTrader: (7)

I thought you changed the oil every 5000 miles miles in our civics. I know it doesnt hurt to do it eariler. I just had my first oil change at 7500 miles but the honda dealership was saying at 10000miles when it was due but they said you can do it eariler. I think i will stick with every 3000 miles.

GideoN

You should change is no later than 5000 miles. It doesn't hurt to do it earlier but try not to go over 5000 miles.

MatrixShark

60 mpg?!?! Maybe 60mpl (thats miles per liter).

P.S. I use Mobil one synthetic and change it at 5000 miles. I drive hard and I get around 35 mpg but thats mostly highway.

cryption

iTrader: (1)

with oil, I really don't think the brand makes much a difference ... oil is esentially oil ... the weight would make a difference .. 10w-30 compared to say 5w-20, but would you sacrafice mileage for possible breakdown of your oil. When it comes to brands, I use whatever is on sale since I change my own oil .. but always synthetic only. The synthetic oil makes a difference, you won't notice it really, but it will breakdown much slower .. you can go 7500 miles safely on synthetic with harder driving whereas i wouldnt do more than 5000 on mineral. Just my opinion, however.

MatrixShark

Synthetic all the way. I would'nt use anything else.

cryption

iTrader: (1)

the thing about synthetic oil is if you use synthetic in your car, you can't go back to mineral or you will get an oil leak. Had problems with that on my 99 Si

cryption

iTrader: (1)

I'm not sure why it happens either, but yeah once synthetic always synthetic. It really is for the better though

htowncivicEX

Non-synthetic oil is pretty much all the same. Just change it at 3000 miles and you should have no problems. Synthetic oil resists breakdown under high stress conditions a bit better, and you can go longer between oil changes. I use synthetic oil, but I still change my oil at 3000 miles just to be safe.

But there is a difference between the various synthetic brands. Some 'full synthetic' oils are actually dino oil that is reformulated to act like synthetic. No joke - Castrol Syntec and Pennzoil Synthetic are examples of this. It costs the manufacturers 1/2 as much to produce 'synthetic oil' this way, but they still charge us full price!

Mobil-1 SuperSyn is not made from dino oil and thus is truly 'synthetic'. Same deal with the higher priced oils like Amsoil, Redline, Motul, etc.

If you're bored, here is an 80+ page thread on motor oil:

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=163845

aznboysrfr

iTrader: (10)

miles per liter ... ? ... wouldn't that means he's getting like 100 mpg then ... ?

Jackseric

iTrader: (1)

Read your manual. It says 10, 500 miles. (well at least it does in the manual for my 02 EX 5spd) The Service Manager at my local Honda Stealership told me that it really is true. Something about Honda tested 100 of our engines and got nearly a million simulated miles changing the oil only every 10.5K miles.

I'm crazy **** about that stuff, though. I beat the **** out of my car every time I drive it. So I run Mobil One SuperSynthetic and I change between 3K and 5K. Usually change at 3K unless the miles are mostly highway miles. I figure the little bit of money I spend on the extra oil changes is good insurance against a HUGE bill down the road when the motor siezes or something.

Jackseric

iTrader: (1)

BAHAHAHA!!!

Dude, somebody post the BS Flag on this. I've got K&N FIPK and Neuspeed Cat-Back. Before I put these on I averaged:
32mpg beating on it
34 if I grannied it
Absolute best mpg before parts was 35mpg on an all freeway tank.

AFTER those parts my numbers:
Taking it to near redline on 1-3 gear shifts - 34mpg
When I put on my gray/blue wig - 35-36mpg
Absolute best after parts - 42mpg on an all freeway tank filled with 92octane and whole bottle of Outlaw octane boost.

I probably could've gotten higher than 42 if I'd driven slower. But that was on my trip back from Atlanta, GA all the way to Columbus, OH. That was crazy fun ****, because with no exaggeration we spent less than 20 minutes of the entire 9 hour drive at less than 85mph. I went for an hour solid at over 100mph. (I was meant to live near the Audobahn) I imagine if I'd driven dead on 65mph with the cruise, I might've gotten as much as 50mpg... but 59-62 and 66mpg??? Come on... 400 pound motorcycles barely get that kind of mileage...

MatrixShark

Yes. I did my math backwards. I should have said something like kilometers per gallon atleast that would have made more sense.

GideoN

I have to disagree with on thing you said that with mineral oil, the brands really don't matter. Some oils do better than other (not comparing mineral and synthetic). But you are right, the only thing that will matter to mpg is the weight. I have also found that Premium gas gives better mpg than Regular (definently) and Super (slightly difference).