Barchiola

I'm shopping for a '98 to '01 Civic in the NJ area and plan to use it to go back and forth to the airport about 50 miles away. I'd like to tinker with it a little to see how high I can get the miles/gallon to go. If I can get it to 40 or better I'd be pretty stoked.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
Bart in NJ

02BLKCIVIC

iTrader: (8)

probably not gona happen....

time to break bread...

I found that if I only use my car down hill though,

i get great mileage!!!!

hwt101

iTrader: (12)

buy a hybrid, and drive like grandpa, but on the serious side a standard transmission, ex, coupe, gutted to the bare essentials, keep it under 3k rpm, intake and exhaust can help, 14 in tires ( the weigh less ), proper air pressure in tires, synthetic oil changed at the proper times, clean air filter at oil changes, no a/c on, buy good gas ( the cheap **** ends up costing you more in the end ).

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

LC20 and FP60

ur best friends...and apparently the only thing that works

gearbox, back me up on this one =]

ronaldo9

iTrader: (6)

+1 but its not the only thing that works. Make sure the air filter is clean; easy accelerations, proper tire pressure, and fuel system cleaner every 2nd oil change and that should keep you well above 350 miles on a tank.

reddawnman

350? Damn, I can get 380-400 out of my tank without breaking a sweat. The best I think I've ever done was coming back from Vegas I got about 430-ish with the gas light on for a few miles before I filled up again.

And yes, I use FP60.

Other posters have it right, with one more thing: make sure the car is clean. dirt does add weight and if the car is waxed you get slightly better laminar airflow. By "slightly" i mean "1-2 more miles per tank" but still, a nice looking ride is a good thing too.

ronaldo9

iTrader: (6)

Having an EX or LX/DX makes a difference too. Driving in VTEC all day will eat your mileage.

Alex857

keep it below 3.5k too. Gas mileage and high rpms don't mix.

ONE7thREBUILT

Ride a bike with race gas...50+ MPG

ONE7thREBUILT

My civics best ever was around 38 MPG all highway nothing above 75 MPH.

DsevenEm2

iTrader: (6)

ex version would come with actually all of the options Honda has to offer. Why would he want that if he's going to gut it to the bare essentials.

Get a 1998 Civic DX... you can get 40, trust me.

Envy

iTrader: (1)

whats FP60? some kind of fuel system cleaner?

colourwolf

Civic is one of the most fuel economy cars. A standard tranny will increase the effiency too.

I can get up to 610km before the light is on in the summer. 520km max during the winter.

pheaton

iTrader: (6)

http://www.lcdinc.com/index.htm

wheelspinLX

Drive 55 mph on the highway, it's hard but I've gotten 44 mpg before. Also screw under 3.5k rpm, be a granny and keep it under 2.5k rpm.

P.S. I have a 05 lx civic

hwt101

iTrader: (12)

fine get a dx and swap the vtec motor in it, my brother and i have the same car mines ex his is lx and i KILL his gas mileage.

psykh00

Basically. You can get your info @:

http://www.lcdinc.com/fuel.htm

VP Stylee

iTrader: (3)

i get 410-420 per tank on 89 octane. but 95% of my driving is highway.

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

you should try 87. you'd get more...not to mentioning ur wasting $ and burning more fuel than needed with 89

chkolny

ive seen people on this board who have claimed up to 50 mpg, but that is with very strict circumstances, (eg coasting down anything with even a SLIGHT incline), and civics get some of the best gas mileage anyways, if you REALLY want better mileage..smart car maybe?

hwt101

iTrader: (12)

moped's kick *** in the mpg department and you could look cool doing it LOL, sorry i just saw this old guy cruising on one down the highway like he was on a chopper.

ONE7thREBUILT

My 50+ MPG claim was on my CBR running race gas from Sunoco.

sl33pyriceboi

iTrader: (3)

in that case just get a ninja 250 bike... 80mpg

ONE7thREBUILT

Yeah...that 990R sticker probably hurt a little. lol

Dirty4Door

my best was:
420mi @ 38MPG (some city/mostly highway), refilling 11 gallons at the station.

so there was still about 2 gallons left, with about 40 miles before the light comes on (60-80mi before empty). my light comes on when there's about 1.5 gals remaining. just hitting 400mi is a feat of it's own on an 05 ex sedan (with a trunk full of crap/useless weight).

so, unless you want to swap your civic (quality car with great MPGs) for a used Geo Metro (great MPGs, but it's a chevy) then i'd say stick with the honda, it'll last and save you money. besides, hondas still rock the non-hybrid MPG market (in america anyway).

Just drive easy, your honda is not a race car...

VP Stylee

iTrader: (3)

actually that was an experiment. i have ran 87 octane since i bought the car in june 2004 but for reasons unknown i decided to fill it with 89. not that i can blame this solely on the higher octane rating but i did get 5-10 more miles than i usually do.

sKwiD

iTrader: (11)

I came across this in one of my other forums. Might help a little. So far I've been trying to fill up late at night or early morning, dunno if it's been working though.

----- I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but
here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon.

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San
Jose, CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period
thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel,
and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks
here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons. Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morrning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground he more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your
gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the
specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet
fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of
the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger
has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should
be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are
created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor
return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some other liquid that goes
to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and
back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth
for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your
gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the
more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty
space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline
storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero
clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes
the evaporation.

Unlike service stations, here where I work, every
truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is
actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping
into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill
up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being
delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally
settles on the bottom. Hope this will help you get the most value
for your money.

DO SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!
WHERE TO BUY USA GAS, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW.

READ ON

Gas rationing in the 80's worked even though we
grumbled about it. It might even be good for us! The Saudis are
boycotting American goods. We should return the favor. An interesting
thought is to boycott their GAS.

Every time you fill up the car, you can avoid putting
more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia. Just buy from gas
companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis.
Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that
every time I fill-up the tank, I am sending my money to people who are
trying to kill me, my family, and my friends. I thought it might be interesting for you to know which oil companies are the best to buy gas from and which major companies import Middle Eastern oil.

These companies import Middle Eastern oil:
Shelll........................... 205,742,000 barrels
Chevron/Texaco......... 144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil............... 130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway... 117,740,000 barrels
Amoco............................62,231,000 barrels

Citgo gas is from South America, from a Dictator who hates
Americans. If you do the math at $30/barrel, these imports amount to over $18 BILLION! (oil is now $90 - $100 a barrel)

Here are some large companies that DO NOT import
Middle Eastern oil:
Sunoco..................0 barrels
Conoco..................0 barrels
Sinclair................0 barrels
BP/Phillips............0 barrels
Hess.......................0 barrels
ARCO....................0 barrels

If you go to Sunococom, you will get a list of the
station locations near you.
All of this information is available from the Department of Energy and each is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importi. But to have an impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas buyers. It's really simple to do.

Get the WORD OUT!!!!!!!!

chkolny

this guy gives some descent advice, like the not fueling up while the tanks are being loaded is a good tip, but alot of that talk about tank vapors and fueling up slower dont really make sense. And the fueling up at night/morning seems like it may make a difference, but any difference would be minimal at best.

and all that crap about boycotting the murderous Saudis was just ridiculous, he sounds so red neck

yeroks

I'm always amused when somebody proposes boycotting foreign oil. There's one huge problem with that argument, we use too damn much oil to do that. Domestic production is far too low for us not to depend on foreign oil. Even if we opened up drilling in Alaska and more offshore rigs, we'd still fall way short of our massive need for oil. It's like saying we should reduce our dependence on foreign diamonds even though we don't mine any here. The only way to reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to reduce our dependence on.....oil.

gearbox

iTrader: (95)

dont worry, after a while all the oil will be gone and we wont have to worry about importing it