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What do you notice by changing your tranny fluid that often? Smoother shifts, quieter operation?

Just curious...

 
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Preach on brother!

 
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when i had my ex 5 speed coupe, i shfted around 4000-4500 rpm and still got 34 mpg(usually about 360 miles per tank, fill ups with about 10.5 gallons) now, with my ep, i shift around 3500 rpm, and ive been getting about 30 mpg

 
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Just thought I'd bump this. Is everyone doing maintenance? It's a must if you want the car to last.

 
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I've only got 10K on my '03 civic, but my last civic (a '94) had the same problem with plugs. I tried every plug made from cheap one to 25 buck a plug, they where all black in 15K miles. Then I realized something, higher octane gas has a high compressiblity and thus burns hotter, cleaning all that carbon crap out. The next set of plugs I bought for the '94 where NGK and I ran nothing lower than 89 octane and mostly 91, after 30K the plugs looked new and everything seemed to come alive as I ran the better gas.

On a side note, as for revs, the car isn't running untill the VTEC is on.

 
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hm, very interesting..

that's why i think u gotta buy the K&N air filter, hahaha...for ur stock car, i mean..

i seldom drive my car a stop-go style...however...everytime i drive my car to school, i pick the long freeway to the parking lot....u can actually drive ur car inside the school....and make few turns...however, that would be slow..

so i pick the road which surrounds my school...and drive at 50-60 mph every morning....use the fifth gear everday....

question:
1. what should u say to the dealer if you want the normal mileage maintance?
2. how much does it costs? (my car still under waranty, 25K right now...)
3. where do you go to change spark plugs? how much $$?
4. so far, what is the best plugs? NGK iridium? Denso iridium?
5. NGK = Denso? (lol)

i don't think i wanna use that bosch thingie....a scam...marketing scam...

i usually drive granny, change gear at 2500 - 3000 rpm...
however, after reading this thread, i believe 3000-3500 should be the one im using...

 
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I been checking fluids and went to synthetic oil.. Had the tranny check and constantly taking care of the car. Sometimes I will go nuts shifting like a mad man with it but only after the car has been running for awhile.
I treat it like how I treat the lady vette. See in the vette you need to drive it like a hardass once inwhile because thats what it was built for, you can actually loose engine performance if you dont let it rip!

 
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I like the NGK plugs that came with the car orginally now. I get them from the dealer, you could probably go to a Autozone or something and get the NGK cheaper, but the dealer is less than a mile from my house...

If you want to talk to the dealer about MPG, talk to the head of service, they're the ones that actually work on cars and can tell you best, the salesman only knows what their little book form honda tells them, which is almost the same for Japan, US, Uk or where ever. The service guys can tell you what's best for your car in your area given your gas types and climate.

 
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I've had good results with NGK iridium IX plugs. Spark plugs and tranny flush are VERY easy to do yourself. Easier than oil change, which I can't do in the apartment lot.

 
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so....is ngk - denso? im pretty confused with it...

how to flush ur tranny? is it on DIY? hm...i gotta do the search now...

gearbox, u got mt or at?

 
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I have auto. Manual tranny can go alot longer without changing fluid. Also the auto is easier to do. Look for the DIY on this site.

NGK and denso are different brands. I've always heard to stick with NGK for hondas, so I did. Check out sparkplugs.com for the correct ones for your car.

 
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a ha...

i wonder if honda dealer want to change my spark plugs using the NGK iridium (IX or plugs)
or the double platinum..

will they do it? can they get it?

 
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If they carry them in stock, they'll put them in.... But if you don't have a forced induction or anything like that, ther's really no reason for such expensive plugs. Those plugs are designed to handle very high voltages needed to ensure proper combustion in a high pressure cylinder. Without the higher voltage coil they may not even spark to the correct point causing a small loss of power (not real sure though), buy high voltage I mean like a 100,000 Volt MSD igntion system for 350-400 bucks, not somehting you need in a normal civic like yours or mine.

 
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White Castle... where did you find sythetic oil... I can't find full synthetic 5W-20 anywhere?

Nice picture... I almost used that one!!!

 
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what gearbox and the honda techs are trying to say has nothing to do with your cruising speed and gear. our engines have rev limiters for those who haven't had the ecu remapped. do not be afraid of it. you have to get on it HARD!!!! take it up to redline through the first 3 gears. frequently! it will not hurt your car. if you baby your engine you will never burn out carbon deposits and such. use a fuel treatment. the one we use at work has 3 bottles. one in the tank, one in the head and one is like an iv drip through your vacuum line. it works great. replace your fuel filter every 35000 miles. use 93. or 91 if you live in cali. not every time but once in a while run premium. and when you have a tank of premium, drive hard. it will burn out carbon deposits. the fuel treatment will clean your valves, injectors and combustion chambers.

 
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hm...

5W20,

castrol syntec, not entirely synthetic..

amsoil....5W20 synthetic..

um....purple...something...synthetic too..

hehe, im gonna use mobil 1 0W20, also good for 5W20 honda...

well....ok, but it's probably good to use the iridium IX, right? hm...
or just the normal one..? bah.....hm..

 
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Exactly... kind of... lol. Use good gas, change the oil every 3K, and check a plug or two every now and then. It works wonders, believe me I can tell you how it works thermodynamically, but that's boring and then I sound like one my text books. I know my dealler said I can use 87, but I never use anything less than 89, but I went into all that a few posts ago.

But I agree, you won't hurt a an almost stock Honda by reving it hard, their pistons are squared out enough to take it. Forced Inductio, Nistrous, different story, but for CIA and stuff like that, let 'em rip

 
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humm couldn't find the castrol synthetic around me...

Purple Drop I think it is.... got that sitting at home, 5 bucks a quart though and it's not a sythentic, it has some really nice additives though that may be just as good as synthetic.

Also can't find the amsoil brand around hear... don't know why?

0W-20 may be in the future though

thanks for the tip

 
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right on fish

 
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ah....

there is no castrol synthetic....i mean, the 5w20...
it's castrol syntech...made from....somehow...dino juice....

erh...i forgot the process again...but it's nearly synthetic though...

amsoil is rare....i found it on their website...it's expensive too..

i think mobil 1 0W20 will be the best deal....especially if u like to change oil in wallie mart....
that oil is expensive too...around $5 per bottle...however, u pay $30 in wallie mart, u got 4 quart......new fram oil filter, 15 check points....and installation, of coarse...

whaddya think?

 
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i only drive slow when im eating and on a road with a red light every 5 feet :P

 
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I just used that Purple drop stuff today on my girlfriends '04, I didn't accually know it was purple oil.... freaked me out when I first saw it. I got 5 more quarts to try in my '03, so we'll see how it preforms compared to rest I've used.

But I'll probably go to Mobile 1 0W-20... I used Mobile 1 in my '94 with the FMAX kit and it came out the same color it went in.

As if for filters, I only the OEM Honda ones. even though they're made by fram, Honda requires a tighter spec than the ones you buy in the store. By specs I mean filtaration of smaller particles.

 
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would 91 octane fuel burn more gas, or would it perform better? or is just better for the car?

 
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i hear 91 will burn to hot fro the car if its used regulary, but i dont know if that is true or not.

also are you telling me that i dont have to worry about driving my vic to hard? cuz i ALWAYS slam the pedal. only time i dont is when that stupid *** cop is right on my bumper...

ive been using the mid grade gas for about a year now adn ive notivced better preformance and better acceleration too.

 
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87, i think it's the best for the compression ratio of our vic's engine....

 
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Well now... lets have lesson on octane... he he he, I'm a chemical engineer and this fuel stuff is our purpose in life. Octane is the ratio of iso-octane to para-octane in the fuel. Iso-octane is hard to combust, but when it does it goes with better focr than it's para form. 100 octane is given to 100% iso-ocatane fuel. With that in mind, a higher octane number means the fuel can be compressed more and run at higher temperaures before it becomes unstable and goes through sponatneous combustion, this is what causes detnotation. So by running a higher octane, you can do things like advance your timing, run a hotter cylinder and that kind of stuff.

With todays cars, or most OBD II systems, they have a dynamic progressive computer system, in other words if you keep putting good fuel in your car, it will advance the timing for you. But as soon as you put lowwer grade gas into your car, it goes back to a slower ignition timing and you lose power. The bad thing is that the computer system are real senestive to this stuff and it may take 2 tanks of 94 octane or 15, depending on your car. I've always used 93 octane, so I can't tell how long it took for my car to adapt.

As if for compression, the higher your compression, the higher your octane should be. As I mentioned, higher octane can be compressed more before detonation occurs.

And yes, higher octane does make your car run hotter, but is by it's own desing. A hotter cylinder and piston means a faster rate of combution and a faster "flame wall." Faster flame = faster piston. faster piston = more power. So the hotter cylinder gives for more power and is okay because detonation is being held off buy the higher octane, and detonation is why hotter engines got their bad rap. People ran 87 in hot eninges with timing desinged for 89 or 91 and wonder why they had engine porblems....

 
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Forgot some stuff.....

Higher octane won't burn more fuel... usuallly. If your like me, I get more power, I use it more often, thus I use more fuel. But all things equal, your car will not use more fuel.

Flooring your car all the time... well, it won't hurt your engine all that much in a Honda because of the squared out pistons (I won't get into what squared out means and all that stuff), but rember your putting stress on your entire car. While the motor may be fine, the tranny and the chasis may not be happy and won't last very long. Teh better alternative is to give maybe 50% throtle adn then slowly increas the gas to 100%and wind the motor out. That will give the "clean out" you're looking for adn keep everything else in car happy.

Sorry for boring and dragging on

 
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wow dude, im really interested in that stuff... go on! explain more!

 
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Ask more questions... or start a thread with a question and email me the url or thread name. That's about all I can thik for ocatane and fuel and that kind of stuff and I don't what to specualate on stuff that I don't know for sure.

So post a question or email about something you want to know, and I'll do my best to answer it.

I don't know all though. For instance, I know little about suspension and am always reading the suspension stuff on these forums and tring to learn how stuff works. It's how I build a better car and drive it better.

 
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I was told driving slow promotes Carbon build up