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Honda Civic: Problems & Solutions
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does any one know how this is done and if its possible to remove the restriction?
if so email me on powisontour@hotmail.com
that would be a great help!
I removed the clamps & heat shield up front.
Underneath the feet of the back seat passengers, but in front of the Cat converter "appears" to be heat shield #2. It is only on top of the exhaust pipe. I also found another shield that was more like sheet metal shaped like the letter L. I was not able to remove that shield.
The muffler appears to have a heat shield on top of it...presumably to keep heat away from the gas tank.
After 2 test drives, I still hear the rattle, but not as bad as before. The sound only happens at about 45-50mph, when I take my foot off the gas.
Sounds like something is vibrating against metal, but just for a second or so.
Not sure what else to do. It's my wife's car, so she will have to deal with it. When she rattles enough about it, I will take the car to the dealer.
Thanks again for the posts-
Greg, just wanted to point this out to you, you can do as you please with it. I remember you talking about how you used premium fuel in your cars. I don't know what kind of climate you are in during the winter months. My local news had a story on winter survival tips on the road, and they said that regular fuel makes for easier starts in the cold due to it being more combustable at lower temperatures than premium fuel. Just wanted to share that with you.
About the Civic type-R....A lot of vehicles today are speed limited electronically. I don't know about your case since you said it was older. However if you find out yours is electronically controlled then you need to replace the chip with a racing chip.
Good day all...Nick
How can one operate a vehicle without a defroster? the rear defroster is electric and if you had not switched to "recirculate" your windows should not fog up. The defrost mode on the HVAC system activates A/C, which draws the moisture away from the glass before it has a chance to condence.
How may times have you seen a car on the road with the windows all fogged up, only because the driver was cold and chose to switch the intake to "recurculate", then the moisture froze up on the cold glass.
How much fule do you burn? The strat up alone uses more fuel than regular driving. Then you are sitting at 1500 RPM for 5-10 minutes, that 0 MPG's, more pollutants in the air while your engine is not being productive. Heat is the waste product of internal combustion engine, not its primary function. If you are uncomfortable driving a cold vehicle, get a ceramic heater.
When you warm up the engine and then drive off with the transmission still cold, the bearings are still cold, and so on, you are doing worse than you would have had the engine been cold. A cold engine is controlled by the PCM, it i snot producing full power, while a warmed engine is producing full power, but the rest of the drive train is still cold and not well lubricated. Think of it that way. If you start the car, let her idle for minute or two and then drive off, everything is on the same playing level, but when you fast idle for 10 minutes, the engine is warm, but the rest of the car is not.
Just my $0.02
Just drive slow and easy to speed whatever it may be. I drive 2 minutes with a stone cold motor onto highway and slowly ease up to 75 MPH. I have hot heat at around 50 MPH during accelaration during merging.
If you are happy warming up a car thats fine, it symbolizes the waste/excess in the USA. Ask a european, they never understand the excessive idling for no apparent reason here.
So earlier today I sent in my car for a service appointment, and told the rep exactly what I had experienced. He noted them down and said that a technician would test-drive my car to see if he/she could verify the sounds. So hours later, I get the call and the rep. says that the technician couldn't reporduce ANY of the noises I've heard, and that it was no different than any other brand new Civic. But the guy still offered me to come along to a test drive and personally 'show' them what I hear.
Should I go through the trouble, or just accept that maybe my ears are too sensitive and that I'm overreacting to things? I just hope that it's not the other senario where the technician is partially deaf from running those power drills inches away from his ears...
Here is a list of cars I've driven in my family and the RPM I observed at 60 mph:
03 Civic LX AT: 2400 rpm
01 Accord 4-cyl LX AT: 2250 rpm
00 Camry V6 AT: 2200 rpm
97 Altima AT: 2050 rpm
60 MPH 3000 RPM
75 MPH 3600 RPM
Maybe I have the "break" the car in or something. Is there a RPM calculator on the Internet? Yes, I am in 5th gear. Maybe because the engine is VTEC and I do know that Civic LX is not VTEC. Does VTEC somehow cause the engine to run at higher RPMs?
EX - 16-Valve SOHC VTEC®
127 HP @ 6300 RPM
114 lb.ft. @ 4800 RPM
9.9:1 compression ratio
LX - 16-Valve SOHC
117 HP @ 6100 RPM
110 lb.ft. @ 4500 RPM
9.5:1 compression ratio
Both engines have the same displacement, bore, and stroke.
You need to put your transmission in Drive or any gear and sit with your foot on brake to actually warm it up. Fluid does not circulate when the engine idles and doesn't warm very much of transmission.
You need to change your warm up method if you want to actually warm the tranny, sit in car waste a few minutes and freeze while your car warm up. Or just drive off slowly...
I bought a 2004 Civic LX coupe auto about 3 weeks ago. It has just developed a troubling problem: when you start the car and accelerate, it accelerates for about half a second, then kind of loses power for a moment, then continues accelerating (all in 1st gear). This also happened once when I was reversing. After driving the car for a few minutes, when it warms up I guess, the problem goes away. Does anyone know what this is, or has anyone had a similar problem? I am going to take it into the dealer because it seems dangerous -- you don't get the acceleration you expect.
thank you very much,
Stephen
The EX actually has slightly better fuel economy than the other models, according to the EPA ratings.
You can easily compare your fuel economy to what is reasonable to expect. Consumerguide.com reports fuel economy for vehicles tested over thousands of miles. Their test EX sedans averaged 30.5 mpg. I have been getting similar mileage with my LX with a combination of city and highway (75 mph) driving. So I think you should expect about 30 mpg, a bit better if you do a lot of highway driving at the speed limit.
If you look for the specifications you will get the exact gear ratin for each gear and the final drive. Take the outer circumfernce of the tire and divide it into a mile. This is how many revolutions of the tire it take to drive a mile. Multiply that by the speed you are inquiring, take that number and divide by the product of the particulr gear and final drive, it should give you the RPM's. I hope I didn't leave anything out, someone please confirm.
I recently had a problem where the car would stall while driving and while sitting at idle. The code for it finally popped up (after months of no codes) for a cracked catalytic convertor. That was replaced free of charge by Honda. The stalling seemed to have disapperaed after that.
However I still have an occasional instance of a loss of power while driving (usually 65 mph+). The car would lose power and then kick roughly back to where my accelerator had been after flooring it for a long period of time to get some power. Sometimes the AC would be on, and sometimes it is not on. It usually begins to lose power after a long steady drive of a couple of hours and some accerleration while passing the slower traffic. Any ideas of what may be the problem? Honda doesn't seem to know what it may be.
Thanks in advance...
When I start my 2000 (Civic ex standard) in very cold weather, there is a loud whine for about 5 mins till it warms up.
This is my first winter with it. Anybody have this problem or ideas.
Thanks
Dan186
I own a 1995 honda civic DX. A month back my car skidded and turned 180 degrees and went out of the road. Nothing is damaged or hit by anything. Onething I notice is front bumper slightly moved it's position. My car is working fine apart from AC button not turning on. I took it to Michel's tires plus and they checked all the fuses and said everything is fine. They doubt on relay. I do not think either it is relay or fuses. I suspect some wiring connections might have got loose. I have very poor knowledge of auto engine. Anybody faced this before or suggest me where to take it to for diagnosis ???
Thanks for your suggestions.
Does anyone have any ideas where this knocking could be coming from? Thanks for the suggestions.
Thanks for your reply.
Okay people. My new Civic is nearing 3K miles and I'm wondering about the oil. Manual says 5000. I drive my car quite a bit on the freeways (somtimes a lot faster than I should!). I'm getting antsy about the oil. Also, my gas mileage has been absolutely miserable (hovering 28mpg avg). I'm supposed to be getting 33/37. I tried for two tanks driving less agressively and didn't notice a difference. I switched from Chevron 89oct to Texaco 89oct. Again, no noticeable difference.
My questions are:
1)WHEN will my gas mileage improve? It HAS been very cold here lately (Richmond, VA).
2)WHEN should I change my oil??? I would think with all the metal filings from the engine changing at 3K would be better especially since I've driven my Civic pretty heartily.
Other than that, I'm loving my car. I HAVE noticed that parallel parking in this car is more difficult than any other car I've had even though it isn't much larger. I think it has to do with the high trunk lid. Has anybody else noticed this??? :-/
*sigh* Can't beat it though...I love my car.
MattPDX
Also mileage will be lower since car is not broken in yet. Lastly, when its cold mileage is lower beacause of fuel formulations changed for winter for less pollution and especially if you warm your car up (0 mpg idling).
More freeway mileage even at higher speeds is better than city driving with regards to oil. 5000 miles is fine, however if you are uncomfortable then just change it. The idea of shavings is so old school from I don't know where. If you change it yourself, its pretty doubtful you'll see any. I would then worry... good luck
R-134 molecules are about 1/6 the size of R-12, and it's leakage rate is greater. On a car that old, it's likely that the system has lost it's charge.
If refrigerant pressure is less than 33 psi due to leakage or higher than 340 psi due to cooling blockage, the dual pressure switch on the condenser line opens the circuit to the AC control unit and stops the air conditioner to protect the compressor.
Time to take it in to a qualified shop and have the system checked.
You don't need to use 89 octane gas. I'd recommend going with 87. High octane gas is useless, unless your engine is designed to use it. The Civic is designed to run on 87 octane. You might actually be harming your mileage by using the higher octane.
The oil change interval for the Civic is every 10k miles, or 5k miles for "severe service". I'm being a little more conservative - I'm going with changes every 4,500 miles.
What does octane mean?
The Civic was designed to burn 87 Octane gas. Using a higher octane gas will result in the fuel/air mixture igniting at a later point. This results in the engine performance potentially worse than using 87 octane.
"Many drivers still believe that the higher the octane rating of the gasoline, the greater the power and the better the performance their vehicle will have. This isn't true. If your engine runs without knocking or pinging on regular fuel, then you will have exactly the same power on premium fuel." http://ca.autos.yahoo.com/030731/11/u47t.html
Greg, I still want to know how you can warm up your vehicle to "operating temperature" while having it idle in the driveway on a cold morning. If you are running the heat while attempting to warm it up I don't see how that is possible. I hate to burst your bubble but I don't think any vehicle will reach its full operating temperature on a cold morning unless you run it for a very long time and have all defrosters off which in that case would defeat the purpose of warming up a car. I even remember in the summer when I had my 95 Civic the thermostat went bad so I replaced this. After doing so my Dad thought it would be a good idea to purge the coolant system and in the service manual it recommends that the vehicle reaches its full operating temperature before doing so (which they say it has done so when you first hear the fan come on). We started the car and even in 70 degree heat it took almost 20 minutes before the cooling fan kicked on. I know that even if I'm stopped at a traffic light for a few minutes and I have the heat blowing full blast the coolant gauge on the dash drops below where it normally is when the vehicle is at operating temperature because you're taking away all that heat from the exchanger.
I am unable to lock the doors with the car running? Why is this? Any remedies?
To Greg, I still have a tough time understanding how you get your cars to operating temps. ( to the point of the fan coming on) when its this cold out unless you have your own defintion of "normal operating temperature". If you have some secret let me know cause I know there isn't anything wrong with the operation of my car and it will never get there if I'm running the heat and letting it idle. I'll run into a party store to get a coffee in the morning on my way to school and I leave my car running, when I come out the temp gauge drops about half way! Even though I don't have a habit of warming up my vehicle in the morning I'm still interested to know how you accomplish this. I have a curious mind! Good day all.
Lastly, where are you getting the idea that lead missing from engines fuel is taking a toll on motors? Motors that ran off lead never lasted as long as current motors do on average. This mostly has to do with the use of fuel injection over a carburater that keeps the oil from being contaminated with unused fuel and combustion by products from incomplete burning. The average life of a car is much longer, typically 9 or 11 years now I believe.