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Well, I started reading this forum a few weeks ago, I was driving a not so fuel efficent car. That was a few weeks ago...

I drive 1000 miles/week, I'm in outside sales, 600 miles of that commute is highway, the other 400 is city driving.

So I bought a 1997 Civic VX, 5spd, black, with a whole bunch of miles on it, so it's broken in well for me, and just $1800. After picking it up, I promptly drove it to my mechanic. There it would receive all new timing components, plugs, valve adjustment, and a recharging of the K&N. So now I'm $2400 into my new commuter!!

My first day of driving, I tried to establish a baseline for myself. I certainly have never been so aware of how driving affects FE so much, but tried to disreguard everything that I may have learned here for the baseline. I cruised down the highway at 70+ as usual, hit the gas to make sure I was the first one at every stop light, then gunned it to the next one. I ended up with 35.5mpg for that day.

Today is my second day of driving, I have not driven over 60mpg, unless it was a ICE off coast that brought me there. RPMs have not been over 2.5k, ICE off on my way to stop lights, and trying to anticipate as much as possible. Rought traffic around here, which BTW is Seattle.

I havn't filled up yet, so I don't know the results of todays driving. I can't wait to get an SG, or perhaps the superMID that I've been reading about, although I have never seen the price on that. My only fuel saving device so far is my GPS, which not only saves me from endlessly running in circles, but makes it so I don't have to slow down to read road signs.

I am very interested in some of the Aero mods that I have read about, which I believe will help me the most since I spend so much time a constant speeds on the highway.

Thank you all for all of the wonderful information here!

Oh boy! I'll bet you are in for a nice surprise on this next tank if you keep up the good habits!

It sounds as though you off to a good start. Have you tried out P&G yet? That was able to get my not so efficient car up over 51mpg on the highway. It takes a lot of effort and concentration but it can be done successfully.

Keep us up to date -- it sounds like you've got a lot going for you.

And thanks from all of us for making the change to a more efficient vehicle!!!!

Welcome to CleanMPG! You're off to a great start and have a great car to advance with. An SGII will really help you dial everything in, too.

I don't think that I've wrapped my head around P&G yet. My speed limit is 60 on the highways I travel, so I vary speed between 50-60? during decel is ICE off? of just neutral?

I am very excided to go to the pump and see what I reap from my efforts. I'm still working with my knee jerk reaction to wanting to speed up when I can sense someone wanting to change lanes without using the blinkers.

I true idea of P&G is to have the ICE off when your in the glade phase, but if you have an automatic transmission, ICE on and in neutral will work.

I will give it a shot. One thing that bummed me out a bit is that when key is turned off, the odometer dosn't work since it's electronic speed sensor driven. I don't feel like I'm getting credit for the time spent between key off and back on. I'm thinking that a relay in the fuel injector's power wire might help me cure that problem. Although, the ECM might throw a code seeing that circuit open. Has anyone tried that? Guess I could also inturupt the CAS signal? Any thoughts?

You turn the car off and then turn the car back to the on position when P&Ging (without actually starting the engine). I've heard of one person that I know saying that their odometer doesn't work unless the engine is on. Strange

No idea on how to fix it... but its not so bad, your just putting "less" miles on your car ;)

Hi, Jaysen! You are correct that there is a time period during which your odometer is not registering your distance but it should be minimal. At highway speeds I typically just use NICE ON (neutral engine on) coasting because my ECU takes so long to reboot that half or more of my glide is gone by the time it starts reading mileage again (the ODO doesn't take that long at all -- it is nearly instantaneous). If you do find that your car is fast enough with reboots what you want to do is drop it into neutral and wait for the RPM to fall to roughly idle speed. Then you can key off and back on in a fraction of a second without the engine dieseling back to life. You'll have to experiment to find out just where the threshold of fastest keying is for your car...

This brings us to something else. How are you restarting the car when moving? If you are using the key you'll want to look into bump starting. There is plenty of good information about that in the forums if you search for it (I wrote some of it). If you can't find it I'll post some instructions for you here.

For your question about interrupting the fuel injector power... you just described a FAS switch! If you can wire one of those up easily it is an extremely nice thing to have. I don't yet have one but it is definitely on my list for several reasons. One of the nicest is that not only do you not have to touch the key, you don't have to deal with your electronics rebooting. In my case it would also prevent the headlights from blinking when I FAS.

Good questions! Keep asking and good luck!

I will give it a shot. One thing that bummed me out a bit is that when key is turned off, the odometer dosn't work since it's electronic speed sensor driven.

This is a problem in the Yaris as you have to wait at least 3 seconds at key off before turning it back to Run as the ECU has fuel "queued" on the rail. I did the math one time and over the course of 400 miles this accounts for roughly 1 mile of lost distance.

There's no sense in worrying over 1/400 or less of a tank. ;)

Well I did some P&G for the last 60 miles or so. I looked at my log, and my baseline mpg was actually 34mpg, not 35.5. I filled it up this morning and got 43mpg with this last tank. My very last bump start must have shaken something, now my MIL is on.

Well that is a solid improvement!! I'll bet you are well pleased. :)

What is this MIL you are talking about?

MIL = malfunction indicator light

same thing as CEL

Jaysen,

As far as I recall, (having owned and worked on a LOT of Hondas) there was no Civic VX made in 1997 - perhaps you have an HX?

The HX was the top fuel econo model that year. 2 dr coupe, D16Y5 VTEC-E lean burn engine with available CVT. Basically the same engine as the 92-95 VX Hatchback model, but with a 1.6 liter engine vs the 1.5l.

A Scanguage would definitely help, but you may run into the same problem our Insight's have - Scanguage doesn't know when you are in lean-burn territory. I hear the ignition timing radically changes in and out of lean-burn, so that may be something to look into.

Air your tires up to max sidewall pressure (or more!), cruise at 50-55 mph, and stay the heck out of VTEC and I have no doubt you'll break into the 50 mpg, that car has a phenomenal engine... the Insight version is just 1 cyl smaller.

By the way, you may find it helpful to rig an LED or something as a VTEC indicator. It should engage somewhere between 2200 and 3000 rpm depending on load (throttle pressure) and rpm. The solenoid is 12+ when engaged and it is on the head, passenger side, rear of engine. Has a green plug with one wire.

MIL = malfunction indicator light

same thing as CEL

Aha. Thanks, Blake!

Jaysen, I hope it isn't anything serious. I popped one up on my car on Sunday when I bump started a couple times in quick succession. There wasn't anything really wrong but the ECU got confused in the rapid succession. I cleared the code with my SG and went along as before. Perhaps something similar has happened to you?

If Shifty is right about your car, you've found a real gem!!! I'd like to have an HX myself -- it would kick the heck out of my car...

This is a problem in the Yaris as you have to wait at least 3 seconds at key off before turning it back to Run as the ECU has fuel "queued" on the rail. I did the math one time and over the course of 400 miles this accounts for roughly 1 mile of lost distance.

There's no sense in worrying over 1/400 or less of a tank. ;)

Brian, I know this is a bit OT but when are you keying off? I have to wait a similar length of time in my car if I key off immediately after a pulse, but not if I let the RPM drop down to something close to idle speeds. If the Yaris does it even after letting the RPM stabilize, that would be seriously annoying and immediate grounds for a FAS switch. ;)

MIL ended up being the MAP sensor according to my diagnostic paperclip. I have had a steady 41-43mpg since employing my new driving techniques. I havn't had a chance to replace the MAP sensor, maybe it's a hard code. I'll try and clear it this weekend, or fix the issue. Yes, it's an HX, not VX, I don't know where that came from.

I inflated the tires to 51psi this morning. We'll see what that yields, I want to do it one step at a time so I can see what exactly each mod did. I also want to fabricate a solid grill insert next, I don't see any reason to have that open.

Shifty - On the d16y5, vtec engages @2500, which works out just right. As long as I don't go over 60mph, I don't see above 2500. I thought about disabling it completly, but then reconcidered, as I really stay below that rpm, and should the need arise for going above that to avoid a problem, I want what little power is available available.

If you end up getting a ScanGauge you'll be able to both read and clear codes with that device. Another perk of ownership. :)

It was just a hard code from bump starting!!

how do you get the tag at the end of your post with your vehicle info??

Cut and paste this to your signature field in the user CP, its already set up for your car. :)

URL="http://www.cleanmpg.com/index.php?page=garage&displayunits=MPG(US)&viewcar=776"]IMG]http://www.cleanmpg.com/garage/images/776.png[/IMG][/URL]



Add a [ infront of the bold and large looking font area's to make the code work. Ignore the boldness and size, its just there to make it stand out ;)