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Today I became a proud owner of a 1994 Honda Civic Hatchback (Automatic, DX spec I am pretty sure). I have been looking for a car for a while and it's been a complete nightmare due to the crazy weird excess prices the people of Northern California seem to think their cars are worth (side note - I am not from the US, I am from Irish and moved here from the UK 3 years ago)
The car has 198k miles and is in very good condition. The paint work looks good from afar but up close it's crazed and bubbly. Not too bothered as this will be my commuter car, I am looking to save some gas money and this thing is going to get +35mpg. I got this car from a mechanic at Acura. Nice guy, the car has a stack of history. So I went for it and I am more than happy with my purchase.
But the ride is a bit stiff, he lowered it with ground control coils with new Oem replacement struts and put on the white Q8 wheels. Also, it's not exactly the peppiest of drivers. It's fine but I wouldn't mind a bit more. I do like the Denji Headlights.
So my questions to the collective are:
What quick and easy "upgrades" can I do right now to the engine etc?
What options do I have to make it a somewhat nicer ride in terms of shocks/suspension?
It needs new radio with Bluetooth and a bit more modern (I would like to put in something with carplay but single din means I an S.O.L.)
I am bringing it into a shop tomorrow to get smogged and a tune up as I won't have time for a couple of weeks.
Here are a couple of photos from the seller (I will upload my own once I get it home)
I'm new to Hondas also so I'm not much help other than that looks good. Records are always nice too, my wife's odyssey had everything from new, when I saw that after the test drive it was a matter of getting paperwork rolling.
Stock springs would give you more like that daily driver ride, but don't expect it to ride like a luxury or even a midline car. It's an economy car. It's kind of pointless to try to make an automatic Civic faster without replacing the entire drivetrain. The transmission is prone to failure even at stock hp.
Those headlights are not stock.
Stock springs would give you more like that daily driver ride, but don't expect it to ride like a luxury or even a midline car. It's an economy car. It's kind of pointless to try to make an automatic Civic faster without replacing the entire drivetrain. The transmission is prone to failure even at stock hp.
Those headlights are not stock.
I realise that it's not a luxury car and I am not trying to make it one either. I was just looking for advice if there are options to make it more comfortable? It's not horrendous right now but if I could make it a bit "smoother" Tha would be good.
I am not looking to make it faster just a bit more pepy. A bit more get up and go. I never said the headlights were stock?
D15B7 - There is no quick or easy way to pep up that motor, it's pepped to it's max.
However, if you swap out the DX tranny and swap in an EX or SI tranny you will see a bit more pep in your step. But this is also assuming you have a manual transmission.... I don't see the clutch reservoir so even that little upgrade is not available to you unless you convert this to a manual transmission.
D15B7 - There is no quick or easy way to pep up that motor, it's pepped to it's max.
However, if you swap out the DX tranny and swap in an EX or SI tranny you will see a bit more pep in your step. But this is also assuming you have a manual transmission.... I don't see the clutch reservoir so even that little upgrade is not available to you unless you convert this to a manual transmission.
It's an auto. Good to know there is not much I can do. I can live with it as a commuter car.
if you want to make it peppy, you can get smaller tires in the front, that will change the gear ratio a little. It would also mess with your speedometer so you have to think Is it worth it.
Give it a tune up and call it a day.
The only way to make it peppier is to swap to manual. But that is a fine hatch you got. and you won't have to worry too much about thieves since it is an auto.
Find someone with stock springs and trade. You'll then have the comfiest stock ride possible. If you want to keep the car lowered with the stock suspension, look into MPC drop forks and arms. It may also be worth looking for a set of VX rims, should help a tad bit on the pep side since they're only 13in and super light.
I replaced the driver side control arm and changed the fluids. I discovered oil in the spark plugs so I had to bring it to a shop and had all the fluids flushed and gaskets, points etc changed. It's running like a champ now. I am fine with it currently but I don't think my back will be able to take the current suspension setup. While great in the corners it's a ******* train over potholes or any bumps in the road.
tein h tech. 1.2" front, 1.1" rear drop. your choice of new struts (parts store w/lifetime warranty), and you're as comfortable as stock, but a little more aggressive.
Standard aftermarket intake aka short ram has shown on my car 2mpg increase pretty solidly (basically the same car as the OP). Those ecomodders like to call it a warm air intake but yeah, there are reasons why it's benefical for fuel efficiency.
plus hes in cali, have to spend a small fortune on a carb cert'd intake.
Actually I think the AEM one I bought from amazon.com short ram has CARB stickers to include the VX too. If I recall there was 3? one for Si, VX and DX/CX? Been awhile. I put the one pertaining to my engine even though I have no inclination to goto Cali.
Last edited by TomCat39; Jan 17, 2017 at 09:34 AM.
Reason: derailment thread cleanup
Standard aftermarket intake aka short ram has shown on my car 2mpg increase pretty solidly (basically the same car as the OP). Those ecomodders like to call it a warm air intake but yeah, there are reasons why it's benefical for fuel efficiency.
I've been thinking about this and speculating why this happens when the stock air box intake port is pointed right at the exhaust header but grabs air about 2 inches lower than the cone filter ability.
I understand that this efficiency really only applies when you don't have a lead foot the majority of the time based on my personal experience and fuel tracking. I have the lead foot issue and have not seen much of a fuel efficiency increase.
Anyways, looking at where the cone filter lands, it sits above the passenger side frame rail where the stock box pulls air to the left of the frame rail.
What I can figure is the heat rises, hits the hood and spreads out to the sides to the side fender walls of the engine compartment. The cone filter drags air from all sides so likely grabs a fair amount more heated air as it gets tapped in that cubby area of the frame rail, fender wall and hood.
The stock box however likely gets more cold air up flow from under the car as it sits above open road just past the half air dam on the bottom of the car.
So as long as you keep moderate to mild throttle you should be utilizing the o2 sensor fuel trim which will also monitor air temp etc. and the warmer air will reduce fuel intake. Where when you stomp on it, it ignores the o2 fuel trim and goes strictly off the fuel map programmed into the ECU.
New owner of an old Civic needing advice
