I drove my girlfriend's 01 Civic 4dr LX Auto (with no mods) this weekend and noticed a few things that maybe you guys could help with...

1. When I started it up, it idled at 1,500rpms and dropped only slightly after warming up for 3min. Once I took off the car seemed to be driving it's self, moving pretty well without hitting the gas. Is this normal for these cars or is the car reving to high at start?

2. Once I got driving I noticed the suspension was making clunky sqeeky sounds that seemed a bit ubnormal. She took it to the dealer and they said nothing was wrong wih the suspension.

The car has low miles and was bought new, so no one beat on it. any info or tips would be appreciated.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by no frillz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">1. When I started it up, it idled at 1,500rpms and dropped only slightly after warming up for 3min. Once I took off the car seemed to be driving it's self, moving pretty well without hitting the gas. Is this normal for these cars or is the car reving to high at start? </TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes. They have a cold idle valve that will keep the revs up for a while after starting.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by no frillz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
2. Once I got driving I noticed the suspension was making clunky sqeeky sounds that seemed a bit ubnormal. She took it to the dealer and they said nothing was wrong wih the suspension.
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How many miles? When does it make the noise? Can you tell where it's coming from?

 

Thanks for the reply

Should the car be warmed up on cold days? The dealer told her not to warm it up, just go easy on the gas when it's cold.

Suspension: The car has 28,000 miles and she said it had some noise in the front since it was new. The clunky plastic sound does seem to be more in the front, and comes when going over little bumps, or cornering. I can't see anything wrong by just looking at it and the dealer checked it and said it was fine. I was wondering if other people had this problem and if it was some kind of defect in this model year or something.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by no frillz &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
The dealer told her not to warm it up, just go easy on the gas when it's cold.
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that's correct. modern cars don't need to be "Warmed up"

 

The proper warm up procedure for an engine is to let it run for 1 minute (to make sure some oil has circulated to the top end) then driving at a constant engine speed (easy with an auto) until warm. No heavy gas or quick shifting.

By letting a car just sit and idle, you're not generating enough oil pressure to properly lubricate the engine. My mom used to let her 95DX just idle for 10-15 minutes in the winter and at around 230K, it was burning oil as fast as you could put it in and died soon after. Rings were shot to hell from improper lubrication.

I'll still let mine idle while I'm scraping it, but never more than 3 or 4 minutes.

 

Thanks guys Any thoughts on the suspension?

&gt;Suspension: The car has 28,000 miles and she said it had some noise in the front since it was &gt;new. The clunky plastic sound does seem to be more in the front, and comes when going over &gt;little bumps, or cornering. I can't see anything wrong by just looking at it and the dealer &gt;checked it and said it was fine. I was wondering if other people had this problem and if it was &gt;some kind of defect in this model year or something.

 

bump