Just bought it 1996 civic LX 1.6 only 25,000 original miles dealer replaced timing belt. I put a cold air intake kit and new fuel filter hoping to get a few extra MPG only getting 30 in town with A/C on. My bro is getting 34 -37 in town with his 96 Civic.
I Am thinking about replacing spark plugs. They are 10 years old. Think I should adjust the valves ? Maybe some are tight hurting MPG ? Any ideas ?

PS I am 48 years old so I am not into going fast any more. Just getting from point A- B on as little fuel as possible !


Modified by jameshobbs at 6:59 PM 7/26/2006

 

I hope you are ******* joking that the spark plugs are 10 years old and you are only "thinking" about replacing them. They are 2 dollars each. Don't be cheap.

Replace the distributor cap and spark plug wires also, and that could very well increase mileage by 1-2mpg.

Advance your timing slightly, it will give you better power and gas milage by 1-2mpg if you are retarded timing right now, which you probably are.

Use 1/3 bottle of seafoam, maybe you arent getting a good fire from excessive carbon on the piston tops.

TIRE pressure is the most important by far. about 30psi you should maintain.

Try those before you go deep into valve adjustment.

 

are you comparing apples to apples or apples to oranges? Are you both running same tire size and inflation, as rolling diameter will bias any milage readings. Heck even tire wear will bias the readings, for example if you have new tires and he has 40k mile tires.

 

using your a.c. kills your mpg. that may be normal, depends on other factors as well.

 

when i need good gas milage, i set my tires to 35 psi, but then again, i have a VX

 

I don't usually say this, but use the search button to find some MPG topics. I know there was once in specific that was detailed...and huge. It had MUCH more info that I can recollect atm, as I'm tired and just want to burn more fuel (turbo)...

 

My experience shows that running the AC reduces my mileage by at least 10%. You also didn't mention if you have a manual or auto. I don't even get 30 in town with my automatic ex while running the air. More like 28-29mpg.
I think Honda recommends the initial valve adjustment to happen around 30k or so. They are probably not tight.
25k!? that thing is like brand new! I wish I could find something like that here. All we have around here for sale are 150k+, which still isn't bad IMHO.