So, what do mufflers do besides making noise and look cool?
Do they actually get performance gains or what?

not on a civic unless it has a potato clogged in it. they're mainly for sound. if you want a little bit of performance, then get a catback system.

Mufflers actually muffle the sound of the exhaust. The stock muffler is restrictive so opening up airflow passage is good. Unfortunatly unless your civic is turbocharged, supercharged, or running some kinda crazy compression you wont see any performance gains. If you want to bypass the whole system itself, you can get an exhaust cutout, its loud as hell but i think it shows the most hp gains but you would have to delete your rear o2.

that's pretty funny because the majority of civics I see driving around where I live have "mufflers" that don't muffle anything at all. ricers

If your talking about stock mufflers, they are there to muffle the sound the engine makes, broken or open mufflers (aftermarket) let the sound come out a lot more because they arent restricted and will give a little better performance (dont expect to be killing mustangs)

I currently have stock exhaust... the really basic one. If i get a new exhaust that lets more exhaust out, would that be good for engine and stuff?
BTW, if i usually drive at 50 to 60 MPG, how would leaving the moon roof open do to the gas millage?? gas is super expensive now

50-60 MPG? or MPH

^^ lol, stupid typo by me...
I drive at 50-60 MPH.....
how would leaving the moon roof open do to the gas millage?? gas is super expensive now

if you're that desperate to save money, i suggest just cutting back on driving in general, or cutting back on the cheeseburgers. an open moonroof won't affect gas mileage that much at normal road speeds.

at 50 - 60 there will be a lot of wind slowing you down, maybe if you use the tilt feature instead of fully opening it.

I went on a four hour drive and it was with windows down and sunroof open and still got 30-33MPG on my 1998 Civic.

Well ej6buddy, fast food restaurants disgusts me personally.... however, I have to give you kudos for that line as it was funny as hell...
The tilt feature doesn't cool the car down as much though, since I live in Florida.

The reason I care so much about gas millage is that I drive to school everyday and I live like 15 miles away from it... having a round trip of 30 miles per day, i kinda want to cut the gas consumption...

yeah, i hate fast food as well. my suggestions are to inflate your tires to where they don't sag as much, um, don't use anything but the lowest grade gas (87 lowest), and don't drive the car very very hard, just drive normally, and shift at the normal shift points stated in your manual for maximum gas mileage. if you carry a lot of crap in your car, remove it if it's not needed.

sometimes, you can shift before the specified shift points to keep the rpms down...

ORIGINAL: chandler583

sometimes, you can shift before the specified shift points to keep the rpms down...


that's basically what i said, but if you shift too low, then the motor will bog down and you'll lose fuel economy.

These are my normal shifting points:
1st: 0-10
2nd: 10-18
3rd: 18-28
4th: 28-36ish
5th: 36 and on...
I know this is way below the recommended shifting points, but are these too low which will result in motor bog down??

depends on the motor and transmission mainly, i have no clue what you have, so that's why i said look them up in your manual.

Also, you can just listen to your motor and just hear her talk to ya.

I have a 2005 Honda civic EX
the manual recommend the folliwng for cruise acceleration
1st: 0-7
2nd: 7-22
3rd: 22-33
4th: 33-48

So, how would that compare to my way of acceleration? would my shifting cause engine bogging down?

ORIGINAL: icecoldstar

I have a 2005 Honda civic EX
the manual recommend the folliwng for cruise acceleration
1st: 0-7
2nd: 7-22
3rd: 22-33
4th: 33-48

So, how would that compare to my way of acceleration? would my shifting cause engine bogging down?



just drive how you think is necessary, i mean, all of this will work in theory, but the actual gains you'll see are very minscule, so i'm just suggesting to drive normal, and as long as you don't drag out the rpms, then you'll be fine, if you're worried too much about it, then just buy a hybrid.

Just use common sense... Anything that creates drag or friction, etc will affect your mileage. Think like a cross country mountain biker or a long distance hiker. Weight and drag are your worst enemies. And yes, TIRES.... smaller tires with mad PSI will help as well. If you are worried about mileage and have aftermarket wheels, take them off and throw stockies back on for awhile.