Hey guys,

I have a few problems and I needed some insight! Thanks in advance!

Problem Number 1:

I have a 1998 Honda Civic LX Sedan Automatic. It has 83,000 miles on it and I recently had the car winterized:

All the filters changed, transmission fluid changed, oil completely dumped and synthetic oil put in..air filter..everything..car was winterized..

I recently decided to calculate my miles per gallon...I drive mostly highway..so..I put on the ticker and drove about 210 miles and filled up my tank to 8.35 gallons...I'm getting pretty ****ty gas mileage for a honda civic..that's about 25 miles per gallon...

what should I do? I keep spending a good amount of money on Gas..shouldn't a civic be getting better gas mileage than that?


Problem number 2:

My civic's fuel guage is showing it almost being on empty..so I'll fill it up and get about 8.3 gallons...however..I look in the civic manual that came with the car and it says my tank is 11.9 US gallons big. How could it be reading on empty if there's still about 3 more gallons left to use?

Thanks for your help guys!

 

You could try and use seafoam on the engine. Its got some miles on it so its not a bad idea to clean out the top end of the engine. There is a DIY on seafoam in the DIY section. Second thing, you can advance the timing by turning the distributor, this will give you better gas milage. But if you do advance the timing, then you must use premium fuel to prevent detonation. To advance the timing, turn the distributor towards the firewall. Maybe someone can confirm if this is correct.

 

what exactly is seafoam and how many more miles per gallon will I get? I'm getting an 06 civic in the spring so I don't want to spend too much money

 

Its $8.00/ bottle. You pretty much put the the seafoam in a cup and suck the seafoam through the IM using a vacuum line from the brake booster or somewhere else. And you take half the bottle for the engine and half the bottle for the gas tank (cleans the injectors). I think its recommended to use it every 5,000 miles. It might be something to do with every oil change.

 

your extra 3 gals. is for reserve --u dont want to run any fuel injected engine out of gas ---cause the gas keeps the pump lubed --& there might be a chance the pump may siezed up if u run out

 

ok gotcha..I just thought 3 gallons reserve was quite a bit of reserve...but hey..I'm new to the Honda Civics..here's another question for you...do you know why i'm getting such low gas mileage? 25 mpg HIGHWAY (99.9 percent of the time) isn't very good...I called my honda dealer and they said it's time for a tune up..so they said they'll change the spark plugs and top off the filters and everything..could that improve it? What else can I do?

Thank you!

 

Yea tune up will do er good. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor. Dont let a mech do it......its easy. Get a haynes manual it will take u an hr to do all this.

 

I'm only 18 and I know VERY LITTLE about cars...are you sure it could done with someone of my experience? Becuase I would like to save 230 dollars (expensive!)

 

Plugs and wires are a cake to change and you'll save money and more importantly learn how to do it so you can save $ in future.

Now, rotors in my humble opinion is a must to do yourself. I think they'll charge you like $150+ just to change the front rotors. Cmon, the parts are about $40 at Kragen. I think break pads & rotors must be done by you coz mechanics way overcharge you for that.

All this stuff is easy and well illustrated [with pix] step-by-step in the repair guide.


P.S> Rotors have nothing to do with your gas mileage, but still for future refference

 

ok thanks for your help. Could you kindly tell me all of what I should do to get better gas mileage..because I was going to take it to the dealer and get the "tune up" for 230 dollars..but I already had the car winterized...

what all comes with the tune up