really ticking me off

[mcwille117]

Ok here are a few things that have been really bugging me lately about my accord. I bought this car because it is a 5-speed 4cyl so I thought it would get great gas milage and it was in really great shape (new paint really clean etc..) or so I thought. Also my first car was a prelude with this same motor and it lived even after I got rid of it with 340K on it so I was hoping for reliability. Well since I bought it (in Sept. but started driving it in Nov.) I have replaced the CV axles, upper and lower front control arms (lower ones had to go when I did the CV shafts, fork bushing ), all the ball joints including the rears (one snapt on me while driving ), sway bar bushing (when I did the control arms the bushing bolt looked like it was about to snap, it was rusted away to nothing), tie rod ends (just put them on still needs a 4 wheel alignment, crab walking horribly), it still needs new front shocks but as with the alignment I cant do that myself so its gonna wait a bit, and now the clutch feels like its going. One thing that really bugs me is the gas gauge, it doesn't really work but it goes up and down, if I have a full tank it reads empty but as it gets closer to empty it starts going up and down. now at first I was ok with it I have had a few cars with crappy gas gauges but now I can't even get a good beed on what my gas milage is. I was just filling it up and resetting the trip the first time I did that I went to some thing like 300mi and put it 13 gal (about 23mpg) which is pretty shitty for a 4-banger. Then I found out it has a 15.9 gal tank but i kept filling it a 300mi. Well last night I went 270mi on a fillup and ran out of gas. Then when my dad brought me a 2 gal gas can that was almost full I put that in drove it to a gas station and filled it up but I could only get another 12 gal in and that was with it shooting out on the ground. 14gal? I thought these things had a 16 gal tank. Anyway that still doesn't tell me anything about why I am getting such shitty gas milage I am not hard on it so its not my driving habits. Any ideas?

OK next big thing is my 5th gear the rpm change from 4th to 5th is hardly what I would call a crusing gear, 55mph is like 2500 rpm in 5th and 4th is like 2900rpm every other 5-speed I have owned 55mph in 5th its usally right around 1500rpm or in a few sport cars I have had slighty higher than idle. Is something wrong? That small of an rpm drop between gears just doesn't seem right to me.... If it is right is there a way to change that ratio?????

[smufguy]

The stock ratings on this car, like the LX-i (the fuel injected one) is 25mi/gal in the city and around 28~30 mi on the highway. I get around 40-45 mi/gal on the highway and 25-27 mi/gal on the city. But with the bad exhaust i get around 23mi/gal in the city. Depending on your air filter, the tune up and everything, your fuel economy will differ.

[Bglad420]

And driving habits, I get about 30mpg highway with spirited driving in my LXi, is your car a carb or FI????

[mcwille117]

I baby the pedel while I drive, FI, new filters, new stock exaust, and now I really got F***ED!!! I was doing an oil change and changing the plugs and I stripped out a plug, so now I have to figure out whether or not I want to even deal with fixing that. Can I get a new head cheap or what are my options??? how much work is involved in changing a head? how long should it take?

[smufguy]

if you lived any closer, you could have had the choice of picking out one of the two heads that are chillin in my garage. Just gotta change the head gasket and pretty much thats it. Changing ur timing belt is also advised.

[mcwille117]

i just talked to my friend that has torn apart a few of his civics doing everything under the sun to them, and he said that i was going to need to pull the motor to line up the timing belt some thing about a mark under the crank pulley? that doesn't seem right to me that i would have to pull the motor to do head work is there a "how to" on puting a head back on??

[Baveara]

hey you should try to adjust your clutch under the hood because i thought mine was bad and i replaced a brand new clutch. so it's always best to check it first.

[mcwille117]

hey you should try to adjust your clutch under the hood because i thought mine was bad and i replaced a brand new clutch. so it's always best to check it first.

huh??

[NXRacer]

wow. it sounds to me like you got a real lemon! or whoever owned it before you really drove the ish out of it.

there is an adjuster knob on the transmission where the clutch cable goes
in. By twisting the knob it'll tighten your clutch.

[smufguy]

the Clutch adjustment on the Shift fork Lever would put more or less preload on the pressure plate.

[Vanilla Sky]

do yourself the favor and also do a full tuneup. plugs, plug wires, and oxygen sensor are what i'm getting at.

also, clean out your fuel tank. i'm pretty sure it's full of crap and it's clogging the sock on your fuel pump. when you're cleaning it out, cnange that sock out.

have any vacuum leaks? that could cause the economy problems as well.

as for the 5th gear, no, i don't hting any honda has a taller 5th gear. to my knowledge, out 5th is used in hybrid transmissions where a tall 5th gear is desired.