On my way to karate class, I used the cruise control while driving on the freeway. I took my time, and managed to average 44.3 MPG for the drive there. Not bad for a 2000 Honda Civic! There was a long piece of road with construction signs and 55 mph speed limit signs. Normally the speed limit in these areas if 65. But people were flying passed me doing like 70 anyway.
On my way home, I decided to see how good of gas mileage I could get. The first part I used a steady foot to hold the gas pedal in a fixed position as best I could. I tried to keep my scanguage showing a throttle position of 16. Much of the early part was the construction zone. Then when we got out of then, we hit the regular 55 mph zone. After holding the pedal steady for a while, I switched over to using my cruise control. I had already been averaging about 46 mpg. I set the cruise control to have me going about 55 mph. Actually the speedometer on my dashboard was showing 55mph, but my scanguage had me going about 52 which was more accurate. As I got into town, there was more construction, and the speed limit dropped to 45. I dropped my speed more. People were passing me, but I didn’t care. I just let em go. My gas mileage now was average over 48 mpg! Wow! The speed limit dropped again to 40 while going through downtown. I slowed more. Then as we got out of town, the limit goes back up to 55. I speed up, and was actually going about 52. After a while, the speed limit goes up to 65. I speed up just a little and was going maybe 55. My gas mileage average kept going up.
Eventually I had to get off the freeway. There were some lights, but I managed to get my speed just right that I was able to catch them on green. I was doing great, but then there is a steep uphill section as I get near my house. I live on a hill. This drub my gas mileage down. When I pulled into my garage, my final average gas mileage was 47.5. It had been up in the mid 48’s before the hills. That’s great for a 2000 Honda Civic! My car is not a hybrid and is totally paid for too!
A few months ago, the heater blower motor in my 2000 Honda Civic started making a buzzing noise. It sound like maybe there was a leaf or something in there touch the fan blades. As time went one, it seemed to get worse.
I decided to pull the fan out and see if there was something in there. I pulled out my Haynes and Chilton guides. The motor was pretty easy to remove. It was located under the dash, behind the glove compartment. It was mostly just awkward laying on my back to get to it. There were just three screws holding it in. I just removed the three screws, and it dropped right out.
The fan and motor were covered by a black soot like powder. I didn’t see anything like a leaf. I removed the fan blade from the motor, and washed it off. I blew off the heater blower motor with blasts of compressed air from my compressor. I put the fan back on the motor, and reinstalled it. It made an awful noise. It sounded like the fan was rubbing against something. I pulled it out again, repositioned the fan a little bit, and reinstalled it again. It was quieter, but pretty much how it had been before I messed with it. I searched online, and found this was common for heater blower motors in Hondas.
I decided to try something else. I bought some oil especially for electric motors. It was made by 3-In-One, and I found it at Home Depot. I pulled the heater blower motor out again. First I sprayed in WD-40 to clean the old gunk out. Then I lubed it as well as I could with the electric motor oil. I reinstalled the motor. It was subtly quieter than before.
I debated about buying a used motor at a auto salvage yard. But I thought I might be buying a motor that would encounter the same problem. I looked for OEM motors, and found they were not cheap.
I stopped down at the local auto parts store and bought an aftermarket replacement heater blower motor. It was significantly cheaper than the OEM models I found online. It didn’t come with the fan. I removed the heater blower motor from the car again. I swapped the fan from the old motor to the new one. Since the fan just clamps on a shaft, I positioned it as close as I could to where it was on the original motor. There was a small plastic plug piece that the motor wires fit into. I followed the included instructions to fir the wires into the connector so that the fan would rotated in the proper direction. I installed the new motor. Installation went a little easier as I had stopped at Sears and bought a screwdriver type handle with a flex shaft to hold small sockets. This allowed me to reach the small screws much more easily.
The new motor was quieter and had way more power than the old motor. It was well worth the effort of replacing it. And I will have the car for quite a while, so hopefully it will last the life of the car.
After my wife rolled my 1989 Acura Integra, I needed a new car. I headed back to the Acura dealership, but they didn’t have anything. I then went to their associated Honda dealership (not the ones who insulted my 1979 Honda Accord). I would have liked a hatchback of some sort. My wife thought it would be good to get a 4 door, so that if we had guests come into town, we could drive them around. That seemed like a good idea at the time. I bought a 1990 Honda Accord for around $10,000 I think. This was probably in 1995. I was about $3000-$4000 more than I paid for the Acura Integra. In hindsight, I would have rather had a $6000-$7000 hatchback, or two-door sporty car, and I could have rented a 4 door car on the rare occasions we have guests. Whatever.
Overall, I liked the car. It was nice, and actually had an upgraded stereo. It had about 60,000 miles on the odometer when I bought it.
When the car had about 120,000 miles on it, I took it to get the timing belt replaced. I took it to a reputable local shop. They did the work which isn’t cheap as they have to remove a lot of stuff to get to the timing belt. About a month and a half later, the car overheated on my way to work. I found that the water pump had failed. When the jerks at the shop had replaced the timing belt, they never replaced the water pump. They never mentioned that this was usually done. They never said a thing about it. I learned after the fact that the water pump is usually replaced as you are only paying for the part, since they are already removing it. And that putting a worn water pump on with a new timing belt can cause the bearings in the water pump to fail due to the tighter belt. I had never dealt with these guys again.
After the water pump failed, and the car overheated, the car started to burn a little bit of oil. It had never done that before.
I drove it until it has 235,000 miles on it. The body had very little rust or damage. I had been driving on back rode when the car just died. I could get it started, but it would stall as soon as I tried to drive it. We towed it to the mechanics shop and left it parked there. I called him when they opened. He opened the engine, and found the valves had fried. It would not be cheap to fix. The cheapest option would be to drop another engine into it. I ended up trading the car plus some cash to the mechanic for a 1989 Chevy Lumina with under 100,000 miles on it.
The mechanic ended up dropping a used engine into the car, and selling it.
Besides the cost of getting brakes replaced, there is another cost that many don’t even think about. Using them costs you gas. Every time you step on the gas pedal to accelerate your car, you are spending gas money to buy forward motion. You are spending gas money to keep that forward motion. Since internal combustion engines are relatively inefficient, a large chunk of your gas money is already wasted in the heat that the engine puts off, and in friction. But there is not a lot you can do about that.
But every time you use your brakes, you are converting the forward motion that you paid for, into heat put off by the brake pads rubbing against the discs, or the drums. This is energy that will never be regained. That is gas money down the toilet. But you need to use your brakes, right? Well yes, but experts say that people overuse their brakes. Some more than others. Many people will race from stopping at one red light, to stop at the next red light. Or they will drive close to the car in front of them, and are forced to hit the brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of them. I have seen some idiots who drive on the freeway who seem the drive gas, brake, gas, brake, gas brake. I have no idea what their problem is. All they have to do, is take their foot off the gas when they want to slow down.
If you want to save gas, and radically lengthen the life of your brakes, try driving as if you have no brakes, or very poor brakes. How would you drive if you had no brakes? Would you be speeding from one light to the next? No, you would be watching ahead, and if you saw a red light, you would remove your foot from the gas, and coast to slowdown, hoping the light will change before you get there. Or you can slow down using the brake incrementally, hoping to retain some forward motion when the light turns green. You surely wouldn’t be tailgating anyone, if you didn’t have good brakes. You would try to leave a buffer between you and the car in front of you. If they slow down, you can simply remove your foot from the gas, and coast for a bit to slow down.
Many people speed to turns, when they could coast to slow down as they approach the turn, and minimize the use of the brakes. Some nutty hypermilers don’t even brake here, just taking the corners at higher speeds. I am not sure if I recommend this though.
Use your brakes less, and your gas mileage will go up significantly, and your brakes will last a lot longer!