Accord 4 cylinder freeway driving

4cyl engine with stick, can it stay up with LA freeway traffic (80mph
when clear), including making it up a hill like Sepulveda Pass in
decent shape?

Thanks.

J.

 

What time of day can you do 80 on an LA freeway?

The Artful Codger

 

I don't know how steep that hill is, but my 94 Accord EXR and my dad's
02 Accord
(both 4cyl, auto) have no problem driving at about 140km/h (about 85mph)
very comfortably,
going over hills. Above 140km/h you're starting to push the car a bit,
but I drove about
1200km at 160km/h constantly with the AC full on (Toronto-Montreal and
back at 35-40 Celsius)
and the car had no problems whatsoever. My only concern was the auto
gear box heating up,
but that did not happen.

If you get the stick version, then it will go even better, since there's
no auto gear box to
take away power from the engine (ok, you still lose 10%, but not the
20-30% for the auto).

Cosmin

 

You did not state what kind of car your driving. I've got a 99 Accord EX
4cyl /manual (150 hp). I live in Colorado. On Interstate 70, the main
east/west interstate through Colorado. I've had no problems keeping up
with cars traveling 70-80 MPH through mountain passes. The highest pass is
the Eisenhower Tunnel at a little over 11,000 feet above sea level. I
routinely drive at over 9000 feet above sea level with no problems. I used
live in California and I drove a 87 CRX 4cyl/manual I've been up Sepulveda,
Cajon pass, Palomar Mountain, Montezuma grade, Big Bear, Lake Tahoe... and I
never had any sort of problems keeping up with traffic. So I don't think
you'll have any problems with Sepulveda pass...no matter what your driving,
although I don't know how the Honda Insight would do but the are automatics
right?

Cheers,

Rick

 

Yes--I recently took my 4 cyl. Honda to Las Vegas and was able to do 130
mph on the freeway that goes thru the middle of the desert. The freeway
was almost free of traffic and my radar detector did not make a sound
while I was on that 10 mile section of staight road. My temp. gauge
despite the high desert temperatures never went above the half way mark.

 

You do the conversion. I have a 2003 Honda Accord Sedan with 5 speed.
It will do:
60 kph in 1st
100 kph in 2nd
140 kph in 3rd
195 kph in 4th
not sure for 5th as I want to regain some points. P

Jody

 

As on subject line, the current Accord sedan (160HP).

When I finally traded my old '87 Accord, it was in part because the
100hp engine had trouble keeping up with newer traffic. It would
eventually go well over 80, but had very weak acceleration above 70.
It would make it over Sepulveda Pass in 4th but not 5th (it's a
moderate hill on interstate 405, only a few hundred feet vertical
starting basically at sea level and usually clogged to 10mph anyway,
but sometimes you get lucky!)

The power/weight ratio of the new 4cyl is much better on paper, but
sometimes there are hidden gotchas, so I thought I'd ask.

Thanks to all responders.

J.

 

Rick--you are right--I did NOT state the type of car that I was driving. I
was driving a 1999 4 cyl auto trans. I found out that both of our cars
have a computer chip set so that our cars can't go above 130 mph. I think
that it is refered to as a speed limiter or something like that. One
poster told me that Honda does this so that people don't blow head gaskets
as a result of going over 130 mph for long distances.

 

My 94 Accord EXR (4Cyl, auto) does not have such a limitation. I pushed
it all the way to 220km/h, and it still had some acceleration left, but
I ran out of road. Only an idiot would imagine he can drive the car over
long distances at such high speeds though, but I guess it happened,
because the 98-02 4Cyl model does have that limiter at 180km/h. I wonder
if the 03 still has it...

I'm fairly sure that the 98-02 V6's do not have the limiter either.

Cosmin

 

More likely it is because of the tires. Most cars are governed to 118mph
because that's the speed rating (for extended high speed running) on the
tires. Tires that are rated beyond that are more expensive, thus increasing
the bottom line price of the car and making it harder to move off of the
dealers' lots. Therefore, use cheap oem tires and limit the speedo for
liability reasons. Of course, the speed rating of your oem tires depends on
what the oem decided was worth putting on. YMMV

 

I have an '03 and had it to 195 so far, so no limiter at 180 anyway.

Jody

 

(Bill B. Johnson) wrote in

I'm going to ask a stupid question here...what does vehicle velocity (as
opposed to engine RPM) have to do with a head gasket?

 

I'm going to guess that it's a matter of running the engine at full
power on a long gear putting maximum stress on everything, which is
tough enough on Indy cars and not really what street cars are designed
to do.


J.

 

I'd think the Honda engines would handle it, though. Shoot, the
ubiquitous 2.2L engine that Chrysler put into millions of vehicles back in
the 80's would handle 24 hours straight of average speeds well in excess of
100mph. You won't be able to do that on any roads that I know of, unless
you're just running back and forth on the Autobahn for 24 hours and happen
to have no traffic....

 

Isn't that Chrysler 2.2L the same engine that is always blowing a rich,
black plume of smoke out of nearly every late 80s Caravan still on the road?
Or did they have something different in them?

 

Hey, they're not broken down though, are they?

 

and climate zones and 80 mph in LA would be a snap for a stick as its at sea
level for the most part.
`86 Accord
`92Accord
ed/ontario

 

160kph is more like 100 mph (99.2). A little more of a risk for tires and
tickets.

Jason