honda civic dx - very poor gas milage

It is possible for a car that old to get "like new" mileage. My '93
Accord has 140,000 miles on it and still gets 32-34mpg on the highway,
which is considerably better than what EPA estimated.

 

You should do this on a couple of tanks and then average the results.

 

If the tires are not the stock size, your measuemt of miles driven will
be wrong and your calculation of MPG will be wrong...

also ..,

are the brakes dragging?

Mark

 

The guy at the parts store is wrong. Overtightening the valve cover will
not stop leakage in the plug holes. The correct torque is something on the
order of 7 lb-ft. Your torque wrench likely does not register that low.

When you replaced the cover gasket, did you get the OEM rubber gasket?
Also, did you also get new rubber rings to seal the spark plug tubes?
Additionally, some Honda models have a second set of seals further down the
tubes that also need to be replaced at some point. Not sure if yours is one
of them, but you should check.

 

i've used all oem parts so far I believe.

I've read the entire website by Elle - I recommend it to others. I
have a question: should I go and get the valve lash checked as well as
the lower seals replaced? You think valve lash is something I should
get checked now, or just replace the lower seals?

Also - does anyone else have this oil in the spark plug tubes problem?
What time does it usually start happening in a honda: mileage/years
owned?

Thanks

 

others.

If you liked it, then see also www.tegger.com/hondafaq . It
has a section on the oil in the spark plug tubes problem as
well. The author, a guy that goes bye "Tegger" here, took
the time to put up drawings that illustrate the matter
better than the links my site provides.

If you have the lower spark plug tube seals (really,
O-rings, per my web site) replaced, then the valve lash
adjusting screws have to be backed off all the way during
the O-ring replacement procedure. After the new O-rings are
in, the valve lash /has/ to be re-set. There's no way around
it.

Based on doing the job myself a few weeks ago, I would think
the labor cost of replacing these spark plug tube O-rings
would not be much more at all than just checking the valve
lash. Setting the valve lash was the part of the O-ring
replacement job that took the most time by far.

Are you going to try this by yourself, by any chance? I
really don't think it was that hard, but maybe I'm
discounting all the experience I've had turning the
crankshaft, checking valve lash, etc. in the past.

tubes problem?

You can also groups.google the two honda newsgroups on the
subject and see a number of people reporting having this
problem.

My records indicate that the first time the oil in the tubes
for my 91 Civic LX was noticeable was at about 150k miles,
and a little under 13 years. Two of the plugs/tubes had oil
on/in them at this point. The oil accumulation did get
noticeably worse, but it wasn't enough for me to fret over
until I read more about others having problems with this
here. Besides, I replaced the upper seals (gaskets), and I
thought that was remedying the problem. It wasn't.