Picked up another CRX HF today, FE much better

[opelgt73]

I picked up another HF today. The first one I got was previously front ended and I haven't been able to get a body shop to fix it properly. It actually drives straight and true but as I plan on fully restoring a CRX HF (and in the process dumping a lot of money) I decided to get one with a good body so I would have a better starting point.

The upside is that I like the color combination more (red on black) and there is only one speck of rust the size of an eraser head on the entire car. The downside is that it has 240K miles, the interior is in need of much attention and it needs a new hood (the hood flew open at 70mph).

In the first day I have put over 300 miles on it and when I filled up I calculated 48mpg!!! With my old HF I was barely able to crack 40mpg. I'm hoping with a thorough tune up and a new set of tires I will be able to hit 55mpg. It is currently vibrating as if the tires radial belts have come loose.

Overall I'm glad that I bought it, its tough to find CRX's with a good body here in the midwest. The car also came with an extra Transmission and my long term goal is to rebuild that transmission and mate it to a VTEC-E engine.

[JESSE69]

What I noticed is you have a fun BMW 330Ci! You hypermile that? I'm gonna get one too! What mpg city/hwy you get on it?

[opelgt73]

Originally Posted by JESSE69

What I noticed is you have a fun BMW 330Ci! You hypermile that? I'm gonna get one too! What mpg city/hwy you get on it?

I don't employ all of the hypermiling teqniques (EOC, drafting pulse and glide...) but I do just about everything else. BMW's also have a real time (analog readout) MPG gauge as well as a digital average MPG display and I pay quite a bit of attention to those.

I haven't posted my latest fill ups but after discovering my tires were 15psi under the max my MPG went from 28 to 31. And that is combined. I've rarely had an all city or all highway tank but according to the cars MPG average calculation recently I have been getting 25 in the city and 33 on the highway. Mine is also the convertible so it is heavier than the coupe and I assume has a lot more drag because of the fabric top, so you could probably do much better with a coupe.

I did do pulse and glide once and it saved me. I was driving late at night and with 20 miles left on the tank pulled off the highway to fill up. Well the station was closed. So I went to the next exit and the next and the next. Fearing that I would run out I stared P&G, it was amazing that it would say I had 10 miles left for 3 to 4 miles. I also turned off the A/C and slowed way down but I did manage to get to an open station before running out. I generally have not employed P&G and EOC because I think it will prematurely wear the clutch and transmission synchronizers. Also if I turn my car off it will no longer count how many miles I have driven as it is digital, so essentially I would not be able to calculate the FE difference.

[Mr Incredible]

Congrats on that find! It took me two months to get mine reasonably free of rust. It still has some, but it's in places I don't want to fool with.

I don't know about your new shell, but with the 260,000 I have on mine it still feels solid and sturdy. It tracks straight, doesn't have any appreciable rattles or squeaks, and I finally got it water tight.

It's just a DX, but I have been averaging 40-42mpg per tank. I drive the speed limit and don't do much spirited driving. About half city and half hiway, mostly with the window open or at least cracked. I haven't put on the grill block again since I've finished the body and paint, but when it was on and when it was cool enough to drive with the windows up I got another mpg or two. My record is 52.98mpg. Several more 50-51's. And mostly 40-41.

I wish you luck.

[opelgt73]

Originally Posted by Mr Incredible

I don't know about your new shell, but with the 260,000 I have on mine it still feels solid and sturdy. It tracks straight, doesn't have any appreciable rattles or squeaks, and I finally got it water tight.

It isn't bad but the White one I have with 140K feels A LOT tighter. I will be replacing all of the bushings and swapping over the new struts from the 140K to the 240K car. There are squeaks and rattles but those are easy fixes, making a formally totaled car perfect again is not as easy.

I'm spending this long weekend tearing into it and fixing all of the little problems it has. As well as giving it a good cleaning.

[Mr Incredible]

Makes me wonder how together mine would feel with a suspension rebuild. I purchased it for a no-extra-dough FE experiment and throwing money at it was not in the plan. Now that I've had it a while, and enjoy driving it so much, it's hard not to do a few things to it.

Still, it was pretty rough, and now it isn't. Basic structure is fairly sound, but it isn't something to spend much more money on. It only has to last until the new Prius we're about to get becomes paid-for.

By that time the Yarus and Fit might be more in my price range. It'll be nice to see what you do with yours. Maybe it'll inspire me to some smart money fixes.

Good luck, and happy wrenching.