[dot]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

The VTEC is activated only after 5200 odd rpm so below that the engine would give better economy.

Are you talking about the 1.8L Civic iVtec engine or the City ZX 1.5L Vtec engine.

[shuvc]

10,000 km update ..

Ah well, nothing to update is the update ! Life is peaceful with this car (am touching wood as I type this!). 10K kms in 8 months.

I was driving the Baleno this weekend and realised another neat ergonomic advantage of the Civic. In the driver's seat, both elbows are very intuitively supported by the centre armrest (left) and the door armrest/switch panel (right). So much so, it reduces fatigue a lot. It's like sitting on a sporty-sofa .. paradoxical, but ... ! I was suddenly missing it in the Baleno.

The car did bottom out a few times during the Dec highway runs. Specially when coming off a culvert at high speeds. The Baleno never did, over the same route.

I'll be keeping a keen eye on GTO's suspension upgrade! Someday, maybe after the warranty period is over

[spadix]

Originally Posted by shuvc

The car did bottom out a few times during the Dec highway runs. Specially when coming off a culvert at high speeds. The Baleno never did, over the same route.

I'll be keeping a keen eye on GTO's suspension upgrade! Someday, maybe after the warranty period is over

What was the load like? Just you or were there more?

On NH5, especially the stretch between Vijayawada and Tadepalligudem there are a lot of these culverts where the road undulates suddenly and markedly. BQ with 4 people and a full load of luggage never bottomed out on these even at highway speeds, although it's unnerving for everyone in the car (save the driver of course) to be awoken from their slumber with such rudeness .

However we experienced a lot of bottoming out on rutted/potholed roads with this load. A stiffer stock rear suspension would definitely help this car no end. It's not as if ride quality is the high point of the car anyway in the existing stock setup.

Regards,
spadix

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by spadix

What was the load like? Just you or were there more

Mostly me + 1. And a boot full of luggage.

I must say though that this was at speeds which I would not be allowed to mention here

[rr_zen]

One question on bottoming out - Which portion of the underside gets impacted due to this ? The reason am asking is I heard a loud thud while going over a speed breaker (with 5 on board) and I was sure there must have been some bad impact. However, when I took my car for the service, I insisted on the car being lifted up for me to inspect the impact. I should say, I was pleasantly surprised that I could not see even a small scratch anywhere at all after a thorough check.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by rr_zen

One question on bottoming out - Which portion of the underside gets impacted due to this ? The reason am asking is I heard a loud thud while going over a speed breaker (with 5 on board) and I was sure there must have been some bad impact. However, when I took my car for the service, I insisted on the car being lifted up for me to inspect the impact. I should say, I was pleasantly surprised that I could not see even a small scratch anywhere at all after a thorough check.

Bottoming out is when the suspension spring is already heavily compressed due to the load and has little travel left. Although it takes a lot more force to get the spring to compress this last stretch, going at speed over a pothole/bump can make the spring rebound and provide the necessary force. So you end up essentially compressing the suspension to the maximum extent possible, hearing the 'thud'.

The underside may not record a hit/scrape every time the suspension bottoms out.

By the way, the G-Con shell is fairly hit-resistant. You won't find evidence of much damage there unless the scrape is really large (like a drag). I find zero evidence of "hits" (think small dents and spots) but more evidence of long, large scrapes on those beams on the underside of the car.

Regards,
spadix

[rr_zen]

Originally Posted by spadix

Bottoming out is when the suspension spring is already heavily compressed due to the load and has little travel left. Although it takes a lot more force to get the spring to compress this last stretch, going at speed over a pothole/bump can make the spring rebound and provide the necessary force. So you end up essentially compressing the suspension to the maximum extent possible, hearing the 'thud'.

The underside may not record a hit/scrape every time the suspension bottoms out.

By the way, the G-Con shell is fairly hit-resistant. You won't find evidence of much damage there unless the scrape is really large (like a drag). I find zero evidence of "hits" (think small dents and spots) but more evidence of long, large scrapes on those beams on the underside of the car.

Regards,
spadix

Thanks spadix. However, in my case I went over the speed breaker at less that 10 kmph knowing very well that the possibility of scraping the underbelly was high. Despite that, I heard the loud thud. So, another question that stems from this discussion is, whether:

1. Bottoming out and scraping the underbelly are one and the same.
(or)
2. Bottoming out is the cause and scraping is the effect or the result.
(or)
3. Both of them are different from each other.

Which of the above is true and correct ? Thanks

[spadix]

Originally Posted by rr_zen

1. Bottoming out and scraping the underbelly are one and the same.

Some take these to mean the same thing, some different.

One dictionary, for instance, takes "bottoming out" to mean a belly scrape. An article on wikipedia takes it to mean what I said in my earlier post - maximum compression of the suspension.

Technically - i.e. in the eye of an automobile engineer - I don't know if both are the same or not.

Originally Posted by rr_zen

2. Bottoming out is the cause and scraping is the effect or the result.

(Assuming both are different per what I just wrote above...)

No. However, a single cause (a patch of really bad road + heavy load) could cause both effects.

So you can't even call them mutually exclusive. They are two separate phenomena which can happen together given the right (well, wrong ) set of conditions.

Regards,
spadix

[shuvc]

Sunday evening. Relatively empty road. Went to top up fuel in the car. Distance from bunk to home is around 12.5kms. Decided to try out another ultra sedate run to note the FE

For those who are aware of the geography - the run was recorded from Sector V Millennium City HP bunk to City Center II at around 6pm. Without AC.

Here's the result. I was shifting within 2K rpm and hit a top speed of 63kmph. Mainly hovered between 55-60kmph in 5th unless I was slowing down for traffic, turns etc.

The meter went upto 22.5 but I was unable to capture that reading.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by shuvc

The meter went upto 22.5 but I was unable to capture that reading.
Attachment 505492

Great stuff, but is it worth the "effort"?

Seriously though, 21-21.5 kmpl (I'm applying the 1-1.5 discount on the in-dash reading) from a 1.8 is stunning, to say the least. Too bad our roads aren't like that more often, though there's a stretch of around 6 km on my commute which comes close (but has lots of gradients).

It's nice to see the analysis of this TOVA article "in the flesh", so to speak.

Regards,
spadix

[shuvc]

Originally Posted by spadix

Great stuff, but is it worth the "effort"?

Seriously though, 21-21.5 kmpl (I'm applying the 1-1.5 discount on the in-dash reading) from a 1.8 is stunning, to say the least.

Yeah it's worth the effort. If you note, after the test there remained about a km to my residence. 2nd gear 6K followed by 3rd gear 5K+ .. the reading dropped to 18.xx .. fuel conserved, utilized optimally

I could have achieved more FE if I had more open roads. And if I were coasting at times (which I did not), etc. The reading was still on the upswing. Albeit gradually. It goes pretty easily to around 19kmpl and slows up thereafter.

[spadix]

Originally Posted by shuvc

Yeah it's worth the effort. If you note, after the test there remained about a km to my residence. 2nd gear 6K followed by 3rd gear 5K+ .. the reading dropped to 18.xx .. fuel conserved, utilized optimally

This is akin (in a good way) to a quote that I really like, paraphrased here - Put your head in the furnace and your feet in ice, and on average you're OK .

Originally Posted by shuvc

I could have achieved more FE if I had more open roads. And if I were coasting at times (which I did not), etc. The reading was still on the upswing. Albeit gradually. It goes pretty easily to around 19kmpl and slows up thereafter.

I think the "gradual" bit has also got to do with the fact that it's not an instantaneous but a trip F/E indicator. It would be good to have an instantaneous indicator for times when we really want to conserve fuel (such as during the current situation in Hyderabad where petrol bunks are closed today and tomorrow and the car's running low on fuel ).

Regards,
spadix

[dot]

Originally Posted by spadix

Too bad our roads aren't like that more often,

Originally Posted by shuvc

I could have achieved more FE if I had more open roads.

It is amazing to note that if the roads are good then Civic returns phenomenal mileage. No wonder, as we all know, this is the reason why in the US or in other developed countries, Civic is known as an economical car. Too bad that here we mostly lumber along in 1st, 2nd or third most of the time.

Originally Posted by spadix

I think the "gradual" bit has also got to do with the fact that it's not an instantaneous but a trip F/E indicator. It would be good to have an instantaneous indicator for times when we really want to conserve fuel

Will Scan gauge 2 help?

[spadix]

Originally Posted by dot

Will Scan gauge 2 help?

I think it - or any other OBDII-compliant diagnostic utility for that matter - should.

I haven't looked through the OBDII specs, but I think real-time F/E is part of the standard set of metrics. Even if not, I'd very surprised if Honda doesn't use that metric somewhere.

Regards,
spadix

[vasoo]

It does give excellent FE. In my recent trip to Vellore, I was driving in FE mode for the onward trip and was a bit aggressive in the return trip. Got an FE of about 15 kmpl and 12 kmpl respectively, each 200 kms long. And mine is an AT.