New owners of a Civic SI

[Lightningdan]

well guys and girls, after a few months of researching and haunting people on this forum with many questions, my girlfriend and i finally found the civic she wanted and purchased it last night ( well it took all day lol)

its a white 4dr with navi, we are still getting use to driving the 6speed, we have always had 5speed vehicles but with the 6speed its a whole new world..

i have a few questions still lol, i have read in the owners manual, that when driving fowards that reverse is locked out. her biggest fear is shifting from 5th-6th and missing 6th and going in reverse, i was just wondering if this is true and there is a safety lock out

i was also wondering is there anyway to view the water temp on the screens? once the car starts up we get the blue coolant light and we had to wait maybe... 3-4 minutes before it went off. i was curious if there was anyway to setup in the screen displaying the water temp the whole time

i also dont know if its just us yet but she might have the old firmware with the rev hang glitch, it seems to rev down slower, but i cant really confirm this yet because we are still getting use to the 6speed setup

over all im really sold on the car, drives good, rides good, SOUNDS good.

i want to thank everyone for their advice, and help threw this whole thing, one of the major things that sold me on the car was having this site believe it or not. with this kind of community i feel much safer with our purchase

thanks every one!!!!

danny + amanda

they added the factory splash guards, floor guards, and truck guards ( the floor guards are dirty in the pic, but they fit perfect!! and protect the whole carpet)

 

[jasonandre]

Another white sedan!

Congrats on the new purchase. I've only accidentally tried to hit reverse once and I couldn't...it won't let you, which is good. It's not something that will happen often once you get used to driving it.
There are no temperature guages, but I wouldn't worry about the Cold Temp Indicator. It stays on longer than it ever needs too, so my suggestion is to wait until the revs drop to almost 1RPM after initial start...usually the engine will be ready at that point even with the Cold Temp Light still on.

 

[Lightningdan]

th

Another white sedan!

Congrats on the new purchase. I've only accidentally tried to hit reverse once and I couldn't...it won't let you, which is good. It's not something that will happen often once you get used to driving it.
There are no temperature guages, but I wouldn't worry about the Cold Temp Indicator. It stays on longer than it ever needs too, so my suggestion is to wait until the revs drop to almost 1RPM after initial start...usually the engine will be ready at that point even with the Cold Temp Light still on.

thnks for the reply! yeah with most our newer cars i notice they rev to 1200-1100 and hang there until they are warmed up. my moms '10 chevy tervese (how ever its spelt) if u press the brake pedal to shift out of park while still over 1000rpms at warm up alittle bell reminder goes off telling u ur not warmed up yet

im just a nervous nelly about everything, thats good to know about reverse! like i told her she'll get use to it, shes already better this morning

at 71-72-73mph this morning we were reving almost 3000rpms is that normal? this is in 6th gear

 

[jasonandre]

That's normal for 6th gear, yes, but you won't see much use for it under normal driving conditions. You'd have to reach much higher speeds to see higher RPMs in that gear. I'm usually still in 5th gear until I'm above 80mph

 

[webby]

everything he just said

 

[Monk]

Remember that 6 gear ratio is about zero, it'cement as a gas saver not a hill puller or for passing when on a one lane road..........

There's another way to look at it, you said you've had 5 speeds........ So when they started putting 6 speeds in them, all they've done is is take the 5 gear which had the zero ratio and move it to 6 , then give the 5th gear a little more pull....... basically they just gave 6 a little higher gear than the 5's were and lowered today's 5's so you can get to 6..........

As a retired Semi driver what needs to be understood is the engine/trans/diffs don't know what the cars doing .......... the engine has a rpm range that it can work safely in 1000 to say 5 clicks below redline(just to be safe)........ the parts don't know what it's working against...... example's : if you're applying your brakes coming to a stop, isn't any different than applying the brake while keeping the gas pedal down coming into a turn(that's done to set the car up so you can go though the turn with some gas as opposed to having the front end diving while in the turn). Same with gears they are there to keep your rpms where you want them as long as the engine isn't over or under revving......... For example 1000 rpm is fine in 1st gear but is going to lug it in 6th gear, so the higher the gear the higher the rpm needs to be, what that range is will be up to you,,,,,,,,, go out and run 55 and try some different gears and accelerate from each gear so you'll know which gear does or doesn't give you what you want from it........

 

[Lightningdan]

Remember that 6 gear ratio is about zero, it'cement as a gas saver not a hill puller or for passing when on a one lane road..........

There's another way to look at it, you said you've had 5 speeds........ So when they started putting 6 speeds in them, all they've done is is take the 5 gear which had the zero ratio and move it to 6 , then give the 5th gear a little more pull....... basically they just gave 6 a little higher gear than the 5's were and lowered today's 5's so you can get to 6..........

As a retired Semi driver what needs to be understood is the engine/trans/diffs don't know what the cars doing .......... the engine has a rpm range that it can work safely in 1000 to say 5 clicks below redline(just to be safe)........ the parts don't know what it's working against...... example's : if you're applying your brakes coming to a stop, isn't any different than applying the brake while keeping the gas pedal down coming into a turn(that's done to set the car up so you can go though the turn with some gas as opposed to having the front end diving while in the turn). Same with gears they are there to keep your rpms where you want them as long as the engine isn't over or under revving......... For example 1000 rpm is fine in 1st gear but is going to lug it in 6th gear, so the higher the gear the higher the rpm needs to be, what that range is will be up to you,,,,,,,,, go out and run 55 and try some different gears and accelerate from each gear so you'll know which gear does or doesn't give you what you want from it........

Thanks monk!! We just hit the highway had to go to the dealer and pick up her house keys we forgot them when we traded in our pervious vehicle, she's got it down now pretty good!!

Once I told her u can't get Into reverse when going towards it toughened her up, she drives it waaaaay better then me! Lol

I don't like revinging any motor after 3k and I kinda thought like u said, 5th is now 6th but my thing is we have had 6 and 8 cylinder 5spds which don't rev high this is a new world to me lol

U guys have confirmed for me the right rpm range and mph so I gotta set that in my head

I've never owned a brand new car before so this a whole new thing...

 

[Lightningdan]

That's normal for 6th gear, yes, but you won't see much use for it under normal driving conditions. You'd have to reach much higher speeds to see higher RPMs in that gear. I'm usually still in 5th gear until I'm above 80mph

Thanks buddy!! 80mph!! Lol I'm 28yrs old but drive like I'm 60yrs old ( unless I'm at the track!! Lol ) I don't usually go above 65-70mph

 

[jasonandre]

That's fine. I haven't been above 73mph yet. I hit VTEC in 4th gear once :shrug:

 

[Monk]

Lightningdan what's the red-line on your car ?

 

[webby]

I don't like revinging any motor after 3k

this is obviously your choice, but you need to recognize that honda motors are built to rev. A lot of them just start to build power at 3k. Heck, the vtec cam is just starting at that point in the 9th gen si.

 

[Monk]

this is obviously your choice, but you need to recognize that honda motors are built to rev. A lot of them just start to build power at 3k. Heck, the vtec cam is just starting at that point in the 9th gen si.

To add to webby's thought..... My 800 cc MC has a vtec motor, it's a V-4 and runs on only 2 valves per cylinder(but has 4 per cylinder)....... and my bike won't even go into V-tec until the rpm's reach 6,700 rpm and redline is 11000 something. I could run the little engine all day at 10,000 rpm.............

It's V-tec is designed to kick in(run on 4 valves) at 6,700.

 

[Bulkybear]

This is true. Our peak torque isn't even there until 4200 rpm. I personally cruise at 3k or so. Newer engines also have so many safeguards built into the ecu that its no longer easy to damage a motor regardless of what your doing as long as your within the tolerances of that motor, which on the si is up to around 7100 or 7200 rpms when it shuts the fuel off.

 

[Monk]

This is true. Our peak torque isn't even there until 4200 rpm. I personally cruise at 3k or so. Newer engines also have so many safeguards built into the ecu that its no longer easy to damage a motor regardless of what your doing as long as your within the tolerances of that motor, which on the si is up to around 7100 or 7200 rpms when it shuts the fuel off.

Thx for giving a redline number for the si....... so I can give Lightningdan the remainder of my input..........

 

[Monk]

1st let's forget that it's a new car and that ppl break them in rpm and brake pads differently......... after the break in period even though you might not want to run it any higher than 3000, doesn't mean that the engine can't run all day "unharmed" at ?????????? rpm. there's two points that can't be negative to an engine , too slow (lugging) , and to high (floating the valves on the cam lobes), so any where in between is how the engine was designed to run , the only negative thing that high rev's will do is make it noisier , and use more fuel, that's the personal choice you'll have to make.

I'm driving my automatic in drive mostly and letting the engine do what it wants , but if I'm passing on a single lane road I'm dropping it down into D3(lower) , if I'm dropping off a steep tightly curved hill I'm dropping it into D3 or 2 . The car is quite enough that rpms aren't a bother to my hearing, where as on my MC it's to loud for me, so I wear ear plugs so the noise doesn't over-ride what I want to do.

but even though I'm not driving/riding at red line normally, I do drop down in a low enough gear to take the rpms up close to red-line at least a couple times a week, because I believe it's better for the engine to use the whole rpm range........ but some people don't want to do that.

 

[Bulkybear]

I hit fuel cutoff in a 1st to 2nd gear pull at least once every time I drive my si, have since it had 5 miles on it. Nothing at all is wrong with it yet

 

[Lightningdan]

Wow guys this is some seriously good data right here!! I appreciate the facts!

Like you guys said these motors are built to rev, I just have to get use to the fact, I shift my race truck at 6500rpms and I cross my fingers every time in fear of it letting go ( also making 800wrhp)

We just went on the highway again we have been driving just gettin the feel and she's got it down 100%

I on the other hand need more work! Lol shifting way to soon where it falls on its face, she'll bring it up to 4-4500rpm I'm shifting right before 3k, she can shift it so much smoother then me

I'm also not use to runnig up the years so quick, I really like this car though I'm glad we went with Si

Can someone tell me what Si stands for?

Again can't thank you all enough!!

 

[Dragos]

this is obviously your choice, but you need to recognize that honda motors are built to rev. A lot of them just start to build power at 3k. Heck, the vtec cam is just starting at that point in the 9th gen si.

I sense that the Si is happiest and very comfortable from 3.5 to 6 for accelerations, even more for extra oomph or fun. But once a speed is reached it rolls very quietly and efficiently at 2.8 or less. I think I said it before but it is actually great that it drives as a polite car up to 3.5 and then it opens up if you want more than just A to B. Very practical and also very enjoyable.

I am a big supporter of liquid smooth driving, which does not necessarily mean slow, proper lines and traction awareness, that will keep your car in good shape longer than babying it with low RPMs without paying attention to the car feedback. Obviously moderation and being responsible with it is always a good idea

 

[Dragos]

And last but not least, enjoy the car and congrats Lightningdan!

 

[jasonandre]

Can someone tell me what Si stands for?!

Si = Sport injected