My quarterly car help thread (civic vti)

Soldato
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Hi guys,

After deciding the Rover was too much work for me plus its imminent MOT I've given it a miss. I've always liked the look of the 4 door civic (I think I'm right calling it that ;)) since I went in my friends 1.4.

It felt nippy for a 1.4 and as such I like the appearance of them. I've been looking on autotrader and such and found a few vti's for sale. A few questions if you dont mind helping guys -


Which is the better engine choice? The 1.6 or the 1.8?
What wears badly on them, any major known problems and what to look for when going to see one?

Thanks for any help :)
 
if your going for a 5 door, the 1.8 uses the same engine the DC2 integra engine is based on, which means theres quite a nice aftermarket part selection for it. however the gearing is screwed slightly, and the car drops out of vtec for one of the changes (believe its 2nd gear) which destroys the 0-60 time a bit. Thus a popular mod is either an ITR gearbox, or a vtec controller (or both!)

personally, id get a 1.8 VTi S (half leather, nice subtle bodykit, air con)
 
Hello mate, cheers for reply ;)

The VTI S is probably slightly out of my price range, I will look into them in a second! Whats the deal with the honda engine and high mileage, is it to be avoided?

I've never been in a vtec engined car, is the power on vtec quite a kick compared to normal acceleration?
 
you need to drive one really to understand, imo its a marmite thing...

loads of revs, needs to be worked to keep on boil, but quite rewarding imo,

as for budget, IIRC some of the guys on here have picked them up (VTi S) for sub 2k
 
-Mike- said:
Hello mate, cheers for reply ;)

The VTI S is probably slightly out of my price range, I will look into them in a second! Whats the deal with the honda engine and high mileage, is it to be avoided?

I've never been in a vtec engined car, is the power on vtec quite a kick compared to normal acceleration?

Hello :)

5 door VTI-S' have gone for as low as £2500 and higher than £4200 depending on age, mileage and condition.

The B series engines are notoriously bullet proof as long as they are serviced at the correct intervals and fed good oil. High mileage is not a problem, however look out for oil consumption on VTEC engines.

If you have no experience of VTEC then read the huge thread on here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17586486

theres a fair bit of junk in there but wade through it and you should get a good idea. You MUST drive one and experience it though. If anything, on this forum VTEC is a marmite technology.


-Mike- said:
Which is the better engine choice? The 1.6 or the 1.8?

The 1.6 gives 157 bhp out of the box and the 1.8 gives 169 bhp. The 1.6 has better gear ratios as standard, but the 1.8 has more torque and more low down due to the dual runner inlet manifold.


Conanius said:
if your going for a 5 door, the 1.8 uses the same engine the DC2 integra engine is based on

Basically true, but really only the block is the same, the integra uses many different parts to squeeze those extra 20bhp (mild port and polished head, valves, springs, LMA's, cams, pistons, con rods, compression, crank (balanced) etc etc etc)

Conanius said:
IIRC some of the guys on here have picked them up (VTi S) for sub 2k

Are you sure about that? Not doubting you but I havent seen even high mileage 98' VTI-S's go for that low?
 
Last edited:
[TW]Fox said:
Dogbreath bought his 99T VTI a year ago for £2k IIRC.

Yeah a VTI i can believe, but was it a VTI-S? Conanius stated a VTI-S and they do command a a fair premium (not really justly so imo) over normal VTI's
 
The VTI is what im interested in, they look understated imo for the fair amount of grunt they pack under the bonnet. Just whether to go 1.6 or 1.8 thats got me stumped. Insurance is around the same for both engines also (circa 700fc)

I will read the other vtec thread, cheers for the link :)
 
I was looking at these a while back. One thing i will say is that there are more 1.8s about then there are 1.6. I wanted a small hatch so was after a 1.6 butouldnt find a decent one at the time. There seemed to be lots of 1.8's about though.
 
AFAIK the 1.6 VTI is the smaller (and more common) hatchback Civic, whereas the 1.8 VTI is in the 5 door version that is based more on a Rover.

The 1.6 VTI is a lot more tunable IMO, certainly a lot more off the shelf parts available.

The 1.8 VTI is good in that it doesn't look like it can perform at all. Just give it a proper check over, thats all I'd say ;) Suspension can take a hammering, and also make sure its had the gearbox oil done.
 
I used to have a 1992 5 door 1.6 Vti, not sure they carried on with these once the 1.8 appeared. Buying now I'd definately get the 1.8, it's got a bit more grunt and is better suited to the 5-door than the 1.6 was and you get an LSD. Only a few things to look out for when buying.

1. Service history, if you're patient you'll find one being sold by an older gent who doesn't question what his dealer is telling him :)
2. Rust! This can set in surprisingly early, rear wheel arches are particulary susceptable. Rust will kill your Honda, keep it in check.
3. Binding brakes, not hugely expensive to fix but a PITA, honda rear brakes have a tendancy to sieze up, rust on the surface of the rear disk is a sign (rust on the hub is normal).
4. Anything badly modified. Walk at the slightest whiff of Barry :D
 
The 5dr 1.8VTi has a huge range of prices depending where you look. Some dealers think they are still worth a mint and will sell 98's for 4k-5k. Id look privately and you can fine bargains.

5dr 1.8 = MB6
3dr 1.6 = EK9

Sold my 1.8 because I got fed up with it. Depends what you want from a car really, but Id take a big engine or turbo over a VTEC anyday.

They are brilliant for £2000 as its a very reliable car, you can give it death everyday and it'll always come back for more.

Make sure the aircon works as itll cost silly amounts to fix.
 
Gaijin said:
Yeah a VTI i can believe, but was it a VTI-S? Conanius stated a VTI-S and they do command a a fair premium (not really justly so imo) over normal VTI's

Do you have any pics of your car at all mate? Just interested to see a clean one and I'm pretty sure you posted some pics a while back?

People seem very marmite about the vtec, I'm assuming no matter how nicely driven they are a bit like my friends 200sx - ie a petrol stations best customer? ;)
 
Yeah, i'll rustle some up for you later tonight.

They are not necessairly petrol drinkers, however i'm yet to see someone keep good economy in the first 3 months of ownership :p :D

If you keep it out of VTEC and behave yourself, its perfectly possible to get 37mpg - some people claim to get better. I just can never behave myself :p :D
 
Been there and worn the T-shirt .

Get the 1.8 VTI for the wolf in rovers clothing . Only sold mine to get a bigger car because of the second baby .

Whats your budget ? I sold mine for £3000 on a 99 plate and it was on less than 50 k with full history i think and it was spotless

If you want a few pictures of a mint vti i will dig some out for you .
 
sorry for late reply back,

I was sure it was a VTi-S, was a while back and iirc when the pictures first came up the matts in the car were brown paper ones with rover written on....

as for the comment on the engine simlilarity, I know its not quite that similar, ive seen a video (Best Motoring International) that explains how they built the tegs, and what engine mods they did etc, very interesting
 
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the info/pics etc. Just out of interest Gaijin - Does the low level of torque make the car feel slow when not being revved or mean you have to drop gears a lot more than in any other car?
 
It revs to about 8,400 so yes you do need to rev it more than say a 2 litre which revs to 7,000.
 
-Mike- said:
Hi,
Sorry for the late reply and thanks for the info/pics etc. Just out of interest Gaijin - Does the low level of torque make the car feel slow when not being revved or mean you have to drop gears a lot more than in any other car?

Hi, the car has what is known as a dual-runner inlet manifold which basically give a bit more torque low down the rev range. However, when you get to 4,500rpm the shorter runner opens and allows more air into the engine for the VTEC changeover at 5,800rpm (I think this is correct, i'm sure someone like Jonnycoupe or Dolph will correct me if wrong).

However I don't know whether it is due to this manifold but the car definately does not feel slow when not being revved. In fact 99% of my driving around town is sub 4-4.5krpm. But thats hardly demanding of the engine.

If you want to gun it, it is fair to say that nothing exciting happens until after 3,000rpm but in first gear you arent under that for more than a second.

I didn't notice any problems with drivability with the car at all, mainly in the first 6 months looking for any excuse to take it to the redline :D
However, it is becoming apparent that if you are used to driving a turbocharged car, then you may find it hard to become used to the power delivery.

All i can suggest is to get some time in the car.

Conanius said:
sorry for late reply back,

I was sure it was a VTi-S, was a while back and iirc when the pictures first came up the matts in the car were brown paper ones with rover written on....

as for the comment on the engine simlilarity, I know its not quite that similar, ive seen a video (Best Motoring International) that explains how they built the tegs, and what engine mods they did etc, very interesting

Interesting about the mats, as most VTI-S's have black VTI-S mats with the embroidered logo as seen in my sig on the drivers side. Unless they have been changed of course. There was however a registration mistake where an undisclosed number of standard VTI's were registered (and as a result it's on the V5) as VTI-S'.

Also, I didn't mean to pick apart your post regarding the engine (i hate it when people do that!), just thought i'd make it clear.
 
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