95 DX - engine pings and shitty mileage....
 

I have a 95 civic dx with 105,000 miles. I bought it with 60,000 3 years ago. Ever since i was getting shitty mileage, 20 mpg at best, and the engine pings when i use 86/89 fuel. It doesnt ping with 93 fuel. I believe the spart plugs and wires are aftermarket, because the wires are yellow in color.

I replaced o2 sensor, fuel filter, air filter, pcv valve. All with original honda parts. It didnt fix the problems. I will change the spark plugs and wires with original in the next few weeks. What else should i check? I changed timing belt at 80,000 - also didnt help the problem. How do I check the timing?

What color are your spark plug electrodes? That's the real question you need to answer.

I dont know, never checked... gotta check it out this weekend. On a side note, theres no smoke coming out from my exaust, so i guess thats a good thing

sounds like your timing is way too advanced - are your plugs all black and sooty? Advancing ignition timing mimicks a lean running engine, which the ECU will usually compensate for by making your car run rich. You can usually tell if the timing is too far advanced on a stock engine by listening to the exhaust at idle - if it sounds like it's misfiring and spitting. You should be able to run regular gas in your car with the timing set to stock. What kind of plugs are you running? Heatrange?

hmmm, exaust sounds perfect, and the car always sounds perfect... Only time i get pinging is if im using 87-89 octane fuel, and on high rpms. With 93 octane fuel it's always perfect.

It does sound like my timing is too advanced, so if anyone wants to give me instructions how to check it, please do. But also, to my knowledge, advanced timing usually results in better fuel mileage - however i get only 18-20, and sometimes less on 93 octane.

The spark plugs, im not sure which ones, probably something cheezy. I will replace them with stock ASAP.

by the way, which wires should i use with stock plugs?

maybe you need a valve adjustment!

if there was black smoke coming out of your exhaust you'd probably be running rich which wouldn't make you ping but it would make your gas mileage drop.

Id say to check the plugs, wires, fuel filter, change oil, timing and use a bottle of fuel injector cleaner.

You can either use stock wires which i believe are made by NGK or get some bosch ones from autozone or pepboys

sounds like timing advancement.