98 Civic fuel economy: torque converter lockup?
 

On Mar 28, 5:04 pm, rand...@gmail.com wrote:
> I've had an intriguing issue with my 98 Civic, and thought I might
> describe it here, and see if anyone has some insight as to what could
> be going on with the car.
[snip]
> what, but the alternator is only spec'ed at like 80. I thought that
> maybe there's a wiring problem that may be causing a load on the
> alternator all the time, hurting my fuel economy. (I "only" get 25
> miles per gallon)

Hi guys,

A few months ago I posted about my poor fuel economy, and how I
suspected an electrical problem.

Suddenly I'm getting mid to upper 30's MPG, and I think I know why:
I'm pretty sure the torque converter wasn't locking up at highway
speeds. I haven't the faintest idea where to even start
troubleshooting something like this, or if it would even be worth the
time and effort on a 10 year old vehicle with 150k miles.... But I
*was* thinking of wiring up a manual override toggle switch, if it
stops working again. Get on the highway, set the cruise, and flip the
switch.

Any thoughts?