There are mods that make cars faster, brake better, etc. ARe there any mods that make a car "greener"? the LEV rating is the biggest problem I have w/ this car, especially after seeing al gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" movie

 

lmao yea some cleaner if u can call them mods iono

 

run another catalytic converter

 

"An Inconvenient Truth" kind of makes you feel like a jerk buying a new car, eh. At leased were not on H3freak.com.

 

keep in mind that AL Gore is an extreme leftist. your brand new car isnt that horrible with emmissions compared to all the ill-maintained heavy construction equipment, short haul trucks, and small engines(lawn mowers, weed-whackers, chainsaws, small boats). I've been told that the majority of pollution of thius nature is caused by heavy equipment and small engine use, and not by standard passenger cars.

if you're that concerned about emissions and gas mileage, go buy in Insight instead!

but keep in mind this is coming from a guy that drives an '87 integra with straight exhuast(no cat, no resonator, just a straight-through muffler) and no emmission controls

 

I would think that getting 40mpg would cut way down on pollution since were are using much less gas. I think the FIT's are very "green" for this reason.

 

I have often wondered what would happen if you replaced the muffler with an aftermarket high-flow catlytic converter. Do these things have to be wired in or heated to function? How loud and how restrictive would it be? Maybe I'll google around on this...
It kinda reminds me of the plug-in Prius mod--'green' roding!

 

this maybe one of the dumber comments I have read on this forum.

Gas efficiency has very little to do with how green the car actually is. As efficient as the Fit is, it's still only a "LEV" vehicle. Older generations of Civics and Accords (among other cars) have been rated "ULEV" with much less gas efficiency.

If you were to replace the muffler with a high flow catalytic converter, it would be like replacing the the muffler with an axel/cat back. It does not require wiring. It's just plug and play. It would be louder than the stock exhaust. It wouldn't be as restrictive as the stock exhaust but it wouldn't flow as fast as a catless. High-flow cats don't save the planet. Since it won't pass a smog test, you might as well just get a catless.

 

[/quote]If you were to replace the muffler with a high flow catalytic converter, it would be like replacing the the muffler with an axel/cat back. It does not require wiring. It's just plug and play. It would be louder than the stock exhaust. It wouldn't be as restrictive as the stock exhaust but it wouldn't flow as fast as a catless. High-flow cats don't save the planet. Since it won't pass a smog test, you might as well just get a catless.[/quote]

I meant having the aftermarket cat in place of the muffler, running two cats. Stock+aftermarket and no muffler. (Maybe that is what you were addressing.) Would this run cleaner (lower emissions) than stock? Would there be heat problems?

 

Is this guy for real??? I don't even know where to begin. In fact, I can't stop laughing to begin

 

Gordio, Looks like the kids think we're nuts but I like your thinking. This seemed like a fine place to ask but...

Let me know if you find anything. I dug around a little but green car forums are full of hybrid and electric car people. Everything else is "keep your tires inflated" and "get a tune-up" sort of remedial info.

I wonder if you'd be trading fuel economy for reduced emissions with a more restrictive, cleaner tailpipe? Conversely, some more common mods like less restrictive exhaust systems could improve MPG I suppose. I am always eager to modify to improve efficiency but this is a modern, high tech car and a lot of Honda R&D $$$ goes into making it what it is. I imagine if it was even a little easy to have acheived that ULEV rating it would have been done. I imagine the ULEV Fit would have had the 1.3L, CVT and 80HP!

 

Hello?! That statement couldn't be more incorrect! And just so no one thinks I made it up myself:
From fueleconomy.gov -
"One of the most important things you can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is buy a vehicle with higher fuel economy. " AND "The more fuel your vehicle burns the more greenhouse gases it emits."
From epa.gov -
"CO2emissions from a gallon of gasoline = 19.4 pounds/gallon"
Every gallon of gas burned/consumed releases carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas.

 

Yes. Of course this is true. But we're not talking about buying a car that already has good fuel economy. We're talking about buying a car and improving the fuel economy. But let's say you install an intake. Yes, it would probably yield a better "miles per gallon..." but the CO2 emissions still remain the same. Small mods that give a car an extra mile or two per gallon DOES NOT make the car cleaner.

 

But 'cleaner' in the sense that every bit of reduction in fuel use 'makes the world a better place'/true cost of oil etc. would be true. So how, then, can we reduce CO2 and particulate emissions? If an intake mod could make more power could you then accomplish the same speeds with less fuel and emissions?

 

I wasn't really talking about boosting the miles. I was wondering if there was a catalyst or something that makes less bad stuff come out. Mileage does help, but i was actaully referring to making its emissions cleaner.

I still don't know what is inside a civic or acura engine that makes it burn cleaner than the less powerful fit engine. I was wondernig whatever it has, can it be installed inside the fit.
Yea, but a civic is 140hp and the acura sedans are 200-250hp, and both are ULEV-2. I dn't know what's inside engines, but there is obviously something lacking inside the fit so the emissions aren't as clean. I'm guessing this must be removed so it can fit in the trunk since the fit's engine space is smaller. I've always felt the fit's LEV rating is due to the small engine size.

 

I nearly ordered something like this
http://store.summitracing.com/partde...5&autoview=sku
to replace my stock muffler but I think that a second catalytec converter will not reach a high enough temperature to operate properly. One site I saw said they need to reach 1600F! (I don't think it would be worth it to put in a heater.) Some cars come with two cats but I think they are turbo cars with very hot exhaust anyway. I still haven't given up on this idea.
A new start-up company in B.C. is showing a prototype filter muffler that is interesting but possibly expensive to maintain.
http://www.adcapitalindustries.com/i...ection=product

 

There have been products out there that claim to eliminate a percentage of emissions, but most (if not all) have been proven to be crap, if not all-out scams.

one of these is a company called Magnetizer (htp://www.magnetizer.net). I personally haven't used the products they offer, but I know a company that tested they're "fuel saving, emissions lowering" magnets on a fleet of delivery trucks, and had NO improvements.

Don't feel bad if you own a Honda fit. fueleconomy.gov says it outputs 5.4 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Compare that to pickups that don't output less than 8 or 9, and the Honda Fit is one of the top performers on the market (Insight outputs 3.3 tons a year)

Al Gore has the right idea with his overly-produced slideshow, but it's propoganda (I'm an Al Gore fan too).

As long as gas prices stay high, people will look for better fuel economy, and we just have to trust that car companies acknowledge this, and take the shortage of oil seriously enough to allocate high budgets towards alternative research.

I don't think car companies are in cahoots with oil companies; if alternative fuel vehicles start sell better than gasoline ones, they will adjust to profit off this shift.


...rant over. hope I stayed OT

 

There are too many variables to go into. Generally speaking, a car is going to take a HP hit to go from LEV to ULEV-2. Look at the 2.4L engine in the Camry. The regular version is like 158HP, but it has a little tag by it. Look at the bottom of the spec page, that tag says that in some markets (CA emissions and states that follow CA) it's sold equipped as a PZEV car at reduced HP.

So, how do you make HP? Generally displacement, high compression/ advanced timing, and RPMs.

If 109HP was the target for this car and ULEV-II would reduce this, how would you get the car back up to 109HP?

Well, the Fit only has 1.5L, and that's a big engine for this car.

Higher compression / advanced timing: The Fit runs on regular fuel, like an economy car should. So, unless you want Honda to release a car that requires 91 octane, they're not going to get any more HP this way.

Higher redline capability: Sure, if you want the car to cost a heck of a lot more for the higher cost parts necessary to get well into the 7000rpm range. And, you'll also need premium fuel.

So, the Civic makes 140HP, and Acuras 200+. Well, the Civic has 1.8L to work with, so even though it's making more HP, it's probably making less HP than it could. Honda has has 1.8L motors make as much as 195HP in the B18C5 - I bet that wasn't ULEV-II, or anywhere near it.

Acuras all making over 200+. Well, without even looking it up, I can tell you they probably all require premium fuel. All have much larger engines than 1.5L. And All probably have relatively higher redlines. So, again, they might make 200HP+, but they could all make even more HP if they weren't ULEV-II.

Just so you know, the 2.4/205HP TSX motor is LEV-2, just like the Fit. If you want the 2.4 with PZEV emissions, you only get 166HP and an automatic transmission in an Accord. Again, just another example of what kind of HP hit and limitations necessary to hit higher emissions figures.

 

you could always get that natural gas honda civic, but i think its like $24k. honda's website says its the cleanest car.

 

Rudy: as i grew older (and maybe this has something to do w/ the fact I wnet to UC berkeley for college) I decided I prefer a clean burning car than high mileage. But iono maybe emissions ratings aen't as big of a deal as I think they are. I mean, somoene here once quoted mileage matters more for pollution than emissions ratings.