Accord/7th Gen Accord EX Saloon

Heckler added a new Honda to the garage:

Accord EX Saloon

Check the vehicle's full information here.

 

@Heckler
Pictures dealt with as requested.

 

Thanks @Nels

 

And so it begins...

Jut bought this from ebay for £40 inc P&P. I was concerned that fitting a rear spoiler would obscure the 3rd brake light in the back window... But spotted an accord spoiler with brake light... It will be repainted along with the bootlid which has some scratches... and fitted.



Also ordered air/pollen and oil filters (Honda parts for the air/oil but aftermarket pollen) and will order some oil this week too and get it serviced. Car has a full Honda SH up to 113 or 116k and is now on 124k... So a full service needs to be done in my opinion. I'll inspect brakes and do if required... I bet the rear callipers are different on the saloon too, or I could have replaced them now instead of waiting for them to need doing when the sliders start to seize up.

I'll also get the rear drivers side door sorted, as there's a little bit of rust at the bottom... that I never even spotted when looking the car over. Not something I would normally miss... but I can't spot everything. I'll swap over the top LCD screen as it's flickering and perhaps try the baking method fix.

 

There is one spot of rust on the rear drivers side door, upon closer inspection it appears to have at least been treated to prevent it getting worse. I had a good look underneath too and it's located right around a drain hole in the door. So I shall take the door card off, clean out anything from inside and coat that with a rust treatment too.

The spoiler is being delivered today, so I'll take it down to a local bodyshop for a price on doing the spoiler, bootlid and door... the rest of the car is in pretty good condition with only very minor scratches and a few stone chips in the bonnet and front bumper. Nothing I'm concerned about, or that I feel needs treating or repainting.

 

Fixed the flickering top LCD screen... I swapped it over with the one from my other car.

I swapped over some LED bulbs too, fitted them in the interior dome and both doors... as I was putting the one in the passenger side, the holder popped through... dammit... Now I have to pop the door card off to clip it back in.

Removed the mic from the upper section and as I was pulling the switches of for the interior lights... one broke a clip, not on the switch but on the unit itself.... so now I need to find another one of those too unless I glue the switch back on... But if I ever have to remove it again, it'll break.

 

Bluetooth has been sorted, I baked the module and refitted it... Everything working as it should.

Voice Control for the satnav is also working, but can be a little hit and miss.. it occasionally misunderstands commands. I wish there was a simple crib sheet for them... as wading through the massive manual is really annoying.

 

Sourced a replacement door for the drivers side rear, the rust was worse than I thought and they wanted £350 to sort it out... Basically cutting of the bottom quarter of the outer skin and replacing.

Instead I picked up a complete door with all internals and glass for £70

I also picked up the trim around the handbrake as the flap to the cup holders was broken and no longer sprung back. That was £10.

I also bought a load more LED's in both White and Red 501's, and some 582 or 580 for the reversing and fog lights. All of those are now fitted, and I've ordered some 580/582 amber ones for the indicators and just need to find some dual filament LED's for the brake lights... Which I'm having trouble sourcing at a reasonable price.

Ordered all new bulbs for the front end too, Osram night breaker H1's for the mains & dipped, sidelights will be replaced with 501 white led's and indicators with amber 580/882. I've also ordered some 600k white H11 led's for the fogs.

Oil, and all filters arrived, so that will be done as will a brake fluid flush.

I had some T5 led bulbs sat around from an old lighting mod on my old Mazda... So I was going to replace the lights in the heated seat switches for red ones... But the T5's are too large, so I think they're T3's... Will order some anyway as they're only a few pounds for a pack of 10.

Also ordered a load of trim clips in various types, for the bumper, boot liner and engine bay, as we'll be dropping the bumper to do the lights and a couple broke when removing the boot liner to do those bulbs. Got something like 60 clips in various sizes/types for £12 delivered.

Hard wire kit for my dash cam arrived, so I've started pulling the dash trim to wire it in to the cig lighter feed, it's where it was wired in on my tourer, so it's not that hard to do, it's just a case of routing the wiring up around the dash & windscreen. Also ordered a stealth mount for my dash cam as I don't like the big one that came with it... It gets in the way of opening the passenger sun visor properly.

Had some good news on the paint work for the boot lid too, the scratches are in the lacquer and just using my crappy cordless and some cutting compound I've got rid of half of them already. A friend is coming over in a week or two, to help do some of the jobs and will be bringing his proper DA polisher and pro compounds to have a proper go at it.

Whilst he's here we'll swap the door over, clean the EGR and air sensors (ordered cleaners for those too), drop the bumper to do the lights (might also refurb them as starting to get a little hazy).

Need to keep an eye on the bluetooth module as I went to start the car today and it wouldn't start... that's almost 2 weeks since I baked and refitted the module... However the car has been stood idle all that time and I've been out there a couple of times playing with lights, had the ignition on and started it a few times without driving it anywhere or leaving it long enough to recharge what I've used... So it could be fine but I need to monitor it more.

Worst case scenario, I have to disable it and fit a parrot kit.

 

This car is supposed to have full service history from Honda... I've just changed the pollen filter and it looks like it's not been done for years.

 

OK.. loads more work done today... thanks to the ever dependable and knowledgeable @Nighthawk... and I helped.

Rear door has been swapped over, it was cheaper to buy one from a breaker in the same colour (£70) than pay the bodyshop price (£350) for repairing that rust. It's not a perfect match, but Rich is certain that a professional cut and mop on the car will sort that out, the paint is good, it's just a little fade in the lacquer when looked at from certain angles. Alignment was near perfect once fettled... If anything the drivers doo catch needs a little adjustment inwards about 1-2mm to make the doors perfectly flush with each other... and you can only see that when looking down the lines from the rear quarter... I'm very happy with the result, and the door works... the door card has a big scuff in it, so I just need to swap over the one from mine.

He dropped the front bumper and we removed the headlights.. and I got to work on sanding those down whilst the door was being done... He brought his DA polisher over, which is so much better than using my crappy cordless drills... and the lights are now shiny and sparkly.

I swapped over all of the bulbs, new Osram night breakers in main/dipped, and H11 LED's in the fogs, 501 LED's int he sides, and some amber LED's in the indicators... and then removed them... Because they're not fitted with the load resistor, even though I made sure to buy canbus ones (apparently that's different and I wasn't aware) So indicators are stock bulbs and my plan to fit LED's to front and rear indicators is no longer on the cards until I can be certain I've got the right bulbs.

Plus... the LED's just weren't as bright as the stock bulbs, probably only 50% as bright... so that alone would have made me reconsider fitting them.

I also swapped out the air filter for a new one.

Whilst I was doing the lights and Rich had sorted the door (took about 40 mins), he then got stuck into the EGR, throttle body and air flow sensors... and boy did they need a clean. I forgot to take after pics... but you could see metal again instead of a thick layer of gunk.



He then noticed that both front seatbelts were slow to retract back... so as I had some silicone spray handy... gave them a clean and they now zoom back like new ones.

I also finished running the wiring for the dash cam, just need to splice into the wiring behind the 12v socket... But by the time he had to leave my back had gone completely and I'm sat here waiting for the pain killers to kick in... and it probably didn't help that I took a tumble across the gravel drive outside my house... Went to stand up, a little spasm in my back caused me to start pitching backwards, nothing to grab hold of, but managed to turn and went down half forwards and sidewards... My fault for sitting on my toolbox to polish the lights instead of getting a chair out (which I did after that)... No injuries aside from a grazed knee and a bruised ego.

I have literally lost count of the times Nightawk has helped me out over the last 3yrs... He helped me with my tourer several times (EGR, sensors and TB) swapping out a door and wing... You really couldn't meet a friendlier and more helpful guy. He's helped save me a few hundred in garage charges, and never grumbles, always offering to do more.

We were just packing up when the weather got a little colder and the wind really picked up... So timing was really spot on, and we had a reasonably mild and clear day... it rained all day yesterday, so I was crossing my fingers it wouldn't today.

I really need to try and remember to take pics of progress. I only took those 2 today... Will get some more of the lights at some point... but never bothered with before and after... so here's 2 from when I did the tourer, so pretty much the same result.



For now... pain killers, rest and a latte... and my heartfelt thanks to Nighthawk yet again... Get him back on here pronto.

 

A few more pics, @Nighthawk sent a few over that he'd taken whilst doing the work on my car and I took a few more boring ones of LED interior lighting, and the lights after a second buffing (the first buff wasn't good enough as there was a film left after I'd applied the UV liquid treatment)






Then to cap of a wonderful week... I had another minor scrape in the tourer.

Basically, I was edging forward out of a parking space so I could see around a tall SUV parked on one side... When a guy in a corsa tried to pull over across the front of the parked cars before swinging into a parking space.

He scraped across the front of my bumper... whilst I was technically still inside the white lines of the parking space. He connected more with the number plate surround and sent it flying up the road, and twisted my bumper a little more, scraped a little more paint off and damaged the headlight washer cover. There's also a crack in one of the grill fins (not a chrome one) and couple of the holes that fix the bumper in place have been split open.

Damage to his was almost nothing, a scuff across the side of his bumper that didn't go through the lacquer.

I was sorting out my insurance details, when he said not to worry about it... He'd only just got his car back a week before after having it repaired from a previous accident (no idea if he was at fault on that one) and didn't want the hassle of another claim for a minor scuff... So I offered to have it sorted out at my expense... one of those mobile repairers could have sorted it out in an hour or two for about £70-80. But he insisted it wasn't worth it...

Not sure if he was worried about making another claim, or if he felt like he may have been at fault and didn't want to risk an insurance price increase... or if he wasn't fully insured at all.

I took his number plate down just in case and I have 2 witnesses who were in my car at the time.

But this means.. what I could potentially get for the tourer has reduced again... and it may be easier to break it... Basically I'll put it up spares or repair for £600 and won;t take any less... or I'll break it in the new year as I know I can get more than £600 out of it.

So just in case I'll be doing that... I ordered myself an electric impact wrench and some shiny sockets.

 

More parts ordered

Reversing camera, found a thread about how the FL satnav has the input for one... so that's another planned upgrade.

Some more LED's for the brake lights and fog light... red ones this time as the white one I fitted to the fog light, makes it look a little pinkish. I noticed this when I fitted white LED's to the tourer inner rear lights... Red ones look nice and RED.

New Wipers and washer Jet relocation kit - My jets are not in the best condition, so I ordered a relocation kit... same one that I fitted to the Tourer. Moves the jets from the stock position onto the wiper arms, and gives you a 4 way diamond spray pattern that is much more efficient than the stock ones... Plus it's 40% cheaper than 2 new Honda washer jets and takes 20-30 mins to fit. The one I got last time has been on the tourer for over 3yrs and still works like a charm.

Dropping of the spoiler tomorrow, gonna get some paint on it... Then have it fitted next week.

I've still not had the oil change done, nor have I got the brake fluid flushed... Had a few other things going on that distracted me.. so no work has been done to her in almost 2 weeks. Battery is probably flat again, as the alarm has been draining it no doubt. But I think I have full confidence in the BT module being fixed now.

However... I haven't been able to set the alarm of yet... I tried a couple of times... So I need to investigate that and check if the siren in the boot has been disconnected... and if so, replace the battery in that, as I know that's another potential source of battery drain.

Had a scare thinking the tourer needed urgent attention... Thought I had the dreaded clogged fuel filter because that's a royal pain to change on these cars and I can't afford to spend money on the car I'm about to sell (especially when that car isn't going to fetch much)... turned out to be a false alarm thankfully.

Washer Kit - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Windscre...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Wipers - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bosch-Ae...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649

Reversing Camera - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Custom-F...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649


I've been looking for a clear drivers side rear light... where the fog light is... I really dislike the lack of symmetry on these rear lights. What I've done in the past is replace the rear light with one from a left hand drive car which has the fog on the other side... and fit a red LED to replicate the fog. Works great, and gives you the symmetry on the rear cluster.

But I cannot find one anywhere, except the US, and those sellers are asking the better part of £100 for one inc shipping.

 

I like the way you just plan on doing something and then just go ahead and crack on it with.

Me, I plan on doing something and then 6 months later it may have been done but more likely it's still on the ToDo list

 

I procrastinate like a mofo... I crack on with ordering stuff... and then it sits around for months.

I've got 2 new key blanks here that I have yet to get cut, I've not ordered the new insides for the keys because I want to make sure they work in the locks and ignition first.

I've not had the spoiler painted or fitted

I've not done the oil change, brake fluid, gearbox fluid, clutch & power steering fluids.... and the dash is still half dismantled.

At the moment, the cold and damp is causing me a lot of pain issues with the arthritis... I suffer a little more than I should because I'm not allowed to take any kind of anti inflammatory meds... and guess what kind of meds they treat arthritis with... Yup... anti inflammatory meds.

All I can do is try to treat the pain, but when it's cold and damp like it has been for the last week or two... It offers minimal relief. So I can't spend a load of time outside, nor can I bend or crouch much to do stuff.


I have fitted the wiper blades though... so that's something.

 

Absolute pleasure to help you out mate. Il always help where/if I can. She will be lovely with the spoiler and all polished up

 

Good on you for helping @Heckler Mr @Nighthawk

 

Good to see you back matey.

Things are on hold at the moment... it's been too cold and wet to spend much time outside and a few other things getting in the way.

But this arrived the other day.

And the new blanks I ordered have been cut and tested to make sure they work... before ordering the innards for the inside. So far it's cost me £33, and the innards will be another £50 programmed to my car.

So around £85 for 2 new keys... which is far, far less than getting one from Honda... I think they wanted around the £150 mark for a single key.



And because all of the icons had worn of the only key I did have... I bought some silicone cases for them. I was tempted to get some of the flip key blanks... But in the end went with stock ones.

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