As I come up on 100k miles on my 08 Accord V6 I thought I would post some unscientific observations that may be of interest to those owning this model. Definitely not saying this car is any better than another, just posting my own experience.
I'm the only owner, bought it new. To date, I have had no warranty issues with the car. I drive it normally, not excessively fast nor slow, I'm an average driver. With about a 50/50 mix of city/highway driving, I average 28-30 mpg.
I did have concerns about the VCM setup, which I believe impacted the spark plugs. I replaced them at 44K miles as PM and several were indeed carboned up, no CEL light, but I was glad I pulled them. I just replaced them again but to my surprise I found that aside from slightly more additional build-up on the VCM-affected cylinders they were in good shape. However, I did submit the plug change costs to Honda as related to the class action taken regarding engine misfires. If they reimburse fine, if not I'm not that worried, other things are more important to me.
Rear brake pads wore out prematurely as you can find on internet forums related to issues. I did a complete brake job with Akebono ceramic pads F/R around 40K miles and a recent check showed a little less than half pads remaining. Very pleased with the performance of these pads. I did not go back to Honda about the rear pads, I simply simply did a brake job and moved on.
Related to comments about frequent (shorter) OCI's on VCM type of engines I totally agree. I've stuck with approx 4500 mi OCI's since new using whatever quality oil is on sale - PP to PYB to Havoline, etc. Filters were OEM,MC, or Wix. Doing the same on the 2011 Silverado. I've never had an issue with sludge or similar - I have one of those HF cameras that are on a flex head, looking inside the valve cover there's a bit of discoloration here and there, other than that everything is clean, nothing collected in corners and crevices. I don't use any oil additives, I will use some Techron in the tank whenever I feel like it and its on sale.
Rear camber was a problem, factory control arms (non-adjustable) kept wearing out inside track of the rear tires. I installed a set of rear adjustable control arms, best money I've spent, current Yokohama tires have over 40K miles on them with even wear and plenty of tread left. The rest of the suspension seems to be fine and I do check it when the car alignment is checked.
Transmission fluid has been changed at approx 30K intervals, I use the process of drain/refill a few times over the course of a few thousand miles. Everything seems to be working fine.
If I had a singular complaint it relates to noise - I don't think they did a very good job with sound insulation, hopefully newer models are better. I will say that the tires are noisy all on their own, which doesn't help. But in general sound insulation could be better. Interior seats and finishes are wearing quite well, I've always tried to keep things clean and have used condtioner on the seats.
I average about 120 mi/day on the car so maintenance is very important to me. I'm about to replace the timing belt along with water pump, tensioner, pulleys, etc, replacing anything that relates to getting in the area of the belt. It's much cheaper to me to do more that the minimum required in my garage than getting stuck somewhere.
I did replace all interior lighting and trunk lighting with SMD LED's, these are much brighter than standard LED's. I do this on all of our vehicles, the improvement in lighting is dramatic and looks good with the clean white light. I also typically install SMD strips under the doors that work with interior lighting - these are nice courtesy lights that illuminate the ground where you step out.
I guess that's about it, overall, I've been happy with the car and glad I went with shorter oil change miles. Hopefully I can write another set of observations at 200k miles, we'll see
I'm the only owner, bought it new. To date, I have had no warranty issues with the car. I drive it normally, not excessively fast nor slow, I'm an average driver. With about a 50/50 mix of city/highway driving, I average 28-30 mpg.
I did have concerns about the VCM setup, which I believe impacted the spark plugs. I replaced them at 44K miles as PM and several were indeed carboned up, no CEL light, but I was glad I pulled them. I just replaced them again but to my surprise I found that aside from slightly more additional build-up on the VCM-affected cylinders they were in good shape. However, I did submit the plug change costs to Honda as related to the class action taken regarding engine misfires. If they reimburse fine, if not I'm not that worried, other things are more important to me.
Rear brake pads wore out prematurely as you can find on internet forums related to issues. I did a complete brake job with Akebono ceramic pads F/R around 40K miles and a recent check showed a little less than half pads remaining. Very pleased with the performance of these pads. I did not go back to Honda about the rear pads, I simply simply did a brake job and moved on.
Related to comments about frequent (shorter) OCI's on VCM type of engines I totally agree. I've stuck with approx 4500 mi OCI's since new using whatever quality oil is on sale - PP to PYB to Havoline, etc. Filters were OEM,MC, or Wix. Doing the same on the 2011 Silverado. I've never had an issue with sludge or similar - I have one of those HF cameras that are on a flex head, looking inside the valve cover there's a bit of discoloration here and there, other than that everything is clean, nothing collected in corners and crevices. I don't use any oil additives, I will use some Techron in the tank whenever I feel like it and its on sale.
Rear camber was a problem, factory control arms (non-adjustable) kept wearing out inside track of the rear tires. I installed a set of rear adjustable control arms, best money I've spent, current Yokohama tires have over 40K miles on them with even wear and plenty of tread left. The rest of the suspension seems to be fine and I do check it when the car alignment is checked.
Transmission fluid has been changed at approx 30K intervals, I use the process of drain/refill a few times over the course of a few thousand miles. Everything seems to be working fine.
If I had a singular complaint it relates to noise - I don't think they did a very good job with sound insulation, hopefully newer models are better. I will say that the tires are noisy all on their own, which doesn't help. But in general sound insulation could be better. Interior seats and finishes are wearing quite well, I've always tried to keep things clean and have used condtioner on the seats.
I average about 120 mi/day on the car so maintenance is very important to me. I'm about to replace the timing belt along with water pump, tensioner, pulleys, etc, replacing anything that relates to getting in the area of the belt. It's much cheaper to me to do more that the minimum required in my garage than getting stuck somewhere.
I did replace all interior lighting and trunk lighting with SMD LED's, these are much brighter than standard LED's. I do this on all of our vehicles, the improvement in lighting is dramatic and looks good with the clean white light. I also typically install SMD strips under the doors that work with interior lighting - these are nice courtesy lights that illuminate the ground where you step out.
I guess that's about it, overall, I've been happy with the car and glad I went with shorter oil change miles. Hopefully I can write another set of observations at 200k miles, we'll see