100K on the Accord .....

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Mud

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Oct 6, 2004
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Texas
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
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I have no doubt you will be writing it up at 200k barring any accidents that might take it off the road.
 
Originally Posted By: Mud

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.


SMD means Surface Mount Device. Most everything today in electronics is SMD (or SMT, Surface Mount Technology). Did you convert from thro-hole, or just put in brighter ones?

I suspect I'm just being pedantic here, like those who rail against those who say "ATM machine".
 
Originally Posted By: Schmoe
Suprised you bought new control arms.


Non-adjustable rear arms were replaced with adjustable arms. I goofed on the mileage - it was at 60K miles, not 40K, but still after eating 2 sets of tires
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This allowed rear camber to be set at -1 which for this car over the last 40K miles has proven to be an optimal setting for still decent handling and elimination of inside tire wear.

this was my initial post on the control arms:
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/2825800/1
 
Originally Posted By: supton
Originally Posted By: Mud

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.


SMD means Surface Mount Device. Most everything today in electronics is SMD (or SMT, Surface Mount Technology). Did you convert from thro-hole, or just put in brighter ones?

I suspect I'm just being pedantic here, like those who rail against those who say "ATM machine".


I installed array-style SMD's similar to these:
401451572.jpg

401451566.jpg


the ones under the doors and in the trunk are self-adhesive strip style, examples from a couple of my past owned vics:
401451564.jpg

378298850.jpg
 
Thanks for the write-up.

Our Acura has aftermarket adjustable arms in the rear, and I've been very pleased with them. I'd like to do them on our CR-V as well, though if I'm honest, the -2 degrees of camber isn't really eating the tires. I have the Acura set at near zero or just a hair negative at normal ride height, and it's been very good for tire wear.
 
Thanks all for your comments hoping this post doesn't jinx me lol. And I also see a few here with many more miles as well.

Jason, I remembered your good input on the camber settings and rear control arms, it helped my decision making as well.

Vikas, unfortunately there is no particular URL but here's what I do. I hope this explains ok and I don't sound like a lunatic
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I look at what type/dimension of bulbs I expect to replace, then trot on over to ebay and look at replacement SMD LED bulbs that have the same or very close measurements. I always buy from Hong Kong direct since that's where most US vendors get them to begin with and the cost is very reasonable. Never any issue with delivery and quality has been fine - by now I've got a box full of various styles and sizes as I always get a few more than I need.

Most times as you compare sizing have your inches-to-metric conversion handy
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I also look at how many SMD's I want to have for each bulb, this can sometimes be trial and error but since the bulbs are pretty inexpensive, I get a few of different arrays, such as 12-SMD, 10-SMD, etc. You also have to be aware not only of style like T-10, festoon, etc but also what the limiting physical size is of the enclosure, like a dome light. A 12-15 SMD festoon style bulb usually fits but get something larger and it might not. I've never seen any issue with amperage draw (fraction of incandescents) or overheating in the enclosure or behind a lens.

Here's an example, lets say I have dome light that takes a festoon bulb that measures 1.5" by 3/8" at the contacts. That converts to about 38mm x 9.5 mm. I then do a search on ebay for "38mm SMD LED" and start looking at what comes up. You would find a range of arrays, such as 9 SMD, 12 SMD, etc. I then figure out what size of SMD board would physically fit into the available space. Say I want a 9 SMD array, then I check to see if the bulb dimensions work at the contacts - a mm or two difference is ok but obviously as close as possible. I would also check the the board area (where the SMD's are attached) sizing to see if physically fits into the availabe space. Then I may go ahead and get the 9 SMD but I may also get a 6 and/or 15 SMD array to have more of a choice. I probably make it sound more complicated than it actually is. This process is repeated for any bulb I want to change, then I try to find a vendor that carries all of the ones I want.

oh one other thing, the PCV on these V-6's has a tiny orifice size. I changed (and kept) the OEM valve at approx. 80K miles strictly as PM, but it was clean. Didn't really need to.
 
Originally Posted By: Mud
oh one other thing, the PCV on these V-6's has a tiny orifice size. I changed (and kept) the OEM valve at approx. 80K miles strictly as PM, but it was clean. Didn't really need to.


Based on a lot of fear-mongering on the internet, I changed the PCV valve on our MDX's engine at around 90k miles. It, like yours, looked very clean still...rattled when I shook it...and there is no apparent difference with the new OEM PCV valve. I guess I'll do it again in another 100k miles!
 
RE LED :
The reason I asked is because I am under impression that some of those off shore LED's are pretty poor compared to OEM incandescent light. Thanks for your detailed explanation as to how you have done this.

RE PCV :
I had purchased an after market PCV valve few years ago but when I finally got to it, I put the old one back at around 170K miles after spraying the carb cleaner through it :)
 
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Yes sir, I also have seen internet comments on the LED quality.

I can only relate my own experience which has been good over the last 6 years using them as lighting upgrades. I will sometimes get one that's bad from the start, but otherwise I have no complaints.
 
Back to the original topic, I did the timing belt service and wanted to comment on the condition of the OEM parts at 100K. IMO these cars are either fairly easy in parts or over-engineered to some extend, perhaps a combination of each. I was really surprised at how good everything looked.

I did this maintenance (1) it was due per mfg recommendations (2) I have a lifetime drivetrain warranty I negotiated in when I bought the car new. I've always done maintenance and recorded same to Honda Owners Link, I'm sure if something happens Honda may push back, but I've done what is needed on my end.

Anyway, I replaced t-belt, tensioner, tensioner pulley assembly, idler pulley, water pump, and serpentine belt. Fresh coolant change as well. All parts removed "looked" to be in excellent shape, short of a material analysis
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All pulleys functioned smoothly and the t-belt looked almost as good as the new one. All new parts were Honda OEM, total cost was about $400 for everything - for stuff like this I don't even look at aftermarket.

I consider myself a pretty decent wrench-hand, but this job took me all day yesterday - about 10 hrs! I had the holding tool for the balancer, but loosening the balancer bolt was brutal. I broke a 1/2" breaker bar, but it was a no-brand version. I had a back-up fortunately and 3/4" drive stuff including a 3 ft 3/4" drive torque wrench that finally did the trick but that alone took almost 2 hrs. The CRACK! sound that the bolt made when it finally broke loose (using leg power on the wrench) was un-nerving lol, I wondered if it came loose or snapped.

I also spent at least an hour checking and re-checking the new belt install, timing marks, etc. A good trick to doing this is to mark the pulleys and the old belt, then transfer the marks to the new belt. Install the new belt with the marks matching the pulleys. Of course triple check and triple count the belt cogs between marks
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After the new belt was installed I also checked TDC marks and rotated the engine several times to ensure the marks always aligned. One of the biggest time hits was accessibility to stuff, I'm just average size guy, but even so it was tough to get my hands in there sometimes, had to get creative a few times. Also, this was the first time doing this job on this car, even with manual, and online info/videos. I think that if I did this again, it would be about a 4 hr job. Right... lol.

One thing I noticed is that the serpentine belt tensioner is a hydraulic type. When you use a lever bar to move the tensioner to install the new belt, it's not like a spring-type tensioner. You have to apply gradual and constant pressure to the tensioner in order to allow the hydrailic cylinder to slowly bleed off/compress. If you push too hard/fast you can round off the hex casting that your socket attaches to. You also want to use a 6 point socket on the casting. I grabbed a 12 pt to do this and promptly felt it slip, I then went to a 6 point with slow push and it worked fine. Takes about 3-5 min to get the tensioner compressed slowly to get the new serpentine belt on.

I admit to a bit of anxiety at first start, when you know the mechanicals its not always a good thing lol as you think about all the stuff that can go wrong
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But it started up fine, no fuss, no noises or coolant leaks. I let it run for a bit and drove it around, I guess it's good to go for another 100K. All in all I was quite pleased with the condition of the original parts, they definitely had life left but of course that's anyone's guess as to how much life.
 
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