CL7 Accord Euro R (Very pic heavy)
Discussion
Hi Sam, love what you've done to the car and its good to sit down and read a good,lengthy thread with plenty of info and a bit of humour chucked in too.
Currently working with Darren at Torque GT to import a CL7 myself,your driveshaft issues etc haven't put me off
Looking ideally at a Pearl White example like yours,but if a blue one comes up that ticks the boxes and perhaps has a tasty mod or two attached,then thats not out of the question either.I was at Simply Jap the last few years with my 1987 BEAMS swap Celica ST162,so probably stopped and saw your car at some point.Recently sold my other Celica,black 95 ST205 GT4 to get something a little more practical,mate with a DC5 put me onto the CL7 and bingo bango,that's got to be the ideal sweet spot between practicality and a bit of 'go' .Look forward to seeing more of how you've been getting on and maybe steal some ideas from you,ha.The Progress rear ARB I totally get,I fitted a Whiteline version to the 162 and was a brilliant addition.
Will keep an eye on your thread for sure .
I'm based in Kent but sometimes get down your way for drives and of course on way to events.
Currently working with Darren at Torque GT to import a CL7 myself,your driveshaft issues etc haven't put me off
Looking ideally at a Pearl White example like yours,but if a blue one comes up that ticks the boxes and perhaps has a tasty mod or two attached,then thats not out of the question either.I was at Simply Jap the last few years with my 1987 BEAMS swap Celica ST162,so probably stopped and saw your car at some point.Recently sold my other Celica,black 95 ST205 GT4 to get something a little more practical,mate with a DC5 put me onto the CL7 and bingo bango,that's got to be the ideal sweet spot between practicality and a bit of 'go' .Look forward to seeing more of how you've been getting on and maybe steal some ideas from you,ha.The Progress rear ARB I totally get,I fitted a Whiteline version to the 162 and was a brilliant addition.
Will keep an eye on your thread for sure .
I'm based in Kent but sometimes get down your way for drives and of course on way to events.
LiamN92 said:
hi mate, quick question... when you had the eibachs fitted with the 20mm spacers did they not rub at all? thinking about doing that my self. thanks mate
Sorry for the delay in replying mate, not been on the forums in a while. No rubbing issues at all with the Eibachs mate. Since fitting coilovers I had a bit of rubbing but I think I've managed to dial it out now.BEAMS 162 said:
Hi Sam, love what you've done to the car and its good to sit down and read a good,lengthy thread with plenty of info and a bit of humour chucked in too.
Currently working with Darren at Torque GT to import a CL7 myself,your driveshaft issues etc haven't put me off
Looking ideally at a Pearl White example like yours,but if a blue one comes up that ticks the boxes and perhaps has a tasty mod or two attached,then thats not out of the question either.I was at Simply Jap the last few years with my 1987 BEAMS swap Celica ST162,so probably stopped and saw your car at some point.Recently sold my other Celica,black 95 ST205 GT4 to get something a little more practical,mate with a DC5 put me onto the CL7 and bingo bango,that's got to be the ideal sweet spot between practicality and a bit of 'go' .Look forward to seeing more of how you've been getting on and maybe steal some ideas from you,ha.The Progress rear ARB I totally get,I fitted a Whiteline version to the 162 and was a brilliant addition.
Will keep an eye on your thread for sure . I'm based in Kent but sometimes get down your way for drives and of course on way to events.
Hey man, thanks for getting in touch! How's the import process going? Got your hands on your car yet?Currently working with Darren at Torque GT to import a CL7 myself,your driveshaft issues etc haven't put me off
Looking ideally at a Pearl White example like yours,but if a blue one comes up that ticks the boxes and perhaps has a tasty mod or two attached,then thats not out of the question either.I was at Simply Jap the last few years with my 1987 BEAMS swap Celica ST162,so probably stopped and saw your car at some point.Recently sold my other Celica,black 95 ST205 GT4 to get something a little more practical,mate with a DC5 put me onto the CL7 and bingo bango,that's got to be the ideal sweet spot between practicality and a bit of 'go' .Look forward to seeing more of how you've been getting on and maybe steal some ideas from you,ha.The Progress rear ARB I totally get,I fitted a Whiteline version to the 162 and was a brilliant addition.
Will keep an eye on your thread for sure .
I'm based in Kent but sometimes get down your way for drives and of course on way to events.Yeh so I would just budget or start saving for some driveshafts personally, they seem to be becoming more and more common on the groups as the cars all reach that age I guess. You might be lucky and find someone has already done them
Sounds like you picked the CL7 for the exact same reasons as me. You won't be disappointed. Enjoy the new car and feel free to fire over any questions. I have a few good updates for this thread coming very soon!
Happily I got my car just last month mate ! 
Its a white 54 plated CL7,registered Jan 2005. It was actually imported by Torque in 2018 as a standard car,the owner (another Sam funnily enough) then decided to add some goodies,expensive for him but good for me.Had been looking at a couple over in Japan,but nothing really jumping out and Darren gave me a heads up on a possible customer car becoming available that was already here.(maybe you've seen it before somewhere).
Anyhoo, bit of to and fro,a deal was struck and the car is mine.
89k miles,really nice condition,Tein Flex Z coilovers,Hardrace upper and lower control arms fronts plus ball joints,Hardrace rear arms,Legalis exhaust like your car,SevenTwenty alloys,Injen longarm CAI,Mugen wind deflectors,HIC rear window spoiler ,new Rainsports all round..and a few other bits like Hybrid racing plug cover,custom door strikers,etc etc. Really like the look he's gone for,don't usually go for a car someone else has modified but all the parts are obviously less than 2 years old,mostly bought from Torque new,and there's no unknown engine mods as such.Service history and a ream of documents all present,valve clearances and services done at Honda HQ,car set up at Grinspeed and it also had inner driveshafts and intermediate shaft bearing replaced.
So yes it looks to have been well maintained,love the look,it handles brilliantly , and enjoying the VTEC goodness as well,ha.But like you have said,its a good comfortable car and you can drive it perfectly well without wringing its neck,comfortable and contrary to some comments I've seen on the 'net,the K20A is perfectly able to make the car feel as if its not a 'bigger' motor;even though its hardly a torquey unit,it picks up well anyway,it doesnt need a lazy bigger displacement engine at all in my opinion.
Right sorry for the thread hijack mate LOL. I'll pop a couple of pictures up then keep an eye open for your updates you've promised on your own car,which is a cracker .
Its a white 54 plated CL7,registered Jan 2005. It was actually imported by Torque in 2018 as a standard car,the owner (another Sam funnily enough) then decided to add some goodies,expensive for him but good for me.Had been looking at a couple over in Japan,but nothing really jumping out and Darren gave me a heads up on a possible customer car becoming available that was already here.(maybe you've seen it before somewhere).
Anyhoo, bit of to and fro,a deal was struck and the car is mine.
89k miles,really nice condition,Tein Flex Z coilovers,Hardrace upper and lower control arms fronts plus ball joints,Hardrace rear arms,Legalis exhaust like your car,SevenTwenty alloys,Injen longarm CAI,Mugen wind deflectors,HIC rear window spoiler ,new Rainsports all round..and a few other bits like Hybrid racing plug cover,custom door strikers,etc etc. Really like the look he's gone for,don't usually go for a car someone else has modified but all the parts are obviously less than 2 years old,mostly bought from Torque new,and there's no unknown engine mods as such.Service history and a ream of documents all present,valve clearances and services done at Honda HQ,car set up at Grinspeed and it also had inner driveshafts and intermediate shaft bearing replaced.
So yes it looks to have been well maintained,love the look,it handles brilliantly , and enjoying the VTEC goodness as well,ha.But like you have said,its a good comfortable car and you can drive it perfectly well without wringing its neck,comfortable and contrary to some comments I've seen on the 'net,the K20A is perfectly able to make the car feel as if its not a 'bigger' motor;even though its hardly a torquey unit,it picks up well anyway,it doesnt need a lazy bigger displacement engine at all in my opinion.
Right sorry for the thread hijack mate LOL. I'll pop a couple of pictures up then keep an eye open for your updates you've promised on your own car,which is a cracker .
Edited by BEAMS 162 on Monday 31st August 16:33
BEAMS 162 said:
Happily I got my car just last month mate !
Its a white 54 plated CL7,registered Jan 2005. It was actually imported by Torque in 2018 as a standard car,the owner (another Sam funnily enough) then decided to add some goodies,expensive for him but good for me.Had been looking at a couple over in Japan,but nothing really jumping out and Darren gave me a heads up on a possible customer car becoming available that was already here.(maybe you've seen it before somewhere).
Anyhoo, bit of to and fro,a deal was struck and the car is mine.
89k miles,really nice condition,Tein Flex Z coilovers,Hardrace upper and lower control arms fronts plus ball joints,Hardrace rear arms,Legalis exhaust like your car,SevenTwenty alloys,Injen longarm CAI,Mugen wind deflectors,HIC rear window spoiler ,new Rainsports all round..and a few other bits like Hybrid racing plug cover,custom door strikers,etc etc. Really like the look he's gone for,don't usually go for a car someone else has modified but all the parts are obviously less than 2 years old,mostly bought from Torque new,and there's no unknown engine mods as such.Service history and a ream of documents all present,valve clearances and services done at Honda HQ,car set up at Grinspeed and it also had inner driveshafts and intermediate shaft bearing replaced.
So yes it looks to have been well maintained,love the look,it handles brilliantly , and enjoying the VTEC goodness as well,ha.But like you have said,its a good comfortable car and you can drive it perfectly well without wringing its neck,comfortable and contrary to some comments I've seen on the 'net,the K20A is perfectly able to make the car feel as if its not a 'bigger' motor;even though its hardly a torquey unit,it picks up well anyway,it doesnt need a lazy bigger displacement engine at all in my opinion.
Right sorry for the thread hijack mate LOL. I'll pop a couple of pictures up then keep an eye open for your updates you've promised on your own car,which is a cracker .
Hope you're enjoying the car mate! Apologies for the late reply, lots and lots of car stuff going on but not much time to write about it. Yes I am familiar with your car and had the odd chat with Sam when he owned it, certainly sounds like you found a good one with some tasteful mods. Funny you should mention Grinspeed as I was up that way on Friday – more about that later Its a white 54 plated CL7,registered Jan 2005. It was actually imported by Torque in 2018 as a standard car,the owner (another Sam funnily enough) then decided to add some goodies,expensive for him but good for me.Had been looking at a couple over in Japan,but nothing really jumping out and Darren gave me a heads up on a possible customer car becoming available that was already here.(maybe you've seen it before somewhere).
Anyhoo, bit of to and fro,a deal was struck and the car is mine.
89k miles,really nice condition,Tein Flex Z coilovers,Hardrace upper and lower control arms fronts plus ball joints,Hardrace rear arms,Legalis exhaust like your car,SevenTwenty alloys,Injen longarm CAI,Mugen wind deflectors,HIC rear window spoiler ,new Rainsports all round..and a few other bits like Hybrid racing plug cover,custom door strikers,etc etc. Really like the look he's gone for,don't usually go for a car someone else has modified but all the parts are obviously less than 2 years old,mostly bought from Torque new,and there's no unknown engine mods as such.Service history and a ream of documents all present,valve clearances and services done at Honda HQ,car set up at Grinspeed and it also had inner driveshafts and intermediate shaft bearing replaced.
So yes it looks to have been well maintained,love the look,it handles brilliantly , and enjoying the VTEC goodness as well,ha.But like you have said,its a good comfortable car and you can drive it perfectly well without wringing its neck,comfortable and contrary to some comments I've seen on the 'net,the K20A is perfectly able to make the car feel as if its not a 'bigger' motor;even though its hardly a torquey unit,it picks up well anyway,it doesnt need a lazy bigger displacement engine at all in my opinion.
Right sorry for the thread hijack mate LOL. I'll pop a couple of pictures up then keep an eye open for your updates you've promised on your own car,which is a cracker .
Edited by BEAMS 162 on Monday 31st August 16:33
K20A is more than adequate in the CL7, and whilst being a bigger car in the Honda fleet its worth remembering that in todays day and age its actually relatively light as far as cars go! RBC inlet helps give it a bit more torque too.
Right I'm gonna sit and sort through some photos now and try write some sort of update on my antics over the last couple of months, be right back!
Strange year it's been hasn't it. You'd have thought I would have all the time in the world to keep this thread up to date, what with lockdown and less social leisure activities going on. New addition to the family (he's actually nearly 1 and a half now!) has kept me pretty busy, but despite the lack of car events this year I've still managed to find ways to improve and enjoy the Accord. Here's a bit of an update on the last few months…
With lockdown in full swing, and a few quid saved from staying at home, I started to up my search for a set of wheels. Pretty sure I had mentioned it on here pages back but I had a set of my dream wheels reserved only for the deal to fall through last minute. It had taken me a year to find the first set and with those off the table I re-setup all my saved searches on multiple for sale sites and waited patiently. Fast forward another year and finally with a bit of persuasion a chap I had been chatting to, who owned a set of the wheels I wanted, finally agreed to part ways with them and a deal was done. I'm not exaggerating when I say it had taken me over 2 years of daily searching to find these wheels in the spec I needed them in, so to see them sat in my dining room in all their glory was kind of surreal for a while.
With businesses shut and new wheels not considered a basic necessity (that depends who you're talking to if you ask me
) my patience had to continue. But here they are, my very own Desmond Regamaster Marquis Promada in 17x8J ET+35 and ET+45 for the rears.
Paint on these is pretty special.
Gave them a little TLC whilst I was waiting for the tyre garages to open. Heres the centre caps before and after a little Autosol treatment.
After a few weeks or torture the garages opened and I was able to get my tyres swapped over and the new wheels on the car.
So I'll probably just finish this post with a bit more image spam of the car on it's new summer rims. Safe to say I'm a very happy man and the new wheels set the car off nicely. I'm very much an OEM+ fan but couldn't resist some lightweight forged alloys and they serve a function as well as looking great. With over 20kg of unsprung weight saved all round you could feel the difference immediately.
Be rude not to stop for a quick photo on the way back from fitting.
No more spacers needed, so thats even more weight saved on the corners.
As it always seems to go though, one thing goes right and another goes wrong. Shortly after fitting the wheels the clutch started to slip, and over the course of a couple of weeks it became undrivable. That's the next task decided for me then…!
With lockdown in full swing, and a few quid saved from staying at home, I started to up my search for a set of wheels. Pretty sure I had mentioned it on here pages back but I had a set of my dream wheels reserved only for the deal to fall through last minute. It had taken me a year to find the first set and with those off the table I re-setup all my saved searches on multiple for sale sites and waited patiently. Fast forward another year and finally with a bit of persuasion a chap I had been chatting to, who owned a set of the wheels I wanted, finally agreed to part ways with them and a deal was done. I'm not exaggerating when I say it had taken me over 2 years of daily searching to find these wheels in the spec I needed them in, so to see them sat in my dining room in all their glory was kind of surreal for a while.
With businesses shut and new wheels not considered a basic necessity (that depends who you're talking to if you ask me
) my patience had to continue. But here they are, my very own Desmond Regamaster Marquis Promada in 17x8J ET+35 and ET+45 for the rears.Paint on these is pretty special.
Gave them a little TLC whilst I was waiting for the tyre garages to open. Heres the centre caps before and after a little Autosol treatment.
After a few weeks or torture the garages opened and I was able to get my tyres swapped over and the new wheels on the car.
So I'll probably just finish this post with a bit more image spam of the car on it's new summer rims. Safe to say I'm a very happy man and the new wheels set the car off nicely. I'm very much an OEM+ fan but couldn't resist some lightweight forged alloys and they serve a function as well as looking great. With over 20kg of unsprung weight saved all round you could feel the difference immediately.
Be rude not to stop for a quick photo on the way back from fitting.
No more spacers needed, so thats even more weight saved on the corners.
As it always seems to go though, one thing goes right and another goes wrong. Shortly after fitting the wheels the clutch started to slip, and over the course of a couple of weeks it became undrivable. That's the next task decided for me then…!
Gorgeous alloys and they suit the car to a tee
I know the CL7s handle the best on 17s having been out in a few; a pal had 1 (bog standard but fresh import) it came in on some Works 19s IIRC and it handled horribly; he put 18s on and it was better but not right; loved to tramline.
Stuck some nice Enkei 17s on and it just made it all perfect as it should have been
I know the CL7s handle the best on 17s having been out in a few; a pal had 1 (bog standard but fresh import) it came in on some Works 19s IIRC and it handled horribly; he put 18s on and it was better but not right; loved to tramline.
Stuck some nice Enkei 17s on and it just made it all perfect as it should have been
Options, options, options. I got numerous setups priced up for me from 'Stage 76' clutches and super light flywheels to OEM replacement parts. I believe the stock flywheel on a CL7 Euro R is just over 7kg, heavier than other Type R models. A facelight EP3 flywheel is a decent upgrade that I considered but with it being such a big job I decided that I'd prefer to put some brand new parts in there. I settled for the Comp Clutch lightweight flywheel that comes in at 5.18kg, they do offer an 'Ultra Lightweight' at 3.9kg but I didn't want to compromise the comfort and city driving too much. I paired the CC flywheel with an Exedy OEM spec clutch – after all its a Honda and torque is what kills clutches, that shouldn't be a problem then…
I'd never changed a clutch on a car before. I did actually start a Level 2 Automotive course last year to learn a bit more but it got cut short when the virus panic happened and we never got on to transmission unfortunately. Luckily I have some top friends who know much more than I do that were happy to help and teach me along the way:
CC Lightweight Flywheel 5.18kg
Replacement Exedy clutch kit goes in.
It wasn't actually anywhere near as daunting a job as I expected. We did it on axle stands and without dropping the subframe, means it's pretty tight but just enough room to move the box over to one side and get to both the clutch and the flywheel. Gave everything a good clean inside and new parts in. Best part of a day up the unit but that included a BBQ and numerous tea breaks/stops to chat to visiting friends. Huge thanks to the lads that chipped in. That's a job that had been hanging over me a while as I'd owned the car 3 years and had no record of clutch being done in Japan. The unit that came out was a Honda and it was pretty haggered so I'm sure it was the factory fitted part still, not bad to do over 100k miles!
Another shot of the car on its new wheels to sign this one off then:
Pulled over on the B3078 in the New Forest. Man I love that Fuji.
I'd never changed a clutch on a car before. I did actually start a Level 2 Automotive course last year to learn a bit more but it got cut short when the virus panic happened and we never got on to transmission unfortunately. Luckily I have some top friends who know much more than I do that were happy to help and teach me along the way:
CC Lightweight Flywheel 5.18kg
Replacement Exedy clutch kit goes in.
It wasn't actually anywhere near as daunting a job as I expected. We did it on axle stands and without dropping the subframe, means it's pretty tight but just enough room to move the box over to one side and get to both the clutch and the flywheel. Gave everything a good clean inside and new parts in. Best part of a day up the unit but that included a BBQ and numerous tea breaks/stops to chat to visiting friends. Huge thanks to the lads that chipped in. That's a job that had been hanging over me a while as I'd owned the car 3 years and had no record of clutch being done in Japan. The unit that came out was a Honda and it was pretty haggered so I'm sure it was the factory fitted part still, not bad to do over 100k miles!
Another shot of the car on its new wheels to sign this one off then:
Pulled over on the B3078 in the New Forest. Man I love that Fuji.
d_a_n1979 said:
Gorgeous alloys and they suit the car to a tee
I know the CL7s handle the best on 17s having been out in a few; a pal had 1 (bog standard but fresh import) it came in on some Works 19s IIRC and it handled horribly; he put 18s on and it was better but not right; loved to tramline.
Stuck some nice Enkei 17s on and it just made it all perfect as it should have been
Thanks! Yeh I ran 18s for a bit and really couldn't get on with them, completely ruined the ride too. Now I don't even really like the look of anything bigger on them. Prefer the smaller wheels with chunkier tyre look these days I know the CL7s handle the best on 17s having been out in a few; a pal had 1 (bog standard but fresh import) it came in on some Works 19s IIRC and it handled horribly; he put 18s on and it was better but not right; loved to tramline.
Stuck some nice Enkei 17s on and it just made it all perfect as it should have been
Kewy said:
Thanks! Yeh I ran 18s for a bit and really couldn't get on with them, completely ruined the ride too. Now I don't even really like the look of anything bigger on them. Prefer the smaller wheels with chunkier tyre look these days
I'm the same; just dropped back onto my 17" winter alloys & tyres for my E39 touring from 18" alloys & tyres and the ride is so much better as is the handling!The 18s have been sold, so I'll source another set of 17s over winter and get them refurbed ready for new summer tyres, come the New Year etc
With the clutch and flywheel seen to, and the world slowing coming out of lockdown it was time to enjoy the car a bit whilst we had the weather for it. As a group of friends we're lucky to own a good selection of different Honda's between us.
K20A in all it's glory. For the non-Honda fans, this is all 4 cars JDM cars that Japan kept for themself, with the K20A engine and 6spd LSD box in them.
More New Forest goodness.
Respect your elders.
With no big jobs on the horizon and fidgety hands I decided to do some more maintenance jobs:
Wind deflectors had seen better days.
That's better. I'll probably replace these with Mugen ones at some point as you can't beat some brand new ones, but at nearly £200 there are better places to spend money atm.
Found some subframe bushes that I had yet to replace, 15 year old rubber is bound to be worn so replaced with fresh.
Scuttle had seen better days. Heard good things about Gtechniq C4 so decided to give it a try…
Before and after a C4 application. Cleaned with APC and some Isopropyl first then applied C4, much better and should hopefully last.
Gave all the drainage behind the scuttle a good clean out before refitting.
When you refit the scuttle and realise 80% of it is hidden under the bonnet… okay, well at least I know it's fresh
I'd developed a bit of a squealing sound coming from the aux belt area, so first port-of-call was to change the bearings in the tensioner and idler. You can buy the whole pulleys for about £40 a pop, but in the spirit of saving money and keeping my hands busy I decided to buy the bearings and a race and seal driver set instead, less than £40 in total so half the price of changing the whole pulleys, plus I have the driver set for future use.
Out with the old and in with the new.
Unfortunately the new bearings didn't cure the squealing sound so it became a process of elimination. I'm going to fast forward the whole faff because it's pretty boring and went on for weeks, but the following procedures were done trying to cure this strange squealing sound:
• Swapped Alternator for a spare I had – no change
• Fitted my friends tensioner and idler to make sure it was nothing to do with the pulleys as opposed to the bearings – no change
• By passed the air con pump with a shorter belt– no change
This left only the water pump and the crank pulley on the circuit, there was of course still the chance it was tricking us and coming from elsewhere. A quick run of the car with no belt on it and I couldn't hear the sound, it was very intermittent anyway so this didn't convince me 100% but I figured it was grounds to try the water pump first. Hurrah! Squealing eliminated and another job I hadn't done before so more learnt in the process. Added bonus that it meant fresh coolant and bled system so that's one less thing to do for a while.
For anyone wanting to tackle the water pump on one of these, it's pretty easy, does require you to remove the alternator to get it out though, and one of the bolts on the pump is a bit of a knuckle scraper but with patience you'll get there. Sorry I don't think I took any photos of the job either – bit rubbish at the 'how-to' side of things!
Finish with this snap of the little dude helping me with the car
K20A in all it's glory. For the non-Honda fans, this is all 4 cars JDM cars that Japan kept for themself, with the K20A engine and 6spd LSD box in them.
More New Forest goodness.
Respect your elders.
With no big jobs on the horizon and fidgety hands I decided to do some more maintenance jobs:
Wind deflectors had seen better days.
That's better. I'll probably replace these with Mugen ones at some point as you can't beat some brand new ones, but at nearly £200 there are better places to spend money atm.
Found some subframe bushes that I had yet to replace, 15 year old rubber is bound to be worn so replaced with fresh.
Scuttle had seen better days. Heard good things about Gtechniq C4 so decided to give it a try…
Before and after a C4 application. Cleaned with APC and some Isopropyl first then applied C4, much better and should hopefully last.
Gave all the drainage behind the scuttle a good clean out before refitting.
When you refit the scuttle and realise 80% of it is hidden under the bonnet… okay, well at least I know it's fresh
I'd developed a bit of a squealing sound coming from the aux belt area, so first port-of-call was to change the bearings in the tensioner and idler. You can buy the whole pulleys for about £40 a pop, but in the spirit of saving money and keeping my hands busy I decided to buy the bearings and a race and seal driver set instead, less than £40 in total so half the price of changing the whole pulleys, plus I have the driver set for future use.
Out with the old and in with the new.
Unfortunately the new bearings didn't cure the squealing sound so it became a process of elimination. I'm going to fast forward the whole faff because it's pretty boring and went on for weeks, but the following procedures were done trying to cure this strange squealing sound:
• Swapped Alternator for a spare I had – no change
• Fitted my friends tensioner and idler to make sure it was nothing to do with the pulleys as opposed to the bearings – no change
• By passed the air con pump with a shorter belt– no change
This left only the water pump and the crank pulley on the circuit, there was of course still the chance it was tricking us and coming from elsewhere. A quick run of the car with no belt on it and I couldn't hear the sound, it was very intermittent anyway so this didn't convince me 100% but I figured it was grounds to try the water pump first. Hurrah! Squealing eliminated and another job I hadn't done before so more learnt in the process. Added bonus that it meant fresh coolant and bled system so that's one less thing to do for a while.
For anyone wanting to tackle the water pump on one of these, it's pretty easy, does require you to remove the alternator to get it out though, and one of the bolts on the pump is a bit of a knuckle scraper but with patience you'll get there. Sorry I don't think I took any photos of the job either – bit rubbish at the 'how-to' side of things!
Finish with this snap of the little dude helping me with the car
Kewy said:
With the clutch and flywheel seen to, and the world slowing coming out of lockdown it was time to enjoy the car a bit whilst we had the weather for it. As a group of friends we're lucky to own a good selection of different Honda's between us.
K20A in all it's glory. For the non-Honda fans, this is all 4 cars JDM cars that Japan kept for themself, with the K20A engine and 6spd LSD box in them.
More New Forest goodness.
Respect your elders.
With no big jobs on the horizon and fidgety hands I decided to do some more maintenance jobs:
Wind deflectors had seen better days.
That's better. I'll probably replace these with Mugen ones at some point as you can't beat some brand new ones, but at nearly £200 there are better places to spend money atm.
Found some subframe bushes that I had yet to replace, 15 year old rubber is bound to be worn so replaced with fresh.
Scuttle had seen better days. Heard good things about Gtechniq C4 so decided to give it a try…
Before and after a C4 application. Cleaned with APC and some Isopropyl first then applied C4, much better and should hopefully last.
Gave all the drainage behind the scuttle a good clean out before refitting.
When you refit the scuttle and realise 80% of it is hidden under the bonnet… okay, well at least I know it's fresh
I'd developed a bit of a squealing sound coming from the aux belt area, so first port-of-call was to change the bearings in the tensioner and idler. You can buy the whole pulleys for about £40 a pop, but in the spirit of saving money and keeping my hands busy I decided to buy the bearings and a race and seal driver set instead, less than £40 in total so half the price of changing the whole pulleys, plus I have the driver set for future use.
Out with the old and in with the new.
Unfortunately the new bearings didn't cure the squealing sound so it became a process of elimination. I'm going to fast forward the whole faff because it's pretty boring and went on for weeks, but the following procedures were done trying to cure this strange squealing sound:
• Swapped Alternator for a spare I had – no change
• Fitted my friends tensioner and idler to make sure it was nothing to do with the pulleys as opposed to the bearings – no change
• By passed the air con pump with a shorter belt– no change
This left only the water pump and the crank pulley on the circuit, there was of course still the chance it was tricking us and coming from elsewhere. A quick run of the car with no belt on it and I couldn't hear the sound, it was very intermittent anyway so this didn't convince me 100% but I figured it was grounds to try the water pump first. Hurrah! Squealing eliminated and another job I hadn't done before so more learnt in the process. Added bonus that it meant fresh coolant and bled system so that's one less thing to do for a while.
For anyone wanting to tackle the water pump on one of these, it's pretty easy, does require you to remove the alternator to get it out though, and one of the bolts on the pump is a bit of a knuckle scraper but with patience you'll get there. Sorry I don't think I took any photos of the job either – bit rubbish at the 'how-to' side of things!
Finish with this snap of the little dude helping me with the car
Great first picture; the FD2 has to be one of my favourite Civic's of this era, the EK9 for the older B generation etc...K20A in all it's glory. For the non-Honda fans, this is all 4 cars JDM cars that Japan kept for themself, with the K20A engine and 6spd LSD box in them.
More New Forest goodness.
Respect your elders.
With no big jobs on the horizon and fidgety hands I decided to do some more maintenance jobs:
Wind deflectors had seen better days.
That's better. I'll probably replace these with Mugen ones at some point as you can't beat some brand new ones, but at nearly £200 there are better places to spend money atm.
Found some subframe bushes that I had yet to replace, 15 year old rubber is bound to be worn so replaced with fresh.
Scuttle had seen better days. Heard good things about Gtechniq C4 so decided to give it a try…
Before and after a C4 application. Cleaned with APC and some Isopropyl first then applied C4, much better and should hopefully last.
Gave all the drainage behind the scuttle a good clean out before refitting.
When you refit the scuttle and realise 80% of it is hidden under the bonnet… okay, well at least I know it's fresh
I'd developed a bit of a squealing sound coming from the aux belt area, so first port-of-call was to change the bearings in the tensioner and idler. You can buy the whole pulleys for about £40 a pop, but in the spirit of saving money and keeping my hands busy I decided to buy the bearings and a race and seal driver set instead, less than £40 in total so half the price of changing the whole pulleys, plus I have the driver set for future use.
Out with the old and in with the new.
Unfortunately the new bearings didn't cure the squealing sound so it became a process of elimination. I'm going to fast forward the whole faff because it's pretty boring and went on for weeks, but the following procedures were done trying to cure this strange squealing sound:
• Swapped Alternator for a spare I had – no change
• Fitted my friends tensioner and idler to make sure it was nothing to do with the pulleys as opposed to the bearings – no change
• By passed the air con pump with a shorter belt– no change
This left only the water pump and the crank pulley on the circuit, there was of course still the chance it was tricking us and coming from elsewhere. A quick run of the car with no belt on it and I couldn't hear the sound, it was very intermittent anyway so this didn't convince me 100% but I figured it was grounds to try the water pump first. Hurrah! Squealing eliminated and another job I hadn't done before so more learnt in the process. Added bonus that it meant fresh coolant and bled system so that's one less thing to do for a while.
For anyone wanting to tackle the water pump on one of these, it's pretty easy, does require you to remove the alternator to get it out though, and one of the bolts on the pump is a bit of a knuckle scraper but with patience you'll get there. Sorry I don't think I took any photos of the job either – bit rubbish at the 'how-to' side of things!
Finish with this snap of the little dude helping me with the car
Never owned a CTY, did have a DC5 and thoroughly loved that, but it got too small in the end, the FD2 would have been the ideal move; but their prices were still very high, as they are now and putting a large deposit down to have a smaller mortgage was more important at that time!
This post will be all about lights... so if that bores you then don't say I didn't warn you.
The headlights on my car have been refurbished at least yearly and no matter how many treatments or methods I try they have yellowed within a year without fail. As for my front fogs… one of them seems to be letting some moisture in and the result is an ecosystem that I think David Attenborough would be proud of.
Addressing the fogs first, I was considering a brand new set until I discovered that Honda Odyssey fogs can be made to fit with a little modification – that means things get interesting. Bit of a hunt on Yahoo JP and I managed to bag a set of these:
Genuine Honda/Stanley OEM+ fogs for a Honda Odyssey. I don't even know what you call the orange/blue coating but its COOOOOOOL (and JDM… geeeeeek me out.)
Arrived on home turf safe and sound in just over a week, not bad!
They're a little fiddly to fit. Bumper off job and once the old fogs are out you need to drill out one of the holes on your original bracket, then the new fogs are fitted to the Accord bracket. I genuinely never thought I'd get this excited about a set of fog lights
Bumper back on.
I LOVE THEM. (Excuse the bugs.)
I also fitted some NightEye LED bulbs whilst fitting them. Now you can see how bad the yellowing on my headlight lenses are, those are supposed to be OEM Xenons!
I'm gonna drop a photo in here as it was taken in between me addressing the fogs and the headlights:
Another New Forest photo. Random fact, this photo was taken using a 43 year old lens – Nikkor 200mm F4 AI for the photo geeks out there.
So with the fogs sorted, and setting off the front end so nicely, I decided it was time to sort the headlights out once and for good. For those unaware, there are two different style headlights for the 7th gen Accord, preface and facelift (I'm sure there are other aftermarket options but I'm talking OEM). My car is the last year of preface before they started selling the facelift. I actually prefer the preface front bumper, but the facelift headlights look much more modern in my opinion. Bit of a browse of the groups and I had a set of facelight headlights on their way to me. That was easy, or so I thought…
Fresh lights arrived.
I really didn't want the new lights going down the same path as the old ones so opted to give them some TLC before fitting. I paid a friend who is a detailer to give them a full refurb, and then a local company to apply PPF UV resistant film that will supposedly prevent yellowing and is guaranteed for 10 years (time will tell on that one).
Lights back in my possesion and a pleasant Sunday afternoon to fit them, I cracked a cold one and got to removing the original lights from the car. Bumper dropped yet again, slam panel off, 4 bolts per light and slide them out carefully whilst unplugging everything from the back. Back in my dining room I put my old lights next to the new ones to bask in the glory of how fresh it's going to look. That's odd, they're slightly different on the back, must be a facelift thing... no it turns out that block sticking out is actually a motor that controls the up-down levelling electronically, my car doesn't have any sort of electronic adjustment, bugger.
I pulled the back off the motor to reveal a plastic dial that can be turned by hand, upon inspected I can see the inner housing moving as I turn it, so it's not the end of the world. Next to move my bulbs and ballasts over. Except it turns out that the facelift lights are also not Xenon as they were advertised and therefore none of my parts fit, bugger again. I'm already pretty invested in these lights given I'd paid to have them refurbed and PPF'd so determined to find a solution.
There was a solution, albeit not an easy one. I had to change the back part of the reflector that holds the bulb/ignitor in place, through the little hole the bulb goes through. I also had to cut a hole in the bottom for the wiring for the ballast wiring to fit through, and file off multiple bits of plastic that got in the way of fitting the ballasts. Note to evereyone, make sure you replace like for like because my beer on a Sunday afternoon turned into 8 beers, cut knuckles, sweaty brow and a Sunday evening refitting my lights in the dark with a torch
But they were in, and the next morning I took some comparison photos:
Before (top) and after (bottom).
And again. As you can see the main differences are the sidelight lenses, and the clear indication.
Once again I was a very happy man, and I won't have to tinker with my headlights for quite some time… or so I thought…
(Will continue in next post as this one is already getting pretty long.)
The headlights on my car have been refurbished at least yearly and no matter how many treatments or methods I try they have yellowed within a year without fail. As for my front fogs… one of them seems to be letting some moisture in and the result is an ecosystem that I think David Attenborough would be proud of.
Addressing the fogs first, I was considering a brand new set until I discovered that Honda Odyssey fogs can be made to fit with a little modification – that means things get interesting. Bit of a hunt on Yahoo JP and I managed to bag a set of these:
Genuine Honda/Stanley OEM+ fogs for a Honda Odyssey. I don't even know what you call the orange/blue coating but its COOOOOOOL (and JDM… geeeeeek me out.)
Arrived on home turf safe and sound in just over a week, not bad!
They're a little fiddly to fit. Bumper off job and once the old fogs are out you need to drill out one of the holes on your original bracket, then the new fogs are fitted to the Accord bracket. I genuinely never thought I'd get this excited about a set of fog lights
Bumper back on.
I LOVE THEM. (Excuse the bugs.)
I also fitted some NightEye LED bulbs whilst fitting them. Now you can see how bad the yellowing on my headlight lenses are, those are supposed to be OEM Xenons!
I'm gonna drop a photo in here as it was taken in between me addressing the fogs and the headlights:
Another New Forest photo. Random fact, this photo was taken using a 43 year old lens – Nikkor 200mm F4 AI for the photo geeks out there.
So with the fogs sorted, and setting off the front end so nicely, I decided it was time to sort the headlights out once and for good. For those unaware, there are two different style headlights for the 7th gen Accord, preface and facelift (I'm sure there are other aftermarket options but I'm talking OEM). My car is the last year of preface before they started selling the facelift. I actually prefer the preface front bumper, but the facelift headlights look much more modern in my opinion. Bit of a browse of the groups and I had a set of facelight headlights on their way to me. That was easy, or so I thought…
Fresh lights arrived.
I really didn't want the new lights going down the same path as the old ones so opted to give them some TLC before fitting. I paid a friend who is a detailer to give them a full refurb, and then a local company to apply PPF UV resistant film that will supposedly prevent yellowing and is guaranteed for 10 years (time will tell on that one).
Lights back in my possesion and a pleasant Sunday afternoon to fit them, I cracked a cold one and got to removing the original lights from the car. Bumper dropped yet again, slam panel off, 4 bolts per light and slide them out carefully whilst unplugging everything from the back. Back in my dining room I put my old lights next to the new ones to bask in the glory of how fresh it's going to look. That's odd, they're slightly different on the back, must be a facelift thing... no it turns out that block sticking out is actually a motor that controls the up-down levelling electronically, my car doesn't have any sort of electronic adjustment, bugger.
I pulled the back off the motor to reveal a plastic dial that can be turned by hand, upon inspected I can see the inner housing moving as I turn it, so it's not the end of the world. Next to move my bulbs and ballasts over. Except it turns out that the facelift lights are also not Xenon as they were advertised and therefore none of my parts fit, bugger again. I'm already pretty invested in these lights given I'd paid to have them refurbed and PPF'd so determined to find a solution.
There was a solution, albeit not an easy one. I had to change the back part of the reflector that holds the bulb/ignitor in place, through the little hole the bulb goes through. I also had to cut a hole in the bottom for the wiring for the ballast wiring to fit through, and file off multiple bits of plastic that got in the way of fitting the ballasts. Note to evereyone, make sure you replace like for like because my beer on a Sunday afternoon turned into 8 beers, cut knuckles, sweaty brow and a Sunday evening refitting my lights in the dark with a torch
But they were in, and the next morning I took some comparison photos:
Before (top) and after (bottom).
And again. As you can see the main differences are the sidelight lenses, and the clear indication.
Once again I was a very happy man, and I won't have to tinker with my headlights for quite some time… or so I thought…
(Will continue in next post as this one is already getting pretty long.)
d_a_n1979 said:
Great first picture; the FD2 has to be one of my favourite Civic's of this era, the EK9 for the older B generation etc...
Never owned a CTY, did have a DC5 and thoroughly loved that, but it got too small in the end, the FD2 would have been the ideal move; but their prices were still very high, as they are now and putting a large deposit down to have a smaller mortgage was more important at that time!
Haha yeh shame about the quality as its a screen shot from a video, but that first photo got a fair bit of attention on the socials (@skewy on Insta, have I mentioned that on here before? Never owned a CTY, did have a DC5 and thoroughly loved that, but it got too small in the end, the FD2 would have been the ideal move; but their prices were still very high, as they are now and putting a large deposit down to have a smaller mortgage was more important at that time!
)FD2 would be lovely, but the prices have gone a little bit silly as of recent. It was on the cards to replace the Accord at some point but I really don't think it's twice as much car, and they're pushing twice the value these days…
With new lights and fogs fitted, the front end was looking spick and span.
Did a track day at Bedford, we won't talk about the stone that kicked up and put a stone chip in one of my fancy-arse fog lights…
I was a happy man, that was, until MOT day (you can probably see where this is going). Car failed MOT. ABS light, doh, forgot to clear that code before I turned up. But more importantly, headlights. I knew my beams were all over the place because I'd noticed visibility was noticeably worse at night since fitting the new lights, but I'd fiddled round with the motors so that wasn't a surprise, I'd just wait until my MOT and they could set them correctly. Problem was, although they could adjust the up-down levelling with the dial on the back of the motor, the actual manual adjustment for left-right level wasn't moving the lights at all. SIGH.
'You still got your old lights, we'll have to fit them'… hmmm, well the thing is… It wasn't quite as simple as just swapping them back now was it.
So I had 10 working days to figure out the best way to resolve this. New lights are about £800 a pair and I really didn't fancy swapping everything back over to my s
tty yellow-lensed preface lights either. I decided that this was an opportunity to learn, I've never split a set of headlights before, don't really have anything to lose now do I, so I nicked the Mrs' GHD dryer, ordered a roll of butyl and got to work:
More night time headlight removal – by now my neighbours must think I have a screw loose.
The work station.
Facelift inners and housing (left) VS Preface inners and housing (right). Worth noting here that the Euro R also has 'smoked' chrome on the inside of the lights vs a bright chrome on the non-Euro R facelift lights.
Old butyl. It's important to remove as much as the old sealant as possible before resealing.
New butyl. I bought a 4mm bead but ended up putting two 'laps' around the housing in as it didn't feel like enough with just one strip in.
Frankenlights! So now they really are quite unique. Preface Euro R inners with a facelift lens. Quite liked my short spell with a clear indicator but these mongrel lights are starting to grow on me actually.
Annnnnd back in one piece
That took me the best part of a week using my spare time in the evenings, and with a couple of days to spare I took the car back in and got my MOT ticket (after also fitting a new ABS sensor). Happy days. Oh but what's this that just turned up…?
Did a track day at Bedford, we won't talk about the stone that kicked up and put a stone chip in one of my fancy-arse fog lights…
I was a happy man, that was, until MOT day (you can probably see where this is going). Car failed MOT. ABS light, doh, forgot to clear that code before I turned up. But more importantly, headlights. I knew my beams were all over the place because I'd noticed visibility was noticeably worse at night since fitting the new lights, but I'd fiddled round with the motors so that wasn't a surprise, I'd just wait until my MOT and they could set them correctly. Problem was, although they could adjust the up-down levelling with the dial on the back of the motor, the actual manual adjustment for left-right level wasn't moving the lights at all. SIGH.
'You still got your old lights, we'll have to fit them'… hmmm, well the thing is… It wasn't quite as simple as just swapping them back now was it.
So I had 10 working days to figure out the best way to resolve this. New lights are about £800 a pair and I really didn't fancy swapping everything back over to my s
tty yellow-lensed preface lights either. I decided that this was an opportunity to learn, I've never split a set of headlights before, don't really have anything to lose now do I, so I nicked the Mrs' GHD dryer, ordered a roll of butyl and got to work:More night time headlight removal – by now my neighbours must think I have a screw loose.
The work station.
Facelift inners and housing (left) VS Preface inners and housing (right). Worth noting here that the Euro R also has 'smoked' chrome on the inside of the lights vs a bright chrome on the non-Euro R facelift lights.
Old butyl. It's important to remove as much as the old sealant as possible before resealing.
New butyl. I bought a 4mm bead but ended up putting two 'laps' around the housing in as it didn't feel like enough with just one strip in.
Frankenlights! So now they really are quite unique. Preface Euro R inners with a facelift lens. Quite liked my short spell with a clear indicator but these mongrel lights are starting to grow on me actually.
Annnnnd back in one piece
That took me the best part of a week using my spare time in the evenings, and with a couple of days to spare I took the car back in and got my MOT ticket (after also fitting a new ABS sensor). Happy days. Oh but what's this that just turned up…?
Lollypops said:
Regamasters are a classic alloy wheel and tend to look great on most Honda's. Not cheap to buy these days either.
Did I also see your car on the rollers at TDi North having a cheeky remap?
Yes they weren't hard to find and weren't what I'd call cheap!Did I also see your car on the rollers at TDi North having a cheeky remap?
Uhmmm where might you have seen that?
I'll start this post with a couple of random photos of the car taken recently (because I don't think there's enough photos in this thread )…
Okay, with that out my system. On to the maintenance, brake pads! I've done a couple of track days this year on the PBS pads that had been on my car since last summer (also did a day back in Sept 2019 on the same pads). Initially I couldn't fault the PBS, they were a huge improvement over the Pagid or Brembos that I'd run previously – those could barely do 3 laps around Combe without turning to wood. PBS could hold up for a good 20 min session and still stop the car.
I did find, however, that at Bedford – which is very heavy on the brakes – they were smoking a lot when I came off track, even after doing a long cool down lap (that track is nearly 4 miles long!). Granted, an even longer cool down would have taken more heat out the pads, but it just didn't seem right to me. They also started to get a bit of fade, no where near as bad as the cheaper pads, but fade none-the-less. After Bedford I knew it was time to change them:
I think they were finished the fronts had got so hot that they just started to crumble in my hands when I took them out.
New pads fitted. Project Mu HC+800 all round.
Why did I go for the Project Mu's? Well I wanted to try something different, and quite simply because I'd been recommended them and managed to get them for a great price (Shout out to WB Performance for that). So far they have really impressed me though. I did a track day a couple of days after fitting these and didn't get smoke from the brakes all day. The initial bite when cold is terrible, almost scary if I'm honest ('please stop, please stop'), but two or three stops and a little heat in them and they start to work, once you have a good amount of heat in they're fantastic. Not experienced any fade yet. I have another track day in 2 weeks so I'll report back after that one to see if they're still holding up
Whilst doing the brake pads I also changed the track rod ends for new Hardrace ones, as I'd recently felt some play in the old factory ones:
Old vs New.
Hardrace track rod ends fitted – easy job, only ballache is needing an alignment after (despite counting the turns off, and recounting them on).
And with that, the car was ready for Snetterton. This is where the Accord really shines. Snetterton is nearly a 4 hour drive from home, my uncle lives 15 minutes from the race circuit, and had asked me to collect something for him round my way and drop it to him as I'm heading that way. 'Yeah sure' I said…
Special delivery.
Not only does it get you there in comfort, it can deliver a gearbox halfway across the country and then continue on to be thrashed round the track all day. I am once again impressed. I do have a bunch of photos from the Snetterton day but I think I'll do a separate 'bonus' post with just those photos following this one. Then I promise I'll get on to the shiny thing that I sneak-peaked at the end of the last post
)…Okay, with that out my system. On to the maintenance, brake pads! I've done a couple of track days this year on the PBS pads that had been on my car since last summer (also did a day back in Sept 2019 on the same pads). Initially I couldn't fault the PBS, they were a huge improvement over the Pagid or Brembos that I'd run previously – those could barely do 3 laps around Combe without turning to wood. PBS could hold up for a good 20 min session and still stop the car.
I did find, however, that at Bedford – which is very heavy on the brakes – they were smoking a lot when I came off track, even after doing a long cool down lap (that track is nearly 4 miles long!). Granted, an even longer cool down would have taken more heat out the pads, but it just didn't seem right to me. They also started to get a bit of fade, no where near as bad as the cheaper pads, but fade none-the-less. After Bedford I knew it was time to change them:
I think they were finished
the fronts had got so hot that they just started to crumble in my hands when I took them out.New pads fitted. Project Mu HC+800 all round.
Why did I go for the Project Mu's? Well I wanted to try something different, and quite simply because I'd been recommended them and managed to get them for a great price (Shout out to WB Performance for that). So far they have really impressed me though. I did a track day a couple of days after fitting these and didn't get smoke from the brakes all day. The initial bite when cold is terrible, almost scary if I'm honest ('please stop, please stop'), but two or three stops and a little heat in them and they start to work, once you have a good amount of heat in they're fantastic. Not experienced any fade yet. I have another track day in 2 weeks so I'll report back after that one to see if they're still holding up
Whilst doing the brake pads I also changed the track rod ends for new Hardrace ones, as I'd recently felt some play in the old factory ones:
Old vs New.
Hardrace track rod ends fitted – easy job, only ballache is needing an alignment after (despite counting the turns off, and recounting them on).
And with that, the car was ready for Snetterton. This is where the Accord really shines. Snetterton is nearly a 4 hour drive from home, my uncle lives 15 minutes from the race circuit, and had asked me to collect something for him round my way and drop it to him as I'm heading that way. 'Yeah sure' I said…
Special delivery.
Not only does it get you there in comfort, it can deliver a gearbox halfway across the country and then continue on to be thrashed round the track all day. I am once again impressed. I do have a bunch of photos from the Snetterton day but I think I'll do a separate 'bonus' post with just those photos following this one. Then I promise I'll get on to the shiny thing that I sneak-peaked at the end of the last post
Kewy said:
Lollypops said:
Regamasters are a classic alloy wheel and tend to look great on most Honda's. Not cheap to buy these days either.
Did I also see your car on the rollers at TDi North having a cheeky remap?
Yes they weren't hard to find and weren't what I'd call cheap!Did I also see your car on the rollers at TDi North having a cheeky remap?
Uhmmm where might you have seen that?
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