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Honda Accord 2007 Maintenance and Repair
Mr_Shiftright
Member Posts: 64,481
This topic is for 2007 Honda Accord owners and/or potential buyers to discuss issues related to maintenance and repair.
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So let's give it a shot and see how it goes for now, and thanks for your comments--we thought about that, too.
MrShiftright
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...possibly incurring the wrath of a pc/permissive mod................(some of us really get off on clearspeak).....the expression - - grad - - be "rein in" (like a hoss)..
seasons best, ez....
..best, ez.. BS/San Jose State (bronze age)
Go by the minder, it can tell you better. There's a reason they no longer suggest going by mileage. The minder counts engine revolutions and knows pretty accurately when you should get an oil change.
Contratulations, Steve, Honda builds great motors, so, whatever premature bearing, cylinder bore, piston ring, camshaft, and crankshaft wear resulted from "run-it-like-ya'-stole-it" early use will most likely only be an expense burden for the next owner. One thing for certain - however you drive over the next 300 miles will have no effect on ultimate engine life. Most people, if they bother thinking about the subject at all, tend to fall into the mental trap of looking at run-in cautionaries as unpleasant interference to enjoying their new car. I look at run-in as my personal opportunity to finalize the full potential the automaker's engineers had in mind.
Second, I'd like to make sure I understand what you said: Even though my vroom-vrooming may not affect engine longevity, it could have an effect on realizing the full power and smoothness potential of the drivetrain later on. Is that right?
Based on other reports, yes. It also affects your fuel economy potential.
I can't say personally, since my grandmother broke in my old car (I got it at about 115,000 miles) and I carefully broke in my 2006 EX I-4 for the first 1,000 miles or so (under 3,500 RPM unless I had to rev to accelerate out of necessity.
*New piston rings' peripheral surface, the one that contacts the cylinder bore, are lapped to a slight convexity (outward bulge). "Seating" the rings entails controlled wear to intentionally grind the rings with the bore, itself, to a flat surface square with the cylinder bores and smooth out the bores in the process. Cylinder bores are intentionally left "roughened" rather than finely milled just for this reason. The last finishing step in machining cylinder bores is to lower a rotating stone tool into each bore and oscillate it vertically to achieve a controlled depth, 60 degree, cross-hatch pattern to aid ring seating. Additionally, the cross-hatch pattern, though worn by many thousands of miles, will remain faintly visible for a very long time. That's intentional - even the extremely shallow depth of those lines still holds lubricating oil at the ready to minimize cylinder wall wear for cold startups.
I've also brought this question up on VwVortex (The Car Lounge) and nobody has come up with an explanation remotely as detailed as yours. With you permission I would like to copy and paste this for their edification--crediting you of course (or not, as you wish). Let me know if that's OK. Thanks again.
- all 4 windows were rolled down halfway down, even though they were fully up when we went in (this happened to my wife)
- every time car was started, odometer display kept displaying a msg "Check Fuel Cap", even though the fuel cap was tightly closed. This happened for a few days, and finally last night,the display returned to normal (ie message dissapeared) - & I hadn't refuelled the car either for it to stop..
Any help is greatly appreciated
If you press the unlock button on the remote, and immediately press it again and hold it the second time, the windows will roll down until you release the unlock button. This is a ventilation feature for summertime to cool off the car. Perhaps the key was in someone's pocket or purse and being pressed, or maybe whoever unlocked the doors held the unlock button down too long when they went to the car. I'm surprised the dealer didn't tell you about this cool (if used correctly) feature of the car. You can also roll up the windows from the outside of the car by locking the door with the key (not remote) and then turning that same direction again and holding in position. This is useful to me when I get out and realize I have left my back windows down.
Check Fuel Cap Message-
If the cap was not properly tightened even once, the message will stay on for days before resetting itself. I have heard of this happening when people put on the fuel cap crooked, or don't click it tight. The display will stay on until the car is driven a few times (multiple cranks) and a good number of miles. The indicator comes on because of the wrong amount of pressure in the fuel tank (from an improper seal of the gas cap). Just make sure you click the cap once everytime you refuel.
Don't be dismayed, as there are reasons for both of the little foibles you found with your car. I think the dealer just did a poor job of explaining some of the features like the remote roll-down windows.
The only light that stays on is the driver's "Auto" light, since his window is still active, and able to be rolled up/down.
That sucks if you can't anymore. I really like lifetime rotation/balance packages. I'm not sure if firestone offers that. I like going to firestone for my car work.
I have an EX-L V6, and to be honest, the illuminated switches are nothing special. Now, the illuminated audio and cruise controls on the steering wheel (which the SE has, as well) OTOH are quite nice.
My previous car (2002 Accord EX V6 sedan) didn't have illuminated lock and mirror switches. Only the "AUTO" on the driver's side window switch was illuminated. Not once in the 4.5 years I owned that car did I ever miss having illuminated mirror and lock switches. I did, however, find myself wishing for illuminated steering wheel controls on several occasions, so I'm thankful my new car has those.
The steering wheel controls are illuminated too.
I did think it was kinda strange that the $22,550 EX I4/5MT model would have them, but not the $25,200 LX V6 and $23,350 SE V6. It makes more sense to have a minor feature like that come standard on the top 4 models of the range (EX/EX-L, SE V6, LX V6, and EX-L V6) rather than having 2 models without it between the EX/EX-L and EX-L V6.
However, if they illuminated the window switches in the SE V6, why didn't they just go the whole 9 and illuminate the lock switches and the mirror controls? That's really odd.
And it just kills me that the passenger window lock-out button isn't illuminated. Honda, if you bothered to put lights in every other switch in the car, why didn't you put one there, huh? To save a buck or two? Yeah, thought so... :P
if you can locate the driver's window switch visually, you know where the others are in relation to it. it's all very logical.
the driver's door lock switch can be located using touch.
and if you are adjusting your mirrors, you really should be doing this once. in the case where you have multiple drivers using the vehicle, you should be doing it before you start out on your drive. but even if you are driving, at least in my '02, it can be identified via touch using the L/R switch, and also the square up/down, left/right control.
think about this, if you were to illuminate everything, it would just create additional light levels to compete with the ones you should pay attention to on the dash.
seriously.
honda is actually pretty good at leaving out the things that aren't essential, and they've been doing this for a long long time.
I think Honda sees their lineup in this order, despite the extra cost of the V6:
VP, LX, LX-SE, SE-V6, LX-V6, EX, EX-L, EX-V6
If you'll notice on the "trim description" page at Honda's Website, you'll see that the on the list of features SE-V6 says "adds to or replaces Special Edition (which is the LX-SE) features" which tells me that the SE-V6 is the step-up from the LX-SE. Simlarly, the LX-V6 list says "adds to or replaces SE-V6 features, making the LX-V6 a step-up from the SE-V6, not the EX I4.
Only the VP has "non-illuminated". What exactly is this, or what does it do?
Also, for the Illuminated Steering Wheel-Mounted Controls, on the SE, are the audio controls illuminated?
I don't have an SE but all my EX-L controls (including audio) are lit on the steering wheel.
I agree. I often find myself turning illumination to the lowest level and turning the nav screen off too.
granted your hands stay on the wheel, tho
I thought for a second (well, for a while) the steering wheel controls weren't lighting up. Turns out they are just really dim. Hope this is normal !
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
I always heard that cars these days are manufactured to such precise tolerances that the old "break-in" procedures don't matter very much if at all anymore (that is, the parts are all machined to fit extremely well together right from the start).
I've got 120 miles on it now. The car had 20-something miles on it when I picked it up so I can't vouch for those, but since I've had it the motor has been to redline once (wanted to see what it had) and has been up to or over 4,000 rpms maybe 20 times times (seven times when the wife drove it the other day, lol). The rest of the time has been easy 2-3k rpm cruising. Are you guys saying that I may have already shortened the life of the car somehow?
The last Japanese sedan I had was a 1998 Mazda 626 ES 2.5L V6 5-speed manual that I got in the summer of 2001 with 50k on it. I bought it from the first owner, who said he wanted an automatic but the sales guys at the dealership talked him into that specific 5-speed "because of the performance," which he said he tried, fell in love with, and appreciated until he sold it. So, I know that car was redlined many times before 1,000 miles, and it held up great (at the 80k mile service where the timing belt was changed I was told all the seals/gaskets etc looked great, no sign of any leakage). I sold it in late 2003 at 100k miles, no sign of oil leakage or consumption, and I even called the guy I sold it to about a year later and he'd still not had any problems.
But maybe I should cool it for the next 500 miles just to be safe (I'll admit, I haven't read the owner's manual yet...) I'll also have to try that 30-60 mph for 10 min procedure outlined above.
Also, I'd like to run Mobil1 full synthetic. When should I make the switch? I was thinking after 1,000 miles.
You have to really be trying to destroy a modern engine during break-in.