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Comments
Accords are on a 5 year cycle and the next one will have the all time best-looking back-end, for sure:-).....Richard
My gripe is that recently I saw a feature on TV news (not a commercial) where the car being driven was an Accord with a NAV system that interacted with the XM radio and showed traffic problems on the NAV system in real time. When I contact the Honda people and said I wanted that feature on my new Accord they told me that the feature was only available on Accuras, not Hondas. In the TV feature, the car being driven was a Honda, not Accura. They can make this work in Hondas but choose not to do so. Other gripe.... My car is only 2 months old and a new NAV DVD is coming out very soon. If I want it I will have to buy it for $185. Why doesn't Honda include 12 months of current NAV with the cars. It probably not cost them more than $1 per car to provide this service. Does anyone know if it would be illegal for an individual to purchase the new NAV DVD, burn copies and give them (not sell them) to other Honda owners?
Just wondering if anyone has used theirs like this. Any concerns (other than the fact that Honda AFIK does not publish an allowable towing capacity)?
Dave
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
If Honda continues to follow its 5 year model cycle, the Accord will be up for a redesign in 2008.
The 4 speed automatic in the previous generation Accord and Acura TL had an issue with the torque converter that hasn't carried forward to the current generation.
The interesting thing is that although the recall is for the V6 Accord and not the 4-cyl, the only 7th gen Accord that has been reported here as needing an automatic transmission replacement is a 4-cylinder model, at least AFAIK. There's some speculation that it's only a matter of time before the 7th gen 4-cylinder Accord is subject to the same recall. But it's only speculation at this point.
I'm not a big fan of the styling either (esp the rear) but I can't see it when I'm driving so I can probably live with it.
The V6 with Traction Control will handle better in the snow than the I4 since the 4's are not available with Traction Control.
To Address your questions:
"1.) You have spent a lot of money on a "Cold Air Intake" and "dual mufflers" for a slight increase in power." It's my money. why do you care? $200 for a intake and $500 for COmptech mufflers. Wow...$700 on a $25K car.
"2.) You now have a "one of a kind" Honda that will be hard to trade into a dealer, because of "resale issues"."
Exhaust is bolt on. It can unbolted in my driveway and swapped out with factory mufflers in a 1/2 hour. Intake is about 1 hour worth of work to replace with stock. I have all original parts.
"Question: ---What was wrong with the factory air intake and the factory exhaust systems?"
This does give you a bit more power and noise. The factory Accord was too quiet and COmptech mufflers are just right. They are pretty much still quiet, just a bit louder than stock.
But just as a FYI. THese things were installed 4 years ago when I was younger and stupider with my money. If I bought a Accord today I would do neither of these things. ANd frankly even today I want to take at least my AEM CAI off, but I'm too lazy to spend a few hours to remove everything and put stock back on. So I'll do it when I trade the car in and am forced to remove the parts.
But it is proven that proper & expensive systems will give you noticeable power improvements. Such as on a HOnda Accord, the addition of Comptech headers gives a proven approx. 20BHP on top of the 5 or so that exhaust/intake add.
As for the brakes, it sounds like your rotors. At 50,000 miles though, you might just have to pay for the repair yourself (assuming that's what it is).
I live a little north of San Francisco. Thanks Larry.
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/24/032401AV.html
There are a couple related to brakes but nothing on transmissions.
For whatever reason, some seem to fell compelled to trump up this transmission recall as if it's the automotive equivalent of Armageddon. But if you look at the procedure for the oil jet modification, it's not complicated at all and requires less disassembly of transmission components than a transmission fluid change requires. The procedure gets complicated only if they determine that second gear shows evidence of overheating and they have to replace the transmission. Which, if I understand your post correctly, wasn't necessary in your case.
You can try to get Honda to take responsibility for this seal leak, but I don't think they're going to do so based on the fact that they performed this relatively simple transmission modification.
As for the brake shudder, there's a TSB #03-069 that addresses such a condition. But you may have to try to convince them to do it at their expense since your vehicle is out of warranty.
Whether the seal leak was caused by the transmission fix or not, it still seems pretty early for something like that to happen, and it's worth bringing it up with "headquarters."
However, with 50,000 miles on the clock unless you reported this shudder at least a couple of times during the warranty period, you are probably out of luck. The only hope you may have is if the brake pads of your 2003 were the older compound. And with 50,000 miles it becomes alot harder to determine if the shudder is due to wear and tear or a defect.
Good luck.
I haven't noticed too many newer cars with the mud guards - are there drawbacks or do people feel it takes away from the look of the car.
Just looking for opinions.
Thanks
There are no drawbacks. I prefer the look.
If you've got a little time on your hands, body-color the flaps and put them back on to get both desired appearance and functionality. If you have even more discretionary time, masking-tape the flaps so the sprayed paint lines up with the car's bottom cut-off.
Thanks.
Firestone is a Bridgestone product, not the other way around. Bridgestone bought the Firestone brand some years ago, primarily to get extra production capacity in North America, to keep their costs down in bidding on OEM contracts. There is certainly nothing wrong with the Turanza, though my experience is that ride quality with these is not going to be any improvement on the Michelins.
However, you are not going to get better all-around performance for an Accord than the Michelins it came with. You can make it ride better, or you can make it handle better, but not both, with something else. These are not cheap, but there is a good reason that Honda has been so wedded to Michelin as an OEM supplier for the Accord over the years.
Out of all those tires Bridgestone has, the tire that was on the Ford Explorer's was the only one that was a bad design. It's kinda ridiculous to write-off every Bridgestone/FIrestone tire because of that. I have had numerous Bridgestone tires over the year and personally they are generally better than Michelin tires:
Bridgestone Potenza S-02 Pole Position was a better tire than the Michelin Pilot. and my current Bridgestone EL42 tires are better than the MXV4's that came on my car. In fact overall, I feel, Michelin's are overpriced and underachievers.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said a tear may occur in the driver's side front air bag of the Accords, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.
The recall is expected to begin on Dec. 6 and owners of the vehicles affected should contact the U.S. division of Honda at 1-800-999-1009
Here's some other good tires to consider:
Falken ZE Ziex 512s. Cheap and great tires. Quiet, good treadwear, good in the rain, and provide good handling. Come in H & V-rated.
Yokohama Avid H4S&V4S: Have had the previous generation Avid H4 tires and they are also cheap but provide a good compromise between dry and wet handling, have good treadwear and are quiet and comfy riding.
Ultimately I have found Michelin's are overpriced for what you get. There are better tires out there from Dunlop, Yokohama, Bridgestone and the above mentioned Falken.
If you're going to go 149MPH, V-rated is necessary. H-rated goes to 130MPH, which is generally fine for most cars. The V-rated tire is generally going to give a bit better handling because of the softer rubber compounds used. But it's not always true such as with my Michelin MXV4 V-rated OEMS. They were kinda hard and squealed loudly around turns. I have cars in the house with the Yokos I listed above and the Falken's and despite being H-rated tires on cars originally designed for V-rated tires they don't squeal around turns while offering similar roadholding.
-While no one is going to drive an Accord at a sustained speed to test the V-rating, having that capability gives the car an extra safety margin in the very circumstance that caused the uproar over at Ford: if the tire is not fully inflated, it has a higher margin of durability than a lesser rated tire. The higher the rating, the more abuse the tire can take before failing, especially as it applies to heat-related stress.
-Each time you move up the speed rating scale [from S to T to H to V and beyond] you get a tire that is more likely to be straight and true and round. Many vibration complaints on OEM tires come from tires being out of round; variations of vertical runout as little as 1-2mm can be easily felt by sensitive drivers [I'm one of them], and Hondas especially used to be notorious for these kinds of vibrations. No tire maker is completely guilt-free when it comes to quality control, but Michelin [in my very extensive experience] is more likely to put 4 round, straight tires on your car than just about anyone else in the business. For me, this is more important than the last bit of grip. For others, the various alternatives are perfectly legit, and I respect their priorities.
-The down side can be a slightly harsher ride, a greater tendency to develop flat spots overnight, and of course, a higher cost, each time you move up the speed scale from S to Z and beyond. I, for example, would never put a Z-rated tire on an Accord precisely for what it would do to the ride on an everyday basis, but others would. Another reason Honda picks the MXV4 for the Accord is that even the V-rated version is very resistant to flat-spotting, even when the car sits for days. This may not be important to you until you experience the shakes that seemingly won't go away after a car has been allowed to sit a long time - generally, the more nylon used in the belts and casing, the more prone the tire is to this problem. Michelin uses other materials to achieve their speed ratings, and this helps with the tires staying flexible.