Chris' Honda Accord Sport Mk7

[hoodedreeper]

You may have seen my latest post on my MX5 NC1 build thread, the R34 has a couple of large bills coming up and unfortunately the MX5 has to go to free up some money.

Which means I'll need a new daily driver. At first I told myself I didn't care what it was as long as it was cheap to run, easy to work on and can save me money. Trawling through the typical selling sites, I just couldn't find something that wasn't either a complete rot box, had bad MOT history or had already sold.

My expectations are always too high when buying a used car, so having to lower them to buy a car sub £1500 was going to be tricky.

I came across the Honda Accord Mk7 and remembered it was almost a year to the day that I was researching the K24 variant as a replacement for the Colt CZT. I had a few friends who had previously owned the 2.2 i-cdti model and they had nothing but good things to say about it.

I came across a blue saloon for sale locally, myself and a friend headed over to take a look. The car was MOT'd 3 weeks ago, I think the tester must have been blind, or was it more like this...



It needed 4 new tyres, anti roll bar bushes, drop links, rear discs and pads, the handbrake didn't work. He claimed the car was serviced every 10k, but the last stamp in the book was 12k ago and the oil was black on the minimum (I understand diesel cars can blacken the oil quicker than petrol). He also failed the mention the damage to the bodywork, cracked headlight and door mirror, lacquer peel on the spoiler etc etc

He declined my offer and we drove off, dodging that bullet.

Speaking to one of said friends who had previously owned one, when he mentions his old grey Saloon is currently for sale. I messaged the seller and arranged to view it the following day.

My friend came with me again (he's a mechanic and MOT tester which certainly helps) and he pointed out a few things that needed attention. I threw in an offer and we agreed on a price.

Honda Accord Sport
2006 Registered
2.2 i-cdti
157k

Half leather
Satnav/6 CD changer
Aircon (needs a regas)

When my friend Daniel owned the car he installed BC Coilovers and Civic FN2 Type R wheels which were still fitted.



The headlights need a good restoration and I'm unsure whether to remove or replace the universal lip on the bumper



Luckily ride comfort hasn't been compromised too much, its just the right balance





Someone had installed a cheap dashcam and reverse camera at some point. The reverse camera didn't work, upon removing the boot lid carpet the signal wire wasn't spliced into the bulb harness. I did this and it still didn't work so I'll rip it all out.







Not much to say about the engine bay except it needs a good clean. I noticed a sub wire there but couldnt see anything else, so I'll remove that too. There's also some silly little things that need sorting like the missing battery clamp, trim clips missing etc.



Probably the longest intro for an average diesel saloon car but hey ho nevermind lol

[— Agent☣Orange —]

I'm glad you dodged that first bullet. Sounds like a lot of deception going on and who knows what other problems were lurking. I like the accord Accord you ended up with. The used car market in the US is crazy right now with cars costing twice as much as before Covid. Now with car-loan interest rates sharply rising, buyers are looking for good used cars but they're also expensive.

[hoodedreeper]

Its certainly been an expensive and testing couple of weeks of ownership. I'm still in the middle of some of the jobs so I'll get them posted once completed.

The dash trim to the right of the steering wheel wasn't snug against the main dashboard. While investigating I found a flick switch tucked behind



I traced the wiring to the fuse box and it wasn't looking great





The positive of the (speaker?) cable was joined to what looked like a thin positive cable for an amplifier



The wiring went down the driver side and tucked behind the rear seat. I found the main fuse for amplifer wire tucked inbetween the rear seat and trim. This could have caused a serious issue if things went badly. The rest of the wiring was shoved underneath the boot carpet.

With that removed, I also removed the dash cam and reverse camera (which didn't work)



Next up was to replace the brakes and fit both rear calipers.

The fronts didn't need changing but it made sense to do them for the low cost of the parts



The rears on the other hand....



Driver side rear disc dust/heat shield was barely holding together with the amount of corrosion it had





After fighting with the handbrake cables everything was fitted and bled.



Next up was the top dash display. I noticed this would work when it wanted to, a gentle tap and it came back to on.



The green socket is attached to the circuit board. With the wiring harness attached, it pulls down on the socket causing it to disconnect. Some have found dry solder joints, but unfortunately my soldering skills aren't that intricate.

I recycled an old wiper blade rubber and put it in the gap. So far it's worked a treat



While I was removing the reverse camera I noticed the number plate lights were rattling around. I ordered some LED replacements rather than sourcing OEM units and then fitting LED bulbs.

You can see the plastic tab on the right had broken in half





The first thing I did after purchasing the car was removing the Mugen badge from the bootlid. This had left evidence of the original Accord badge lifting the original lacquer. I found a replacement badge on AliExpress for the grand total of £5.00 posted.

Unfortunately it's a little shorter in length but it'll do for now



New rear number plate fitted due to the original had started to delaminate



Moving onto the front. I colour coded the grille with aerosol paint and it's come out pretty well. I also fitted an import number plate to match the rear. Since the photos the two 35mm holes either side have been blanked using cupboard blanks from eBay





Thats it for this update, I'll have another one in a week's time or so

[hoodedreeper]

Its certainly been an expensive and testing couple of weeks of ownership. I'm still in the middle of some of the jobs so I'll get them posted once completed.

The dash trim to the right of the steering wheel wasn't snug against the main dashboard. While investigating I found a flick switch tucked behind



I traced the wiring to the fuse box and it wasn't looking great





The positive of the (speaker?) cable was joined to what looked like a thin positive cable for an amplifier



The wiring went down the driver side and tucked behind the rear seat. I found the main fuse for amplifer wire tucked inbetween the rear seat and trim. This could have caused a serious issue if things went badly. The rest of the wiring was shoved underneath the boot carpet.

With that removed, I also removed the dash cam and reverse camera (which didn't work)



Next up was to replace the brakes and fit both rear calipers.

The fronts didn't need changing but it made sense to do them for the low cost of the parts



The rears on the other hand....



Driver side rear disc dust/heat shield was barely holding together with the amount of corrosion it had





After fighting with the handbrake cables everything was fitted and bled.



Next up was the top dash display. I noticed this would work when it wanted to, a gentle tap and it came back to on.



The green socket is attached to the circuit board. With the wiring harness attached, it pulls down on the socket causing it to disconnect. Some have found dry solder joints, but unfortunately my soldering skills aren't that intricate.

I recycled an old wiper blade rubber and put it in the gap. So far it's worked a treat



While I was removing the reverse camera I noticed the number plate lights were rattling around. I ordered some LED replacements rather than sourcing OEM units and then fitting LED bulbs.

You can see the plastic tab on the right had broken in half





The first thing I did after purchasing the car was removing the Mugen badge from the bootlid. This had left evidence of the original Accord badge lifting the original lacquer. I found a replacement badge on AliExpress for the grand total of £5.00 posted.

Unfortunately it's a little shorter in length but it'll do for now



New rear number plate fitted due to the original had started to delaminate



Moving onto the front. I colour coded the grille with aerosol paint and it's come out pretty well. I also fitted an import number plate to match the rear. Since the photos the two 35mm holes either side have been blanked using cupboard blanks from eBay





Thats it for this update, I'll have another one in a week's time or so

[hoodedreeper]

A video for the previous update

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PKQYy1wNwM

I installed a front and rear dash cam by a company called Cobra. I didn't take any photos but I did make a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYNjXwMWJU0

So the its the 2nd bank holiday in May, and its the 2nd weekend the car is in pieces because things haven't gone to plan. What should have been an easy to do, basic service soon turned into a huge headache!

I drained the oil, changed the oil filter and air filter and climbed underneath to fit the new sump plug, but it kept on turning.....noooo! I removed the sump plug and out came the threads and what looked like RTV sealant

(for personal record, mileage 157,724)



A quick forum search and the rear dog bone mount and aircon compressor has to come off to remove the sump. Doesn't sound too diffucult, right?

How very wrong! The car has a wrap around front subframe which gets in the way for most things. It took me and my friend Danny 4 odd hours just the remove the sump. If the subframe was dropped down completely it would be much easier, but that was going to be last resort. We ended up undoing the subframe bolts leaving a couple of turns and prying it down as much as we could, eventually it gave enough clearance.



I had to wait until Tuesday to find someone who could repair it. I contacted an independant engineering company (who had previously skimmed a couple of flywheels for me) who was happy to help. I got a call an hour later saying it was completed and ready for collection, charged me £30 which wasn't too bad.



In the mean time I installed some Nighteye LED H1 bulbs to the dipped beam (I know, I know....they're not legal)



I also gave the lenses a quick resto with some wipes from a brand called Armourall. I've used these on previous cars and they have worked really well





I managed to remove the broken terminal in the fog light plug and both fog lights now work. While the bumper was off I gave the lenses a tint too



Danny came back round Thursday evening and it took us another 4 hours or so putting it all back together including the front end and wheels. I certainly couldn't have done it on my own and I'm very thankful for his help.

Took it for a test drive the following day, I got a few hundred feet away from the house and heard a horrendous scraping noise. I managed to stop and saw this



The undertray was left off to make it easier to check for leaks. I forgot the arch liners attach to the undertray, oops! Luckily I had some cable ties in the boot which was enough to get me home. Both arch liners and undertray need replacing anyway so I'm on the look out for those.

Grabbed this photo as I got home, it's slowly coming together.



I'm sure it won't be long until it's pulled apart again. I'm waiting on the correct socket for the fuel filter, that should be here next week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLKuLF9ZFy4

[hoodedreeper]

After my post about doing a quick restoration on the headlights I received a message on Instagram from someone local who might have a pair of headlights. After some messages back and forth I managed to get the pair for just £10

Happy days!



I must have a little OCD because seeing the stock tail lights not being symmetrical was driving me mad. The japanese CL9 models have two clear inner light units but shipping will be a killer. I found out european models have the same (I think their fog lamp is on the left, I'm sure someone will confirm). Found a seller on Ebay with one and it was shipped from Lithuania and arrived a few days later



I couldn't find a chrome red W21W 582 bulb, but I did remember modifying a chrome red W21/5W 580 double filament bulb for a previous car. I used a 6v battery at work to find out which terminals on the base were for the 5W and cut them off, making it a single filament 21W

It was time to tackle the fuel filter. Seeing forum and FB posts about this job didn't give me high hopes of it being a nice and simple job. Like ANY job so far has been nice and simple haha

The filter is attached to a bracket tucked at the back of the engine bay



With the battery disconnected and the air box removed it gave me much more room and access.

The hardest part of the whole job is removing the two bolts on the bracket to the bulk head and refitting them.



I originally bought a Bosch filter but after numerous people saying to only use genuine I bit the bullet and spoke to the local dealership. A genuine item cost me £54, ouch

I made a video for Youtube because there doesn't seem to be one for the facelift

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImNghqf5-Vo

[hoodedreeper]

double post

[hoodedreeper]

A common issue with these is the ABS, VSA and /!\ (exclamation light) will illuminate. Most of the time the diagnostic report will come back with a 66-1 error which is 'Brake Pressure Sensor Failure'

I'd led to believe the brake pressure sensor is part of the module. A UK company called ECU Testing are highly recommended for refurbished units. You can either send yours to be repaired or buy one off the shelf which is more money. Not wanting the car off the road for another 7+ days I opted for the unit off the shelf.

Prior to purchasing I sent them an email with a photo of my unit and asked them to confirm if it's the correct listing. They confirmed and also said it shouldn't need coding because its the same serial number.

I purchased the unit at the cost of £325 (you can see why people don't bother repairing it) and received a phone call to say they didn't have the complete unit with the ABS pump in stock, only the module. A minor issue but nothing that couldnt be sorted, just a little extra fitting time. I was told because of this, I was owed a partial refund.

The module arrived and I noticed a note added to the invoice reading "Customer advised will need dealership level diagnostic to recode". I rang Honda, they told me it didn't need recoding.

I rang ECU Testing to query this along with the refund. They told me the person who did the invoice was on 'auto pilot' and automatically added the note without thinking. Because it's the same serial number it wouldn't need recoding. As for the refund, that isn't going to happen. Her words were "Its a flat rate price whether they have one or both parts in stock and no partial refunds are given"

Oh, thanks for that...NOT! So I've got half the product for the full cost. Seeming as its the module at fault not the pump, I need it sorting so I just got on with it.



There's much more access with the bumper and headlight removed. With the 6 brake pipes undone, theres 2x 10mm bolts holding the side Y shaped bracket on, followed by 3 or 4 bolts holding the main bracket to the car. With a little bit of wiggling it was out.




Splitting was very simply, just 2x torx bolts



The new module fitted to the original pump



And all back in and bled



We cleared the codes but the lights remained on. The live data showed the ABS sensors were working so it wasn't them. We tried doing the reset procedure but it kept failing.

The following day I went to my local Honda dealer and asked them about resetting the light. They want to do a diagnostic first at £85 and THEN they'll look into resetting the lights. They'll only tell me the same code I already know, I wasn't prepared to pay for that on top of how ever much they'd charge for the ACTUAL job I need doing.

A member of the Facebook owners group has offered to help. He's a couple of hours away so I plan on visiting him to get this sorted at some point next month.

[hoodedreeper]

The bargain pair of headlights I mentioned in a previous post got some attention.

I begun by heating up the adhesive around the edge of the lens, using a flat head screw driver to loosen it. Once the lens was split the next task was to remove the inner trim/bezel. There's a ball and socket in the middle, this had broken off on the driver side light. The last thing holding it in was an adjustment screw on the inner corner.

Next up was prepping the surface ready for paint. I used a maroon scotch pad to key the surface and a tack cloth to clean up the dust and any grease/dirt



I had an idea for the sidelight/position light lens cover. The two stripes are clear where as the rest is frosted, which seemed like a good plan to mask and paint. Lets see how this turns out...

With the high beam reflector masked it was time for some paint. I used Simoniz Tough Satin Black, I've used this alot and it covers really nicely





The broken ball got glued back on with JB Weld Plastic Weld



The projector and indicator unit got refitted



Then it was time to re-seal the lenses. I originally used some C shaped locking pliers but they kept popping off,luckily I had a couple of normal locking pliers to hand which did the job.



I used the Armourall headlight restoration wipes again just to see if they'd improve it. Although not as cloudy,I did noticed some very small areas of cracks. I'm guessing this is due to age and UV exposure.









A comparison of the original and new units



I've had the bumper and headlights removed countless times in the short amount of time I've owned the car, so this next part didn't take too long. I swapped over the bulb holders, LED dipped beam bulbs and fitted some LED sidelight bulbs







Although the lenses aren't 100% perfect it was a great opportunity to experiment, especially with the whole job only costing me £20 including the lights and consumables/LED bulbs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvqh-avWaUY