TP's Accord 6-6 Maintenance/Repair/Modding Thread

[tommypenguin]

This thread is dedicated to my experiences with my Accord. This thread is also a place for others to learn from my trials and tribulations and also a place for me to ask questions from members on the forum regarding my accord. With any luck their will be minimal posts regarding repairs and maintenance. I plan to keep this car forever, bought it with 17 miles on it and have been enjoying it ever since, got just over 2700 miles currently. Just have a couple of mods so far below are some pics of the ride, just installed the nokya DRL and fogs today. LED tails arrive on monday, should be putting them on that night. Interior LED's should arrive this week. More pics will be coming as the mods come on, I know the car isn't exactly clean but its been a cold winter....

Current List of Mods:
-HFP Full Lip Kit
-HFP 19" Wheels
-HFP Suspension
-Falken FK452 245/40/19 on the HFP wheels
-Dunlop Winter Sport M3 235/45/18
-Honda BSM
-Progress 22mm Rear Sway Bar
-Progress Rear End Links
-SPC Rear Camber Kit
-Magnaflow CBE No Resonator
-RV6 J pipe
-Cosmo Short Shifter
-Retrosolutions 55w 6000k Lows With Wiring Relay
-Retrosolutions 35W 4300k Fogs With Wiring Relay
-Nokya 2500k Hyper Yellow DRLs
-Repliace JDM Black Grill
-Shadow Speed M3 Roof Spoiler
-20% Tint
-Clearbraed Front Bumper/Hood/A Pillars, Section on roof in front of sunroof, 18" behind each wheel on the rocker panels, trunk lip opening, mirrors
-WeatherTech Mats & Cargo Liner
-Debadged
-Retrosolutions Interior & Plate LEDs
-Escort 8500 Radar Detector
-Backup Sensors
-Cargo Hooks

Planned Mods:
-RV6 PCDs (As soon as they are available)
-Vibrant or ATLP resonator to control upcoming rasp from being catless (Shortly after PCD install)
-UR Stock Sized Light Weight Crank Pulley (By Summer 11)
-P2R Ported Intake Runners (By End of 11)
-Upgraded Front Sway Bar and Endlinks if ever available (TBD)

Removed Mods due to Poor Fitment:
-Eagle LED taillights
-GrillCraft Lower Grill

Edited: Newest pics and videos added...

Videos...

My car rolling down a twisty driveway in the mountains...

http://s997.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=InMotion.mp4

Reving the exhaust in neutral with no resonator on my magnaflow...

http://s997.photobucket.com/albums/a...t=BadSound.mp4

Pics of my car from mount evans road, the highest road in the continuous US, topping out at over 14,000ft altitude way above tree line...













Other Remastered Pics using an App on my HTC Evo...































Remastered Pics on stock wheels...











Below are pics of my car in almost stock form right after I bought it, only mod was magnaflow exhaust...

[tommypenguin]

Here are the pics I took up at the shrine of cabrini and lookout mountain after my detail

[xpshooter]

Seeing the sweet pics you people are posting, is making the wait for my car seem to take forever.

But.... keep em coming,

very nice ride

[youngsuspect24]

nice hfps coming up? lol

[tommypenguin]

HFP suspension is sitting in the basement along with the SPC rear one arm camber kit, been occupied with family on the weekends and work during the week. It kills me to have such a huge wheel gap I feel like I'm going for the 'dukes of hazard' look on stock ride height. Planning on installing the suspension myself on the 16th of the month, first available saturday I'll have had in a while. The HFP wheels won't go on until winter is about wrapped up in the middle of april, going to need to pick up a set of dedicated summer tires for them.

[09^CBP^6MT]

Originally Posted by tommypenguin

HFP suspension is sitting in the basement along with the SPC rear one arm camber kit,

IMO get the TSX RSB and your suspension mods are complete. I got the same exact setup on the same chassis (6-6), and the before/after with the RSB was dramatic and well worth it.

[Phongvtboy]

Originally Posted by 09^CBP^6MT

IMO get the TSX RSB and your suspension mods are complete. I got the same exact setup on the same chassis (6-6), and the before/after with the RSB was dramatic and well worth it.

i thought hes getting the progress 22mm RSB, the TSX is 17mm. wouldnt the progress offer better performance?

[Phongvtboy]

Originally Posted by tommypenguin

HFP suspension is sitting in the basement along with the SPC rear one arm camber kit, been occupied with family on the weekends and work during the week. It kills me to have such a huge wheel gap I feel like I'm going for the 'dukes of hazard' look on stock ride height. Planning on installing the suspension myself on the 16th of the month, first available saturday I'll have had in a while. The HFP wheels won't go on until winter is about wrapped up in the middle of april, going to need to pick up a set of dedicated summer tires for them.

looking for a second set of hands? i stay in aurora and looking to install my d2s sometime soon and if i help you i could gain experience to do mine myself if not you could help me do mine in exchange.

[09^CBP^6MT]

Originally Posted by Phongvtboy

i thought hes getting the progress 22mm RSB, the TSX is 17mm. wouldnt the progress offer better performance?

Not necessarily, stiffer yes & more steering response yes, but it gets to a point when you start getting "darty". I missed the 22mm rsr until you posted that up....duh.

[Phongvtboy]

haha we all probally skim anyways.

Originally Posted by 09^CBP^6MT

Not necessarily, stiffer yes & more steering response yes, but it gets to a point when you start getting "darty". I missed the 22mm rsr until you posted that up....duh.

[GTFan712]

Very fresh looking ride.

Why the switch from Turbo to N/A?

-GT

[tommypenguin]

Long story short, got tired of wrenching, logging and tuning my car. Lol with this car I've only done wrenching for mods, which is how I like it, on my last car, I spent as much time wrenching for mods as I did for repairs or issues. If you're really interested here is a link to my 'maintenance/repair' thread on my legacy forum documenting how I ended up here and some of the work I did on the Legacy, take you an hour so to read on a sunday, but it's a pretty informative read on modding a car heavily if you never have...

http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112966

[searich07]

tommypenguin,

“Unfortunately for me my car has turned into a never ending money pit (maintenance/repair/upgrade).”

Reference: ‘Legacy Owners Association Forum Tommypenguin’s Maintenance/Repair Thread’

Truer words were never spoken. Unfortunately when MOD bug bites it can become a never ending money pit as tommypenguin states in his deeply personal post. At resale vehicle mods are worth nothing, and in fact may detract from value. Regards

Richard

[tommypenguin]

Originally Posted by Phongvtboy

looking for a second set of hands? i stay in aurora and looking to install my d2s sometime soon and if i help you i could gain experience to do mine myself if not you could help me do mine in exchange.

Only need one set of hands for the suspension job, thanks for offering. It’s really cake walk to do the suspension the rear springs/struts are just 4 bolts to remove each one, once wheels are off. The front is isn’t much more work than that, just have to remove a couple more nuts for the strut bar. If you have the tools, ie few sockets, couple wrenches and a couple jacks, one to lift the car, one to load the suspension you are installing you should give this job a shot on your own, you’ll be surprised of how easy it is…

Originally Posted by searich07

tommypenguin,

Reference: ‘Legacy Owners Association Forum Tommypenguin’s Maintenance/Repair Thread’

Truer words were never spoken. Unfortunately when MOD bug bites it can become a never ending money pit as tommypenguin states in his deeply personal post. At resale vehicle mods are worth nothing, and in fact may detract from value. Regards

Richard

The mod bug is contagious, especially when there is so much return on a mod like in the case with just about every bolt on you do with a FI car. The problem is you start down that slippery slope and even though you can make any car a Ferrari eater if you put enough money and time into it, at that point the car is almost certainly not a daily driver like the case of my car. It was unbelievable when it was running, but when it wasn’t it was constant stress and anxiety over it. Since the legacy was my daily driver I couldn’t let the car sit for a few months while I took a break from it.

Every issue required immediate action on my part regardless of how busy I was with life, work, or family and over the course of a year and a half of me doing all the work on the car it seemed to need attention at the most inopportune times. I learned my lesson with my Legacy, while I have modded my Accord slightly already, none of the mods I have, or have ordered will compromise the reliability of the drive train of the car, which at this point to me is most important. Yikes, still got a little Legacy rant in me…

[Hittman]

Tommy:

I like what you've done with your ride so far. For the most part, you seem to be sticking to OEM where possible (HFP, etc). I'm trying to follow that trend as well. Otherwise, you're using tasteful aftermarket upgrades (e.g. catback).

Keep up the good work. I really like the chrome accents on the black coupes. Do some before/after pix with the HFP suspension! I forgot to

Originally Posted by Phongvtboy

looking for a second set of hands? i stay in aurora and looking to install my d2s sometime soon and if i help you i could gain experience to do mine myself if not you could help me do mine in exchange.

As Tommy says, it isn't too tough. I've done a DIY video on the front half HFP swap out, and mystick6 did a pictorial DIY when putting in his coilovers. So, you have some good resources at your disposal. A second set of hands is really helpful if you've never done it before, but I suppose it could be done by a single determined person