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Dirty Girl's Official Thread

44K views 411 replies 25 participants last post by  CDsDontBurn 
#1 ·
I'm finally giving Dirty Girl the TLC she needs, and she's not AS dirty anymore! So, I figured, why not make a thread for her? :)

I installed a lot of what is in this box, and more needs to get installed still.







Driver side spray nozzle



It's hard to see, but you can see the hyper extension of the wiper blades as well as the poor contact quality of the old wiper blades on the glass



Before vacuuming





After vacuuming





This heffer was $150 over on Honda Parts Cheap as I couldn't find an aftermarket unit for Coupe. Though, aftermarket sedan units were readily available for around $70.



Normally, wiper blades aren't a very special item, but my old blades were something like 4yrs old so the new blades are a special item to me, LOL.



Yes, I painted the wiper blade arms!



New spray nozzles! On the old one closest to us, you can make out a blueish-white dot in the middle of the spray nozzle. That little guy made the spray ineffective and eventually caused the buildup in the other picture seen above



And the new wipers fully installed and properly aligned. It took me a little bit to get them aligned properly. I love the fact that when I use the wipers now, they don't hit the A-pillar nor the bottom splash guard

 
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#2 ·
Up next, I think is going to be a wash down of the engine bay as well as installing those "leakless gaskets" behind the thermostat. Sometime ago, I replaced the high pressure power steering hose to fix a leak it had, but my PS system somewhere still has a small leak as I have to add PS fluid to the system every 3 - 4 months or so. I've got to trace the source and fix it, but it'll have to wait for now.
 
#3 ·
I'm sure @enne would say "about time"

Looks better. My mom's 6th gen still hasn't been replaced yet but I've been making a fixit list if I can get it. One of the things on the list is replace the spray nozzles. Was that hard?
 
#4 ·
The spray nozzles were really easy. Just remove the hose with a flat head screwdriver, and use a set of pliers to remove the nozzles.
 
#5 ·
Gotta say this is a great thread, and I do see your vision for Dirty Girl. However, my suggestion is for you is try to make it as one of SoCal's cleanest Accords. Will be waiting to see the improvements and updates on your ride.
 
#6 ·
Cleanest SoCal Accord? LOL, I can tell you that right now it's not going to happen. I have other priorities where my financial resources are needed at the moment. I'll do what I can, for sure, but things like repaint, or anything that's going to need lots of money, it's a no-go for now.

Once upon a time, my vision for my Accord was a J32A4 w/J32A3 TB, J35 Intake manifold, Injen or K&N CAI, DC headers, 6spd swap, a set of nice 18in wheels with the widest tire I can fit without rubbing and without aggressive camber (225 likely, but would also think of 235 and 245 if they could fit), Acura RL front brakes, Acura TL-S rear brakes, "decklid" spoiler, and OEM ground effects. None of that never happened, and at this point in time at my life, I don't think it will ever happen. If it does, it's because I don't want a new car and I have lots of money to spend, LOL.

That setup I know would get lots of head turning as well as be really quick being a 3200lbs car in the low 300HP range (100HP over stock J30A1 currently in it).
 
#8 ·
As of right now, no update. I've just been keeping her clean. She needs a bath and that'll happen this weekend for sure. I've also got tol try and figure out how to give her a wax job to keep the paint going for a little bit longer.
 
#10 ·
When I give Lucky and my other car a bath, I use a 2-in-1 formula that I bought from the Auto isle in Wal-Mart. And as of now, both cars, especially Lucky gives off that new car shine.

Keeping it clean is enough work for me too.
If you come into a bunch of money, just buy a new car. :grin
You do know there is a risk of some type of electronic failure on new vehicles.
 
#12 ·
I know. The moment I have the cash, I'm getting me a new F-150. I'm pretty set on one. I've driven the Chevy 1500 and I've been inside a Ram 1500, and the F-150 is what appeals to me.

When I give Lucky and my other car a bath, I use a 2-in-1 formula that I bought from the Auto isle in Wal-Mart. And as of now, both cars, especially Lucky gives off that new car shine.
I use Meguiar's Gold car wash.

You do know there is a risk of some type of electronic failure on new vehicles.
True, but even 20 year old cars have computers. Do you trust reliability of a new computer, or a 20 yo one?
You could go with a really old car from before computers. Pick your poison. :laugh
This. And the likelihood of an electronic component failing is small.....unless it is a common failure of the vehicle, but that should make it recall worthy at that point. Also, our nearly 20yr old 6GA also have a PCM (computer)......so it's a moot point.
 
#14 ·
All I know what I want out of an F-150 is for it to have a minimum of quad cab and the 3.5L TT EcoBoost engine and other basic / standard features such as AC, Power Windows, and BT stereo / hands free calling. Anything else is just the cherry on top. Such a packaged F-150 goes for around $35k - $40k. If money were not an issue, there's one with dealer add-on features I've seen at my local Ford dealership that has the Coyote engine, lift kit, tow package, digital everything, and a list of features I can go on about but can't remember most of them and it's priced at $65k. Right now, both trucks are priced too far out for me.
 
#15 ·
I've been riding around like this for like two weeks. Had the bulb in earlier this week, but never had a chance to get it in.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DMoPRh0PFpNJZbXJ3

All fixed up!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Np06ATwGKhVL6ezW2

The old ones

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YdFfwwA8Rf1t6DyA2

I took care of this when I got them (came with the headlights as part of the same order). The old one - bottom - was dim and didn't work very well. The new one - top - is incredibly bright and works 100% of the time.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/561eYzcTi9R9dvVE3

These will be replacing the bulbs in my gauge cluster sometime this weekend.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/v6ZykQnWk42nSob62
 
#16 ·
Those lights are important for nighttime driving, especially the headlights, because we all know CHP and LAPD can be a pain in the rear. Are those lights that you just installed LEDs or regular Halogens?
 
#20 ·
I had planned on putting in new LED bulbs in the cluster tonight, but my kids wanted attention. Guess who won?

LOL.

Perhaps tomorrow night, but I'm not sure. Tuesday and the rest of the week doesn't look good either because my kids go back to school and we need to get back in that routine.
 
#21 ·
I feel ya man... over here, schools just started today. I think you could do it on the weekend, if you don't got things planned yet.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
#22 ·
2018 is going to be the year that this thread is going to be getting lots of attention, lol.

It started out with the lights (still need to do cluster).

Dirty Girl will be getting front UCAs, LCAs, and sway bar bushings. I may opt to do outer tie rods if those are in poor shape. She'll be needing new tires too. Brakes are definitely on the list there as well. I'm thinking about doing the TL-S rotors as all that I'd need would be just the bracket to make the caliper fit over the bigger rotors. My concern with that is just if my OEM wheels will fit over the upgraded rotors. I need to research that a bit more and make sure. And just this morning, as I went to warm up my car before heading to work, I heard the serpentine / PS belts chirp for the first time. The PS pump itself is making noises, and it leaks from somewhere. I'm hoping it's a $1 o-ring. If not, I've been planning on replacing the pump. I just hope it's not the rack and pinion because if it is, then that's staying there unless I pull out the engine. I also leak oil from somewhere, and I have a feeling it's from the oil pan still. I've purchased the oil pan some time ago, but I haven't put it on. It's just sitting there in my garage in a box, lol.

Not sure about doing mods outside of the TL-S rotors. The only one I've really wanted to do has been the TL-S / CL-S strut bar.
 
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#23 ·
Last night I installed some LEDs in my cluster and throughout my car.

Got this from Amazon

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UNGvlHcYDN923hk13

My cluster before. Notice the dead spot on the far left and the half-way dead spot on the 120MPH - 140MPH range of my speedo

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SKt8nGA6m7Z5wswY2

New LEDs installed. Not too happy about the color as it's a bit green. I liked the old color, but the old LEDs as you see from the photo above didn't really work.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/9SXOaQBsjo7gd1HP2

LEDs in the cabin and doors. Also put one in the trunk (not pictured).

https://photos.app.goo.gl/whM9ycSBcmmllCoY2

And on my license plate

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LOOs2VcLlKQMbMlI3

Overall, I'm happy with them. I'm just not quite happy on the color. I ordered 6000k color, but these seem to be more like 6500k in color.
 
#24 ·
The color might be because of the semi-translucent green paint on the gauge overlay. On mine which has regular yellow-y bulbs, it shows up really green, so pure white/slightly blue will probably still show a little of that green.

The original gauge overlay on my Camaro the paint is blue, and on the Firebird the paint is orange (and with regular bulbs they are just really weak shades of those colors). With regular LEDs it was a light blue. So I put bright green LEDs in, they now show up bright green because it overpowers the blue.

LED in the 10-80 MPH part of the gauge shows up blue:


Green LEDs:

 
#27 ·
The color might be because of the semi-translucent green paint on the gauge overlay. On mine which has regular yellow-y bulbs, it shows up really green, so pure white/slightly blue will probably still show a little of that green.

The original gauge overlay on my Camaro the paint is blue, and on the Firebird the paint is orange (and with regular bulbs they are just really weak shades of those colors). With regular LEDs it was a light blue. So I put bright green LEDs in, they now show up bright green because it overpowers the blue.

LED in the 10-80 MPH part of the gauge shows up blue:
http:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160619/dd4b8636198ec67100b2ac6b626f3ea4.jpg

Green LEDs:
http:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160711/46c070f699a03aa63776ef0944aec1ca.jpg
http:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161015/17bd7be67434f84f19718bdb248fe35a.jpg
I know that there is a translucent color on the 6GA cluster, and I've always believed it to be blue. This can be seen in my "Before" picture on the low end of the speedo gauge. I do however, believe that the LEDs I got are not true 6000k, but rather 6500k and because of that minor difference, the color shows as greenish in my cluster.

Regardless though, I'm happy that the gauge is being seen better than before.
 
#25 ·
I recall my Corolla didn't have paint on the gauge. Rather, the bulbs have green rubber caps on them. If you out in colored LEDs, it will just show the color of the LED bulbs perfectly.

Sent via MHA-L29. Whatever.
 
#26 ·
I recall my Corolla didn't have paint on the gauge. Rather, the bulbs have green rubber caps on them. If you out in colored LEDs, it will just show the color of the LED bulbs perfectly.
My Camaro's stock bulbs had a little bit of blue paint on them to increase the blue color of the gauges. But they still show a little blue with white LEDs because there's paint on the gauges. I haven't pulled the cluster from my Accord but my guess is the cluster is tinted with those colors, not just the bulbs.
 
#29 ·
I might try other LEDs later on to get mine to be more blue than green. But for now, I'm happy with the result.
 
#30 ·
I was doing some inspection earlier today relating to that PS system issue I'm having (more on that later), and I saw my tire tread was separating on my front tires. Wrapped up what I was doing and went to the tire shop. 1.5hrs later, she came out with a set of Firehawk Indy 500 tires. $600 installed with alignment (bought lifetime alignment a LONG time ago, and it's paid itself off 10-fold).

This still doesn't explain why my front tires always get chewed up WAY faster on the inside than they should. I'm thinking I want to go +0.5* camber on my front tires? The funny thing though, even though my rear tirs are -1* camber, I don't get anywhere as aggressive tire wear as I do on my front tires.
 

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#31 ·
What size tires do you use?

Damn, US$600 is pretty cheap. Last time I asked for a set of Firehawk Indy 500, I think it's a bit over CAN$900 before installation. I heard some very good things about these tires.

I eventually went with a set of Falken Azenis 453 tires, as no one seems to have any Firehawk Indy 500 in stock and the next shipment would be 2 months away at the time. The weird tire size on the RX-8 with 18" rims doesn't help.

Sent via MHA-L29. Whatever.
 
#32 ·
Stock 6GA EX Accord size, 205-55-16.

Yea, $600 out the door. Tires were $100/ea, but due to a fiasco I had with the tire shop for my wife's car a few months back, they gave me a $65 credit which when applied, came out to bring the price of the tires down to $84-and-change per tire. Add the $17 mount and balance fee (each) as well as the $10 road hazard warranty (each), and that's my $600.

The set I had before were Falken Ziex ze912. They did fairly well, but lacked performance in some areas. I'll see how these Indy 500s do me.....after I get her suspension work done, lol.

What size is the RX-8 again? 225-50-18? I don't remember. It's been, what, 12yrs for me since I had my RX-8, lol. I know that they came with Bridgestone Potenza RE050 straight from factory.
 
#33 ·
US$100 sounds about right. In Canada, the MSRP is CAN$139.

For me, it would be about CAN$50 more for each tire. Tire size is 225/45 R18 for my S2 GT RX-8. I might upsize next time and get some 19" rims, though. The Mazda M008 rims look very good and are not that heavy for a 19" rim. A lot cheaper than the R3 19", too. Then I would have to get 225/40 R19 tires.

When I got my RX-8, it has some Michelin all-season tires on it. Absolute garbage even with some thread life left. I got wheelspins on hot, dry pavements and I wasn't even driving that hard... The Falken Azenis Fk453 tires are great in comparison. Can't wait to put them back on in a month and start doing some AutoX.

Sent via MHA-L29. Whatever.
 
#34 ·
My parts came in today!

Just need my PS pump and a few misc. parts and I'll be ready to rock this weekend.
 

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#35 ·
The parts that came in the yesterday! I was considering some adjustable UCAs from eBay (GodSpeed) that I just didn't know enough about that made me feel comfortable enough to buy them. The brand I of adjustable UCAs I wanted where I felt super comfortable buying were Ingalls Engineering units. However, those are no longer available as (I found out) Dorman bought them out early last year.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/xWvhAPDLSzuFGvhR2

For my PS pump job that I'm going to be replacing (should be in tomorrow)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1GL7ZhSnw0gknOXt2

And, does anyone know why the end link nuts are oblong / oval?

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wYV7rEqHI6kxMwci1

I am also going to be doing an oil change and my ATF change as well and have the below filter on order. It's not a Raybestos Magnafine filter, but it's what I could find. But it's a WIX filter and has a magnet in addition to the filter membrane, so It'll work just fine.

 
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#40 ·
Just watched two YT videos, one on how to do UCA and the second on how to do the LCA for my DD, DirtyGirl. While straight forward, I've found that the LCA is far more involved However, I realized that replacing the LCA doesn't take a whole lot more to do the lower ball joints and hub / wheel bearing on the knuckle. Basically, it's all right there for easy pickings.

The saying goes, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", but at the same time, I'm already there and all this stuff has 318k miles on it.....sooooooooooo

What do you guys say? Should I replace the hubs and lower ball joints as well? I'd rather do the job once and with it all already apart, I might as well. That's my thinking at least.

If the hubs and ball joints are part of the game, then I'm going to wait on doing all this for about another month for my "play" check. My suspension isn't making any noises or anything, but I'm just concerned as it's all original to the car (as far as I know), so the increased mileage is my concern for all these parts.

Given my level of experience....and mainly OCD'ness on wanting to "clean parts so clean parts go back on"......I have a feeling that this will be an all day project for me.
 
#41 ·
Well it sounds more like you're "if it aint broke, fix it till it is!"
I can't believe you have 300k on original ball joints and hubs! I think I'm on at least my 2nd BJ and 3rd bearings by now. Maybe the repair is invasive and for some reason never holds up as long as the original from the assembly line, despite OEM parts. That being said, if you don't suspect any wear on that stuff, leave it alone. But if you do and choose to repair.. the ball joints you can press in and out yourself with a BJ tool but the front hub bearings require special adapters and collars and a stout hydraulic press. Its a two step process. The hub has to be pressed out of the bearing and the bearing has to be pressed out of the knuckle. I brought my knuckles in to the local garage to have them do it for $20 (brought them bearings). The OEM bearings have an inside and outside so note that detail!
As far as your tire chewing, have you ever replaced the radius rod or control arm bushings (2 each side)? Theyre up front under the bumper and although my tires looked ok changing them drastically helped tracking on/off throttle.
 
#42 ·
Well, to be fair, I only suspect that they're original to the car. I did pick up the car used in 2007 with 108k on the clock already. I'm also the 3rd owner of the car. Aside from the two transmissions I've replaced (the first one only 6 months after picking her up), she's help up nicely. Only the expected stuff has happened.

And yea, I'm OCD like that.

I'm looking at getting TIMKEN and SKF bearings (in that order) depending on availability when I do purchase them. I can't decide though on if I want to get new hubs along with bearings up front, but I'm sure that couldn't hurt. Again, because 318k miles and all original (AFAIK).

Thanks for the insight on replacing the bearings and hubs! I knew I needed to press them out, but I was not aware that one was pressed in / out of the other!!!

I've never replaced the radius rod. Control arm bushings have never been replaced either. I have already (shown a few posts back) purchased UCAs and LCAs. It was only after doing watching YT videos on how to replace them that I saw that the lower ball joint (I originally thought they were part of the LCAs), hubs, and bearings would all be right there as well. So, that is why I've held off on doing all that until I can get a new set of lower bushings and bearings. But with you mentioning radius rods, I might just add that to all the work!!
 
#43 ·
All you need is the front wheel bearings. Hubs don’t have any wear (besides the stripped lug once in a while doh).

And same with radius rod bushings. The rod itself should be fine unless you suspect it got bent. I’d attach images if I weren’t doing this on my phone but if you look up a parts diagram for both of these areas you’ll see what I mean.

Lower ball joint can be separated from LCA. Upper BJ is built into the UCA. I had the rear part of my UCAs wiggle before the BJs went. Took a long time to figure out where that clunk was coming from. Another head scratcher clunk I finally found turned out to be the top shock mount bushing. That shouldn’t do anything to your alignment though!
 
#44 ·
When you say "Radius rod bushings" what do you mean exactly? Is it in one of these pictures? I want to say it's # 10/12 of the last picture. Is that what you mean? Or is it something else in one of the other pictures?

"Front lower control arm"



"Knuckle"



"P.S. Gear Box"

 
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