General Information
Year
2001
Make
Honda
Model
Accord
Color
Dyno Blue Pearl II (Originally "Al Gore Silver")
Packages
HAHAHA!!! Value Package POS Special!
History
We got this 2001 Value Package in April of 2004 for my wife. We had previously owned a 1994 LX since it was new, running up about 450,000 miles on the poor thing until everything crapped out at once. We did not have money for a newer or nicer ride, so we got this "Value Package" trim that Honda trotted out every few years back then.
It has manual windows and door locks but a good AC, as well as a CD player that was great back then but pretty much of no relevance today. (Hey, it also has a cassette player, which had almost no relevance back then! And yes, it still works.) It was silver, had a LOT of paint damage along the rockers, but was mechanically very sound. It was a CPO car, too. It was boring AF but we liked it.
It currently has 295,000+ miles on the odometer and still runs great. We had it repainted in the 2012 Civic "Dyno Blue Pearl II" (B586P) but had a cheapo job done, so the door sills, trunk and hood/engine bay are still silver. Tacky, I know. Sue me. We will try to get some cans of this mixed up so we can sort of finish job now that we can do that at home. The color is GREAT, and I mean it POPS! (I hate that term, but it really applies here. Ugh.)
There is not a week that passes where someone gives me a cash offer on the car, whether it is in the driveway or out in town somewhere.
I spent a stupid amount of time on the rusty, dinged-up rims and the peeling, nasty-looking hubcaps. They now look great and are a slightly darker color than the stock silver ones, and that looks better with the Civic paint color, IMHO.
Lots of parts have been replaced and it still drives better than my much larger 2010, which I have never really taken to. This little car still makes me smile every time it starts up.
It has manual windows and door locks but a good AC, as well as a CD player that was great back then but pretty much of no relevance today. (Hey, it also has a cassette player, which had almost no relevance back then! And yes, it still works.) It was silver, had a LOT of paint damage along the rockers, but was mechanically very sound. It was a CPO car, too. It was boring AF but we liked it.
It currently has 295,000+ miles on the odometer and still runs great. We had it repainted in the 2012 Civic "Dyno Blue Pearl II" (B586P) but had a cheapo job done, so the door sills, trunk and hood/engine bay are still silver. Tacky, I know. Sue me. We will try to get some cans of this mixed up so we can sort of finish job now that we can do that at home. The color is GREAT, and I mean it POPS! (I hate that term, but it really applies here. Ugh.)
There is not a week that passes where someone gives me a cash offer on the car, whether it is in the driveway or out in town somewhere.
I spent a stupid amount of time on the rusty, dinged-up rims and the peeling, nasty-looking hubcaps. They now look great and are a slightly darker color than the stock silver ones, and that looks better with the Civic paint color, IMHO.
Lots of parts have been replaced and it still drives better than my much larger 2010, which I have never really taken to. This little car still makes me smile every time it starts up.
2001 Honda Accord (Dyno Blue Pearl II (Originally "Al Gore Silver"))
Modifications
Drivetrain
Radiator has under 2500 miles on it. Transmission is a reman unit installed by a trusted dealership and has less than 5000 miles on it. Looking to pull and sell it and install a 5 speed. I *HATE* auto trannys. Sorry. Just cannot stand them.
I replaced pretty much all rubber hoses (vacuum, or coolant returns, whatever — all of them) except for the two radiator hoses, which will be changed out with the thermostat, water pump and the alternator, all of which have close to 300,000 miles on them. The alternator is still working, but it is pretty weak. The water pump is not leaking. I just want all this stuff to be new. Timing belt number three is also going to be in the works very soon.
This car is still bone stock. I like it the way it is. The DX and DXVP engines are the Non-VTEC F23A5 that no one here seems to be familiar with, since it is the weakest of these engines and lacks the VTEC package. Oh well, boo-freaking-hoo. I love it, though. It is dead simple to work on and has little that can go wrong with it.
I replaced pretty much all rubber hoses (vacuum, or coolant returns, whatever — all of them) except for the two radiator hoses, which will be changed out with the thermostat, water pump and the alternator, all of which have close to 300,000 miles on them. The alternator is still working, but it is pretty weak. The water pump is not leaking. I just want all this stuff to be new. Timing belt number three is also going to be in the works very soon.
This car is still bone stock. I like it the way it is. The DX and DXVP engines are the Non-VTEC F23A5 that no one here seems to be familiar with, since it is the weakest of these engines and lacks the VTEC package. Oh well, boo-freaking-hoo. I love it, though. It is dead simple to work on and has little that can go wrong with it.
Interior
Bone stock. We need a new headliner, and the blower motor on the AC is trashed. The AC lines leaked out years ago, so I may have to replace a lot of stuff to get AC in the car again, which is a MUST where I live.
I swapped out the broken center console strip with the fake woodgrain and the broken cup holder lid with one that was very dirty but not broken. I painted it with Krylon Fusion for Plastics spray paint. So far, so good. The car looks *much* better with the fake wood gone, IMHO.
I think I will replace the steering wheel, too. It is still okay, but the top is now all porous and sort of brown. The paint on the air bag cover became sticky, so I stripped it all off and the cover is now black — with a gray wheel — so yeah. Hmm…
In 2017 I pulled everything and replaced every bulb in every socket. I also added in two that were empty. It turns out that these illuminate the face of the instrument cluster, and that is really weird. I have never had the face lit up before on any car, and I can see why they do not come this way — it sucks. Why would they have two bulb sockets just for this, and then not use them? Weird. I need to pull the cluster again and remove those two bulbs.
Also, I replaced all the bulbs in my Jeep Wrangler with LEDs years ago and will do that to this car at some point. Even new, these bulbs look yellow and dim in comparison to the instruments on my 2010 and 2015 Accords.
I swapped out the broken center console strip with the fake woodgrain and the broken cup holder lid with one that was very dirty but not broken. I painted it with Krylon Fusion for Plastics spray paint. So far, so good. The car looks *much* better with the fake wood gone, IMHO.
I think I will replace the steering wheel, too. It is still okay, but the top is now all porous and sort of brown. The paint on the air bag cover became sticky, so I stripped it all off and the cover is now black — with a gray wheel — so yeah. Hmm…
In 2017 I pulled everything and replaced every bulb in every socket. I also added in two that were empty. It turns out that these illuminate the face of the instrument cluster, and that is really weird. I have never had the face lit up before on any car, and I can see why they do not come this way — it sucks. Why would they have two bulb sockets just for this, and then not use them? Weird. I need to pull the cluster again and remove those two bulbs.
Also, I replaced all the bulbs in my Jeep Wrangler with LEDs years ago and will do that to this car at some point. Even new, these bulbs look yellow and dim in comparison to the instruments on my 2010 and 2015 Accords.
Exterior
2012 Civic "Dyno Blue Pearl II" (B586P) paint, new windshield, minor body work, and a headlight polishing done in 2012. Looking at some rims and tires, but not in a hurry. I have some excellent tires on the stock steelies that were cleaned up and repainted in 2017, and the cheap, plastic hubcaps were painstakingly renewed using Krylon Fusion for Plastics, which has seen about 1,500 miles in varying weather and road surfaces without peeling or chipping. (I am pleased by this.)
Audio
Stock DX Value Package audio — two 6.5" door speakers, two tweeters, two 6x9 deck speakers, Honda head unit with cassette tape and single CD. It works, but sounds very dull and has little power. The tweeters died many years ago, but since they are wired-in that gives me some nice options. The way they mount to the grilles and the fact that there are no wire plugs means that you cannot really upgrade them without some creative work. But they are physically present, which is a big plus for me.
EDIT (2/26/19): Okay, so I have rooted out all the audio goodies that I have not yet used on my various project cars, and this is the best matched system I can figure out, power-wise and sound quality-wise. I know all these separate parts work very well except for the Kicker 6x9s - I don't care for oval-shaped speakers much in the first place, and the 5.25" Kickers I have used in the past were very tinny/harsh sounding. I greatly prefer Polk's sound for a smaller system. Just my opinion, but I am a professional symphony orchestra musician, so I am not completely ignorant on what a "live sound" actually means. Anyway, the Kicker 6x9 speakers are brand new so I have not yet heard them. However, they will be the first part of this system to be installed as they arrive TOMORROW via UPS!
Here are the components of my proposed system, and all of them are sitting here, a few years old but pretty much unused save for maybe ten or twenty hours, on average.
2001 Honda Accord Proposed Audio System
• Alpine UTE-52BT Bluetooth Digital Receiver
• Alpine KTP-445A Head Unit Power Pack
• Alpine MRV-M250 Mono V-Power Digital Amp
• Polk db5251 5.25" and 2" Marine Component Speakers
• Kicker 43DSC69304 6x9 3-Way Speakers
• Kicker 40CWRT672 CompRT 6.75" Subwoofer
• Homemade Sub Enclosure (sealed box in the trunk, downward firing)
• Big 3 Wire and Terminal Upgrade
I will also need a dash kit to move from the Honda 2 DIN to my Alpine 1 DIN head, or maybe 1.5 DIN kit. (I have a very nice Clarion 1/2 DIN EQ that I like a lot. Not sure. Maybe. I like knobs. I dislike the Alpine iPhone app. I listen to all sorts of music and the EQ needs adjustment a lot in my cars, so using some phone app to make adjustments feels weird. (I used to be a sound man, too.)
When I get it all installed I will do a writeup and post it.
EDIT (2/26/19): Okay, so I have rooted out all the audio goodies that I have not yet used on my various project cars, and this is the best matched system I can figure out, power-wise and sound quality-wise. I know all these separate parts work very well except for the Kicker 6x9s - I don't care for oval-shaped speakers much in the first place, and the 5.25" Kickers I have used in the past were very tinny/harsh sounding. I greatly prefer Polk's sound for a smaller system. Just my opinion, but I am a professional symphony orchestra musician, so I am not completely ignorant on what a "live sound" actually means. Anyway, the Kicker 6x9 speakers are brand new so I have not yet heard them. However, they will be the first part of this system to be installed as they arrive TOMORROW via UPS!
Here are the components of my proposed system, and all of them are sitting here, a few years old but pretty much unused save for maybe ten or twenty hours, on average.
2001 Honda Accord Proposed Audio System
• Alpine UTE-52BT Bluetooth Digital Receiver
• Alpine KTP-445A Head Unit Power Pack
• Alpine MRV-M250 Mono V-Power Digital Amp
• Polk db5251 5.25" and 2" Marine Component Speakers
• Kicker 43DSC69304 6x9 3-Way Speakers
• Kicker 40CWRT672 CompRT 6.75" Subwoofer
• Homemade Sub Enclosure (sealed box in the trunk, downward firing)
• Big 3 Wire and Terminal Upgrade
I will also need a dash kit to move from the Honda 2 DIN to my Alpine 1 DIN head, or maybe 1.5 DIN kit. (I have a very nice Clarion 1/2 DIN EQ that I like a lot. Not sure. Maybe. I like knobs. I dislike the Alpine iPhone app. I listen to all sorts of music and the EQ needs adjustment a lot in my cars, so using some phone app to make adjustments feels weird. (I used to be a sound man, too.)
When I get it all installed I will do a writeup and post it.
Wheel and Tire
Grotesquely scratched up stock plastic covers on stock steelies, with dry-rotted deathmobile tires. Looking for new. Please do not flog me for my transgressions.
EDIT: I spent a week working on the steelies and hubcaps. They have had about 1,500 miles on them since and the new paint is still holding up perfectly. I used Rustoleum primer and paint on the steelies after lots of work with sandpaper, wire wheels and files. That did not take up too much time. However, the plastic hubcaps looked like crap, and to properly sand them down and remove the worst of the scratches and gouges took a LOT of time, HOURS per cap. I used Krylon Fusion for Plastics with NO PRIMER. (Read the danged directions, kids. No primer with this paint or it will not properly cure and adhere to the underlying plastic.) This also allowed me to sone down the Happy Honda Silver paint to something more subtle that worked better with the Dyno Blue Pearl II paint. The end result is really nice, if you ask me.
Yeah, this took me a long time to do, but the results were worth the work. I have plans for some alloy rims that are both larger and wider, with some very nice tires, but that costs a lot of money that I need for other, more important things. Eventually this will happen, but for now at least it looks much nicer than it did, and it cost me next to nothing to do.
EDIT: I spent a week working on the steelies and hubcaps. They have had about 1,500 miles on them since and the new paint is still holding up perfectly. I used Rustoleum primer and paint on the steelies after lots of work with sandpaper, wire wheels and files. That did not take up too much time. However, the plastic hubcaps looked like crap, and to properly sand them down and remove the worst of the scratches and gouges took a LOT of time, HOURS per cap. I used Krylon Fusion for Plastics with NO PRIMER. (Read the danged directions, kids. No primer with this paint or it will not properly cure and adhere to the underlying plastic.) This also allowed me to sone down the Happy Honda Silver paint to something more subtle that worked better with the Dyno Blue Pearl II paint. The end result is really nice, if you ask me.
Yeah, this took me a long time to do, but the results were worth the work. I have plans for some alloy rims that are both larger and wider, with some very nice tires, but that costs a lot of money that I need for other, more important things. Eventually this will happen, but for now at least it looks much nicer than it did, and it cost me next to nothing to do.
