For Sale Phil's Automotive Activities

[holbeck]

ISTR from my time at Longbridge in the 90's, that the immobiliser on the Swindon Accords is indeed a derivative of the Rover system. It being one of the few Rover contributions to the 600 / Accord programme. As the Rover guys told it, Honda were lacking any competitive alarm / immobiliser architecture so they Honda-ised the Rover stuff.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

It's got nowt in common with the Lucas 5AS system on all the other Rovers of that era though.

[Lacquer Peel]

The pre facelift Accords don't have a chip in the key. IIRC my mum's pre-facelift LS had remote central locking.

Interesting that it has a bendy key. Class!

I had a Rover 623 manual for a while, that engine is so smooth for a 4 pot.

[phil_lihp]

I'll probably just get a spare key made up and leave it at that - I could always fit an aftermarket remote I guess if I wanted to, I do have one I have still not got around to fitting to the van.

 

I'm starting to really enjoy driving this car, it's grown on me slowly over the last few days - the driving position is spot-on, the stereo sounds brilliant even though it only has a cheapy aftermarket Pioneer thing loosely thrown in the DIN slot, I will probably swap it though as it can't power the electric aerial so there's not really any FM radio signal and it has no cage.  I think the car has an amp - it's certainly powerful and the speakers, original or not, are excellent.  

 

I really must like it as I've gone to extreme lengths and booked it in next week for a machine polish with a local guy who I've used years ago, he does excellent work and I would like to see the paintwork looking a bit nicer, it's pretty flat and the whole car is covered in scratches.  The scuffed bumpers and damaged wing mirrors will have to stay - I can't find a mirror for it at present but they both still adjust and heat up perfectly, even though the passenger one's glass is broken.

 

It's also going to twosmoke300 early in the new year for a service and hopefully a bit of general improvement - there is a bit of a rattle from the front end, sounds bush-related (snigger).  Alas, there is one growing problem, however - the clutch is knackered.  It makes loud groaning noises when slipped, makes very loud grinding noises when the clutch pedal's pressed during gear changes at higher revs and feels snatchy.  My inexpert diagnosis is the bearing but I'm guessing this means the whole clutch would need to come out anyway so it might as well be replaced.  I will have it done, it spoils the car and it's worth doing.

 

I did clean out the interior, removing a small carrier bag's worth of rubbish from various cubby holes, emptying and washing the rear ash tray and wiping the whole lot over so it now looks and smells quite a lot nicer.  Despite the rubbish, which all seems quite recent, the cabin's actually very tidy and the carpets (plus original Honda floor mats) are very clean so it has been looked after.

 

I'm really looking forward to actually seeing it in the daylight, still hasn't happened yet since collecting it from Rob other than a brief period where it was pouring with rain.

[RobT]

That's a pisser about the clutch, especially seeing as the lad selling it made a point of telling you it was OK.

[phil_lihp]

Yep, either he didn't notice or just wasn't very honest.  He didn't mention the broken window regulator in the ad (but did when I asked what faults it had), didn't mention the broken wing mirrors and left a load of rubbish strewn around the interior so I don't think much of his integrity to be honest.  I find it hard to believe he would not have noticed the clutch issue, as you commented when you drove it, the vibration through the pedal when changing gear is quite pronounced.  Still, it's a £500 car bought blind, off the basis of a quick phone call, from a private seller so I can hardly complain.

[phil_lihp]

I had a poke around this today in actual daylight.  One discovery I've made is how awful the tyres are - as previously mentioned, it has 4 different brands on it of varying age and quality but they are mainly crap.  They all have plenty of tread but that's about all that can be said for three of them.  I've therefore ordered a nice new pair of Toyos for the front with the best two remaining to go on the back.

 

This is the only half-decent one, a 2014 Pirelli with plenty of tread.

 

 

On the subject of decent, these are not.  This, also mounted on the front for maximum impact, is my favourite.  A hithero unknown brand, probably because you would only find such quality on ultra-rare exotica normally only found in museums; I give you: a Frun-One.  For those days when you crave a little unpredictability and wayward understeer.  I have established that it aquaplanes like a champ despite being branded 'M&S' on the sidewall.  Possibly refers to the shop who's window you'll end up embedded in.

 

 

An Event, quite new-looking.  Not great but it can stay for now.  

 

 

Last but not least, an Arrowspeed, with bargain-basement tread pattern and a 2007 date code.  Unsurprisingly, hideously perished.

 

 

I don't really understand why you'd put such rubbish tyres on a relatively powerful car but hey ho, it will be resolved soon.  The observant among you will notice that the alloy wheels are in superb condition with no real damage or corrosion anywhere.  They'll scrub up nicely with a thorough cleaning.

 

A previous owner met a couple of walls in their driving career - nonetheless, the mirror still works perfectly.  I have found replacements on eBay with prices ranging from 'no' to 'you can't be serious' but there's no rush.

 

 

Original dealer plates, for those who like that sort of thing.  I will probably change them at some point, they're a bit tatty.

 

 

 

Overall, quite a good looking machine, this.  It's growing on me every time I drive it and it's just now getting old enough to be a little more interesting.  It does stand out in the office car park among a sea of Audi A3s, Golfs and Minis.

 

 

 

 

It's getting a proper machine polish next week and a set of new tyres, then off down to Cornwall in the new year for a service.  

 

Hats off once again to Messrs. R Bo11ox and RobT for the recommendations and for finding this car, I think this is probably just about the ideal motor for me right now.  It's interesting enough to not bore me to tears, is lovely to drive and has a fair chance of being reliable.  With the car fixing mojo at winter-grade minimum right now, hopefully this will provide good service for a while yet without needing constant attention.

[phil_lihp]

Incidentally, my favourite feature on this car is the button next to the handbrake which operates the headlight washers.  I have no idea why this pleases me so much, but it does.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Are they the same as Rover 600 mirrors? Should be able to find one of those for peanuts.

[phil_lihp]

Yes, I expect most bits are interchangeable between the Accord and 600.  I don't think I'd get a colour match though.  For now a bit of gaffer tape will do.

[phil_lihp]

Timpsons knocked up a key for this for £10 today, easy peasy - and yes, I have tested that it works in every lock and starts the car.  It's a generic one but feels more substantial than the original, he confirmed there's no chip in it so some day I might investigate twosmoke300's theory that there's an old key or plip hidden somewhere under the steering column.  Then again, ignorance is bliss.

[SRi05]

Mmmm Honda. I hope this roffles one day!

[J-T]

I’ve always liked this shape accord, they remind me of watching the BTCC as a lad. Right handsome things and that one’s a smart colour and spec. I bet it’ll drive loads better with some decent boots. Would!

 

https://goo.gl/images/kuR36r

[Noel Tidybeard]

cor a moar door prelude!

 

afaik those keys never had an immoby chip and any immobilisers of that era were timed- so if you open car and sit contenplating your navel for any length of time you need to lock/unlock to turn it off again

[phil_lihp]

Noted - I will keep contemplation to a minimum. I like the idea of these being a bigger Prelude - it does feel similar in a way although not as solid and planted, it has a much softer bias and doesn't handle nearly as well (shock horror, it's meant for carrying families around, after all) and of course the dash isn't as cool. On the plus side, it has some very convincing* fake wood.

 

Coincidentally, I found this earlier whilst looking for something to pass a few minutes...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6q2htEzjx8E

 

Winner! Approved by Clarkson - what high praise indeed. Although a bit odd that the 600 was dismissed for being too 'boring' when it's the same car and arguably more distinctive! Ah well, everyone has their own opinions. I of course support the overall conclusion, especially as mine has VTEC YO. (Edit: no it doesn't ).

 

And no, it's not being raffled. Not yet. I want to keep this for a while if it can avoid exploding for a year or two.

[twosmoke300]

Does the 2.3 twin cam have vtec on that model ? Thought it was just the 2.2

[twosmoke300]

Just looked at your engine pics and I'm afraid it's vtec no rather than vtec yo

[phil_lihp]

Ah, someone said it was VTEC but I can't remember when, where or who so may have imagined it, makes no odds anyway as I don't drive cars hard enough to make use of it anyway!

 

I may get a 'VTEC No' badge made for it though, I like that.

[Angrydicky]

A Nightfire red mirror would do the job. Either that or give the replacement mirror casing a blow over with an aerosol of the correct colour. 

 

My Oxford Blue 600 has a British Racing Green ebay mirror on the passenger side after some prick smashed it off. Couldn't find a blue one and the car's so tatty I couldn't be arsed painting it. Annoyingly, it's not heated like the original.

[phil_lihp]

Nightfire red is a good shout, hadn't thought of that - I'll keep an eye out.  Mind you, despite the state of it (and the driver's side isn't much better apart from the glass not being cracked) both mirrors still adjust and heat perfectly well.  

[phil_lihp]

Turns out the battery terminals were both loose. Hiace to the rescue, as always.

 

 

They were so loose I'm surprised they've stayed on this long, clearly it wasn't helping the battery to charge.

[egg]

Rob and me had similar loose terminal issues with switching Mondy batteries around earlier in the month!

 

Enjoyable thread Phil, one that I'd completely missed until today...

[phil_lihp]

Today was a good day for the Accord.  I dropped it off at the valeters this morning, picked it up four hours later and have to say I'm quite impressed, looks much better!  There's still a fair few scuffs and scratches that won't come out but it looks heaps better and didn't cost very much so I'm happy.  Gives it a bit of protection for the winter, too although I'm now scared to get it dirty!

 

 

 

Then it was straight across to the tyre place for a nice new pair of Toyo Proxes CF2s - I've previously put these on the Jag and Volvo and always been impressed with their grip and low noise levels for the money.  No exception here, it's made the steering feel a little more positive and it tracks straighter now, which I wasn't expecting, the slight pull to the left I'd occasionally noticed seems to have gone but then again, seeing as it's not wearing a part-worn Frun-One mud and snow on one side and a Pirelli on the other that's not a huge surprise.  The Pirelli's gone to live on the back to displace the crazed and rock-hard old Arrowspeed.  

 

It was pleasing to find the car went down well with the tyre fitters, two young blokes fitted the tyres and were asking questions about it, compared its styling to an Integra and complimented its good condition.  I even noticed them taking care to keep the wheels clean and wiping the excess tyre soap and greasy fingerprints off the rims - small things but nice to see.  I usually try to use this local firm as they're always very helpful, worth the small premium over using an online seller.

 

While it was wheel-less, I had a chance to check the brakes.  New discs, pads and possibly wheel bearings, looking at the shiny bolts on the hub on both sides.  Good news!

 

 

As a treat, seeing as you've read this far, have a shot of what I parked next to in Sainsburys' car park.  

 

 

And yes, it's brush painted.  I don't think it's a V8, sadly.

[Ghosty]

 

And yes, it's brush painted.  I don't think it's a V8, sadly.

 

DVLA think it's red though. Must be an ex-Post Office one.

[phil_lihp]

Today has included another flat battery after being parked up overnight - fortunately at work so I could jump start it off the pool car I'd been using.  Given the loose terminal connections I found last time, I suspect it's had the battery swapped out before it was sold, maybe the seller put the better one on his other Accord.  Dunno, anyway, I'll get a replacement and keep parking it facing downhill for now.

 

It's only one silly, minor failure but the mojo's fallen even further now.  Having covered 700 miles in 2 days in the 11-plate diesel Golf we have as a company pool car, I thought it would be nice jumping back into my own car but instead I just got cross with the flat battery, the loud rattly noises coming from the power steering pulley when it started from cold and the snatchy clutch (although it's a lot better than it was) and then got more cross when it started to get very hot whilst squeezing into a tight parking space in town.  I am hoping it's just the thermostat that's buggered, it didn't overheat but it was climbing towards the top of the gauge; the heater was on already and I checked that the coolant is fully topped up.  It's off to twosmoke300 for some TLC next week so hopefully it can behave until then.  

 

Disturbingly, I realised I've actually enjoyed driving a competent, moderately powerful modern car with very comfy seats that just works and does everything asked of it, even if there's moss growing on it, the interior's minging and it smells of wet dog.  The tailgate's been bashed in and now makes strange noises when slammed shut and various bits of interior trim have come adrift but overall it's wearing 75,000 fairly hard miles moderately well.  I have to remember it's worth probably 12 times what mine is and it is also excruciatingly boring, I couldn't really take much pride of ownership in it if it were mine.  I think though that I'm just expecting far too much from a 22 year old car really so I'm putting my gloom down to the weather.  In addition, the start-stop function went on strike for the first few hours of the journey, although it came back to life later on, perhaps it was after a DPF regen or time to charge the battery as it does a lot of short trips as well.  I certainly wouldn't fancy footing the bill for repairing that!

 

Anyway, all a bit grumpy, this.  I've got some van interior bits to work on which'll take my mind off all this modern car nonsense, currently sorting out some LED lights for the living quarters as the load bay light is a bit puny.  Good opportunity to improve my lackluster soldering skills.

[phil_lihp]

Quick oil change on the Hiace today, together with a session with the hoover which has been badly needed for several months now so the cab and sleeping area are slightly less grassy and muddy.

 

In comparison to the last oil change on this one, when I did it on a mate's driveway and, unbeknownst to me, the rubber seal had fallen off the filter as I was screwing it on, culminating in approximately 4 litres of oil gushing out of the engine in about 10 seconds when I started it, this one was spotlessly clean with not a drop spilled.  As the oil pressure warning light has always taken about 6 seconds to go off when started from cold since the last change, I splashed out on a proper Toyota filter from the local dealer this time, hoping it might be better.  The seal was certainly attached properly, unlike the old one - in fact it left the seal on the filter mount when I removed it!  

 

Will have to wait until it's cold again before I can see if the warning light goes off faster now but it does seem to be a feature of these vans and nothing much to worry about.  I also changed the gigantic air filter although the old one didn't look too bad.  Next item on the agenda will probably be new front tyres, they went through the MOT without a mention but they look tatty, they're quite worn and one has a bald edge to it anyway.

 

I've acquired some wonderful 70s curtains to close off the cab area at night, rather than trying to get window blinds for the windscreen and side windows, hopefully tomorrow I can get some time to fit them.  I'm currently using picture wire but it's not really ideal as it's very hard to get enough tension on it to stop the curtains sagging so I may well invest in some proper curtain track instead.  The other curtains are all home-made by my sister which is nice, again hopefully they can be reattached tomorrow, I took them down so she could adjust them after I got back from France.

 

I urgently need to sort out its change from van to camper on the V5 as well, I never got around to it before but my current insurance stipulates it needs to be done within 3 months and I realised recently that it has been 2 months already since I renewed.  I need to stick a table in which won't take long, then get some photos and a begging letter off to the DVLA post-haste.

[Sir Snipes]

Going back to an earlier post I think the 2.2 vtec Executive would be top spec, though I’m not even 100% sure they were using the monicker at this point. SR means sporty for 90s Hondas, probably the 170bhp Prelude engine.

[dollywobbler]

I know how you feel about jumping out of a modern into something older, but a bit tired. I often get it myself, especially if I've been test driving something brand new. I try to focus on the downsides of the newer vehicle - there's usually a surprisingly large list! Then I console myself that I could have paid thousands of pounds for something with a snagging list that long. I can live with a few vibrations...

[phil_lihp]

Indeed, the Golf is a superbly competent, comfortable and economical car, but ultimately for £7500 or whatever, it does little that my £350 Skoda Octavia didn't do just as well and will cost significant amounts more to fix when it goes wrong.  Ultimately that's what the old car thing boils down to for me, simple economics.  I can enjoy an old car as much for knowing how little it owes me as for how interesting/satisfying it is to own.

 

I did the modern car thing back in 2012 with a brand new Kia C'eed when I was self-employed, it had several trips back to the dealer for warranty work so was no less hassle than an old car in that respect, the seats were hideously hard and uncomfortable and the little 1.4 was so under-geared on the motorway it drank ridiculous amounts of petrol.  I realised the Rover 220 I'd bought off here for £100 was better in nearly every respect and didn't involve a finance package either, kind of what started it for me.

 

I have a lot of respect for the people on here who can channel large amounts of time and energy into their cars, having seen the Standard and Morris Cowley threads, me getting cross about a flat battery on a 22 year old Honda when someone's getting good use out of a 60-85 year old car isn't really worth the time I put to writing it.  I'm putting the lack of enthusiasm down to the time of year, it'll come back soon enough no doubt.  Sometimes it's just about keeping a bit of momentum going so little jobs on the van fills that brief pretty well. 

 

I'll try and get some photos up later of the van's interior, I'm fairly pleased with it so far.  It's come a long way from the state it was in when I bought it last year.

[phil_lihp]

Another couple of hours today of minor tinkering, dodging the rain showers unfortunately which put paid to getting anything useful done on the van's interior - I am hoping to borrow some space in a friend's barn soon so I can crack on without worrying about the weather for a day or two.

 

As she was visiting, I changed the spark plugs on the sister's i10 today, the old ones weren't too bad after 20k miles or so but one was pretty rusty and they looked a tad worn so well worth doing; I forgot to sort them when I serviced it last month.  It wasn't bad before but with new plugs it runs like a little sewing machine, it has a dinky little 1.1 4 cylinder which looks comically miniscule in the engine bay but it's so smooth and quiet, even with 70k+ on it, hard not to be impressed really as it really does 'run like new' despite that being a tired old sales phrase. 

 

The only thing after 9 years is some of the untreated metal components under the bonnet are getting pretty ropey now - the battery clamp is in a horrible state, I wire brushed it and painted it with some black waxoyl-infused paint I bought for the Hiace's underside when I serviced it which has tidied it up but it still looks like something off the Titanic.  That, and the little heatshield above the exhaust manifold which is meant to protect the plug leads has a lot of holes in it now and is basically useless.  No idea if it's actually worth having but given that the manifold itself is looking decidedly crusty and they share the same fixings, I am definitely not touching the bolts which hold the whole lot on, there's plenty of potential for despair if I start disturbing that lot.  It's still on its original 9 year old battery and ignition leads so I have suggested she budgets for getting them changed at some point soon.

 

The Hiace is very happy with its new oil and filter, the pressure warning light goes out much faster now when starting from cold and it sounds about as smooth and quiet as an ancient commercial diesel engine ever could.  Alas, due to an insurance cockup it's currently marooned at home.  I've discovered that when I renewed the insurance back in October, someone's mistyped one letter of the reg number on the certificate so some random Ford which hasn't seen the road since 2013 is currently enjoying my cover - I have checked the AskMID site and sure enough, it's showing as not covered.  As the broker's lines are currently closed I'll have to wait until Tuesday to get that sorted out - I'm very lucky I haven't been pulled for it up until now.  Lesson to all - check your insurance documents thoroughly!