I’ve always liked sleeper cars and have been casually looking for a manual Accord V6 Sedan. More and more are popping up as they hit the 12+ year old mark. I found this very clean example in South Florida. It had 1 owner, 90K miles, and full dealer maintenance records. I plan to sort through the common maintenance items first and decide what to do from there.
Getting detailed before pickup.
The fun stick
Timing belts on Accord V6 engines are due at either 7 years or 105K miles. Although this car only had 90K miles, it was well beyond 7 years. this was the first item to tackle on the maintenance list. It was pretty straight forward job. This is my first FWD car since 2004, so I forgot how much fun it was to work on transverse engines. Took my time and got the job done in about 8 hours. I could probably do it in half the time now.
You have to move the PS pump out of the way to gain access to the timing covers and engine mount. A lot of people take the PS lines off and plug them, but there is enough slack to swing it out of the way.
Old Timing belt looked really good and probably could have gone for awhile longer, but replacing it was good piece of mind for me.
I used the method where you mark the teeth at the crank and cams. then transfer it to the new belt to make sure timing isn't off. Worked really well.
The VTEC solenoid wire is right next to the tensioner. I got a CEL after starting the car, P2649 - Rocker Arm Actuator Control Circuit High Bank 1. I think the wire was snapped when I unbolted the tensioner. I tried putting the wire back in to the harness, but it was done. I replaced the solenoid with a new harness and it fixed the CEL. Note to self: unplug the solenoid wire before taking off the tensioner next time.
I spent most of the year dreaming about owning a car exactly like this, but the need to replace my truck got in the way. Good luck with this sleeper. Very jealous.
I'm looking forward to hearing about this motor. I'm not going to lie, I keep looking for one of these cars that has been rear ended so I can steal all of the spinny bits.
Catching up on more updates over the last month.
Changed the spark plugs. Nothing out of the ordinary, plugs seemed in good condition for 90K miles. Plugs are supposed to be switched out at 105K service, but cylinder #5 is known to loosen and blow out of the head along with the threads. I will check and torque down this plug when I do oil changes.
Starter was on its way out so I replaced it with a lifetime warranty NAPA replacement.
Original starter that started to fail:
Starter goes here. It was an easy and quick swap, under an hour. Remove battery, battery tray, and 2 17mm bolts. Battery tray took most of the time. I hear this is a much more involved job on K24 Accords.
Alignment Time! Car pulls slightly right, so I went to my local alignment guy.
Alignment specs look even after putting it on the rack.
0 toe front and back
0 camber up front
Front caster is dead even
-1.2 & -1.4 camber out back
Alignment guy thinks the right drift is from the passenger front tire. It is 2 years and 14,000 miles newer than the rest. I will try to rotate it to the back and see if it tracks straight. I'm still deciding what to do with the tire situation. These are 500 treadwear all seasons. They are ok in the dry, but it spins in 3rd when it is wet out.
Smelled burning oil recently and found the front valve cover gasket was leaking on to the exhaust manifold. Replaced the valve cover gaskets and spark plug seals. Also, did a valve adjustment.
Intake plenum needs to come off. Cleaned a bunch of crud out of it.
Everything looked good under the valve covers
Also replaced the PCV valve since it's in the valve cover. It was so brittle, it came out in pieces.
I've driven this car about 1,000 miles and still have not gotten used to the clutch. Feels very inconsistent. Googled and found you can take a delay valve out of the slave cylinder. I bought a new slave cylinder and removed the valve. Clutch pedal acts like a normal clutch pedal now!
The clutch pedal was also clicking every time I let it back up. I looked under the dash and the cruise control switch pad was gone. Mostly in a bunch of piece on the floor board. Picked up a new one and installed it to stop the clicking. Oh and cruise control works again, I never tested it before I realized this pad was missing. I also checked the rubber pad for the starter safety switch since it was probably going to fail soon. Sure enough, it was very brittle and came out in pieces. This was a pain to replace and I had to wedge the rubber pad between taped chopsticks to get it into a narrow space. Picture of the new pad for the cruise control switch below. You can see whats left of the blue starter safety switch pad after I poked it to see if it was still good.
Chasing more oil leaks. After replacing the valve cover seals, I thought I fixed the oil leaks, but found some oil dripping down the oil pan. Traced it back up to the front camshaft thrust cover. The rear didn't appear to leak so I left it alone. Simple replacement, unbolt EGR valve, take off cover, replace o-ring. This reminds me of the CAS o-ring leak on my old Miata.
Leaky camshaft cover:
Flattened O-ring
You seem to be doing an excellent job with this one. It's all these little things that can make owning an older car frustrating.
Thanks! Luckily I have another vehicle to drive when this is down. So I can take my time and wait on parts as I find problems.
edit: just noticed it's the 3.0 V6...forget VCM comment...
My buddy has a Comptech supercharger off of a CL that he may be willing to sell. We were going to use it on the J swapped NSX we are building but it won't fit in that engine bay
The NSX project looks great, I look forward to seeing updates. I will pass on the super charger. I plan on staying away from FI on this car. My goal is to make the Accord reliable as possible while I figure out my 2nd car situation.
I'm actually looking at moving the location of the supercharger so that the shaft runs down the V of the engine and it drives off of where the power steering pump used to be.
That sounds like a creative and simple solution. I guess with a mid engine car, you have more options to put stuff on top of the motor.
More leaks! This time, water. I noticed the front passenger side carpet was a bit wet after a few inches of rain delivered by a recent cold font. Pulled the seats and carpet to let it dry for a few days and started to track down the leak. This car has a moon roof, so that was my first suspect. Confirmed the drain wasn't clogged, so I moved on to the next usual suspect, the a/c drain. Put some compressed air through it, but it wasn't clogged and was working fine. Sometimes debris can get in the fender well and keep the cowl from draining. Nope, was clear. Finally, I poured a pint of water around different spots and found a leak coming from the front fender seam. Appears the seam sealer failed and let a bit of water in if it rains significantly or if you pour about a gallon of water down the passenger side windshield. So far, this has been the biggest PITA with this car and I have lost a bit of respect for Honda quality.
Water entered where two pieces of sheet metal meet at the seam sealer. You can see a bit of dirt where water was coming in. Peeking through the glove box area to see this.
Applied a liberal amount of RTV to seal it.
Drove a couple hundred miles over the holidays visiting family. Received a nice love tap from a distracted driver in stop and go traffic. Front plates are stupid. If there wasn't a front plate, bumper would have been fine.
Also, got around to sealing the headlights.
Aren't the J series Accords kind of unsung heroes? I think you can get about 260hp in a 3300lb car with a manny tranny for chump change in a J coupe.
Are the 3.5/6MT realiable in the coupe configuration?
IDK. It's made by Honda so it must be perfect
mr2s2000elise said:Are the 3.5/6MT realiable in the coupe configuration?
I don't know much about the J35, but I've seen a lot of poorly maintained J30 and J32 MT Accords and TL's make it to 200K miles as I looked for my Accord. My limited anecdotal experience tells me as long as you keep oil in the engine and do the major maintenance(timing belt/water pump), they will run. J series also like to leak oil. Oil pump, cam seals, main seals, VTEC Solenoid gasket, main cap bolts, etc. A lot of people dump the car around the timing belt intervals since it is an $800-$1,000 job at a mechanic.
Here is a "long term" test of a J35 coupe that might be an informative read:
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2017/02/2014-honda-accord-v6-coupe-6mt-long-term-test-36-months-45500-miles/
Anecdotally, the J35 doesn't have the oiling issues that the K motors have at high grip levels.
In reply to BLRB :
Thank you!!!
About 1,500 miles since my last update. The Accord is behaving like an Accord, it runs. The steering column started giving me an occasional buzzing sound and sometimes it would take 2 tries to start the car. Ignition switch seems to be a common issue in 7th gen Accord. I decided to replace this sooner than later instead of being stranded. I used OEM Honda parts since reviews for aftermarket or chinese ebay switches had a decent failure rate.
Removed steering column cover and replaced the ignition switch.
You'll need to log in to post.
