The OEM clutch bearing will be an NSK, fyi. It really does make a difference!
The OEM clutch bearing will be an NSK, fyi. It really does make a difference!
Couple developments.
#1: If you have 15 year old control arms, just save yourself some headache and get all new arm with bushings already pressed in. After sawzalling the seized bolt, I took my old control arms to a shop to get the bushings replaced. Guy called me back and said he about broke his hydraulic press in half trying to get the bushings out. He ended up cutting them out. Gonna cost me more to replace bushings than it would to have bought all new arms.
#2. Another Facebook marketplace find. It's a rear ended 2008 Acura TL type S with 130k miles, an otherwise clean title, a stack of maintenance receipts, and a couple small mods already done (coilovers, wheel spacers). Guy wants $1000 for the whole car. I am trying to see about picking it up tomorrow or Thursday. My wife might actually murder me, but she didn't technically say no.
The possibilities tho... bigger rear brakes, brembo front brakes, coilovers, sway bars, power steering pump, exhaust stuff, TL-S waffle rims, and who knows what else can all go on my Accord. And the engine, trans, cats, body panels, seats and interior bits can be sold to make my money back and then some. I'm salivating. But trying not to count the chickens before they are hatched... among other things I'll need to tow it and the car is a ways away.
The TL-S might actually be happening. I found out uhaul rents car trailers for $42. I'm set to meet the guy tomorrow. This might end up being absurdly awesome. I'm wondering if the TL-S aluminum subframe might fit my Accord...
dumb question How bad is the TL damaged and i assume it's an automatic?
In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :
Yep, autotragic. And, it got hit pretty hard. Right rear drivers side. Front half of the car from the drivers door to the bumper is completely untouched tho.
sorry I didn't see this before. But, re-coilovers, the TL has an OEM shocktower bar, and so there's 6 (?) bolts up from the shock into the tower, iirc
In reply to sleepyhead the buffalo :
Yeah I will have to swap to the Accord oem top hats, if they are swappable. Remains to be seen
Welp I bought the TL. Pics and update to come
Yes! Hugely looking forward to you testing out some parts that I want to try. I always read your updates, but I'll still be reading them too.
So, here's the TL.
So, it really got whacked. Truck hit the rear drivers side at about 45mph. So everything from the drivers side door and around to the passenger side rear fender is pretty much destroyed.
front end is totally untouched though. It's dirty and unfortunately there are quite a few dings and scrapes on the otherwise undamaged exterior panels. That will hurt my recoup. But the mechanics have been maintained quite well and the suspension was very recently serviced and everything under the car is in awesome shape with basically zero rust.
It came with Megan coil overs with approx 7k miles on them. They are relatively nice from what I've read. 3 of them are good; obviously that left rear one is toasted. Rims have some curb rash and a crappy paint job but the tires are in pretty good shape.
Right now I'm in a bit of a waiting mode because all 20 lug nuts are wheel locks and the seller forgot to give me the key. He says he's mailing it but we will see. If I don't get it I'll have to smash a 12 point socket over all 20 lugs which will be... super annoying, to say the least.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Thanks! Means a lot coming from you, as you are really the primary inspiration for this build. I still go back and read sections of the Traccord thread quite often.
I feel like this is a really good chance to actually add something to the Accord community and this overall platform. The 07-08 TL-S was Honda's premier engineering effort with this wheelbase. I have yet to find on any forum the answers to:
* whether the subframe will bolt up
* If the wheel well plastic with build in brake cooling ducts will fit the Accord
* Do the 07-08 TL auto trans passenger side axles fit 6 speed Accords and 04-06 TL's
* is the rack and pinion a direct swap and how much of a difference does it make
* does the power steering cooler bolt up to the Accord
* How much bigger and different is the TL-S exhaust vs regular TL's and v6 Accords, and does it bolt up to the Accord
These are things I'll be figuring out as the TL-S gets dismantled.
Well, all it took was one part-out for-sale post on one Facebook forum and boom, my inbox is getting absolutely inundated with requests for parts. I have over 40 PMs. This is the first time I've parted out a whole car and evidently this particular vehicle is in high demand. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to sell off non-drivetrain parts but... yeah that's no longer a worry. I'm not going to just get a bunch of cool parts, I might actually make some money! That can go toward more car parts.
also, from eyeballing it and generally lining up bolt holes, it sure looks like the subframe is going to bolt up to my Accord. I'll know for sure once the engine is out of the TL.
Also, it sure looks like the TL-S catback exhaust is 2.5" all the way to where the muffler piping splits off.
The stock Accord exhaust goes from 1.75" j pipe primaries to 2.5" main pipe to 2.25" from the catalytic converter on back. Press release for the TL-S states that the exhaust flows 14% better than the regular TL due to larger diameter piping, and the regular TL exhaust is identical to the Accord exhaust. The TL-S j pipe is identical to the Accord and regular TL one though, so I still need to replace it.
I have been busy selling TL-S parts, but today the previous owner actually did send me the wheel lock. I was able to weigh my wheel and tire setup vs the TL-S.
Current wheels/tires: stock Accord 6 speed rims (17x6.5),, Achilles ATR sport+ tires (215/50/r17):
TL-S: 17x8 stock rims, Cooper RS3 tires (235/45/r17)
weights: Accord rims: 45.5 lbs
Tl-S rims: 48 lbs
so I actually increase 10 total lbs of unsprung weight by swapping rims and tires. I Know the bigger brakes and more tire area = more grip will make up for the weight increase, but it still annoys me
fun build, love the use of all OEM upfitting!
how are the seats and the dash in the tl and what color?
Number1Gaza said:I have been busy selling TL-S parts, but today the previous owner actually did send me the wheel lock. I was able to weigh my wheel and tire setup vs the TL-S.
Current wheels/tires: stock Accord 6 speed rims (17x6.5),, Achilles ATR sport+ tires (215/50/r17):
TL-S: 17x8 stock rims, Cooper RS3 tires (235/45/r17)
weights: Accord rims: 45.5 lbs
Tl-S rims: 48 lbs
so I actually increase 10 total lbs of unsprung weight by swapping rims and tires. I Know the bigger brakes and more tire area = more grip will make up for the weight increase, but it still annoys me
that's a lot more tire for not a ton of weight trade off
In reply to solfly :
Dash is miserably cracked, like most of the ones from that generation. Seats aren't great, drivers side is ripped and passenger side is cracking. Tan/black interior.
Shipping has been really frustrating. I had the bumper sold... and UPS tried to charge me $375 for shipping. Absolutely insane. Greyhound is shut down due to covid. Stuff like the hood and trunk is going to end up being pickup only which really limits my options.
Quick question for all you guys:
Looks like the Megan coilovers that came with the TL won't work with my stock top hats. So I'm going to go ahead and buy some sort of spring/shock combo, or full coilovers.
Based on my research, I've narrowed it down to 2 options. Tein flex z coilovers, which are made in Japan and seem to be the best value for fully adjustable rebound and damper coilovers. But they also cost $750 and aren't rebuildable.
The other option is Koni Yellows and some kind of lowering spring with a decent spring rate. This option looks like it requires re-use of the OEM top hats. H&R racing springs are a strong competitor for the spring. The benefit to Koni Yellows: it'll save me in the neighborhood of $300 vs the Teins. Somewhere my wife is repeating on loop: "strict budget strict budget"
What do you guys recommend? Any benefit to going with an aftermarket top hat vs OEM? Hopefully Seth reads this and can give his opinion on the Koni yellows. Suspension in general is my weak link when it comes to cars. I know next to nothing and have zero experience with suspension tuning. Certainly done lots of internet research but without driving a car, making adjustments and driving again I feel very inadequate when making these sort of decisions.
Did some more research on the spring and shock combo, and I am going Koni Yellows. They won't save me much money over the Teins but that's ok. I'm gonna buy them as soon as I can sell the TL-S engine and tranny.
I disassembled the front suspension on the TL, and found a rip in the lower ball joint. Ugh. OEM ball joints are silly expensive, like $100 a pop, and some real shady stuff has been said about aftermarket ball joints for the Accord platform, particularly Moog. But I have expensive suspension stuff to buy, and ball joints weren't on the list. So I did a bunch of research, and ended up going with these:
Sankei 555 are the premium Beck-Arnley OEM made-in-Japan equivalents for $36 a piece. Lot better than $200 for a pair.
Well, so far I've made around $1500 from parts sales on my $1000 investment in the TL-S... and that's without even touching the engine and transmission. Today I finally got around to pulling them. And, well, I'm not exactly sure how the engine was still in the bay. Check out these mounts:
Side (completely snapped)
front: 
rear:
Upper trans mount: (literally fell apart when I unbolted it)
The only mount that wasn't totally gone was the lower trans mount. And, there's only one lower mount on the auto transmission instead of 2 like my Accord. Not real sure how the previous owner was driving the car around like that.
The subframe won't work with my car. Really a bummer. Looks like it will bolt up, I will confirm tomorrow when I take measurements. But, those side trans mounts are the issue. Only one on the auto trans TL, way different design, and the mount is welded to the subframe. Could I make it work? Probably... but I don't think it's worth the trouble. One of these days I'll find an 04-06 TL subframe and swap that in. Those should bolt right up and the auto and manual subframes are the same. The auto transmission mount design changed in 07.
I'll cut to the chase. I did a thing today. 
No more worries about excess unsprung weight. Also, have I mentioned I love fb marketplace? I found these for less than the cost of the rims if I had bought new
Those look very familiar. 
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Haha I was wondering if you would notice the resemblance. Identical to the original traccord rims, same size too 17x8.
Including the tires they weigh 35lbs a side. So they save 40 total lbs over my stock setup and 52lbs over the TL rims/tires. All unsprung. I'd say that's worth it.
They're good wheels. The only downside is that you need skinny cone seat lug nuts (instead of the larger ball seat Honda ones) which means you have to keep extra lug nuts around if you ever swap back and forth between factory wheels.
I finally have the TL-S pretty much entirely stripped. I can now turn my attention to re-assembling the Accord with all my new goodies. Over the next few days here's what's getting installed:
The TL-S rear sway bar survived the wreck! The endlinks took the fall (aka completely snapped in half) but the bar looks fine. It is 20mm and solid. I am currently running a 19mm bar from an '03 TL Type S, so it's not much of an upgrade, but it's the most bar I can get from an OEM standpoint; anything bigger is aftermarket and expensive.
Here's the Moog rear end links that will be getting swapped in as well. They are orders of magnitude thicker than stock. I am quite pleased. And only half the cost of OEM!
The TL-S Front sway bar could be swapped as well; it is 27mm and solid as opposed to the Accord's 25.4mm hollow bar, but I tend to think it would overpower the front and cause understeer. Particularly since I've dropped so much weight in the rear of the car and not so much from the front. If I'm wrong I can always swap it in later.
Also, there's a 27.2mm hollow Acura TL base model front bar that will swap over and is some measure stiffer than the Accord bar while not quite being as stiff as the TL-S front bar. Food for thought when I do suspension tuning later.
Both TL front knuckles with the brembo 4 piston calipers are getting swapped. I need to replace the lower ball joints first.
The TL-S brake master cylinder will be getting swapped as well.
Power steering cooler will get swapped over. I may have to make a couple custom brackets to mount it.
I bought a used 2008 TL type S power steering rack like a week or 2 before I bought... an entire Acura TL Type S. Whoops. O well. So 1 of the 2 racks will be getting swapped in. Both have torn driver side boots, interestingly enough. Luckily my Accord rack has the same size boot and it is not torn.
Upper control arms on the TL are in better shape than my Accord, especially the upper ball joints. I'll need to get a front camber kit that will replace the OEM upper control arm at some point but for now I'm going to swap the TL-S arms.
Can't forget my new lightweight rims and sticky Michelin's :-)
Springs and shocks are next, and then an exhaust, but that can wait. I need to see if my new clutch and lightweight flywheel with new friction disc (heat shield), and the cams and valve springs, are all working properly. It's my first time ever doing any of that stuff.
I really can't wait to drive the car. With all these upgrades it should be a totally different vehicle.
Last night and today I re-read the entirety of the original Traccord thread. It's such a good read. Thanks again Seth.
It is super interesting the different paths we've taken. Seth mostly tackled the way his Accord corners and stops, through weight loss, brakes, suspension and aero. To this day the car is still making stock horsepower and running an open diff.
I started with the heavy version of the Accord, and I've attacked how fast the car accelerates and stops, and I've added an LSD. But outside of a bit of weight loss and bars, I haven't done a thing to the suspension or aero.. That's about to change. The TL Type S has a bunch of aero bits that the Accord doesn't, and all of it is getting swapped.
It has undertrays that convert the majority of the underside into a flat bottom. So I'm going to swap in all those panels. Also, the front wheel well plastic has built in brake ducts. So those will be installed. Out back there is a diffuser. I'm going to see if I can make that work with the Accord. Eventually I'd like a custom diffuser but that's probably a while from now. Anyway, that will be a start. Once I dial in the suspension and figure out if this is going to be an autocross car or a track car I'll see about a front splitter, or a wing.. really not sure. But that's sort of the next stage of progression and I'm really looking forward to it.
Also, completely stripping the TL, which is basically a really fancy Accord, has given me lots of ideas for weight loss. So that will be happening too.
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