3rd Gen Accord

[jjmartin349571]

I got the last few bits wrapped up today

But first here's the initial plate that the body shop made for the car:



Unless you look for it you can't spot the repair, so this will do me until I can get it back in there for both sills to be restored properly

Moving on, today's job was to fit a new CV boot. I went for one of the cheapo eBay stretch boots, time will tell how well it holds up. I'm not too worried about replacing it in the future tbh as I've done so many of these now that I'm getting quite quick at it didn't take long this afternoon and here's the finished product:



I could maybe have cut it down a tad but hey ho, I'll keep an eye on it and see what happens.

That left only my rear registration plate lights to deal with. Tbh I wasn't really sure what to do here, as the bulbs are working fine and the plate is legible at night The exact wording was '(both) registration plate lamp not illuminating the registration plate', so maybe the tester was disputing the amount of light falling on the plate, who knows. So i took the lenses off of the lights, washed them, and refitted them. I cleaned the registration plate too. It looks barely any brighter, but it's working in exactly the way it was when manufactured, so if they dispute it tomorrow I will properly throw my toys out the pram

So, roll on tomorrow!!

[wurlycorner]

Well done getting it all sorted so quickly and good luck for today.

I would definitely keep an eye on that CV gaitor if I were you. I overhauled the drive shafts on my Xantia and fitted what was meant to be the correct gaitor but when it was on the car, it was obviously too long, because the corrugations were scrunched up like in that pic. I thought it would be ok (I wasn't going to strip it down again just on the off-chance!) but within 3k they'd rubbed right through! Bloody Unipart

[jjmartin349571]

Good news! The hard work and cold evenings have not been in vain, the Accord passed it's MOT today. I picked it up after work and I really enjoyed my drive home, I've missed my car! After a fortnight of 1.2l Clio shenanigans it was refreshing to kick it down 2 gears and let fly as soon as I got to the overtaking lane on my route home

Well done getting it all sorted so quickly and good luck for today.

I would definitely keep an eye on that CV gaitor if I were you. I overhauled the drive shafts on my Xantia and fitted what was meant to be the correct gaitor but when it was on the car, it was obviously too long, because the corrugations were scrunched up like in that pic. I thought it would be ok (I wasn't going to strip it down again just on the off-chance!) but within 3k they'd rubbed right through! Bloody Unipart

Cheers mate! Yeah as soon as I moved it though its travel I was kinda like jobby, probably should've trimmed it down I will keep an eye on it as you say, and see how long it hangs in for.

[NafemanNathan]

Congrats bud Fast work!

Did they say anything about the reg lights?

[jjmartin349571]

Cheers mate I have no excuse not to sort my BB4 out now though

I mentioned the lights when I dropped it off, he said maybe it was an intermittent connection - I check my lights regularly and haven't ever noticed anything of the sort though at any rate there was no mention of it afterwards so I can only assume somebody opened their eyes this time

Got advisories on tyres but they've all got about 3mm of tread or thereabouts, rear discs, rear pads very low, just the usual crap they did put that the back box has a leak as well, so I might get a few local places to quote me on a straight through back box

All in all though I'm happy with how the car is doing the thing I'm most looking forward to is the sill repairs though, it's going to be great seeing the last of that horrible black plate!

[prelude91]

Well done jj, another period of relative troublfree motoring, how's rob doing since your help at the weekend?

[jjmartin349571]

The theme of the week for my Accord has been water

Monday I got into the car after a night of heavy rain. Hmm I thought, my seat is a bit damp... The car had been really fogging up recently though so just assumed the whole car was slowly getting soggy and chucked my coat on the seat. Fired up the car, popped it in reverse, touched the throttle and all of a sudden a torrent of icy drokking water started pouring out the sunroof and over my head!!! I tried to duck out the way but my seatbelt locked and I just had to sit there for what felt like an age just getting drenched. No time to go back in and change so I had to drive all the way to work with my arse in a puddle in the seat, and then spent the day at work soaking drokking wet

At any rate, I never normally park that way round on my drive, and there's a slight incline, so my diagnosis was blocked rear drain tubes. On to that in a bit. In the meantime I went back to parking my car the opposite way around and it has slowly dried out.

On to Friday! Another bloody soaking wet jobby bag of a day in January. The local roads couldn't handle the water and there were mega puddles everywhere. Friday tradition dictates that immediately after work I meet my best mate and we go to the pub before going home. Usually we both drive to the pub and go our seperate way afterwards, but my mate needed to change and so we went to his first and I gave him a lift from his house. As we left his house, the car almost didn't start as if the batter was flat. Then driving to the pub the lights and dash were dim as if the battery was not charging. Gunning the engine didn't make anything get brighter either Then on the way back from the pub, everything got really dim and the ALB light came on... still no battery light though. I limped the car home and parked it up feeling thoroughly fed up with it!! My mind was racing thinking jobby my alternator has died or something, then I remembered something that happened as I left work - whilst driving through the industrial estate, an HGV coming the other way didn't slow down for a huge puddle. He hit it hard just as I met him, and basically threw a solid curtain of water over my car as he passed. Skip forward to yesterday and my car started and was driving normally again... So currently I'm thinking that maybe the sheer amount of water about caused my alternator belt to start slipping. I'm still not feeling 100% happy with the situation though, the last thing I need is to have to do the alternator on that car!! I couldn't hear the belt slipping either so I'm not entirely certain that it was the problem Time will tell I guess, although I'm kind of thinking maybe I should get a voltage gauge like in a proper old school car

Anyway, back to sunroof drain tubes. I pulled out the interior lining of my boot today, and got busy. This probably isn't of any benefit to anyone as I'm not sure there are any other 3g Accord Saloon owners here so I'll keep it sort and sweet.

Found the tubes:


Pull the hose from the grommet in the boot, and observe the blocked valve that soaked you earlier in the week:


then pull out the little muffin and drain tube into bucket:


Clean the valve in the sink so that water passes freely:


Refit in reverse order!

Now I'm just waiting for the rain to see if this has solved my troubles. Fingers crossed it has!

Roll on summer please

[mercutio]

sat chuckling to myself good job on the drain tubes

[NafemanNathan]

I chuckled to. I could just picture it

Seems such a simple design flaw. I guess if you know where they are to check them regularly then that's half the battle won.

[wurlycorner]

Different design to the end of the tubes, but same result as on 4th gens.