Check out the “Mileage Impossible” Facebook page. High mileage vehicles from all over the world. It’s very interesting.
2003 Honda Accord Running for Nearly a Million Miles
- Thread starter buster
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my tailbone hurts thinking about sitting in a car with a million miles on it.
A long time if you unplug the injector.
K&N air filter for almost a million miles......how many times have we been warned on the forum against using a K&N?
Here's What It Takes To Keep a 2003 Honda Accord Running for Nearly a Million Miles
This Honda Accord owner has advice for those looking to keep their cars on the road for a many years to come.www.thedrive.com
"I have learned (at least for this car) that some parts really need to be replaced with OEM parts," Kilmer told The Drive. "I've used OEM parts for: front lower ball joints, clutch master and slave cylinders, coil packs, wheel bearings, engine mounts. I've used other OEM parts here and there, but those are parts I'm not willing to compromise on this car. [I've heard] too many horror stories of people neglecting to replace the belt or using a cheap belt and having it snap usually causing engine destruction."
"Because he drives so much and changes oil so often, he switched to extended-life oil and filters, which he changes every 15,000 miles. (He still uses the recommended oil weight, though.) Kilmer also uses Redline transmission fluid (a well-regarded aftermarket brand), which he changes every 100,000 miles, and a serviceable K&N air filter serviced twice annually. They're buy-it-once items for most people, though Kilmer had to get a second at 686,000 miles."
"That said, the miles are still taking their toll. Kilmer has to add a quart of oil every 5,000 miles or so, and the V6 has recently developed a misfire. A compression test showed cylinder one is shot; its exhaust valve no longer seals properly."
Although we don't know when he started doing 15k changes. The articles says
'Because he drives so much and changes oil so often, he switched to extended-life oil and filters, which he changes every 15,000 miles."
It does not say when he started doing that.
Not all advice is good or accurate advice, no matter where it's from or who says it.
Think of the costs between replacing every 100 thousand miles and running 1million like this.
Any service items changed on schedule forget about those as any car would need them. Tyres and brakes too.
You can only factor in actual repairs like seats, a gearbox steering rack.
So what’s the cost of the car? 13-14 grand back in 2003? Then every 2 years you replace it selling with 100,000 miles. Your going to be lucky to get 50% of your purchase price back I would think so say 7 grand lost. That’s going to get worse as the new cost price of the vehicle goes up probably ending at 10 grand lost per car in 2023.
so has he spent 100 thousand dollars on non scheduled maintenance? I would think not.
Just my opinion.
Any service items changed on schedule forget about those as any car would need them. Tyres and brakes too.
You can only factor in actual repairs like seats, a gearbox steering rack.
So what’s the cost of the car? 13-14 grand back in 2003? Then every 2 years you replace it selling with 100,000 miles. Your going to be lucky to get 50% of your purchase price back I would think so say 7 grand lost. That’s going to get worse as the new cost price of the vehicle goes up probably ending at 10 grand lost per car in 2023.
so has he spent 100 thousand dollars on non scheduled maintenance? I would think not.
Just my opinion.
Hi. This is our car in the article. I've seen this site before, but this is my first post on here. I wanted to share some more info about the car and answer questions about it.
The car did hit a million miles on March 11, 2023. There are several articles about it online: The Drive, Jalopnik, Road and Track, MSN, Yahoo Autos, and more. There's also a TV interview from KRIS6 news I did a couple of days ago. Google million mile Honda to find them.
I've been writing about the car for over three years on driveaccord.net. I have a thread in the 7th gen forum in the Photo Gallery that has been my main place to share things about the car. Not sure if I can link here, but the thread is titled One Owner '03 Honda Accord EX V6 6-spd trying for one million miles.
Also @txaccord on YouTube and Instagram
There are several walk around videos on my YT channel.
This was the car my wife wanted when she bought it brand new in August 2003. I did not start doing courier work with it until fall of 2015 when it had approx 185k miles. I didn't start out with a goal of driving it a million miles. Each time it hit another hundred thousand milestone, I realized how special it was. I finally started writing about it when it had 589k on it and have documented the goods, bads, and others ever since.
I do all of my own maintenance and most of my own repairs. I'm not advocating or arguing what I've done is the best way. I just say what I've done, how long parts last, what I used.
I started out using Castrol GTX 5w-20 and changed it according to the recommended 3,750 mi oil chg interval. I used this oil til around 140k or so when I decided to switch to Mobil 1 5w-20 Extended Performance. It said on the jug "Protects up to 15,000 miles" so I decided to test that and ran that for 15k mile oil chg intervals. I used to be able to go around 4k before adding the first qt of oil. I've done the 15k intervals until around 900k. Now I'm doing 7,500 mile intervals and still using Mobil 1 5w-20. I've run extended performance oil mostly and later you could get extended performance and high mileage together.
For the transmission, I run Redline MTL and change it every 100k. My biggest mistake and lesson learned was not changing the fluid in the original transmission. That resulted in us putting in a used transmission when the car had 320k. The transmission we installed had 54k on it so it now has well over 700k on it.
Yes the car has needed some work over the years, but I don't think it's anything excessive considering the use it has had. Timing belts every 100k. Yeah, that's about a thousand dollars each time. I've had to re-do the suspension a few times. It's on the third clutch which was just replaced at 950k. So there have been a few times I've spent $2k ish in parts to get it back to right. The car makes me money from deliveries so even if some repairs sound expensive, it has been far more beneficial financially to keep using it than driving the value off of several other cars. There are also tax advantages to using your car for this type of work.
The engine has never had any internal work done. Valve cover gaskets were done after 600k. The shop checked the valves and said they were fine. The oil pan has been replaced.
Around 920k, it developed a bad misfire. Had my shop check it. #1 cyl had no compression. It's a problem with that cylinder's exhaust valve. Since I was so close to a million, we discussed it and decided to drive it as is. I've put over 80k miles on it with 5 cyls. I wanted Honda to finally have a v6 that hit a million. Otherwise, I would've addressed that issue already. It's using a qt of oil about every 1k miles these days. Because of that and the valve issue, I bought a low mile JDM engine to replace it. I'm driving the car to HDay in Maryland in April. After I return home, some friends and I will swap out the engine.
The car did hit a million miles on March 11, 2023. There are several articles about it online: The Drive, Jalopnik, Road and Track, MSN, Yahoo Autos, and more. There's also a TV interview from KRIS6 news I did a couple of days ago. Google million mile Honda to find them.
I've been writing about the car for over three years on driveaccord.net. I have a thread in the 7th gen forum in the Photo Gallery that has been my main place to share things about the car. Not sure if I can link here, but the thread is titled One Owner '03 Honda Accord EX V6 6-spd trying for one million miles.
Also @txaccord on YouTube and Instagram
There are several walk around videos on my YT channel.
This was the car my wife wanted when she bought it brand new in August 2003. I did not start doing courier work with it until fall of 2015 when it had approx 185k miles. I didn't start out with a goal of driving it a million miles. Each time it hit another hundred thousand milestone, I realized how special it was. I finally started writing about it when it had 589k on it and have documented the goods, bads, and others ever since.
I do all of my own maintenance and most of my own repairs. I'm not advocating or arguing what I've done is the best way. I just say what I've done, how long parts last, what I used.
I started out using Castrol GTX 5w-20 and changed it according to the recommended 3,750 mi oil chg interval. I used this oil til around 140k or so when I decided to switch to Mobil 1 5w-20 Extended Performance. It said on the jug "Protects up to 15,000 miles" so I decided to test that and ran that for 15k mile oil chg intervals. I used to be able to go around 4k before adding the first qt of oil. I've done the 15k intervals until around 900k. Now I'm doing 7,500 mile intervals and still using Mobil 1 5w-20. I've run extended performance oil mostly and later you could get extended performance and high mileage together.
For the transmission, I run Redline MTL and change it every 100k. My biggest mistake and lesson learned was not changing the fluid in the original transmission. That resulted in us putting in a used transmission when the car had 320k. The transmission we installed had 54k on it so it now has well over 700k on it.
Yes the car has needed some work over the years, but I don't think it's anything excessive considering the use it has had. Timing belts every 100k. Yeah, that's about a thousand dollars each time. I've had to re-do the suspension a few times. It's on the third clutch which was just replaced at 950k. So there have been a few times I've spent $2k ish in parts to get it back to right. The car makes me money from deliveries so even if some repairs sound expensive, it has been far more beneficial financially to keep using it than driving the value off of several other cars. There are also tax advantages to using your car for this type of work.
The engine has never had any internal work done. Valve cover gaskets were done after 600k. The shop checked the valves and said they were fine. The oil pan has been replaced.
Around 920k, it developed a bad misfire. Had my shop check it. #1 cyl had no compression. It's a problem with that cylinder's exhaust valve. Since I was so close to a million, we discussed it and decided to drive it as is. I've put over 80k miles on it with 5 cyls. I wanted Honda to finally have a v6 that hit a million. Otherwise, I would've addressed that issue already. It's using a qt of oil about every 1k miles these days. Because of that and the valve issue, I bought a low mile JDM engine to replace it. I'm driving the car to HDay in Maryland in April. After I return home, some friends and I will swap out the engine.
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Hello @TX Accord. It's good to have you aboard.
I have a very similar Accord. Mine is a 2007 4Dr EX-L V6 6MT. Same colour even. It's been a very good car.
I changed the timing belt at 160,000 km (100,000 miles) because of a couple of very cold starts (close to -40). Probably not necessary as the belt looked perfect. Left the water pump alone.
I now have 190,000 km on it. Compared to yours it's a baby.
I've changed the transmission fluid a couple of times. What I haven't done is have the valves adjusted. There's no ticking but of course that has no bearing on too tight valves. How often did you have the valve lash checked/adjusted? Did you find too tight exhaust valves?
I have a very similar Accord. Mine is a 2007 4Dr EX-L V6 6MT. Same colour even. It's been a very good car.
I changed the timing belt at 160,000 km (100,000 miles) because of a couple of very cold starts (close to -40). Probably not necessary as the belt looked perfect. Left the water pump alone.
I now have 190,000 km on it. Compared to yours it's a baby.
I've changed the transmission fluid a couple of times. What I haven't done is have the valves adjusted. There's no ticking but of course that has no bearing on too tight valves. How often did you have the valve lash checked/adjusted? Did you find too tight exhaust valves?
Check that. I looked it up and I actually had the timing belt and a tensioner changed at 133,000 km (83,000 miles). The tensioner was said to be leaking.
Thanks. Yours is the really rare one. The only time the valve covers were off was for the new vlv cover gaskets at 606k. That's the only time they would've been checked.
If I remember after we pull the engine and before we open it up, I'll try to check them. I still don't think my engine sounds noisy compared to some videos I've seen online of these engines.
I forgot to address the K&N filter in my other post. My wife got that installed shortly after she bought the car. I replaced that filter at 686k. It needed replaced. The CAI has been fine. It just doesn't like water puddles. You have to be careful to not drive in more than a few inches of standing water. Otherwise it becomes a dirty water intake.
Now I'll only use the Aisin TKH002 kit. The shop I use installs Gates kits. They buy from a supplier and it is supposed to be better quality than what you get at parts stores. All of the Gates kits were fine except I had one where the hydraulic tensioner started failing around 80k. On a cold start, it would rattle for a couple of mins til the engine started warming up. Then the sound quit. My mechanic said the tensioner leaked out some fluid. As it heated up, the remaining fluid provided enough pressure to stop the rattle. After that kit, I started buying the Aisin kit and had them install it.
Welcome to BITOG!!
Thank You very much for your detailed, informative post. There was a lot of speculation, which led to a little bit of contention, about your accomplishment.
And it is quite an accomplishment.
So this isn't 50k / year, it's 101k a year ? By chance do you or have you run into the other medical courier in Texas with the ~3 year old Civic with over 200k miles ?
You said $1000 per timing belt change - do you do that yourself or a shop ? You said you do a lot of the work but that might be something you'd pass on.
Have you heard from Honda of America about your car at all ?
Almost 300 miles a day?
I've been fussing about not having had the valve lash checked on mine. It requires a bit of disassembly so it's an expensive job. But it sounds like I have a ways to go (like another 3 to 500,000 miles) before it becomes "really necessary".
I wonder if an exhaust valve got too tight on yours and that's why the valve burned on #1 cylinder. So yes it would be great if you had all the valve lashes on yours checked when you pull it apart. That would give us Honda V6 owners some very useful information.
Too loose valves can start to "tick" but generally it's the intake valves that get too loose. Too tight valves don't make a sound. It's generally the exhaust valves that get too tight and can burn as a result (because they no longer close completely).
@TX Accord I have another question.
My Accord has one strange problem. I bought it new. The first 6 speed transmission was replaced within a few days of purchase because it easily popped out of both 1st and 2nd gears. The dealer told me that the Honda 6 speed is a very good transmission, they never have problems with it, and Honda's don't pop out of gear. But mine did!
The dealer said they sent that first transmission to Honda and their engineers couldn't find anything wrong with it.
The replacement transmission pops out of gear occasionally too but only if I go down a steep hill in 1st gear. The dealer initially said they couldn't reproduce that behaviour but it did when I was driving - with the dealer's shop foreman observing. He verified that I hadn't touched either the clutch or the gear shift.
Obviously a transmission shouldn't pop out of any gear but I just don't go down steep hills in 1st gear with it anymore and it has been just fine otherwise for 16 years and well over 100,000 miles.
Does yours ever pop out of gear?
My Accord has one strange problem. I bought it new. The first 6 speed transmission was replaced within a few days of purchase because it easily popped out of both 1st and 2nd gears. The dealer told me that the Honda 6 speed is a very good transmission, they never have problems with it, and Honda's don't pop out of gear. But mine did!
The dealer said they sent that first transmission to Honda and their engineers couldn't find anything wrong with it.
The replacement transmission pops out of gear occasionally too but only if I go down a steep hill in 1st gear. The dealer initially said they couldn't reproduce that behaviour but it did when I was driving - with the dealer's shop foreman observing. He verified that I hadn't touched either the clutch or the gear shift.
Obviously a transmission shouldn't pop out of any gear but I just don't go down steep hills in 1st gear with it anymore and it has been just fine otherwise for 16 years and well over 100,000 miles.
Does yours ever pop out of gear?
I love all of the questions from everyone!
@Astro14 Thanks for the kind words and pushing back on some of those comments. My wife found this thread today and said I should probably get in here to answer some questions and dispel bad assumptions. I'm so very proud of this car and the overall response from people has been very positive.
@Hall Courier stuff has always been a side gig. I was active duty and then retired. I got another full time job and have kept doing courier work too. I looked back at the last few years. In 2022, I drove 86k. In 2021, I drove 147k. In 2020, I drove 147k. I had a route during all of 20 and 21 that kept me really busy so those were my highest yrs for miles. I quit the route in early 22 and just did other random deliveries so that explains the drop in 22. Haven't run into that courier. I think I saw about a red civic that was only a couple yrs old and had lots of miles already. I let the shop do most of the timing belts. I don't like doing it and didn't want to mess up my really high mileage interference engine. I've given Honda several updates. Some responses were more enthusiastic. Some were like we are happy you're a happy Honda customer.
@2015Corolla When I had my route in 20 and 21, it was minimum of 400 miles per day. Then things happen like today. I got woke up by a call this morning to do an almost 100 mi trip. Came home. Hauled stuff to recycling center. Ate and then got a call to run to Houston. By the time I get home tonight, that will be a 600 mile day.
@ecotourist I will try to remember to check the valves before we open up the engine. I'm gonna video it. I need to make a little list of what to show.
@LDB I enjoy doing this. My wife used to ride with me most of the time. She stopped doing that around 800k (some medical stuff) so the last couple of years have felt like a chore.
@ecotourist I think mine has popped out of a random gear a time or two. Very rarely and not enough for me to even think about that. My original tranny started grinding going into 3rd when the car had around 280k. I'd never owned a high mileage car before. I knew automatic transmissions needed fluid changed fairly often, but I figured the manual transmission was just a gearbox. That was my biggest mistake. I should've changed the fluid, but didn't. Hard lesson learned. I'm doing well on my replacement tranny.
@Astro14 Thanks for the kind words and pushing back on some of those comments. My wife found this thread today and said I should probably get in here to answer some questions and dispel bad assumptions. I'm so very proud of this car and the overall response from people has been very positive.
@Hall Courier stuff has always been a side gig. I was active duty and then retired. I got another full time job and have kept doing courier work too. I looked back at the last few years. In 2022, I drove 86k. In 2021, I drove 147k. In 2020, I drove 147k. I had a route during all of 20 and 21 that kept me really busy so those were my highest yrs for miles. I quit the route in early 22 and just did other random deliveries so that explains the drop in 22. Haven't run into that courier. I think I saw about a red civic that was only a couple yrs old and had lots of miles already. I let the shop do most of the timing belts. I don't like doing it and didn't want to mess up my really high mileage interference engine. I've given Honda several updates. Some responses were more enthusiastic. Some were like we are happy you're a happy Honda customer.
@2015Corolla When I had my route in 20 and 21, it was minimum of 400 miles per day. Then things happen like today. I got woke up by a call this morning to do an almost 100 mi trip. Came home. Hauled stuff to recycling center. Ate and then got a call to run to Houston. By the time I get home tonight, that will be a 600 mile day.
@ecotourist I will try to remember to check the valves before we open up the engine. I'm gonna video it. I need to make a little list of what to show.
@LDB I enjoy doing this. My wife used to ride with me most of the time. She stopped doing that around 800k (some medical stuff) so the last couple of years have felt like a chore.
@ecotourist I think mine has popped out of a random gear a time or two. Very rarely and not enough for me to even think about that. My original tranny started grinding going into 3rd when the car had around 280k. I'd never owned a high mileage car before. I knew automatic transmissions needed fluid changed fairly often, but I figured the manual transmission was just a gearbox. That was my biggest mistake. I should've changed the fluid, but didn't. Hard lesson learned. I'm doing well on my replacement tranny.
Sam_Julier
$50 Site Donor 2023
Thank you for your post. This is quite an achievement.
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