Bought a Cheap Accord

JoeDirt41 · May 1, 2025

New update. We had a really bad storm the other day and a branch fell on the car. Didn’t do anything too terrible but did leave two small dents and some scratches. I got most of the scratches out but the dents are now there. Not that the car was even close to dent free before, but I guess it’s just a bit more character.

Also I ordered a new AC compressor from eBay last week. I was going to get one from the junkyard, but I was able to get a brand new knockoff one from eBay for only a little bit more, and I didn’t have to go pull it and I know it’ll work. I’ll probably try to get it installed later this week.

researcher · May 2, 2025

thanks for the update.. but what a bummer! stoopid trees! did that one dent in the roof affect the movement of the sunroof?

and be interesting to see how the no-name chinese compressor works for ya! maybe it will be as nice as that no-name chinese power steering pump you installed before, like the one I had in the civic.. plus I got a no-name catalytic converter that was better and thicker.. (honda original was thin cast iron for the exhaust manifold). so there's hope!!

JoeDirt41 · May 2, 2025

researcher said:
thanks for the update.. but what a bummer! stoopid trees! did that one dent in the roof affect the movement of the sunroof?

and be interesting to see how the no-name chinese compressor works for ya! maybe it will be as nice as that no-name chinese power steering pump you installed before, like the one I had in the civic.. plus I got a no-name catalytic converter that was better and thicker.. (honda original was thin cast iron for the exhaust manifold). so there's hope!!

The dents haven’t affected the operation of the sunroof, it’s just slight cosmetic damage, kind of a bummer, but they aren’t too big and it’s not like the car had a perfectly dent free body anyways.

But yes, I am very tired of these storms and the associated damage. My truck got hail damaged just a few weeks ago and I just got it back from the body shop where it got $4k in paintless dent repair.

The AC compressor I got is very similar to the power steering pump in that it has all the same casting marks as the original, so it was probably reverse engineered in the same way that power steering pump was.

JoeDirt41 · May 4, 2025

Got the A/C compressor installed today. Wasn’t too bad to install but I did have to remove the power steering pump for the nth time and remove the alternator. Had to reuse the manifold off of the old compressor, but it fit with no issues. I vacuumed the system down for one hour then let it sit for another hour and it held. The system capacity is 22 oz and I put in two 12 ounce cans and the gauges still read slightly low compared to my chart, but the compressor isn’t short cycling and the air in the car is coldddd!!

researcher · May 5, 2025

JoeDirt41 said:
Got the A/C compressor installed today. Wasn’t too bad to install but I did have to remove the power steering pump for the nth time and remove the alternator. Had to reuse the manifold off of the old compressor, but it fit with no issues. I vacuumed the system down for one hour then let it sit for another hour and it held. The system capacity is 22 oz and I put in two 12 ounce cans and the gauges still read slightly low compared to my chart, but the compressor isn’t short cycling and the air in the car is coldddd!!
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woohoo! awesome! good to hear it's working and nice and cold! which takes a lot of research for good performing a/c parts to get it right on the 90s Hondas!

EDIT: thanks for the good news this monday morning, always nice to start with good news!

JoeDirt41 · May 5, 2025

researcher said:
woohoo! awesome! good to hear it's working and nice and cold! which takes a lot of research for good performing a/c parts to get it right on the 90s Hondas!

EDIT: thanks for the good news this monday morning, always nice to start with good news!

Thanks! I am ecstatic about it. Cold A/C makes the car so much more enjoyable to drive. I’m always hot so I use the A/C a lot. Even in the winter, I run the A/C in the car with the knob turned to heat, just to keep the humidity down and prevent the windows from getting foggy. Anyways, it was a very pleasant drive to and from school today!

JoeDirt41 · Jun 7, 2025

Small update. Not much new with the car, been driving it quite a bit. Knock on wood, no real issues to report. Did an oil change today and did a drain and fill on the transmission. Put in 5 quarts of Mobil 1 5w30 EP High Mileage and a Carquest Premium filter. The threads on the engine oil drain plug were really chewed up so I replaced the plug. Luckily the female threads on the pan still seemed to be fine.

Drained 3 quarts of ATF and put 3 quarts of Idemitsu Type H back in. Same fluid as I used last time.

researcher · Jun 14, 2025

JoeDirt41 said:
Small update. Not much new with the car, been driving it quite a bit. Knock on wood, no real issues to report. Did an oil change today and did a drain and fill on the transmission. Put in 5 quarts of Mobil 1 5w30 EP High Mileage and a Carquest Premium filter. The threads on the engine oil drain plug were really chewed up so I replaced the plug. Luckily the female threads on the pan still seemed to be fine.
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Drained 3 quarts of ATF and put 3 quarts of Idemitsu Type H back in. Same fluid as I used last time.

thanks for the update! sure looks like whoever was doing maintenance was using an SAE sized socket/wrench on a metric drain bolt head. Good to hear that it still had enough meat on it to be removed.

Nice update!

JoeDirt41 · Jul 12, 2025

Another month gone by, just a quick update. Cleaned the outside of the car very thoroughly today and since the black Maaco-special paint job had developed some chips in it, I decided to touch those up as well.

I have no idea what color the car actually is, other than a metallic black. I took a shot in the dark and got a tube of Ford Tuxedo Black, which surprisingly seems to be a near perfect match.