sol_survivor

First and most important, here are the pictures.

1995 del Sol VTEC

My baby. Currently in a state of (somewhat) disrepair (i.e., some rusting, 150,000+ miles). My first Honda. I will never sell this car.

2006 Off-Road Vehicle

Stunning good-looks, 100x more practical than a two-seater Honda, easier to drive in rush-hour traffic, and still has dual overhead VTEC cams .

I've been lurking on this forum for about half a year now and have picked up on a great deal of good information. I just installed the Type-S Alpine speakers (~ 3 hours; thanks for the helpful info) and plan on 1) lowering the car using the Tein kit (which I also have on the del Sol above), 2) tinting the windows to 35%, 3) adding the 19" HFPs, and 4) finishing with the lip/sideskirt/grille upgrade. I can already tell this is going to be yet another money-pit. Goddammit.

Anyway, there were a few things I've noticed with my TSX that I haven't really seen any info on. If you have any insight, a reply would be greatly appreciated.

1) My cell phone (late model Nokia; yes I've looked-no it's not listed as 'compatible') pairs with the HFL without a problem, however, when I start pushing buttons on the phone, it regularly disconnects and then reconnects. I'm thinking this may be specific to my phone?
2) Due to stop-and-go traffic, I opted for the 5AT. I've noticed (especially in the colder Minnesota winter) that shifting from 1st to 2nd is rougher than normal. Really; I notice the 1st to 2nd shift about 80% of the time. Is this common? The stealership recently flushed/filled the AT fluid which seemed to have no effect.
3) I've read about Mercman's wire harness. Is it possible to bypass the factory amp for just the rear deck speakers and power a single/dual channel amp? (i.e., effectively treat the rear deck as two small subs).
4) How can I go about "re-wiring" (Jesus, I thought I would've learned by now) the lights so I can have the foglights on without the headlights?

Finally, as I have been putting tons of miles on it since I bought her (roughly 11,000 since November), what should I be concerned about mechanically? E.g., with the del Sol, the timing belt is something I should be switching out again.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

Congrats. Nice pick up. I'm sure there'll be many in here who'll chime in to answer your questions.

lcrazyaznl

iTrader: (1)

Theres a thread to do the foglight rewire.

The gearing between 1-2 in auto is pretty high so we get that big jump, but its nothing to worry about.

I'm at 109,000 miles for an 05, no problems besides wear and tear really.

frank1123

answer to your #4)

http://www.pl-us.com/Acura/USDM_FogL_conver_-_wo-HL.pdf

cwhsu

welcome brooooooooooooooooo

you will find this to be one of the most well informed and helpful forums with people who respond!!

i have.

mduthappa

Hi,

The Issue with the HFL is specific to phone.
any cell phone which has Bluetooth 1.0 & 1.1(versions) wont work.(it means that the Bluetooth on the phone is capable of sending signal one way) recent phones have Bluetooth have 1.2 ,2.0 and 2.1 versions.
they are capable of two way communication. when u call someone through the HFL; it sends a signal to the phone but to display the number on the dash the phone should be capable of 2 way communication.

also check this website.http://www.Acura.com/HandsFreeLink.aspx
they say many phones wont work, which is not true. I had Cingular 2125 and 8125 which is now the at&t tilt. they were not compatible on the HFL website, both worked like a charm!
hope this helps! GL

sortudo7

1) It is phone specific as posted above
2) Normal, esp in colder weather since the engine takes a long time to warm up. Don't sweat it though, my 08 does it too.
3) Not sure, haven't tried it.
4) Re-wiring guide posted.

Also just look into the normal things such as filters, liquid levels, tires, belts...all the normal wear and tear of a car and you should be fine. What rims are those? Welcome to the club and DAMN you put a lot of miles on the car lol. I got mine in Oct and only put about 3000 miles so far haha.

litesout

on the Del Sol. I've always loved those. If I had time, space, money, etc I'd have a Del Sol for a weekend car. To contribute to your questions:

1) You MAY want to try deleting the paring info on your phone and the HFL system both. Then try to re-pair the phone and see if that does any better. I had a similar problem when I got a TL loaner with my BB. I think it had something to do with the fact that the TL and TSX both use Handsfreelink(TM) as their device name. Deleted all pairing info from the car and both from the phone and it worked like a charm. YMMV though.
2) 1st to 2nd is a rough shift for the 5AT. They're all like that. My 08's been like that since day 1. Its nothing to be concerned about, just a quirk of the car.
3) I haven't tackled the audio system in the TSX yet, so I really can't help you there. Try posting your question the audio/video section and they can probably tell you pretty quickly.
4) Great directions already posted. The only bit that I'll add is that the fog light on indication on the dash acts funny when you do the mod. Don't know if that matters to you or not, just wanted to throw that in there for the sake of completeness.

While we're on the topic of the money pit, might I also recommend a Hondata reflash if you're looking for a performance boost. Among other things it lowers the VTEC engagement to 5k RPMs from the stock 6k. Many owners here have done it and are very happy with it. I wish I could get it done in my 08, but its not out yet.

Congrats on the purchase!

So, what do you think of the Alpine speaker upgrade on the stock amp?

sol_survivor

Thanks for the replies. I can tell I've come to the right place for help.

Considering the cost (~$260 for the doors and the rear deck) and the ease of installation (~3 hours), it's a very worthy upgrade.

The Type-S 6x9s (despite being 3-way speakers, of which, only the woofer is utilized) in the rear deck sound like 8" or 10" subs but with the added benefit of being able to keep my rear fold-down seats and trunk space. Because of the varying degrees of loudness and range (XM vs. FM vs. CD vs. AUX) I'm thinking of adding a mono amp that would power the rear deck speakers to maintain a more consistent bass.

Once you see/feel/hear the factory door speakers, you know you've made the right decision to replace them.

Can anyone chime in on the after-all-is-said-and-done cost of doing this? I read about it and was very interested, however, somewhat hesitant due to the cost.

They're factory wheels/tires with about 1,000 miles off a friend's 2003 Accord EX-V6 6MT. One of my better uses of $500.