The life of a black CLS 6MT at 100000 miles
03-26-2008, 02:27 PM
#1
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
The life of a black CLS 6MT at 100000 miles
I purchased my 2003 CLS 6speed manual new in Feb of 2003. It was smooth and quiet but soon had many rattles. I took it to the dealer several times and they never fixed any of them. Not until I took everything apart have I found the source of the rattles and thus fixed them. I had trany rebuilt at 25000 under warranty and at 83000 miles for $3200. I think that the failures were caused by bad syncros and the second by Acura overfilling the transmission fluid. I had the 1234 gears replaced at 85000 miles even though they weren’t necessary. Everything seems fine now. I switched the fluid to GM syncromesh and all is well. The shifting quality is so much better. I will never go back. I tried the reformulated Acura/Honda fluid but it wasn’t much better.
I decided to start modifying the car once the warranty expired at 50000 and started with XS power headers. I installed them myself. It took about 8 hours but they are worth it. The car sounds better and was noticeably faster. I next did the Intake and UR crank pulley together and then things got really fun. A few miles later I did the Thermoblock spacer on the upper intake and not the throttle body because it is not necessary if you divert the coolant away from the throttle body. It is only there for the really cold weather. In Louisiana we don't have that. I did the suspension with H&R springs and Tokico Adjustables. I put ’05 TL wheels on the car and had to Dremel the inside of the rear driver fender and now it does not rub anywhere.
A year or so later I decided to do the supercharger and love it once I finally put it on at 85000 miles or so. I had to go back to the stock crank pulley. After 15000 miles or so I decided to redo a bunch of thing on the motor and wanted to do it myself. I got the UR SC crank pulley, timing belt, water pump, and tensioner. I did a valve adjustment and smoothed the bores of the intake piping and upper intake manifold. I rebuilt the power steering pump but forgot to take pics. It was $20 worth of seals and two hours labor. I changed the O2 sensor. I also fixed the sagging passenger muffler. It has been sagging since I got the car and Acura would not fix it. I cleaned the filter and installed a head breather instead of having the oil and burnt oil gas going into the intake. The tools I didn’t have I rented from Auto Zone.
Now the car is all back together and runs better than ever. There is a ton of power. I am running the standard boost pulley on the blower. I have the HBP in the house and plan to use it once I can get an emanage ultimate and a professional tune. The car is crazy fast like it is. No rattles and handles like a dream. I keep the Tokico Adjustables set at 3 in the front and 4 in the rear. The handling is amazing with the Goodyear GSD3’s and the braking is awesome with the Rotora BBK.
I did rebuild the whole power steering pump and forgot to take pics. It had been leaking all over the engine and was a pain in the ass to clean everything. I did accidentally drain the entire system and panicked when it started smoking and grinding upon start up since it was dry and cannot re-prime itself. I shut it down and used my vacuum pump to draw new fluid through the system and remove all the air. After doing this every thing worked perfectly but I did have to use 5qts of power steering fluid.
I started by pulling the upper intake manifold off and the supercharger. I wanted to port and polish the upper intake and the supercharger parts. Here is the before and after of all the parts. I don't know how much this helped but the car feels much faster. I destroyed three Dremel tools in three days doing all this work! Thank God Home Depot will exchange them no questions asked.
This is the long elbow off the blower
This is the Collector pipe for compressed air exiting the blower
These are the upper intake plenum covers
This is the elbow from the blower collector pipe to the upper intake manifold where the throttle body used to be.
This is the upper intake manifold
Porting at work. This is the luxury shop I had the opportunity of working in. Note the high-performance bucket with the towel for a seat.
I did a little smoothing of the throttle body to make it match the supercharger parts
I used a pressure washer to blow all the buildup off the EGR ports
It worked pretty well.
I decided to start modifying the car once the warranty expired at 50000 and started with XS power headers. I installed them myself. It took about 8 hours but they are worth it. The car sounds better and was noticeably faster. I next did the Intake and UR crank pulley together and then things got really fun. A few miles later I did the Thermoblock spacer on the upper intake and not the throttle body because it is not necessary if you divert the coolant away from the throttle body. It is only there for the really cold weather. In Louisiana we don't have that. I did the suspension with H&R springs and Tokico Adjustables. I put ’05 TL wheels on the car and had to Dremel the inside of the rear driver fender and now it does not rub anywhere.
A year or so later I decided to do the supercharger and love it once I finally put it on at 85000 miles or so. I had to go back to the stock crank pulley. After 15000 miles or so I decided to redo a bunch of thing on the motor and wanted to do it myself. I got the UR SC crank pulley, timing belt, water pump, and tensioner. I did a valve adjustment and smoothed the bores of the intake piping and upper intake manifold. I rebuilt the power steering pump but forgot to take pics. It was $20 worth of seals and two hours labor. I changed the O2 sensor. I also fixed the sagging passenger muffler. It has been sagging since I got the car and Acura would not fix it. I cleaned the filter and installed a head breather instead of having the oil and burnt oil gas going into the intake. The tools I didn’t have I rented from Auto Zone.
Now the car is all back together and runs better than ever. There is a ton of power. I am running the standard boost pulley on the blower. I have the HBP in the house and plan to use it once I can get an emanage ultimate and a professional tune. The car is crazy fast like it is. No rattles and handles like a dream. I keep the Tokico Adjustables set at 3 in the front and 4 in the rear. The handling is amazing with the Goodyear GSD3’s and the braking is awesome with the Rotora BBK.
I did rebuild the whole power steering pump and forgot to take pics. It had been leaking all over the engine and was a pain in the ass to clean everything. I did accidentally drain the entire system and panicked when it started smoking and grinding upon start up since it was dry and cannot re-prime itself. I shut it down and used my vacuum pump to draw new fluid through the system and remove all the air. After doing this every thing worked perfectly but I did have to use 5qts of power steering fluid.
I started by pulling the upper intake manifold off and the supercharger. I wanted to port and polish the upper intake and the supercharger parts. Here is the before and after of all the parts. I don't know how much this helped but the car feels much faster. I destroyed three Dremel tools in three days doing all this work! Thank God Home Depot will exchange them no questions asked.
This is the long elbow off the blower
This is the Collector pipe for compressed air exiting the blower
These are the upper intake plenum covers
This is the elbow from the blower collector pipe to the upper intake manifold where the throttle body used to be.
This is the upper intake manifold
Porting at work. This is the luxury shop I had the opportunity of working in. Note the high-performance bucket with the towel for a seat.
I did a little smoothing of the throttle body to make it match the supercharger parts
I used a pressure washer to blow all the buildup off the EGR ports
It worked pretty well.
03-26-2008, 02:28 PM
#2
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
This is what the new plugs looked like after 12000 miles with the blower. They seemed wet like the car was running rich which I know it was. I was getting a bunch of black smoke when I got on it from the tail pipes. I dialed down the fuel pressure to Comptech specifications and I think things are much better.
After that was done I did the timing belt and water pump
This is the old timing belt tensioner. You can see some fluid at the top. It was leaking slightly
This is the old water pump. It looks fine to me but I replaced it anyway. Coolant went everywhere when I pulled it off because I did not drain the block per the service manual.
You can see some of the slight leaking of the crank and cam seals
I cleaned everything up and replaced the seals
Old seals
I wanted to pull off the lower intake runners and smooth them out but I would have had to pull the heads off and did not feel like doing that. Here is how far I got before I had to put it right back together.
Yeah, I felt like an idiot.
I then adjusted the valves and as you can see they were all out of spec except one. The exhaust valves were the worst. The tolerance for the intake valves is .20-.24mm and the exhaust valves are .28-.32mm. This pic shows the exhaust valve way out of spec. I did not replace the gaskets and they are not leaking.
I also changed the stock crank pulley to the UR sc crank pulley
Me putting it all back together
After that was done I did the timing belt and water pump
This is the old timing belt tensioner. You can see some fluid at the top. It was leaking slightly
This is the old water pump. It looks fine to me but I replaced it anyway. Coolant went everywhere when I pulled it off because I did not drain the block per the service manual.
You can see some of the slight leaking of the crank and cam seals
I cleaned everything up and replaced the seals
Old seals
I wanted to pull off the lower intake runners and smooth them out but I would have had to pull the heads off and did not feel like doing that. Here is how far I got before I had to put it right back together.
Yeah, I felt like an idiot.
I then adjusted the valves and as you can see they were all out of spec except one. The exhaust valves were the worst. The tolerance for the intake valves is .20-.24mm and the exhaust valves are .28-.32mm. This pic shows the exhaust valve way out of spec. I did not replace the gaskets and they are not leaking.
I also changed the stock crank pulley to the UR sc crank pulley
Me putting it all back together
03-26-2008, 02:28 PM
#3
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Next I did the leaking driver side differential seal
Old seal
All cleaned up and new seal installed
How the seal sits on the axle in the housing.
This is the axle all lubed with Mobile1 synthetic axle, ball joint, suspension, axle grease ready to go back in per the service manual instructions. I called Acura and spoke with a tech to make sure this was the right grease and he assured me It was above and beyond what was called for.
Next I started to replace the boots and grease on all the front ball joints. The ball joints were all still tight and had no play in them. I also did the boots on the steering rods.
The problem
The two knuckles.
Ball joints and boot and grease replacement.
How I separated the knuckle from the lower control arm
Boot removed
Next I started with the sagging passenger exhaust pipe. The whole exhaust jiggled all over the place which always bothered me. On start up or starting from a slow roll it always looked like the exaust was going to fall off. I had read on the board that some had fixed this with the doughnut rubber rings pictured below from Auto Zonebut it didn’t help mine. I had to use a ton of zip ties in addition to the doughnuts to get it where I wanted it. All is perfect now and since the exhaust is so much tighter on the frame of the car I hear more of a growl from the exhaust inside the car and I like it a lot.
I know the blocks aren’t safe but I had jack stands backing them up all the time so all was well.
And the finished result is at the bottom of the thread.
This is a pic of the broken side motor mount.
These are my old spark plugs at 85000 miles before the blower went on and I switched to the colder plugs.
The spring fix. I found that the H&R springs do not have the isolators like the OEM springs and some of the other after market springs. I found that the coils on the spring were banging into each other so I pulled the OEM isolators off the OEM springs and glued them onto the H&R’s. I also replaced the Hood stays at the same time and put some foam tape under the comptech FPR and all the clanking of the suspension over bumps stopped. I also went through the car and used double sided foam tape to eliminate the rattles in the center console cup holder and behind the glove box as well as at the top of the B pillars. The car is so quiet now!
How to remove the hood stays with a flat head screw driver. The old ones wouldn’t even hold the hood up and I never replaced them because I didn’t care but I think they play a major role in keeping the hood still and damping vibration. I now think they were the real cause of all the noise over bumps. Its almost hard to close the hood now.
Here are some pics of my CLS6MT at 100000 miles
Before the muffler fix
After the fix
If anyone in the area would like to get this work done cheap I would be glad to help. Jim
Old seal
All cleaned up and new seal installed
How the seal sits on the axle in the housing.
This is the axle all lubed with Mobile1 synthetic axle, ball joint, suspension, axle grease ready to go back in per the service manual instructions. I called Acura and spoke with a tech to make sure this was the right grease and he assured me It was above and beyond what was called for.
Next I started to replace the boots and grease on all the front ball joints. The ball joints were all still tight and had no play in them. I also did the boots on the steering rods.
The problem
The two knuckles.
Ball joints and boot and grease replacement.
How I separated the knuckle from the lower control arm
Boot removed
Next I started with the sagging passenger exhaust pipe. The whole exhaust jiggled all over the place which always bothered me. On start up or starting from a slow roll it always looked like the exaust was going to fall off. I had read on the board that some had fixed this with the doughnut rubber rings pictured below from Auto Zonebut it didn’t help mine. I had to use a ton of zip ties in addition to the doughnuts to get it where I wanted it. All is perfect now and since the exhaust is so much tighter on the frame of the car I hear more of a growl from the exhaust inside the car and I like it a lot.
I know the blocks aren’t safe but I had jack stands backing them up all the time so all was well.
And the finished result is at the bottom of the thread.
This is a pic of the broken side motor mount.
These are my old spark plugs at 85000 miles before the blower went on and I switched to the colder plugs.
The spring fix. I found that the H&R springs do not have the isolators like the OEM springs and some of the other after market springs. I found that the coils on the spring were banging into each other so I pulled the OEM isolators off the OEM springs and glued them onto the H&R’s. I also replaced the Hood stays at the same time and put some foam tape under the comptech FPR and all the clanking of the suspension over bumps stopped. I also went through the car and used double sided foam tape to eliminate the rattles in the center console cup holder and behind the glove box as well as at the top of the B pillars. The car is so quiet now!
How to remove the hood stays with a flat head screw driver. The old ones wouldn’t even hold the hood up and I never replaced them because I didn’t care but I think they play a major role in keeping the hood still and damping vibration. I now think they were the real cause of all the noise over bumps. Its almost hard to close the hood now.
Here are some pics of my CLS6MT at 100000 miles
Before the muffler fix
After the fix
If anyone in the area would like to get this work done cheap I would be glad to help. Jim
03-26-2008, 02:29 PM
#4
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Next I did the leaking driver side differential seal
Old seal
All cleaned up and new seal installed
How the seal sits on the axle in the housing.
This is the axle all lubed with Mobile1 synthetic axle, ball joint, suspension, axle grease ready to go back in per the service manual instructions. I called Acura and spoke with a tech to make sure this was the right grease and he assured me It was above and beyond what was called for.
Next I started to replace the boots and grease on all the front ball joints. The ball joints were all still tight and had no play in them. I also did the boots on the steering rods.
The problem
The two knuckles.
Ball joints and boot and grease replacement.
How I separated the knuckle from the lower control arm
Boot removed
Next I started with the sagging passenger exhaust pipe. The whole exhaust jiggled all over the place which always bothered me. On start up or starting from a slow roll it always looked like the exaust was going to fall off. I had read on the board that some had fixed this with the doughnut rubber rings pictured below from Auto Zonebut it didn’t help mine. I had to use a ton of zip ties in addition to the doughnuts to get it where I wanted it. All is perfect now and since the exhaust is so much tighter on the frame of the car I hear more of a growl from the exhaust inside the car and I like it a lot.
I know the blocks aren’t safe but I had jack stands backing them up all the time so all was well.
And the finished result is at the bottom of the thread.
This is a pic of the broken side motor mount.
These are my old spark plugs at 85000 miles before the blower went on and I switched to the colder plugs.
The spring fix. I found that the H&R springs do not have the isolators like the OEM springs and some of the other after market springs. I found that the coils on the spring were banging into each other so I pulled the OEM isolators off the OEM springs and glued them onto the H&R’s. I also replaced the Hood stays at the same time and put some foam tape under the comptech FPR and all the clanking of the suspension over bumps stopped. I also went through the car and used double sided foam tape to eliminate the rattles in the center console cup holder and behind the glove box as well as at the top of the B pillars. The car is so quiet now!
How to remove the hood stays with a flat head screw driver. The old ones wouldn’t even hold the hood up and I never replaced them because I didn’t care but I think they play a major role in keeping the hood still and damping vibration. I now think they were the real cause of all the noise over bumps. Its almost hard to close the hood now.
Here are some pics of my CLS6MT at 100000 miles
Before the muffler fix
After the fix
If anyone in the area would like to get this work done cheap I would be glad to help. Jim
Old seal
All cleaned up and new seal installed
How the seal sits on the axle in the housing.
This is the axle all lubed with Mobile1 synthetic axle, ball joint, suspension, axle grease ready to go back in per the service manual instructions. I called Acura and spoke with a tech to make sure this was the right grease and he assured me It was above and beyond what was called for.
Next I started to replace the boots and grease on all the front ball joints. The ball joints were all still tight and had no play in them. I also did the boots on the steering rods.
The problem
The two knuckles.
Ball joints and boot and grease replacement.
How I separated the knuckle from the lower control arm
Boot removed
Next I started with the sagging passenger exhaust pipe. The whole exhaust jiggled all over the place which always bothered me. On start up or starting from a slow roll it always looked like the exaust was going to fall off. I had read on the board that some had fixed this with the doughnut rubber rings pictured below from Auto Zonebut it didn’t help mine. I had to use a ton of zip ties in addition to the doughnuts to get it where I wanted it. All is perfect now and since the exhaust is so much tighter on the frame of the car I hear more of a growl from the exhaust inside the car and I like it a lot.
I know the blocks aren’t safe but I had jack stands backing them up all the time so all was well.
And the finished result is at the bottom of the thread.
This is a pic of the broken side motor mount.
These are my old spark plugs at 85000 miles before the blower went on and I switched to the colder plugs.
The spring fix. I found that the H&R springs do not have the isolators like the OEM springs and some of the other after market springs. I found that the coils on the spring were banging into each other so I pulled the OEM isolators off the OEM springs and glued them onto the H&R’s. I also replaced the Hood stays at the same time and put some foam tape under the comptech FPR and all the clanking of the suspension over bumps stopped. I also went through the car and used double sided foam tape to eliminate the rattles in the center console cup holder and behind the glove box as well as at the top of the B pillars. The car is so quiet now!
How to remove the hood stays with a flat head screw driver. The old ones wouldn’t even hold the hood up and I never replaced them because I didn’t care but I think they play a major role in keeping the hood still and damping vibration. I now think they were the real cause of all the noise over bumps. Its almost hard to close the hood now.
Here are some pics of my CLS6MT at 100000 miles
Before the muffler fix
After the fix
If anyone in the area would like to get this work done cheap I would be glad to help. Jim
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03-26-2008, 03:27 PM
#10
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by 01clsstock
do you have a job?
LOL! I knew this would come up. I had my own company for five years and got out about a month ago. I have extra time lately and I am pursuing better options. I still take care of large private contracts on a per job basis. Enough said.
03-26-2008, 03:31 PM
#11
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
I forgot to mention that when the trans was pulled last and maybe the first time, the aluminum A/C line that connects to the sub frame was not connected with the clips and was banging into the A/C compressor pulley and the sub frame. Check this on your car if you have had the trans pulled and you have a banging noise. The metal hose is on the passenger side on top of the part of the sub frame that runs under the oil filter.
03-26-2008, 06:30 PM
#18
Three Wheelin'
Excellent pics and write up. Very well done. Could you please show us how you did the head breather? That is something I think alot of us would like to do. Thanks again, nice car.
BTW are you still happy with your choice of owning a black car?
BTW are you still happy with your choice of owning a black car?
03-26-2008, 07:30 PM
#19
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by turbo_911
yeah, agree WOW! nice job on taking a really good care of your car.
Originally Posted by smokendsm
Good work.
Can you give a better explanation of the rattles you had and what fixes you used?
Can you give a better explanation of the rattles you had and what fixes you used?
Originally Posted by thevikas87
ill drive over to you when i need to do the 105k mile service on my cls...haha good job keeping up with the car man, really impressive
Originally Posted by L's TL
very nice! u feel a diff with the lightweight crank pulley???
Originally Posted by m733l
oh to have time to work on your car...priceless. you are def. a man who loves his cl. i bought mine new in april 02 and have been dying to get a charger. much respect for you on the way you treat ur car. this is a lesson for all of us. 
Originally Posted by ironsurfer129
Damn man, i envy you!!!! You are an amazing owner!!!
Originally Posted by ChucksCL-S
Excellent pics and write up. Very well done. Could you please show us how you did the head breather? That is something I think a lot of us would like to do. Thanks again, nice car.
BTW are you still happy with your choice of owning a black car?
BTW are you still happy with your choice of owning a black car?
I will take more pics of the head breather later. Maybe tomorrow. You can get the breather anywhere. I got mine from a local performance shop but I got rapped on the price. $19 for the little K&N filter. You can see the hose used in pic #22 of post #2. Its the 1/2" hose coming off the front valve cover. And you can see the breather in pic #33 of post #2, its on the farthest right side of the pic about 5/8ths of the way up from the bottom.
03-26-2008, 08:29 PM
#21
Senior Moderator
Wow. Great job!!!
Oh and the lower intake manifolds will come off with the heads on. (ive had mine of before)
Oh and the lower intake manifolds will come off with the heads on. (ive had mine of before)
03-27-2008, 08:43 AM
#22
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by fsttyms1
Wow. Great job!!!
Oh and the lower intake manifolds will come off with the heads on. (ive had mine of before)
Oh and the lower intake manifolds will come off with the heads on. (ive had mine of before)
How did you get them off? You must have backed out the two studs in the middle under the lower manifolds?(I dont think I have the hands or patients for that given the room) There just seems to be no other way. What gives? You know some black magic or what?
03-27-2008, 11:33 AM
#24
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by fuzzy02CLS
That's a lot of work. Props to you for doing it. I'm paying someone to fix mine once it needs it. Or dump it.
03-27-2008, 11:48 AM
#25
i think you just convinced me to do my timing belt and water pump, tensioner and idler pulleys, seals and crank pulley myself...i had the UR underdrive pulley on b4 i was boosted and the rpms would just fly up to redline...now that i have the stock one bak on with the SC the power is great but it takes so long to get to redline. I will be grabbing the lightweight one very soon. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. Youve helped me save about 500 bucks in two days!
03-27-2008, 12:39 PM
#26
AcuredCLS
Join Date: Jun 2007
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wow is right that is amazing....if u ever sell ur car, that person is very lucky because you have alot to back up the amazing job you did. My only question is i saw in one of the pics you had a manual. Was that the Helms manual? if not which one was it?
03-27-2008, 01:37 PM
#27
Intermediate
Join Date: Oct 2006
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That car is immaculate. Amazing work, I hope my black CL-S lives to be as long as yours does.
You can tell you really love your car.
I greatly look forward to the rattle fixing thread though.
You can tell you really love your car.
I greatly look forward to the rattle fixing thread though.
03-27-2008, 01:55 PM
#28
Man! You must of spent over 2hrs posting pics and typing all this thread. What more can I say nice kept up CL for sure , I am the same way with mine the CL is a dyeing breed. Love all you done to it take care of her. 
03-27-2008, 01:58 PM
#29
140,000 miles young
Amazing work! My car is going into the shop on Saturday for the timing belt service, plus the UR pulley install. Now you have me thinking I should do a lot more, but that is $$$ I don't have right now.
Do you know the part number for the crank seal? That is the one seal I could not locate online.
Do you know the part number for the crank seal? That is the one seal I could not locate online.
03-27-2008, 07:39 PM
#32
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by AcuredCLS
wow is right that is amazing....if u ever sell ur car, that person is very lucky because you have alot to back up the amazing job you did. My only question is i saw in one of the pics you had a manual. Was that the Helms manual? if not which one was it?
03-28-2008, 07:27 AM
#35
Senior Moderator
Great stuff I wish I had the motivation to do stuff like that, but my wrenching days are long gone... I'll do small things here and there, but that's an impressive project 
I wish I had the motivation to do stuff like that, but my wrenching days are long gone... I'll do small things here and there, but that's an impressive project
03-28-2008, 04:45 PM
#36
MP90 uninstalled
Thread Starter
Originally Posted by underst8
Amazing work! My car is going into the shop on Saturday for the timing belt service, plus the UR pulley install. Now you have me thinking I should do a lot more, but that is $$$ I don't have right now.
Do you know the part number for the crank seal? That is the one seal I could not locate online.
Do you know the part number for the crank seal? That is the one seal I could not locate online.
The RMS (Rear Main Seal) is here, part 20
http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...All&vinsrch=no
the pulley side crank seal is here part 24
http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...All&vinsrch=no
Cam shaft seals are here
http://www.acuraoemparts.com/delray/...All&vinsrch=no
03-29-2008, 06:14 PM
#37
Registered CL-er!
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best thread by far!!
amazing work ur car pretty much got a second wind...lol a dealer weill never be that intensive on anyones car. you definitly need a lot of spare time.
i believe the best mechanic is urself. U have to have patience, the right tools, some mechanic skill, guidance and motivation.
ur car pretty much got a second wind...lol a dealer weill never be that intensive on anyones car. you definitly need a lot of spare time.i believe the best mechanic is urself. U have to have patience, the right tools, some mechanic skill, guidance and motivation.
