Dspr_02

Seems like everyone and their dog was making a "progress of" or "my CL" thread so I figured why not, the internet could use more bloating!

I recently bought a 2001 NBP CL from a dealership in my area (Burnaby, BC Canada).

My CL has very low milage, only 232,400KM's. :sarcasm:
It has a accident filled history with a $10,100 accident in 05/2007 and a $7,000 accident back in 2004. I actually had to sign the ICBC accident report acknowledging the accidents when I bought the car...

Photo's will come later, when the rainiest city in Western Canada takes a break from the norm and gets some sun...and I clean up the outside a bit.

So far I have not done too much in terms of mods to the car as most of the things (lights so far...) have not arrived. I have been focusing on making it safe to drive first.

Mechanically speaking, it seems to run fine, the tranny kicks a bit when it is started after sitting for a good 18 hours in an unheated underground garage, but after it goes up to 3rd for the first time, it's smooth as butter... The engine seems to be running fine so far...no smoke of any kind either

Now for the fun part, the problems, both addressed and not...

• When I bought the car, I noticed that the rear window tint was crap and rippling, bubbling and cracking.... needless to say, I tore that sucker off on the first non-freezing day I caught.
• The running lights were both out so I ordered 28SMD LED's as replacements
• The interior lights seemed a bit dim to me so I ordered LED's for the Map, Dome and Courtesy lights as well, all Xenon White, except for the courtesy lights, which will be Red.
• The car pulled to the right rather hard, it would go straight for 10-20 feet then pull at about 30* to the right all of a sudden, took it to "KalTire"
• KalTire had me replace the Left Tie Rod (both inner and outer), both lower Ball Joints (Left and Right)...in the process they ripped the threads out of the left caliper bracket and tried to pass it off as "normal", I had them replace it with an OEM Acura part under KalTire warranty, you break it you buy it kids...
  
  I also had them do a four-wheel alignment and balancing since the entire cabin shook like a 9.2 earthquake under highway speeds from 60-90km/h, they claimed that it was due to a lack of "hub-centric rings" that should have been installed with the rims by the previous owner, tomorrow will tell if they actually did anything to address that issue...
  
  From the alignment I discovered that one of the front end accidents (the $10K one) was not properly repaired and part of the frame is bent making it impossible to align the front left tire, the "ideal alignment" is a 2.8 on their scale and my wheel is stuck at 1.5 whereas the rest are at ~ 2.6 +/- 0.1 ...
• The dealership that sold me the car had the decency to do the brakes when they bought the car...problem is that they adressed the front and kinda forgot about the back. Having warped rotors feels funny when slow down, anyways, picked up some OE rotors with semi-metallic pads off fleabay for about $70 shipped from Ontario... time will tell if they hold up (and if they fit properly without any play) - these should arrive on Wednesday or Thursday...
• The rearview mirror has the wonderful stain behind the glass, it isn't dripping and it is set to off so that it doesn't bugger up my interior, Lougheed Acura quoted me a total of $60 (not including a 12% tax) to get me a new mirror, with another $31 to install it... I think removing a total of like 4 screws and putting them back with another mirror totally justifies spending $31 (don't worry, I'm being sarcastic...I don't suffer from the "stupid")
• I also managed to, on a bad day where everything was going upside down and sideways, back into a n shaped pole, leaving the area that usually says 3.2CL-TypeS on the trunk with a nice, foot long dent that scratched the paint to the metal... - could you guys recommend something to put over that until I get some money and take it to have the dent removed and the area repainted? (currently poor and owe much more than I'll have for about 3 or 4 months)

In the future I plan to do the following

• Short Ram Intake
• In-dash Navi with BlueTooth (sick and tired of my Atrix 4G flying my location between Ottawa, Arizona and Alaska...)
• LED (Switchback?) Turn Signals in front
• Restore the front Seats (Leather has a soccer-ball sized dimple in the center of the driver seat, scuffs galore, passanger is slightly better)
• Replace the driver side heated seat switch (low led wont light, heater works, cant tell if it works on LOW)
• LED Cluster, TIRED OF THE DIM WASHED OUT YELLOW-GREEN LIGHT
• D1-D5 Light Swap, my D5 wont light green...
• Seafoam the crud out of it, re-do the transmission fluids, do the timing belt and water pump (if I need to, probably do since I don't know when it was last done)
• Potential frame alignment to fix the issue KalTire pointed out with the frame damage
• Replace front bumper due to poorly repaired cracks and chips, the under bumper liner is also pretty ragged, chipped and torn
• Two Master Key's (currently stuck with a valet key)
• Memory 2 Fob

Four quick questions while I go off and "Google Chrome Window-Shop" for future additions...

What the heck is the part number for the piece of trim that goes between the Driver/Passanger heated seat switches, the one that covers the OBD II port

I get a whirring/whistling sound (similar to a jet engine/cold air intake) when I accelerate, it sounds really cool, but I don't want my car to spontaneously combust around me, so any idea what it is? It seems to come from the front end and the wheel bearing are fine all around and it isn't the painful screeching of a dying fan/timing belt.

My center arm rest squeaks, what can I put on it to stop it from squeaking? (Confirmed by placing a lot of pressure of it with the elbow while driving) I live in a zone where they've taken to tearing up all the streets for one reason or another, it gets annoying...

Lastly, are there any CL owners on here from the Burnaby/Coquitlam area near SFU? I've seen 4 or 5 CL's over the last three days and was just wondering...

I also swear that pictures are coming within the next few days, I currently only have the ones from the dealership and they are poor quality and don't do much except show the back, front and inside from passengers view...

Heading down to Blaine tomorrow and its been pretty much abandoned there most every time I've been so i think I'll be able to get a few very nice pics now enjoy these while you wait


Front @ Dealer


Rear @ Dealer


Interior @ Dealer


Front Driver Brakes


Rear Passanger Brakes, notice the vertical line of wear, there are four of these around the rotor that I saw, maybe more....


Rear Driver Brake Disk, Selling one rear driver-side rotor, like new, no uneven wear at all, no rust either :sarcasm:

mY sLOW UA6

On the upside that interior looks mint and it runs well.

Dspr_02

They did do a good job making it look nice for the pictures, unfortunatley it was a surface job deal... I found that the previous owner was a smoker and would spit his ash/crap into the center console under the cup holders...(what the %#*QW(#)$@# ) and when I picked it up, it was dirty both inside and out... one of these days I will do a top-notch cleaning job.

It does run well though, and DAMN I love it when "V-TEC kicks in yo!"

On a side note, I would go and take some pictures of the interior lighting right now for a comparison to the LED's that are coming, but the neighbors are starting to think I'm weird and my folks will kill me if I go out and spend another two hours tinkering with the car

SimonCL-S6

Im just wondering why you bought a car with that kind of history

eneffex

my thoughts too, i wouldn't even take that car if they paid me, but good luck and congrats lol

Dspr_02

In my area, an almost comparable 01 CL (not a Type-S) was about $14K at the dealer, private sales were very few and most of them had sold when I contacted. Given my situation when I was buying, it was either this, a '99 Civic hatch or a Rebuilt 98 Accord Coupe (V6). Also in BC, if a car is repaired by ICBC (insurance company), they put brand new parts on and have the work done at one of their professional repair centers not some random shady mechanic's shop.

The repair job on my CL is so well done that you cannot tell where the car was hit, where the repair work ends and the Acura factory work begins, and I've seen the other end of the "repair" spectrum... and it ain't pretty

Do I regret buying this car? Absolutely not. My old car was an 02 Kia Rio RX-V Wagon...

For now it seems that the only thing left to do to the car (aside from installing the parts that I am waiting for) is to do the frame, which isn't that big of a deal since Vancouver has a million frame/auto-body shops, some of which I am good friends with I suspect it would be a quick job to get it straightened out (pun intended) with what I suspect will be very competitive pricing. The damage that KalTire showed looked to be minor, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, probably in the fall...

I don't think I mentioned this but I paid ~ 4800 after taxes/fees/insurance registration ...there are many times when I wish that I lived in the USA....

SimonCL-S6

Either way im sure you can figure out where it was hit. Hopefully the transmission doesn't go. That would suck lol

Dspr_02

Well, seeing as it was registered in Richmond, BC for 6 years, one can assume that all four sides of the car were hit at one point or another...

In regards to the transmission, it shifts a little rough after a 18 or so hour cold start from a freezing garage, kicks all the way into 3'rd then it's smooth for the rest of the day. I also talked the owner of the dealership into giving me a 6mo unlimited km warranty with unlimited claims on the engine, water pump, A/C, transmission, pretty much everything that makes the car go or is located under the hood. Each claim can be a max of $1K and I have unlimited claims.

I did have to do the oil jet kit by Acura as a recall after I got the car and it seems to be a little more sluggish than it was prior to the fix... odd...

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

A dealer asking 14k for an 01 CL is laughable. 6 speeds around here go for about 12k at a dealer. Hell i didn't pay much more then you for my supercharged 6 speed with low miles and no accidents.
Has the timing belt been done? I really hope things work out for you but i feel you would have been better off waiting for a better deal or a different car.

Dspr_02

I am guessing that you are from the Ontario area gnuts.

When I was car shopping, I did see that Ontario cars are dirt cheap compared to BC cars. For example, an 02 accord with <125k KM would be ~$2500 for you guys where as here it would be about $4500 - $6000. I noticed this on Celica's as well as Tiburon's. I was actually considering flying down to Ontario and then driving back, but school and the threat of under-body rust (road salt) kind of kept me away...

Dspr_02

Here are the pictures from Blaine, WA as promised...


MSR Type 043's 17" nicely chipped all around by the previous owner...


Engine Bay, what is the part # for the plastic cover that goes over the radiator?


Purrrrrdy :3


Durrrrrrty :<


One nice rear end


I gone dun goof'd


Average CL front...


Lights, they work as advertised, incredibly clean for a 11 year old car though....


Clean-ish... what's the part # for the plastic that covers the OBD port between the two seat heater switches?
Also note the cat fur between D3 - D5 on the left side... got more of his fur in my car/on/in me than he has on himself...

[IMG][/IMG]
Home of the future picture showing the frame damage that I am talking about...


There's the fat little lovable bastard (accurate term as his "mother" and "father" were not married at the time of his conception or birth) that is responsible for all of the fur in my car...

azeezp13

iTrader: (4)

welcome. personally i would never buy an auto cl especially with that history but whatever makes you happy.

in regards to the pricing, the inflation is crazy on the west coast compared to ontario. that's why you guys have a much higher median income to compensate.

azeezp13

iTrader: (4)

also, the plastic cover that you are referring to is called the radiator shroud.

part #: 74117-S3M-A00

SimonCL-S6

the lights look clean because they've been replaced twice lol

gnuts

iTrader: (1)

check out this link for interior pieces
http://www.oemacuraparts.com/find-pa...RONT%20CONSOLE

Dspr_02

AHAAHHAHAHAHHAH
Didn't think of that... then again, my old Kia had its headlights replaced in '08/09 for a front end collision and they looked like they'd been sandblasted.

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Congrats on the new car. I hope those accidents dont come back and bite you in the ass.

Dspr_02

Same, so far the only things coming to bite me in the ass is the slight frame damage causing an alignment issue and my lead-footed nature...

Luckily being in I.T. paid off as I fixed one of the computers at the dealership and now they are giving me their "internal" parts cost as well as their cost to do work, we're talking about $30/hr shop rate and dealership cost on parts.

Dspr_02

I'll skip right to it.


The box of bulb.


New bulb in hand, old on engine cover (still piping hot).


Old bulb, NO FLASH USED.


New bulb, flash used because it was too bright.


Front view before changing the bulbs...


Front view with new bulb on passenger side, old on driver's...


The completed result.


Before High-beams - they had one very strong yellow spot towards the driver's side, didn't throw light all that well


HID's Only


High-beams on, in this picture, they look much dimmer than the original ones that they replaced, in reality, they are somewhat brighter and have a more even light spread to them.

Was it worth the $11 with shipping? Yes, worst case scenario, I have two spare bulbs in the trunk if these fail anytime soon...
I also didn't spill/drop the radiator overflow tank! Yay me!

Dspr_02

After 30 days, the snail carrying my package finally crawled onto the shores of Canada from China

I got my LED lights for the int/exterior, the following pictures are taken with a cellphone and the LED conversion is not done justice by the crappy 5MP camera, image quality is not suitable for all audiences, viewer discretion is advised.


BULBZ!!!!


The Cube Bulb that is in the Dome Light...9LED


The Dome Light before


And after LED conversion, I will change this at a later point because the LED is not an SMD plaque, but a cube that sits right on the plastic, this makes the light a little to focused in-between the seats and does not illuminate the car as well as it should.


I didn't mind the brightness of the courtesy lights, but I wanted a change..


Popped in the RED 5SMD multi directional light...


The map lights were useless in my CL, so I popped in 6SMD disk lights, the Regular is on the Left, and the LED is on the right.


The completed effect.


This was the main reason for the purchase, 28SMD LED running lamps. When I bought my CL, the running lamp bulbs were burnt out. Time to bust out the Meguiars headlight restoration kit again...


This is the the HID's, new High-beams and the brand new Road Lamps.

I'm happy. Next time I put on rear brakes followed by headers and a CAI

Dspr_02

Update:
Tried doing the rear brakes today, but as I was preparing to setup, I noticed that my brake fluid is dark black (like oil after 12,000km) and I figured that I would 'throw in the towel' and not destroy my car any more than it already is...

I did also notice that the rear driver-side brake pads are cracked/chipped and not having any way to compress the piston, I couldn't throw on new break pads (6" c-clamp was JUST a few hairs too small).

Tomorrow I will most likely have the new brakes installed and the brake fluid replaced by the dealer (at his shop rate), I figure my life is worth spending $50 to to a job right...

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

$50 for a fluid flush and pad install? Thats cheap.

Dspr_02

That was just for a rotor / pad install.

It's going to be 120 at another place for the install of Pads, Rotors and Flush, I have lost trust in the dealership when I noticed several issues that they got all defensive about and tried to pin the blame on me (because I damaged the exhaust flex pipe in 1400km's, and warped the rear rotors and cracked the pads etc...).

I also found that the brake fluid was dark greenish-black and not clear orange like it should be, the dealership was the last to do brake work to the car and when I called em up today to schedule an appointment to take the car in, they more than unpleasantly told me to F**k Off.

Keep in mind that these are the same guys who bitched me out for not going to them to have the ball joints and tie rods done...

Still, 120 for install of parts + system flush isn't bad at all. (Other prices range from 280 @ Acura to 425 @ other shops).

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

There is a 12 month warranty on Honda/Acura parts if installed by the dealer. Call the regional office.

Dspr_02

My Acura dealer wants $280 for just the labour, another $360 or so if I want "Acura" parts... theres like 4 Acura dealers in my region as far as I am aware, and the other three are at a minimum of 30km+ away

I'd sooner do it myself with my dad's help since he's tinkered with cars for quite a while and has actually done brakes. I already have all but two of the tools (caliper piston pusher and brake bleeder) so I might as well.

Maybe this time I wont start at 4pm on a Monday night while suffering from sleep deprivation

---edit---
I JUST understood what you were saying, this was done by the schmuck who sold me the car, he isn't an Acura dealer, just another one of those a-dime-a-dozen privately owned car dealerships that are everywhere so no warranty, and good luck getting these guys to admit doing wrong on anything...

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

Gotcha.

Dspr_02

I gotta ask, whats with the avatars?

civicdrivr

iTrader: (9)

It started shortly after joining the forum. Ive always gone with weird or sexy GIFs. Theyre kinda my "thing"

Dspr_02

Dspr_02

So I decided that I should do the Air Filter since the screws were very rusted up with no sign of having ever been removed...


This is what I pulled out... popped in a temporary (brand new) Fram Extra Guard CA9502. It is about 1/2 the thickness (maybe a bit more) than the OEM filter. It is temporary because I plan to get a CAI sometime during the summer.


I tried to compare the filter to a white piece of paper... phone didn't cooperate, however, it is a very dark black filter on the underside where air come up, the top of the filter was slightly gray.

I wonder if this will help me get over 420km/tank...

I also had the rotors and pads installed over the weekend with a brake system flush, so no more rear window rattling when braking. I also found that I had a seized rear caliper on the driver side (explains why I couldn't turn it in), $250 for the whole job, not bad... Only have to get headers and a CAI and then the fun can begin

Dspr_02

Long time no bump...

So I FINALLY got around to putting in my rear view mirror that I bought form Walmart ($17 with tax in Canada).




Yep, just a Plain-Jane basic mirror. I don't like auto dimming and I didn't need the hassle of it breaking again...


You will notice that the stock nub thing is there, I read on the internet (so it must be true) that if you try to remove it by turning it with a wrench, it may come off or it may shatter the windshield. Being poor, I just went the safe root and I gave myself less of a blind spot in the center of the windshield.



And the finished result, with my 5 SMD Red LED map light and 7 SMD white map light above...

Now I can actually see behind me!!!

Dspr_02

What's your mileage?
234,567KM

Dspr_02

So it was finally sunny and warm enough to derp around with attempting this project...













and since my HTC Sensation's camera is crap, this is more or less what the color actually looks like....



I'm going to remove the masking tape at around 3:00 pm today, I want to give the paint a total of about 6 hours to dry up before I kill the final project, did that to my Lycosa when I painted it and it felt bad man...

I decided to leave the "*ACURA BADGE* 3.2 VTEC " plate stock as the black with red accents should look nice and be a good contrast to the cover and I also left the ignition coil/belt cover stock as well since I want a red/black theme.

I'm attaching it today or tomorrow, depends on when the CL gets back from its doctors appointment (mechanic). Next up, a red C.A.I.

Dspr_02

Red and Black

Dspr_02

And there she is finished. The paint is a 99.999% match to the red 3.2 VTEC which is just awesome

I dynoed this on the road before and after and I totally got like 90 horsepower boost from the red paint! All awesomeness aside, let us take a moment of silence for the pushy-clippy-thingy that fell into the great abyss that is the CL's engine bay. RIP Clippy, you will be missed but not forgotten...

azeezp13

iTrader: (4)

get some lowering springs as your next mod, trust it

Dspr_02

Problem is that lowering any car (especially the CL) around my city is certain death of the body/front bumper...

There has been constant construction on the freeways (hello 3-4 inch bump out of no where, four times in a row) as well as the city/suburbs so uneven roads and such are a problem. Looking at the Vancouver TL side of things, seems like some of those guys cant drive to certain places due to the fact that they are lowered and cannot turn into mall parking lots and stuff like that.

I'm thinking of dropping it once I get a CBR250 (gotta start small then work my way up to a 1.4L) as it will become a track car. By the time I lower it, most of the construction should be completed

Next mod is a red CAI, it may persuade me to not drive through puddles so fast that the water ends up on my sunroof

mikebikelife

iTrader: (3)

DSPR, I'm very happy with just having my resonator out and a K&N Filter. It was free for me haha. Hitting VTEC sounds so sweet without the resonator.
I understand the CAI will help power more but just saying, the free way is pretty sweet. Oh, and yours will be faster cause the paint for sure !

Since I've been lowered I gained a sweet scratch on my header and tons under the car. So you proabably should stay high if the roads suck.

Dspr_02

I don't know if I can mod the exhaust until January 2015 at the earliest (they are scrapping emissions tests then) and in fall of 2014 I am heading to Alberta (neighboring winter province) for two years of school at which point I am going to be leaving the CL at home or I am going to trade her in for a Subaru Impreza/ Mitsubishi Lancer, unless it is a dream in -20*c weather with winter tires and a engine block heater in which case I may just decide to keep her...

mikebikelife

iTrader: (3)

It's not that my header needs moding its just that it scraped from being down there. I dont think you could really route it higher.