I picked up this single owner, 115K miles 2005 Base 6MT in October 2020. It's my daily driver and I plan to keep it forever.



I love this car!

 

This is most likely the nicest TL I have ever seen..

 

The previous owner had two kids and also used this car as a daily driver. It shows: the exterior is splattered with dents, dings, and scrapes and the interior showed life with two kids: stained carpet, food embedded in the perforated leather, and melted crayons in the door cubbies. The car was not garaged and the dash was cracked like crazy. But this is all superficial small potatoes. The previous owner also had all maintenance up to date and performed at the dealer. Sweet!

After a quick going over, it was adios to the carpet stains and embedded yogurt/milkshake/whatever in the perforated leather seats. And I bought and installed a COVERLAY to hide the cracked dash:









I also refreshed the headlight lenses:




I used Meguiar's Headlight Restoration Kit and am happy with the results.

 

Easily worth $10,000 and nicer than any Type S!

 

Congratulations and welcome to the 3G TL 6MT club!

 

Congratulations! I have the exact same car except mine is a 2006. The dash cover looks really good on it too!

 

Love it man! I just picked up an 06 AT with 130k, also 1 owner, also with a buncha crap on the seats, also serviced at the dealer! Very happy with mine too. Great job on the headlights, that was one of the first things i did on mine. Are you considering any "non stock" appearance stuff?

 

mostly no. i want to get this car close to how it looked new off the showroom floor, and add some minor mods here and there for performance and comfort.

appearance wise, i plan to swap out the badges and maybe do a diy shark mouth grill. but that's it.

i want this car to be nondescript - to both leos and thieves.

 

Sounds cool! Are Leos cops in your neck of the woods?

I ordered the OEM window visors for mine and I’ll probably do a 30% tint. Mine is the satin silver metallic. I also like the idea of more black accents just not sure which ones. Wheels would be cool.

what are your thoughts on this, assuming you have the same interior setup I do..
[img]blob:https://acurazine.com/392ebf0b-7a2d-4c32-a418-c29f830d02f5[/img]

 

@fmallabykay LEO = Law Enforcement Officer - it's basically anyone that can write me up for a moving violation - i want to be invisible to them.

i've done some other stuff which i'll get to later, but this is what i did today:

my neighbor's fugly dog jax:



he's ok by me, tho, cuz he helped with this:




i swapped out the factory 20mm solid rear anti-sway bar for a 24mm Progress bar that i got from heeltoeauto

i haven't been able to push it yet, but i can already tell that the car feels more planted and predictable when cornering. 👍

 

Wow, nice job on the sway bar man! Cool that you feel a noticeable improvement already. Considering some handling upgrades myself because I feel a little slip in cornering, and wondering if just replacing the factory lower control arms is gonna be the most bang for my buck since they're most likely fairly worn at 130k. I'm sure some fresh tires would also go a long way for that tbh

 

the previous owner had a 3.5 aux cord and and old apple 30 pin connector installed in the center console rear storage bin. i couldn't get the sound system to play from my phone so i started digging around:



i found the cords had become unplugged at the after market splitter box tucked away under the dashboard. after reconnecting the cords, i was now able to play music from my phone. sweet! but then i noticed the volume seemed off: it was kind of low overall but even less sound was coming out of the left channel. i found this a-zine thread: HOW TO: OEM Audio Amp Repair - fix buzzing/noise/no volume! and although i haven't messed much with pcbs, after a few weeks of staring at the parts i ordered, i decided to sack up and give it a shot. so i removed the audio amplifier, cracked it open at my work bench, and fished out the bum capacitors:



then popped in some new caps and buttoned it all up:



for about $20 worth of caps, the stereo sounds great now and i was very satisfied that i was able to repair the issue myself (but only with the guidance and knowledge of the a-zine crowd). hecks yes!

 

SO THIS is what is meant when somebody says "Imma pop a couple o' caps in yo' amps?" Seriously, good job!

 

Was your sound system suffering when you listened to Radio, too? I have a similar lack of noise but I’m assuming it’s my Bluetooth adapter

 

yup. after the repair, for any given volume setting, say 15, the radio is louder than the aux/iphone. having said that, if i go to max volume with the aux/iphone, it's plenty loud for me and way better than before the fix. another sign that the caps are bad is background noise when the volume is low. there are threads addressing this issue, so this is a common problem and if you are noticing these symptoms, bad capacitors are prolly the culprit.

 

a few weeks ago, i installed a hitch receiver:



the receiver is used for this:




that's a 1up bike rack. it's arguably the best bike rack on the market due to ease of install/removal of the rack to the vehicle, ease of install/removal of the bike to the rack, and top notch materials for durability. cheap it ain't, but totally worth it imo.

i put it to good use today and went for a ride on my local trails in Auburn, CA. fun times.



btw, that bike is a 2017 YT Capra 27.5. it's flippin' awesome.

 

Awesome man! Did the hitch require drilling, or just bolting? I want to set up a similar bike rack for my Sette 29er!

 

I got CURT 11321 for my 2008 TL. It required removing bumper cover and drilling into the bumper beam. I used step drill and had no problems.

 

That car is in good hands with you, enjoy it for many years to come!

 

You gotta drill two holes thru the trunk floor, but it's super simple cuz it's just thin sheet metal. The hitch receiver's main attachment point uses a bolt at the tow loop thingy. The other two mount points (where you drill thru the sheetmetal) seem to be mainly for lateral stability. I'm not worried about strength because the hitch is only there to haul the bike rack, not a trailer.

BTW, I bought a Reese receiver hitch on Amazon for $100, which I believe is exactly the same as a Draw-Tite, which is slightly more pricey. Also, I've had Yakima roof racks on my cars for the last three decades, but this 1UP rack is easier to use, more burly and yet lighter than any Yakima, Thule, Kuat, or Rocky Mount rack on the market.

 

I went to Portland for Christmas to visit my daughter, Frankie. On the way back, I took a detour to McMinnville to check out the Aviation Musuem. It was closed due to Covid but I got to see some of the outdoor static displays.


This Gulfstream II was used by NASA for either zero G training or Space Shuttle glide simulation training.


The C-47 is the Army Air Force version of the Douglas DC-3. My dad flew these in WWII.


"Negative, Ghostrider. The pattern is full."



Road food, Oregon coast style: Clam chowder and smoked, peppered wild salmon. nom nom nom

 

LOL, the "Zero-G" planes had some pretty interesting nicknames; I remember a few like:

• Puke Planes
• Hork Wagons
• Hurl Haulers

 

That looks like some quality road food man! I knew the NW was doing things right

 

last nov, i removed the front bumper:



in order to remove some plastic bits:



i replaced that oem intake with a cold air intake from DC Sports on ebay for $150. i chose this brand for the price and for the included CARB sticker. i'm satisfied with it.


the engine stays quiet under normal driving, but the growl is a bit louder than stock when going full throttle and when the vtec kicks in. that sound is music to my ears, so my gas mileage has suffered since the installation. but there's also been a noticeable improvement in smiles per mile.

 

Honda is known for making great manual transmissions, and the one in my UA6 is no exception. However, I did notice that the 3rd gear synchro could be a bit fussy at times, not sliding in with ease as expected. Well thanks to AcuraZine and this thread: Manual Tranny Owners: How has GMSF fluid worked out for you over long haul? , I discovered that this was a common problem and the best solution was to switch over to GM Synchromesh fluid. So at the last oil change, I also drained the transmission and added the GM stuff that is now called AC Delco Synchromesh. OMG, no more 3rd gear issues, so smooth and precise, so sweet!

I had also noticed that the clutch took some getting used to and that I just couldn't quite figure out how to be consistent and smooth, although I've only owned manuals my whole life - that's four frickin' decades now. AcuraZine to the rescue again: A-113: Removal of Slave Cylinder check valve!!! . Turns out this 'delay' valve in the slave cylinder was the issue. So I ordered up a LUK slave cylinder and removed the offending valve.



A major headache with this mod is removing the LOCK RING to gain access to the delay valve. A tip I found on an S2000 forum suggested to drill a little hole in the side of the valve, through the groove for the lock ring, which allowed a pick to easily fish out the C shaped lock ring. So I gave it a shot:



Note: position the open end of the lock ring at the location of the drill hole to prevent damage to the lock ring (this is visible in the first part of the pic). There was prolly a little bur at the hole from the drilling, but access was super tight, so I couldn't do anything about it except to keep my fingers crossed and hope that the o-ring in the cap did not get muffed up. Once the hole was drilled, it was easy peasy to remove the lock ring, cap, and POS delay valve. Hecks yes.

So I spent most of an aggravating Saturday unsuccessfully trying to bleed the clutch hydraulic system. After reading many threads and watching many vids and carefully bleeding the system in a variety of ways, the clutch refused to work properly, it was very mushy and the transmission would not go into any gear. Think, man, think. So I removed the slave cylinder from the car, held it vertically, and filled it to overflowing with fluid. After carefully reinstalling the bitch, taking pains to minimize fluid spillage, I bled the system one more time an noticed that the clutch pedal looked and felt normal instead of being limp and flaccid like earlier. Hells yes.

With the delay valve removed, the clutch now acts and feels similar to the many other clutches I've used over the decades. No more weird delay or modulation issues. Thank you AcuraZine! If your UA6/UA7 has a manual transmission, I highly recommend this simple and effective mod! (I have read that the delay valve is there to reduce the harshness of clutch engagement - but IMO the real answer to reducing harshness is to become a better driver. yup.)

 

At this point, the folks here have literally millions of miles of usage with ACDelco Synchromesh Friction Modified (formerly called GMSF); empirical data shows if you switch to the ACDelco fluid soon enough, as in, before severe 3rd gear synchro damage has been achieved, then your transmission can last literally hundreds of thousands of miles.

 

So did mine.
.
.

 

hard to do with an overlay

 

so the clutch had been acting up: it would feel mushy one day, then go back to normal-ish. the issue worsened recently, it could be difficult to get into first gear. i replaced the slave cylinder in january and thought maybe an air bubble was lurking in the system, so i bled the system and this is what came out:




a-zine confirmed my suspicion that the master cylinder appears to have schat the bed. so i'm planning on ordering an OEM nissin replacement unit and installing it myself.

ANY TIPS OR TRICKS TO AID IN THE INSTALL WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

tanks a million!

 

Must have not seen mine. 93k miles, still has factory stickers inside and new car smell.

Digression: OP great TL! low miles!

What kind of mods are you planning for it?

 

Look me up next time you come to Portland. Id love to see your car!

 

OP if you think your clutch fluid is bad, wait until you see mine when I first got the car lol.

 

i know it's not horrible *except* that i replaced the clutch slave cylinder 3 months ago and pumped a shit ton of fresh fluid thru the system. so for three month old fluid, it sucks balls. (my power steering fluid looked like swamp water- it was fkn gnarly)

 

I bought my 05 Base a few summers back and just passed over 113k today. Maintain that transmission and dashboard, should last for years and welcome to the TL fam

My 05 Base TL, black interior

 

Out with the old, in with the new.
Replaced the clutch master cylinder today and the TL is back in business. Hell yeah.

 

welp, this unfortunate incident recently occurred:


Full Disclosure: In a nutshell: I am a fucking dumbshit, this was a single vehicle incident, I was NOT rear-ended. Yup.

Driving up to Tahoe last Sunday and looking forward to riding the Meyers area for the first time this season, I was motoring up the hill on Hwy 50 with much "enthusiasm and vigor". More so than usual, actually. So when the uphill high speed sweeper leveled off, my suspension unweighted just enough for the tires to lose grip and send me skidding sideways down the road while watching on coming traffic whiz by on the other side of the double yellow. The car continued skidding and yawing to the left until I was bassackwards and eventually slammed into the armco. So yes, I am King of the Dipshits. And actually quite lucky that I didn't hit another vehicle or depart from the roadway. And while the car is prolly totaled on paper, the damage is relatively minor and I was able to drive home without further incident.

On closer inspection of the bike, I lucked out even more. The frame and fork, as well as most of the bike appears undamaged. The front wheel is toast (although I may be able to salvage the hub), the rear disc is a write off, as is the snapped derailleur hanger and RH crank and RH pedal. But that's it. I really got lucky cuz things could have turned out so much worse. Whew!

I'm gonna attempt a diy repair on the car, the rack, and the bike, wish me luck, I need all I can get!

 

Geez...I wish you good luck!

 

I’m glad nobody was hurt! Good luck with the repairs.

 

Looks like there's no damage to the quarter panel or back window. Should be fixable with no special tools and junkyard parts. You might even be able to pop that bumper cover back out and clean it up. Having it all repainted is gonna be the part that sucks.