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So I was bored and one of the members keeps telling me I should just start on to document my progress... Wish I started when I first got the car but I'll try to keep it in order best I can.
Short story on how I came upon this unicorn. I was looking for a dd since I was puttin around in a 08 mini and it bugged the heck out of me so I handed it over to my mom since she liked how small and yea "cute" it was. So I needed a daily that was fun, had 4 doors and anything besides my pickup truck or the cooper. I was originally looking for a IS350, GS350, G35 Sedan etc... I was searching for months and stumbled upon this ad on craigslist for a 2008 6sp Acura Tl. I didn't even remember there were 6sp TL-S and after doing some quick research, I emailed the seller setup an appointment and drove 2 hrs to check out the car. Long story short, I liked it, even-tho it was a lil beat and mileage (150k) wasn't ideal but I figured it was a Honda/Acura so it should last awhile with some TLC. The seller was the original owner, he grew up in Pennsylvania and went to college there, and when he graduated this was his grad present. He got a job out here in SF Bay Area and drove the car out here. Car had all its service done only at Acura dealerships and he had a pile of receipts and paperwork. After waiting for 2 hrs for the seller to show up and driving it around the block a few times, I liked it enough to pick it up, I was able to get him down from his $8k asking price to $5800 since he didn't do the timing service yet and the car wasn't in pristine condition but it was a clean title 6sp! This was back in April of 2017.
Anyhow drove the car home safely, noticed the brakes sucked and I figured new pads were needed. Went ahead and ordered new brake pads and rotors since I wanted a fresh start, I also figured if I was going to do brakes might as well flush the semi dark fluid, and swap the lines to stainless steel braided. Braided lines were from Marcus at Heeltoe, pads and rotors I just ordered off Amazon and went with centric ceramic pads and rotors to keep it simple. This is part 1 of my nightmare... I don't have any pix since my phone was stolen out of my gym bag.. but before these pix were taken... Both front Brembo caliper bolts were seized... I ended up snapping 3 out of 4. Took me 3 hrs to remove the calipers off the car. That pissed off of and I called it a day after that. Next day, I tried to tackle the rear, got the rear off no problem, but when it came to swap the brake lines, the rear passenger hard line was rusted or corroded to shit, I also noticed the line was a tad mangled from previous person who worked on the car. As I was trying to remove the soft line from the hard line, the line twisted and started to leak.... I was like YUP FUK ME. anyhow, I was pretty pissed, FF. Did some research found out the hard line is also a Honda part used on guess what car? Yes, the Honda Accord Sedan. So I went to the local dealership near me, found out one of my old friend's friend works there in the parts dept, he hooked it up and gave me what he says is almost employee pricing. The line was about $200 bux iirc and I was told 2 weeks max shipped from East Coast as it was a special order item. So 2 weeks go by, I drop by and ask whats up with the brake line.. find out they have to have it made or some bs, it would take another 2-3 weeks. All in all I waited a 5 weeks for this stupid hard line (1 week truck freight) all the while my car was chillin on my drive way with jack stands. While I was waiting, got the front Brembo calipers fix with 3 helicoils and had the guy drill out the snapped end of the bolt on the left caliper. Got everything back together, installing that hard line was a PITA BTW. I don't suggest doing it as it took half a day to get the old one out and finagle this new one in w/out bending or messing it up. Finally got it in, and guess what there is a brake line junction on the left side where this screws back into, and somehow one of the other hard line fittings got stripped. That delayed me another week to get the correct die to correct the threads and finally button it back up to where I could bleed the brakes. Anyhow car sat for 2 months, w/out me being able to drive it. Wow that was a long and hard 2 months.... Did all the other maintenance on it tho while it sat on stands. New motor oil, spark plugs, new o2 sensors, app sensor, purge valve, pvc, and a few other tid bits.
Ordered some LEDs for the interior and a shift knob from Heeltoe, was skeptical about this knob at first, but I love this thing. LEDS turned out pretty good, stupid bright tho... Also ordered a nice ice blue colored sun shade from Amazon. Thing is super thick works great, since it's cut out to the car so it fits perfectly, love it...
May 2017, finally decided to go Aspec since the car was looking kinda boring all stock. Found a cool trick to save some money ordering this locally vs going through our 2 beloved shops... Just picked up the front and rear KBP Aspec lips from my local Acura Dealer.
Noticed I had some oil on the driveway, went to go inspect it, found out my drain plug was not the original size, someone put a larger drain plug in the pan and re-tapped it for one size larger, this sucked as I went to buy a new drain plug and washer since I wasn't too thrilled about this plastic washer... Ended up having to go back out again and source a copper washer that would fit the new larger bolt... was able to get the leak to stop from the drain plug so that was a plus.
July 9, 2017. Found a used accord AEM intake arm on eBay for $40 shipped, ordered a new dry flow filter from eBay as well which was $30 which made me stoked. deiced to install it to have that cool suction sound while driving.
My buddy dropped by and helped me finish up, and surprised me with a new LED kit for my fogs... So put those in while the bumper was off.
July 17, 2017. Started to warm up, was rolling down the windows, and noticed the left rear window didn't roll down. Tried it again, and could hear the motor but window wasn't moving. Found out the window was previously replaced due to being broken and they used a generic glass. The holder that clamps to the glass failed and was no longer holding the glass anymore... SIGH...
Since the window made me upset and it was a nice day, I decided I've been lagging with the A-Spec lips... so I installed them...
July 23, 2017. Found a guy parting out his TL, was able to snag the correct color glass. Made sure it was original OEM not generic, picked it up and installed it to replace that stupid broken generic one I had.
Made the install easier smelling my fav air freshener while working...
After it was all said and done... I found out... the glass I picked up although it was a from a 05 TL, it has Honda on the glass. The rest of my glass has Acura... UGH.... SMH... 1st world probs I know..
Few days later, decided I wanted to tint the windows, so I went to get it tinted with some 3M Crystal Line Ceramic film. Set me back $450 to do all windows and sun roof... Lil subtle as I went with 30-35%... Kinda wish I went with 40%... too late now.
July 29 2017. Was a nice day, did a quick wash and installed the cheap eBay roof wing.
Didn't like how the Honda/Acura tranny fluid was, as the shifting was a lil notchy? Read GM Synchromesh was the best, so I swapped to it.. and LOVE IT. Smooth and silky now.
Aug. 23, 2017. Was down in SoCal to visit some friends... CEL codes started popping up like crazy. One of my buddies owns a shop, so I took it to him to have him check it out.... Found out 3 cylinders were low compression and yup, it was time for a new heart. Was pretty bummed out, buddy told me to find a motor and he could have it done in 2 days. So I went and did some homework... found out RL motors will work, and they are ALOT cheaper than Type S motors since of the name. Found one 30 miles North of LA. Motor only had 76k miles out of a 2008 RL for $650. Called them up they delivered the motor 2 days later. My buddy checked it out and said it was super clean, I ended up ordering a new clutch, flywheel, timing belt kit, and did the Jpipe since the bolts on my stock one were rusted so badly they ended up cutting it off. Went with a Endless Jpipe and 3rd cat delete since that was the only thing available on short notice so Bruce hooked it up and expedited it to me.
Swap went smoothly, happy I got a new oil pan to resolve that issue with the over sized drain plug on my old motor. Jpipe install went smoothly fit perfectly and motor runs great.
Sep 27, 2017. The mod bug bit me, missed having a lowered car, so I decided to order some coils to drop it a tad and get rid of the gap... went with Tein Street Basis as the price was very affordable. Wish I went with street advance z but oh well.
Been awhile since I've really wrenched on cars, forgot how much work it is to take do suspension on the floor with hand tools... Ended up only doing the front that day as I was exhausted. Started up the next day to tackle the rear along with some other minor fixes. I ordered a stock speaker a while back as I could hear the left rear speaker was making some funny noises. I knew I'd have to take apart the rear to access the nuts for the rear struts. Swapped in a new speaker and tackled the rear coils. Found out the sway-bar end links needed to be removed to make install easier... Well it was rusted to crap, ended up rounding out both the allen heads on the end link, so I had to cut it off with my trusty dremel. What should of taken 2 hrs tops to do the rear coils and speaker, ended up taking half day. Also ran into a prob on the left rear strut bolt, I some how stripped or cross threaded it.... yay, lucky I had had a tap and die kit I so I spent 45 min to chase and clean threads before completing the rear left corner... YAY to unexpected probs. and taking all day...
Dec. 20, 2017. Caught this nasty flu, was feeling a lil better so I decided to go get a veggie juice to cleanse my body, and some chicken pho. On my way home near downtown, this lady decides to not check her mirror and freakin pull out and hits me. Hit me so hard my head hit the window and I blacked out for a min or so... Yeah.. week of x-mas... starting to think this car is bad luck or a CURSE??? Yeah laugh it up, Old azn lady... yes they can't drive worth squat. Messed up thing was, she yelled at me trying to accuse me that it was my fault for having the right away on a 2 lane street. I was about to snap back but I saw she had her daughter or granddaughter with her and calmed myself down and asked if they were alright. Waited out there on the street for over 1hr 30min for AAA tow truck driver to arrive only to see they brought a REGULAR tow truck when I had specifically specified I needed a FLATBED 3x times to the call center. Had to wait another 45 min before a flatbed showed up and this guy didn't want to drive 15 more min to drop my car off at the body shop cuz he didn't want to sit in traffic.. WTF??? Ended up dropping the car off at my place and made a complaint right away as I was not happy with the service esp if I'm paying for it. Good way to go into x-mas, sick from the flu and my car is smashed.
Took 1 whole month to fight with insurance (lady that hit me) as they did not want to cover the damages. They tried to accuse me for not stopping in time or reacting fast enough to avoid the collision. Dropped the car off a the shop to have it repaired. Luckily no air bags deployed or car would have been sent to the wrecking yard... Body shop helped me keep the car from being salvaged, paid them a few extra bux to fix the rear qtr dmg from previous owner and ordered new ASpec skirts to complete the kit. Shop even let me keep my old parts which I sold off to pay for the skirts and extra work...
Feb. 24, 2018. Got the car out of the shop for 1 week and got pulled over for no front plate... SIGH... the nice officer let me off with a warning, told me to get a front plate on and was understanding that I just got my car back after the incident (lucky i had photos to show him along with the paper work from the shop). So me not wanting to drill holes and mount the plate, I decided to try the tow hook method... I'm not a fan of it, but it beats the alternatives.
March 7, 2018. Got bored, de-badged the rear trunk and installed the lower shark fin diffuser sine I thought it would look cool... Also ordered and installed the noise maker, forgot to take pix of the install as it was late at night and I really wanted to get it on the car to play with it the next morning..
Found a deal on some red/white oem tails on ebay. Not diggin the Type S on the KBP so I decided to switch it up...
March 9, 2018. Found out I needed some new tires fast... My buddy in SoCal told me to come down as he had a free set for me, all I had to do was drive down and it be taken care of... So road trip again. Had to throw some throw back RH CP8s on the car from my old prelude days.... had to rock a 15mm spacer as these wheels were 18x7.5 with 205/35/18... OUCH still looks sunk... hey they are like BIGGER brown waffles...
Got sick of the front being so sunk in, I ordered another set of spacers... Not a huge fan of spacers, but its temp till I get some wheels...
March 27, 2018. Went to help a buddy out with his car, he need some manual help moving some parts around from one car to another, drove out to lend a hand. Had some free time and decided to get crazy with some dip... I think it turned out nice. Much thx Num for the great dip job on the chrome pieces..
March 31, 2018. Got really annoyed with headlights being all hazy... Got busy and re-freshed them... took 4 hrs but it was worth it...
March 9, 2018. Went to DMV since I found out my DL was expired... OMG right... never got the notice to renew so I had to stand in line... yay life is great... SIGH... Got VIP parking too.
car has come a long way....lots of ups and downs...but that's what makes it URS. Keep up the good work and try not to get hit by any more azn ladies lol
Yeah the car has come a long way since I first brought it home. Definitely a journey compared to all the other Honda/Acura cars I previously have owned.
Thanks for the kind words guys will try to keep this updated with progress. It's going to be slow but next on my list is wheels/rims, maybe some exterior items to spice it up.. stay tuned to find out! lolz
Was able to snag a decent deal on a ATLP V2R J-pipe. Ordered some new gaskets from RV6 and they hooked it up with some nice surprises and fast shipping. It was nice yesterday, so I decided to install it since the gaskets came in too. Got my compressor on with my wire brush on a pneumatic angle die grinder and cleaned up the flanges nice and clean since there was tons of residue from the old gaskets.
Figured this should be 30 min tops since I already have a Endless J-pipe with 3rd cat delete, bolts should be pretty loose ez pz.
Well I was wrong.. what should have been a 30 min job became a PITA. I should have known that if the old part comes out that easy, there is always something that will come up during install. Well I was right... anyhow this install took way longer than it should have... I won't say how long but you can tell by the photos the difference in day light. Install was supposed to be straight forward... it wasn't, the Endless v2 j-pipe came off like butter, no hassle, wiggled it a lil and slid off no issues. This ATLP V2R on the other hand was no fun at all. You are all prob going to ask why? Well the holes on the collectors needs to be opened up more to allow for more wiggle room. I had to basically force it on to the studs of the pre-cats. Causing them to rub and mess up the threads. Not a big deal? well it is to me when its $450 new and that is not chump change... anyhow grabbed my die and ran them through the studs to make sure none were cross threaded, that took some time as its not fun under the car. I really had to fight to get this J-pipe on, after it was on, the hanger didn't line up at all, pics will show it... rather disappointing imo. Anyhow took a long while to install it, button it back up, but I got it on there after snapping my tap on my front pre-cat.... I'm pretty annoyed with that, but life goes on.
As you can see hanger doesn't line at all, not sure why that is but i guess I'll have to have it adjusted when I get a chance to go to a exhaust shop or something. Impressions, its a lil deeper, butt dyno doesn't really feel anything it's a lil louder at certain rpms... I'll keep driving it and see if it gets better, I'll prob reset the ecu see if that helps. Anyhow Stayed tuned other goodies to come...
Thanks, trying to figure out what wheels to go with. I know the size setup and tire I want to run just not sure what rim style. That is next on the list... Body shop is alright, I know one of the body guys at the shop, he worked on a few of my other cars so he does what he can to take care of me.
I like having Brembo calipers, but honestly, they are a PITA when it comes to rim fitment/selection. If it was easy and cost effective I'd swap over to base knuckles and run the RL setup. Bigger, way better fitment and base also allows me to easily source aftermarket brake kits if I decided to go that route. I'm leaning heavily towards 18s. 19s look great, but cost of tires and running a 35 series tire is not appealing to me.
Found some bumper plugs yay... And I didn't have to fork out no dealer $80 a pop for them either..
Finally found some wheels I liked, but its NOT my favorite color at all. But the price and fitment was right for brand new in the box. Planning on repainting them another color so flame away at the color.
04-10-2018, 02:21 AM
It was nice yesterday, so I decided to install it since the gaskets came in too. Got my compressor on with my wire brush on a pneumatic angle die grinder and cleaned up the flanges nice and clean since there was tons of residue from the old gaskets. 
