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i just recently traded a 1984 Dodge Conquest for a 2005 Acura RL SH-AWD and i am somewhat new to the Acura scene. i owned a older Acura Integra many years ago but things did not end well for that car. for the past ten years or so i have been a die hard Conquest guy, the conquest has a 2.6L SOHC 4cyl Turbo motor. We drove our 84 Conquest from Ohio to Louisiana to make the trade and it was a 2000 mile round trip and both cars made the trip with no probelms at all.
the RL we just got has 196,000 miles on it but has been well maintained and is in very good shape and rides like a brand new car. It has the check emmissions light on and the sh-awd light on, plus the navigation screen is just a dimly lit black screen. i used a scan tool on the car and its pulling the P0325 for the knock sensor but no code for the AWD system. i have done a small amount of research and i think i read that the emmissions code can also cause the AWD light to pop on, not sure if thats true or not. i did find a post here on the site that gives instructions on replacing the knock sensor and the parts i will need.
we absolutely love the car and want to fix all the bugs it has and continue to own, drive, and enjoy the car.
yes it was in great condition and only had 58,000 original miles, i got it from a guy that had it sitting in his garage for 4yrs. and the guy i traded it to was born when it came out either but his dad owns 5 of them.
very clean RL, i'm kinda jealous haha, i think midas can check some of the lights/turn them off it it's nothing. you will be crusing around in style though for the time being. congrats on the purchase
^the Knock sensor is very important.
these engine runs on very high compression ratios. 11:1:1. if using poor quality fuel, the ECU will retard timing to prevent knock. BUTT, if Knock sensor is broken, ECU wont know when the engine is knocking, and wont retard timing...which may or may not cause engine troubles.
Heat also affects the engine and the power it makes. if too hot, engine will knock, going into the same pattern as above, reduced timing, etc.
Mr Rodgers thanks for the compliment, we are very happy with the car. the interior of the car is just as clean and only had one flaw and that was the glove box, and searching for a used replacement cover for it all of the ones i saw seem to have the same problem. i have never seen a material like is on the glove box, i was literally able to scrape off the old material with a putty knife and it was a black sticky mess that could be molded like playdough. i removed all the material and used some bodyfiller to fill in the areas that i took some chunks out of the foam so it was nice and smooth then i used truck bed coating to coat the cover in so it has somewhat of the same texture the rest of the interior. its not a perfect match but it looks much much better then it did before. the original material was bubbled up from the heat and it looks like the passenger liked to rest their feet on the glove box and it left footprints in the cover and looked horrible.
here is how it looks now.
justnspace i plan on fixing the knock sensor asap because coming from working on turbocharged vehicles for the past ten years i am all too familiar with the form and function of the knock sensor. i will admit i am going to have to get used to running higher octane fuel mostly because i am pretty cheap...lol. with many companies offering fuel rewards with discounts on fuel i am just going to have to be thrifty about using them to make up the difference in the increased price of the higher octane fuel.
well good thing you bought an Acura, Mr.Frugal!
putting in lower octane will result in lower MPG as the ECU will adjust to compensate. in Other words, you'll get the best fuel economy using Premium.
also, being frugal, this vehicle will last you a long long long time, and judging by the looks of the Conquest, I'm sure you'll take care of the RL
yes i am a stickler for keeping a vehicle well maintained, for one it extends the life and makes re-sale much easier when the car has been taken care of. the owner before the person i bought it from was the person that took such good care of the car, there is a huge stack of records from where he had regular work done to the car and it was all done through a Acrua dealership and not some mom and pops shop. i think the few problems the car has now came from the owner i got it from considering the car has 196,000 miles on it and the oil change sticker says it was due for a change at 188,000. (eyes rolling)
i have read through the manual to see that the they recommend Mobile1 full synthetic and thats exactly what i plan on using. i also plan to change the fluid in the rear diff since the records in the glove box indicate its been a long time since it was last done, off the top of my head i am thinking it was at around 160,000.
well justnspace it appears you may be correct on the higher octane fuel. i ran the last of the xheap gas out of it a couple days ago and used our fuel points and filled it up with some nice 93 octane and it only cost around $35 to fill it up from empty. (low fuel light had just kicked on before fill up)
we brought the car back from Louisiana to Ohio and it was roughly a 1000 mile trip and i think we were averaging around 24 MPG which is by no means hateful and that was with the air conditioning running the whole trip. yesterday we took the car on a 100 mile or so trip and i was seeing as high as 26.8 average mpg, again with the a/c blasting. i also gave it a fresh oil change with the recommended Mobile1 full synthetic 5w20 and Mobile1 oil filter and the car seems to really love it. i think the oil change sticker in the window said 188K was when it was due for a change and when we got the car it had 195K so it was certainly due for a changing. i will admit i felt my butt cheeks pucker up a little at the $60 spent on just oil and a filter but based on how the car sounds and runs now i think it was money well spent.
I didnt see any mention of the timing belt service being performed. this service occurs EVERY 105k miles. at 195k miles, you're quickly approaching the 2nd timing belt service interval. Has the 2nd timing belt service been performed??
if not, Mr. frugal, you'll have to get this serviced.
this service includes changing the timing belt and its tensioner, the water pump and gaskets. you can also get the spark plugs changed along with this service.
the dealership will charge up to $1200 but a savy consumer could have the service performed for as low as $500
i would have to go through the records on the car but judging from the records i have gone over he had the car serviced a lot while he owned it and i am guessing its probably had the 1st one done. i will sit down tonight and go through them and see if i can find if the timing belt has been replaced.
and $1200 on our budget aint gonna happen, $500 would be a stretch and would probably only be able to get something like that done at tax time. i would source all the parts myself so i would only be paying for labor and i may not get the work done at a dealership because my wife works for a mechanics garage or i have a couple of buddys that are die hard honda guys that could probably assist in the repair.
ok i just went through all the records, and this car has been religiously maintained from the day it was purchased up until 163k according to the records i have. i am assuming that at 163k is when the guy i got the car from bought it because there isnt a single service record after that, the only indication anything was done to the car after that point was the oil change sticker in the window that said it was to be changed at 188k and it had about 195k when i got it from him.
and here are the service records from the original owner and the owner after him, it appears i am the 4th owner of the car. i had to dig through all these to try and find the timing belt replacement.
and as i expected it has had its first timing belt replacement done by the second owner at 102K, but as you stated its about time for its second one.
yes and i am thinking since its throwing the P0325 knock sensor code it may just be a good idea to knock it all out at once so the car is only down once for a weekend instead of being down twice.
and i was wanting to dig through the records anyway to eliminate any extra paperwork that really wasnt of any importance, and there was a ton of it so now i have JUST the service records all together and it will be a lot more easy now to go over them and see what work has been done to the car.
installed some LED daytime running lights last night, my fog light bulbs should be here tomorrow. i do need to repair the passenger fog light glass with lexan so those will take a little longer to install.
i like them also, it bugged me the daytime running lights color didnt match the HIDs which is silly because they are never on at the same time...lol. they are just cheap ebay bulbs so we will see how long they last.
I just stumbled upon this thread and had to comment on your old car...
That was a beautiful looking Conquest! I have a certain fondness for the old "StarQuests", especially in the later fender-flared widebody TSI/ESI versions. Back when Mitsubishi was actually a contender in the J-tin game.
Whoever got that one looks like they got a gem!
Welcome to Acurazine; I like the RL - that's my favorite style.
thanks. it was probably one of the cleanest conquests i have owned, i got the car out of Indiana and the previous owner hadnt driven the car in over 4yrs and it was just sitting covered in dust in his garage. i got the car for $1500 and it wasnt running (bad fuel pump) had mixed matched wheels, and old dry rotted tires on it. i fixed it all up and brought it back to its former glory and then traded it for my Acura.
this is what she looked like when i bought the car.
i have owned a 84, two 85s, a 86,two 87s, and a 88 over the years and the 84 (pictured above) was one of the best condition ones of the bunch, it only had 58,000 miles on it and the car until the last owner was well taken care of. the one i owned before this last one was a 87 and is by far my Favorite one i have owned but i put a LOT of time effort and money into it.
i was trying to make my 87 have sort of a muscle car feel to it so i did some body modification to the grill, added a hood scoop, and of course a more muscle car looking wheel with raised white letter tires. here it is sitting with my wifes red 86, mine is the black and gold 87.
this one had a few mods under the hood including upgraded intercooler and turbo, it ran a 17ctd06 turbo from a GMC Typhoon at 25psi. in its prime it ran a 12.73 in the 1/4 mile at 112 mph and is still the fastest documented pass on street tires. there are a few cars that were faster but they were all on drag radials or slicks. it currently sits at the #18 spot in our recorded list of the fastest conquest with documented passes. to qualify you have to have your time slip and a recorded video of the pass or it didnt happen...lol.
this is me with the car at a Conquest Meet in Branson MO in 2010.
same meet in Branson in 2009, the car won "best paint" award two years in a row.
i am a die hard conquest fan and i always will be and there will be another one in my future some day. anyone interested in conquests or if your ever looking to buy one our website is StarQuestClub.com.
Last edited by cyberquest; 10-17-2016 at 11:25 PM.
Oooh, those (front) wheels in the trailer picture!
Those are the business! They're like the 5 spoke version of the 2G Supra wheels with 5 instead of 4 lugs. I remember back in the day, there was a Corolla guy that retrofit the StarQuest wheels onto his car. It took me so long looking at the pictures trying to figure out why his Supra swap lookd so odd.
That hub/wheel swap remains one of the prime oddball things to do for the sheer novelty and attention to detail.
Nice rides! Love that your wife has the sickness too!
i took the RL on a 5 hour trip the other day and its the first time i have driven it any length at night time since i installed the LED light bulbs.
here are some pics of them installed, i did the DRL lights and the driving lights.
as you can see they are much "brighter" then the regular bulbs.
both DRL bulbs installed.
Driving lights installed, i didn't like that the driving lights didnt match in color to the HID bulbs so thats why i picked up the LEDs up.
after driving the car at night i really do NOT like them, looking at them from the front of the car they are very bright. however using them at night and the light they actually produce on the road is far LESS then the original bulbs do. since the DLR act as your high beams when i turn on the high beams with the LED bulbs you barley tell any difference between the low beams and high beams. and the driving lights with the original bulbs you could see there pattern of light when you turned them on and off while driving but with the LED bulbs they really dont have a pattern that you can see so its hard to see any difference when they are on.
so i am going back to the original style bulbs and just pick up some with the blueish tint to them. i am glad i ordered the cheaper LED bulbs from ebay so i didnt waste a lot of money on them.
Insurance company paid $3790 for the Acura....minus my 500 deductable....so 3290.......minus the 1400 loan i had against it.....so 1890 is what i see in actual money to replace the car.....joy.
09-14-2016, 06:40 AM
the interior of the car is just as clean and only had one flaw and that was the glove box, and searching for a used replacement cover for it all of the ones i saw seem to have the same problem. i have never seen a material like is on the glove box, i was literally able to scrape off the old material with a putty knife and it was a black sticky mess that could be molded like playdough. i removed all the material and used some bodyfiller to fill in the areas that i took some chunks out of the foam so it was nice and smooth then i used truck bed coating to coat the cover in so it has somewhat of the same texture the rest of the interior. its not a perfect match but it looks much much better then it did before. the original material was bubbled up from the heat and it looks like the passenger liked to rest their feet on the glove box and it left footprints in the cover and looked horrible. 
i ran the last of the xheap gas out of it a couple days ago and used our fuel points and filled it up with some nice 93 octane and it only cost around $35 to fill it up from empty. (low fuel light had just kicked on before fill up)
