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Just picked up a 05' 6spd TL (w/o navi) with about 185k on it for a whopping $500 . Couldn't believe the price and the fact buddy was planning on just scrapping it since he didn't want to dump anymore money into it.
The car is far from perfect, has little cosmetic flaws, some rust but the main thing was that it was misfiring on every cylinder, needed front brakes badly & shook ridiculously on the highway. Still baffled buddy used it as a daily till the day I picked it up..
The only question I asked him was "how does it shift?" & his reponse was the only positive thing he had to say about it, "shifts great, clutch was just done". He didn't have any idea of what work was done to it except for the clutch and rear brakes. I thought worse comes to worse, I can part it out and easily make my money back. Interior is black leather with some slight wear which was expected with 180k+ but no rips except for the driver door panel leather is slightly popped out.
I managed to get it home where it sat for a month. Finally get the time to move it to my new place and it won't start, not even with a boost. So I picked up a battery & it struggled to start but I got it to turn over. It was struggling to stay running & white smoke started puffing out from the timing belt cover.
Initially I sat in the driver seat like this.. ... ... . In those 5-10 minutes I made the decision to make the effort to give this TL another shot at life. I was planning on picking up a daily/winter beater so that the RL can get some love over the winter so I thought as long as I could keep it under 2k to get it into road worthy shape it would be a perfect candidate.
Anyways, I had a feeling the motor was toast & a compression test put the nail in the coffin. I only tested the front bank and the numbers tell the story, 30-30-90.. .. So the hunt for a motor began, J32A3's are dirt cheap around here & I found one for $400 with 100k. Almost pulled the trigger but after some more research I found out that the J35A6 out of the 05+ Odyssey (LX/EX only) is literally a direct drop in. The motors share nearly all of the same part numbers & the main thing was that the transmission bolts right up. Deciding factor was seeing the 7th gen Accord guys dropping it into they're cars easily. So the hunt turned to see how cheap I could get my hands on a J35A6 & to my suprise, I landed one tested good with 150k for $200.. The only catch was that I needed to pull it myself which I wasn't thrilled about but to my luck the whole front end was torn apart but the engine sat there untouched, who wants an Odyssey motor right? Took me and my buddy a Saturday morning & went surprisingly well.
Once that was settled it was off to order parts & rockauto saved me a solid $300 instead of buying local, just had to drive 45 minutes to jump the border to pick up the parts. List of parts came to $700 CDN & included:
- Both front axles
- Front pads/rotors
- Timing belt kit
- Serpentine tensioner/belt
- 2 rear wheel sensors
- 6 NGK plugs
Also spent $250 at Acura on a rear main seal plate and a bunch of gaskets. So with everything so far I'm about $1200 into the project, minus the price of the car. I'm sure there will be a surprise or 2 and I'll get right to that 2k budget.
Sorry for the short story ... Finally got it towed to my new place this morning, tear down starts tomorrow, should be an eventful week..
Love the story so far. Love reading about bringing a car back to life. Definitely keeping up with this thread. Your rl looks beautiful! Anymore pics or do you have a thread on it in the rl side? I myself had a 05 wdp rl and wanted to go deep with it, but parts were quite expensive. Can't wait for you to share more!
Fuck...
my only disappointment was that in reading the first post I clicked and got so happy I didn't pay attention to dates and page count...
get through the story and some pictures and bam, my wood is getting a little bit puffy in my pants. I'm like, now THIS is the type of
thread I live for...some real wheeler dealers stay up late marathon type shit.
Only to see it is only 5 posts long and I'm in on page 1.
I'll have to reheat my coffee and continue to read in the coming months.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE this project, I love what you have done so far, i love your dedication, I will follow this.
I wish I knew how to pull motors and such...I just don't have the time now with kids in my life...
THIS is what my stupid Audi project was supposed to be...high mileage, no fear, learning experience...
I should have stuck with what I know...namely, a 3G.
Honestly, when I started playing with cars when I was 17 & did my first swap, I was sitting bricks. A lot didn't go well & to keep the story short, it was a complete fuckin shit show..
With that said, I always (somehow) managed to keep a positive mindset & motored on. Over the years I've done multuple swaps that have gone progressively better each time & I've amassed much needed tools throughout the way so that I've got every angle covered. Shit is always going to happen though, it's inevitable, especially with high mileage cars.
It's funny you mention your Audi. When I realized the motor was toast, I was offered an 02' Audi 1.8T 5spd w/250k KM for 2k. Car was pretty flawless for the mileage, just had the clutch done & was ready to go. My buddy tried to sweet talk me out of the TL/Swap & I'll be honest, I was tempted to dabble but the decision came down to me sticking to my roots & what I know. Reliability FTW & who doesn't love a 3G? Already on the hunt for budget Type S conversion
Well, funny enough I went the opposite route on that...I wanted to get my hands dirty and dabble in German...
and at the price I paid...I figured I couldn't go wrong...got it with vacuum leaks and oil leaks and misfires...with some
research and youtube I got the damn thing to be CEL free! With 188K miles on it! Crazy, right?
But alas...I will probably not get all my money back out of it...but it was a great learning experience and honestly, that little 2.0T is a TON of fun to drive.
I kinda want to throw another $500 at it and get a stage 1 tune but I'm afraid I'll cook the clutch as I am not certain how old it is.
I almost bought that one 6MT with a motor swap in it on the black market, the anthracite one...remember it about 4 months ago...but I had JUST bought the Audi and couldn't do both.
The boost life was the most tempting part but it just wasn't worth it in the end. Visions of -20 degree weather and something happening without knowing fuck all about the car wasn't motivating at all..
I'm sure quattro would of been badass in the snow but a 6spd LSD trans & torque will suffice. :wink:
That new garage looks like it will be just right for some work on an '03 A-Spec in the spring for things like an engine/tranny swap, suspension upgrades, wheel swap, especially with another set of hands from a one CL-Type S owner from Hamilton(Hi, gnuts)........
That's an awesome project.....always good to see locals getting good deals on parts.
Yeah, gotcha...
I can tell you though, don't be afraid of the 2.0T FSI...
you are much further along in the complicated engine work...they are pretty simple machines and have a very small list of things to address to keep on truckin...
wow nice grab! and $200 for an engine! lol love it. I'd love to do an engine swap. None of my local buddies are into cars though. I need to hang out with you guys more. Actually that might be bad for my wallet.
Derek, this spring, we'll have to pick a day and put some work into the Aspec.
Don't you worry though, the RL is still the main event..
Originally Posted by gnuts
wow nice grab! and $200 for an engine! lol love it. I'd love to do an engine swap. None of my local buddies are into cars though. I need to hang out with you guys more. Actually that might be bad for my wallet.
Derek, this spring, we'll have to pick a day and put some work into the Aspec.
Always down for some wrenching. Just keep the CL-S and 3.5 it..
Got a solid amount of dissassembly done today. Planning on pulling it tomorrow since it'll be the nicest day of the week. All that's left is:
- Pop axles out
- Unbolt J-pipe
- Drain fluids
- Unbolt the motor
Tip of the day: Zip ties and painters tape/sharpie FTW..
wow nice grab! and $200 for an engine! lol love it. I'd love to do an engine swap. None of my local buddies are into cars though. I need to hang out with you guys more. Actually that might be bad for my wallet.
Derek, this spring, we'll have to pick a day and put some work into the Aspec.
Would have to agree with Allan, a 3.5 with that S/C would breathe some new life in to a CL-S......
Andrew, sounds like a plan. I am hoping I can do the 3.7 upgrade, but we'll see. The 3.5 swap was no slouch in the 6GA.
Looking forward to the updates Allan.
Got the AC compressor off, fluids drained, j-pipe unbolted and I blasted axle nuts off ease. Everything has gone decently smooth till I got to the lower ball joints, they want a battle..
Haven't used those in years. The trick I've always used was to compress the suspension & wedge a fat socket between the lower arm/spindle, then release the suspension & it's out. The driver side just took me 45 minutes but it just popped, passenger side took less than a minute..
Back on a roll, driver side axle came out like butter, same with the passenger side off the half shaft which never happens. Now the axle doesn't want to budge out of the hub lol..
. Couldn't believe the price and the fact buddy was planning on just scrapping it since he didn't want to dump anymore money into it.
... 
... 
. In those 5-10 minutes I made the decision to make the effort to give this TL another shot at life. I was planning on picking up a daily/winter beater so that the RL can get some love over the winter so I thought as long as I could keep it under 2k to get it into road worthy shape it would be a perfect candidate.
.. So the hunt for a motor began, J32A3's are dirt cheap around here & I found one for $400 with 100k. Almost pulled the trigger but after some more research I found out that the J35A6 out of the 05+ Odyssey (LX/EX only) is literally a direct drop in. The motors share nearly all of the same part numbers & the main thing was that the transmission bolts right up. Deciding factor was seeing the 7th gen Accord guys dropping it into they're cars easily. So the hunt turned to see how cheap I could get my hands on a J35A6 & to my suprise, I landed one tested good with 150k for $200.. 
