Richard's '02 V6 Coupe EX-L

[capsidx]

Man that’s awesome lol. I hate taking the family wheels. We have a corolla for everything and it’s smaller than my cg. I think my issue is her. The baby is fine. The exhaust noise doesn’t bother him and he doesn’t get hot because I finally hooked up the AC lol. I’m starting to see why you went with a quiet exhaust

 

[Sil2DrV6]

^ Smell is another factor that can change one's mood. Maybe you can get a JDM squash scented car air freshener for your Carolla haha. Actually, "I" need to hook up my A/C here. This remanufactured A/C core I got has been PITA for my engine, so it's been disconnected for almost 3 yrs lol. Honestly, I wasn't really thinking abt the muffler noise for my kid, when I got the 9gen exhausts haha. Got tired of loud exhausts when I was young, so my plan was to be absolutely stock silence. But on the other hand, he actually responses to loud exhausts and imitates the sound, whenever he hears it lol.

 

[Sil2DrV6]

I have some JDM blue bulb caps in my climate control unit & clock display that are relatively whiter than OEM blue bulb caps.

But one of these lights recently went out so I decided to upgrade the rest of them to white LEDs, finally after all lol. Purchased some 6000K LEDs from VLEDS(.)com. I needed three T5 Neo wedge LEDs and also three T4 Neo wedge LEDs to swap out all lights in the C.C. unit.

I also upgraded the clock display light as well as the following buttons with T3 neo wedge LEDs:
TCS button -- one T3
Cruise control button -- one T3 (there was also one more T3 section for that green light I but I forgot abt it lol)
Sunroof button -- two T3's

All of these 6000K white LEDs would light up a little bluish, like my gage cluster, because I haven't removed the OEM blue stuff like my CC unit.

Hence, I was wondering how can these other buttons be "blue-free" as well. I played around with the switch, and started to pull out the button part of it, b/c it was sliding in 'n out like it was a different piece by itself. I added more sudden force to remove the button, as if I was prying it off, and then it just simply popped right out lol. When I looked at the back of the button, there was a tiny blue paint that was covering the letters. I was thinking about scratching it off, or use some alcohol solution to remove it, but it seemed like the whole letterings would also come off. If I remove these blue paints, these things might become nothing but brightly white buttons that won't say anything on them,, so I kept them in the way they're. At least they match with my gage cluster for now.

 

[Sil2DrV6]

Noticed some spicy smell coming from the engine bay recently, and saw a bit of smoke coming out from the hood one day.. Hard to see but there's a few inches of horizontal crack on the center of the radiator.

Replaced it with a new oem radiator, plus upper & lower hoses. Had my A/C - heater kept turned off since '16, due to the installation of a poorly kept RMD remanufactured compressor, which was hurting the engine operation if turned on, so I figured renewing my compressor would be the perfect opportunity to get it done for once and for all. Waited too long for this, and actually caught a cold once b/c of it last yr lol.

 

[RedRyder]

I just recharged my A/C and it worked great for a day. Then it was back to blowing slightly cool air. Heater works off and on, seems to help if I turn the CC unit off the back on. Don't know what the deal is but I really want heat to work since the Accord is my winter car. But I still have heated seats so all is not lost haha.

 

[Sil2DrV6]

^ Sounds like the natural cause of an aged A/C, just like my old one. If you flush out your A/C system, and follow my A/C related OEM Parts Renewal threads on the OP, it will work like a champ, and you will not have to worry about it for another 20 years or so haha.

 

[RedRyder]

^I just looked at the posts, man your OP is super organized lol. Anyway there are no leaks that I am seeing and the clutch engages, so it seems like it should be working better than it is. I would want to figure out what is failing and replace just that, instead of just replacing random parts and hoping that fixes it (like I did with my p1456 fuel evap leak that still isn't fixed haha).

The other weird thing with the heat is, it stays hot no matter how I adjust the temperature knob. So if I don't have the A/C on, I am getting hot air in the car.

 

[Sil2DrV6]

The roof lining started to squeak from time to time for a few years, and I couldn't take it anymore! lol

Pried off the A pillar and reached at near the affected section before the B pillar area. Then slid some of the old JDM anti-slipping foam sheets I had left over.

The car is once again free from rattles and squeaks. And now she's sooo quiet on the road...

Very x2 satisfying...

 

[Sil2DrV6]

^I just looked at the posts, man your OP is super organized lol. Anyway there are no leaks that I am seeing and the clutch engages, so it seems like it should be working better than it is. I would want to figure out what is failing and replace just that, instead of just replacing random parts and hoping that fixes it (like I did with my p1456 fuel evap leak that still isn't fixed haha).

The other weird thing with the heat is, it stays hot no matter how I adjust the temperature knob. So if I don't have the A/C on, I am getting hot air in the car.

Well, it was actually you that inspired me to further document the maintenance game, when I first joined this forum lol.

I'm fairly positive that your compressor is shot, especially if it's an original one. My '02 died in '16 so yours is abt time.. I remember my mechanic telling me that the compressor inevitably creates debris with the mixture of oil b/c it spins like a turbine with lubricants-the oil, and it eventually makes it hard to spin as the time elapse for nearly 20 years.

Yeah, if the car is a few years old, pin-pointing the affected area for the replacement is the way to go. However, we're talking about fairly an old model, i.e. rusts, ceased bolts, oxidized / dried parts etc that can also be affected near by / associated with the core of the problem. For an example, when I had some oil seeping from the oil filter housing, one mechanic told me to simply replace the spool valve filter inside the housing. The filter's AKA Vtec solenoid. But the other mechanic recommended me replace the whole oil filter housing assembly, instead of the filter inside. When he replaced the whole housing it was partially corroded internally and being far from restoring with the new solenoid.

I just like to replace old, bad, or worn out parts with new factory parts as much as possible in a way to fully restore and maintain the car to the original level, whenever there's a chance to solve a problem to run the car better but that's just me haha. I am the second owner of this car, so that's proly why I think this way b/c I didn't get to buy it new lol.

 

[Sil2DrV6]

Been running with this pair for 10 years, and noticing some of these diodes were burned out. Figured it's time to upgrade them to a newer kind. The store had 20% off Halloween sale, it was worth waiting.
＊ V-LEDS(.)COM SMD Amber LED Front Turn Signal Lights (R.I.P.) → Post #403

Purchased High Visibility Amber CREE LED Front Turn Signal Lights, directly from VLEDs. This bulb has 6 horizontally opposed side-firing 3W CREE XP-E2 PC Amber LED's that fire into the chrome reflectors of the lamp assembly to maximize output. It's also adjustable to turn and face the led 90° for getting better emitting angle.

It really shows the improvement on the LED technologies over a decade.

The housing used to be more white by the older bulb, but now it's all chrome, it looks integrated with my high & low beam housings. The parking lights' brightness (stage 1) is maybe tad brighter than the older bulbs, but the turn signal light (stage 2) is super bright, I feel extremely safe 'n visible, when it's blinking!