Doog's Mercedes-Benz E350: My Biggest Update Yet
- Thread starter Doog
- 338 comments
- 50,062 views
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
It's certainly not out of the question, the only thing stopping me right now is that I haven't researched how I'd like to lower the car. I'm certain I'd have to roll the rear fenders, but one of the LS400s I was trying to look at was lowered with some 20 inch wheels on 295-width tires, so that gives me some hope that my smaller existing wheels could fit.
The Lexus is 5 x 114.3?
That would screw with people.
I saw a pic of those on an OBS two door Tahoe and it actually looked pretty decent lol
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Every time I make a post in this thread I mention that it's been a while, so... it's been a while!
I just got the wheels from above installed on the car the other day, which would've happened a lot sooner had I not totaled the car two months ago. I was driving to my girlfriend's house one evening, following an ancient lifted dually Dodge. We were both in the far left lane, and I was a ways behind the truck. As the truck was moving past the last of several cars to the right of us, I made the mistake of starting to accelerate, getting ready to pass on the right, because when do trucks ever move over for others. The moment the truck was physically past the last car to the right, it swerved over suddenly, revealing a bumper from a car so perfectly in the middle of the lane. This left me in a very bad situation! Looking back on it, the space between the far left lane and the wall would just barely fit a car, but at the time I didn't think it was an option. Meanwhile to my right, there were several cars driving pretty close together. The car behind me was pretty close too. So I acted on instinct and spun out, hit the wall, and came to a stop in the dirt on the other side of the freeway a couple seconds later. No other cars were involved, and I didn't get any citations, and the soreness in my neck subsided after a few days, so it could've been worse.
The process of fixing the car took forever, and driving the Mini during that time was super undesirable. It was so undesirable, in fact, that I decided to try out a natural gas Civic for the sake of comfort. The Mini is livable, but has a very harsh and noisy ride compared to my car. I drive a lot, which was pretty tiresome in the Mini. The Civic was a strange experience. Almost everything I didn't like about it (4 seats instead of 5, no trunk space - literally, no trunk space - small cruising range, small natural gas infrastructure, slow) could be attributed to its natural gas-ness. After a week, I put the Civic in the garage and went back to the Mini.
I have no idea why it has Si wheels.
The Lexus was totaled and will receive a salvage title once I collect all the receipts for fixing it. Insurance was so helpful as to give less than half of what the actual cost to repair would be, but the work costed far less than it could've. The car looks and drives as it did before. The car rides pretty nicely on the new wheels (SSR Viennas, 19x8.5 & 19x9.5) and tires (Michelin Pilot Sports, 225/45 & 255/35). The ride quality is noticeably firmer, but not the least bit harsh. I don't do a whole lot of spirited driving, but the car sticks well when freeway interchanges are taken at speed. The tires seem to have pretty good grip and are pretty smooth so far. I'd really like to lower the car, but I'll hold off a bit as my finances recover from everything I mentioned in this post...
The car isn't quite as high as I expected it to be, considering I went up two inches in wheel diameter. The BMW looked higher when I first put the BBS reps on it.
I had to use a pair of 20mm spacers in order for the front wheels to clear the brakes, so the fitment of the car has improved a bit. I was wondering if it that would induce any rubbing, and it has, but only when I went over a larger rebound with three friends in the car at speed. Other than that, I haven't had any issues. The BMW sure loved to rub with that one especially fat bondo'd fender and 275s in the back. I loved the way that car sat.
The BMW is still around, by the way. The guy who bought it from my mom has been fixing it and driving it a little. It developed a misfire, but other than that it's doing alright. I miss that car, but I don't miss it always being at the shop. I installed its plate frame on the Lexus so that the legacy of the BMW that rubs can live on. The car's sitting at a bit over 126,000 miles now, increasing at a pretty steady rate. Since the introductory post for the car, I moved to a different city. Pretty much everything I frequent - work, school, friends, girlfriend - are half an hour away. For driving several hundred miles a week on the valley freeways, this car really does suit what I use it for.
Don't start making judgments about my paint quality, it's super dusty right now.
I just got the wheels from above installed on the car the other day, which would've happened a lot sooner had I not totaled the car two months ago. I was driving to my girlfriend's house one evening, following an ancient lifted dually Dodge. We were both in the far left lane, and I was a ways behind the truck. As the truck was moving past the last of several cars to the right of us, I made the mistake of starting to accelerate, getting ready to pass on the right, because when do trucks ever move over for others. The moment the truck was physically past the last car to the right, it swerved over suddenly, revealing a bumper from a car so perfectly in the middle of the lane. This left me in a very bad situation! Looking back on it, the space between the far left lane and the wall would just barely fit a car, but at the time I didn't think it was an option. Meanwhile to my right, there were several cars driving pretty close together. The car behind me was pretty close too. So I acted on instinct and spun out, hit the wall, and came to a stop in the dirt on the other side of the freeway a couple seconds later. No other cars were involved, and I didn't get any citations, and the soreness in my neck subsided after a few days, so it could've been worse.
The process of fixing the car took forever, and driving the Mini during that time was super undesirable. It was so undesirable, in fact, that I decided to try out a natural gas Civic for the sake of comfort. The Mini is livable, but has a very harsh and noisy ride compared to my car. I drive a lot, which was pretty tiresome in the Mini. The Civic was a strange experience. Almost everything I didn't like about it (4 seats instead of 5, no trunk space - literally, no trunk space - small cruising range, small natural gas infrastructure, slow) could be attributed to its natural gas-ness. After a week, I put the Civic in the garage and went back to the Mini.
I have no idea why it has Si wheels.
The Lexus was totaled and will receive a salvage title once I collect all the receipts for fixing it. Insurance was so helpful as to give less than half of what the actual cost to repair would be, but the work costed far less than it could've. The car looks and drives as it did before. The car rides pretty nicely on the new wheels (SSR Viennas, 19x8.5 & 19x9.5) and tires (Michelin Pilot Sports, 225/45 & 255/35). The ride quality is noticeably firmer, but not the least bit harsh. I don't do a whole lot of spirited driving, but the car sticks well when freeway interchanges are taken at speed. The tires seem to have pretty good grip and are pretty smooth so far. I'd really like to lower the car, but I'll hold off a bit as my finances recover from everything I mentioned in this post...
The car isn't quite as high as I expected it to be, considering I went up two inches in wheel diameter. The BMW looked higher when I first put the BBS reps on it.
I had to use a pair of 20mm spacers in order for the front wheels to clear the brakes, so the fitment of the car has improved a bit. I was wondering if it that would induce any rubbing, and it has, but only when I went over a larger rebound with three friends in the car at speed. Other than that, I haven't had any issues. The BMW sure loved to rub with that one especially fat bondo'd fender and 275s in the back. I loved the way that car sat.
The BMW is still around, by the way. The guy who bought it from my mom has been fixing it and driving it a little. It developed a misfire, but other than that it's doing alright. I miss that car, but I don't miss it always being at the shop. I installed its plate frame on the Lexus so that the legacy of the BMW that rubs can live on. The car's sitting at a bit over 126,000 miles now, increasing at a pretty steady rate. Since the introductory post for the car, I moved to a different city. Pretty much everything I frequent - work, school, friends, girlfriend - are half an hour away. For driving several hundred miles a week on the valley freeways, this car really does suit what I use it for.
Don't start making judgments about my paint quality, it's super dusty right now.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Hard to believe it's been six months since I've updated this thread. During that downtime, a lot of life things happened. I completed my first semester at college and figured out that I really wasn't ready for college and decided not to enroll for a spring semester. I left my first job at Chick Fil-A after almost two years. I met a lot of good friends and even a girlfriend there, but man do I not miss customer service. I got a job at a Lexus dealership and have since driven just about every Lexus you can think of, but mostly a ton of RX350s and geriatric beige metallic ES350s on a daily basis. I involved myself in a relationship for eight months, but ultimately decided to end it. My dad hemmed and hawed between living in Arizona or California, spending much time in both places, more recently California. I put down one of my dogs, but at least my other dog is still perfectly healthy. Most of the free time I had during this period was spent with my friends.
I can't say all that much for the LS400, which isn't a bad thing at all. It collected a lot of miles, roughly 3,000 a month or so. It's now sitting at 141,500. It's had two oil changes since the last update, and also another set of brake rotors. The rotors, which had been fitted when I had the wheels installed, developed a squeaking noise after I washed the car for the first time afterwards. The squeaking noise persisted and eventually I could always count on my first several stops being noisy after starting it up. I tolerated it for 10,000 miles, but finally it irritated me enough to take action, so I bought some OEM brake pads from the parts counter at work, thinking that the source of the noise was the ceramic pads on the car. After swapping the pads, the noise became about five times worse. I took the car back once again, and the issue was traced to a weird blue coating on the rotors themselves. The mechanics hypothesized that perhaps the coating was from a spray-on tire shine or wheel cleaner. After getting new rotors, I'm very careful about cleaning the wheels.
If I had stuck with my original plan, the LS400 would be slammed by now. I attempted to order a set of Fortune coilovers twice, but both times my orders were flagged as fraudulent. I've never heard of fraudulent coilover purchases, but the inconvenience made me reconsider if I really wanted to lower the car that I often drove in excess of 100 miles a day. Sure, most of those miles were on smooth suburban streets and freeways, but after the E39 was lowered I had to be much more careful about how I drove it. Considering I had already scraped the underside of the bumper tens of times at stock ride height (neighborhoods with huge surprise dips in the road for drainage are great!), I decided that maybe I should buy another car to take the bulk of my mileage before messing with the Lexus.
I went into the used car search with the idea that I would buy a Civic, Accord, or Camry. I was particularly interested in Civic Hybrids specifically, but I wasn't really up to the possibility of replacing the hybrid battery, and examples where the battery had already been replaced were just too scarce. I test drove a few eighth-gen ('06-'11) Civics, wanting to like them because I really do love the so-called space-age interior, but found them to feel a little too economy car for my liking. But then again, it's a Civic, so I really don't know what I expected. I test drove an XV30 ('02-'06) Camry, not really expecting to be too charmed, since I don't enjoy my dad's Highlander at all, and that's effectively a jacked-up Camry. The Camry exceeded my expectations by being very quiet and smooth, but the driving experience was a little too mushy. The seventh-gen ('03-'07) Accords I drove really impressed me for what they were. They struck me as a goldilocks car - just right in every way. If I had found a nice Accord from a private seller for the right price, I probably would've bought it.
As I zeroed in on seriously looking for a car, contacting sellers and trying to arrange to look at cars (with plans usually falling through), I couldn't help but type 'Tahoe' or 'Yukon' into my Craigslist searches, not really expecting to find something I'd actually want to buy for used Accord money. I recalled an ad for an '03 Yukon I had seen about a month prior and wondered the truck was still available. The ad was still up, and to my surprise, the truck was indeed still for sale after texting the seller. The used Camcord market wasn't failing to appeal to me, but instead was proving to be quite challenging. Sellers would seemingly fall off the face of the earth, dropping all communication, or a car would be sold before I could take a look. Bearing this in mind, I decided **** it, and went to check out the Yukon.
To be completely honest, the Yukon did not look as good as it did in the ad. Walking around the car, I could now see that it had a few dings, a few scratches and even some light fading on the hood. Normally this would turn me off of a car, but in the case of the Yukon, I really didn't care. It was imperfect enough to where accidentally incurring other light cosmetic damage - a big rock chip, a door ding, a small scratch - wasn't going to ruin my day. I can't say the same for the Lexus, and that can be kind of stressful. One thing I noticed right away was that there was no exhaust! I ducked and contorted into all the awkward inspection positions, trying to find it. Maybe it was really short? Maybe it's a side pipe? As it turns out, the Flowmaster exhaust that was mentioned in the ad was currently off the truck. In fact, all of the exhaust behind the cats was off. Needless to say, the Yukon was quite loud upon startup. Immediately, I was drawn to this old SUV. Having always owned and been around quiet cars, this was something completely different.
For the past several months, my relative lack of involvement with the Lexus (other than keeping it clean, I didn't do much with it) kind of had my passion for cars feeling a little dormant. The LS400 is an excellent car, but you can't describe the driving experience as particularly interesting, and certainly not fun, unless you're driving it like a sports car, but why would you drive an LS like that? After 100 feet in the Yukon, I was already hooked. The driving experience was authoritative. After being in sedans for so long, it was a breath of fresh air to sit up nice and high, to actually be able to see what's going on ahead of you on the road.
Having very little seat time in louder cars, the exhaust-less Yukon was sonorous symphony to every mellow, muffled car I'd ever driven before. Even the smallest application of the throttle was met with an imposing drone and a pretty decent vibration from the center tunnel. As I climbed a small mountain on my test drive, all conversation inside the truck was hampered until the incline evened out. On the freeway, it droned like a mother****er.
All of the other non-auditory aspects of the Yukon proved to be satisfying as well. I wouldn't say it wafted, but it definitely cruised down the road comfortably, not at all worsened by the larger 33" tires. The seats GM put into these big SUVs are some of my favorites. As expected, they don't do much to hold you in for the corners, but then again, you really shouldn't be cornering at the type of pace that makes you want for beefier side bolstering in a Yukon. These are the type of seats that welcome you to come and stay for several hours (and burn a lot of regular unleaded).
I took a bit of a big loop of local roads to test drive the Yukon, and as I returned to the place where we met, I was reluctant to park it and get out. I walked around the car a couple more times, wondering if this navy blue SUV was going to be the fruit of my car search. I placed an offer, and within a minute, had agreed on a price with the seller. We met later that day to exchange the title and cash, and the big blue SUV was mine.
So far I've owned the Yukon for about 36 hours, and in that time I've put about 200 miles on it, given it a basic wash, vacuumed the interior, and printed out a temporary registration. It's a 2003 Yukon SLT. The SLT is the middle of the road Yukon, between the base SLE and the near-Escalade Denali. Non-Denali Yukons could be had with either a 4.8L or 5.3L V8, both being fairly similar in horsepower, but with the 5.3L having a notable torque advantage. This one has the 5.3. The Flowmaster exhaust was reinstalled before I bought it, so it's not stupid loud anymore, but I still absolutely love the way it sounds. It has 206,000 miles, but feels no different from a well taken care of 100,000 mile truck. It sits on a set of 33" tires and 17" wheels which ride very nicely. I haven't taken any interior pictures, but it has the typical beige leather seating that practically every big GM SUV had back then. The seats are in great shape, without any tears whatsoever. The dashboard plastics are thankfully free of the paint flaking that seems to plague these trucks. Underneath the second row bench lies a Boss amplifier, but I'm not an audiophile so I can't tell you how good it is, but it's very powerful. Behind that second row lies a pair of 12" Kicker subwoofers. You can turn up the bass to pretty comical levels if you're so inclined.
I've loved big SUVs since I was little, and now I have one of my own.
I can't say all that much for the LS400, which isn't a bad thing at all. It collected a lot of miles, roughly 3,000 a month or so. It's now sitting at 141,500. It's had two oil changes since the last update, and also another set of brake rotors. The rotors, which had been fitted when I had the wheels installed, developed a squeaking noise after I washed the car for the first time afterwards. The squeaking noise persisted and eventually I could always count on my first several stops being noisy after starting it up. I tolerated it for 10,000 miles, but finally it irritated me enough to take action, so I bought some OEM brake pads from the parts counter at work, thinking that the source of the noise was the ceramic pads on the car. After swapping the pads, the noise became about five times worse. I took the car back once again, and the issue was traced to a weird blue coating on the rotors themselves. The mechanics hypothesized that perhaps the coating was from a spray-on tire shine or wheel cleaner. After getting new rotors, I'm very careful about cleaning the wheels.
If I had stuck with my original plan, the LS400 would be slammed by now. I attempted to order a set of Fortune coilovers twice, but both times my orders were flagged as fraudulent. I've never heard of fraudulent coilover purchases, but the inconvenience made me reconsider if I really wanted to lower the car that I often drove in excess of 100 miles a day. Sure, most of those miles were on smooth suburban streets and freeways, but after the E39 was lowered I had to be much more careful about how I drove it. Considering I had already scraped the underside of the bumper tens of times at stock ride height (neighborhoods with huge surprise dips in the road for drainage are great!), I decided that maybe I should buy another car to take the bulk of my mileage before messing with the Lexus.
I went into the used car search with the idea that I would buy a Civic, Accord, or Camry. I was particularly interested in Civic Hybrids specifically, but I wasn't really up to the possibility of replacing the hybrid battery, and examples where the battery had already been replaced were just too scarce. I test drove a few eighth-gen ('06-'11) Civics, wanting to like them because I really do love the so-called space-age interior, but found them to feel a little too economy car for my liking. But then again, it's a Civic, so I really don't know what I expected. I test drove an XV30 ('02-'06) Camry, not really expecting to be too charmed, since I don't enjoy my dad's Highlander at all, and that's effectively a jacked-up Camry. The Camry exceeded my expectations by being very quiet and smooth, but the driving experience was a little too mushy. The seventh-gen ('03-'07) Accords I drove really impressed me for what they were. They struck me as a goldilocks car - just right in every way. If I had found a nice Accord from a private seller for the right price, I probably would've bought it.
As I zeroed in on seriously looking for a car, contacting sellers and trying to arrange to look at cars (with plans usually falling through), I couldn't help but type 'Tahoe' or 'Yukon' into my Craigslist searches, not really expecting to find something I'd actually want to buy for used Accord money. I recalled an ad for an '03 Yukon I had seen about a month prior and wondered the truck was still available. The ad was still up, and to my surprise, the truck was indeed still for sale after texting the seller. The used Camcord market wasn't failing to appeal to me, but instead was proving to be quite challenging. Sellers would seemingly fall off the face of the earth, dropping all communication, or a car would be sold before I could take a look. Bearing this in mind, I decided **** it, and went to check out the Yukon.
To be completely honest, the Yukon did not look as good as it did in the ad. Walking around the car, I could now see that it had a few dings, a few scratches and even some light fading on the hood. Normally this would turn me off of a car, but in the case of the Yukon, I really didn't care. It was imperfect enough to where accidentally incurring other light cosmetic damage - a big rock chip, a door ding, a small scratch - wasn't going to ruin my day. I can't say the same for the Lexus, and that can be kind of stressful. One thing I noticed right away was that there was no exhaust! I ducked and contorted into all the awkward inspection positions, trying to find it. Maybe it was really short? Maybe it's a side pipe? As it turns out, the Flowmaster exhaust that was mentioned in the ad was currently off the truck. In fact, all of the exhaust behind the cats was off. Needless to say, the Yukon was quite loud upon startup. Immediately, I was drawn to this old SUV. Having always owned and been around quiet cars, this was something completely different.
For the past several months, my relative lack of involvement with the Lexus (other than keeping it clean, I didn't do much with it) kind of had my passion for cars feeling a little dormant. The LS400 is an excellent car, but you can't describe the driving experience as particularly interesting, and certainly not fun, unless you're driving it like a sports car, but why would you drive an LS like that? After 100 feet in the Yukon, I was already hooked. The driving experience was authoritative. After being in sedans for so long, it was a breath of fresh air to sit up nice and high, to actually be able to see what's going on ahead of you on the road.
Having very little seat time in louder cars, the exhaust-less Yukon was sonorous symphony to every mellow, muffled car I'd ever driven before. Even the smallest application of the throttle was met with an imposing drone and a pretty decent vibration from the center tunnel. As I climbed a small mountain on my test drive, all conversation inside the truck was hampered until the incline evened out. On the freeway, it droned like a mother****er.
All of the other non-auditory aspects of the Yukon proved to be satisfying as well. I wouldn't say it wafted, but it definitely cruised down the road comfortably, not at all worsened by the larger 33" tires. The seats GM put into these big SUVs are some of my favorites. As expected, they don't do much to hold you in for the corners, but then again, you really shouldn't be cornering at the type of pace that makes you want for beefier side bolstering in a Yukon. These are the type of seats that welcome you to come and stay for several hours (and burn a lot of regular unleaded).
I took a bit of a big loop of local roads to test drive the Yukon, and as I returned to the place where we met, I was reluctant to park it and get out. I walked around the car a couple more times, wondering if this navy blue SUV was going to be the fruit of my car search. I placed an offer, and within a minute, had agreed on a price with the seller. We met later that day to exchange the title and cash, and the big blue SUV was mine.
So far I've owned the Yukon for about 36 hours, and in that time I've put about 200 miles on it, given it a basic wash, vacuumed the interior, and printed out a temporary registration. It's a 2003 Yukon SLT. The SLT is the middle of the road Yukon, between the base SLE and the near-Escalade Denali. Non-Denali Yukons could be had with either a 4.8L or 5.3L V8, both being fairly similar in horsepower, but with the 5.3L having a notable torque advantage. This one has the 5.3. The Flowmaster exhaust was reinstalled before I bought it, so it's not stupid loud anymore, but I still absolutely love the way it sounds. It has 206,000 miles, but feels no different from a well taken care of 100,000 mile truck. It sits on a set of 33" tires and 17" wheels which ride very nicely. I haven't taken any interior pictures, but it has the typical beige leather seating that practically every big GM SUV had back then. The seats are in great shape, without any tears whatsoever. The dashboard plastics are thankfully free of the paint flaking that seems to plague these trucks. Underneath the second row bench lies a Boss amplifier, but I'm not an audiophile so I can't tell you how good it is, but it's very powerful. Behind that second row lies a pair of 12" Kicker subwoofers. You can turn up the bass to pretty comical levels if you're so inclined.
I've loved big SUVs since I was little, and now I have one of my own.
Last edited:
Joey D
Premium
- 47,426
- Lakes of the North, MI
- GTP_Joey
- GTP Joey
I don't know much about Yukon's, but it looks like it has a leveling kit on it. Tires looks like they're Cooper ATP's too, which are pretty decent if you decide to take it offroad in any capacity.
Oh and if you enjoy loud, look at getting an air intake, it won't really add any noticeable power but it sounds good when you floor it.
Oh and if you enjoy loud, look at getting an air intake, it won't really add any noticeable power but it sounds good when you floor it.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
I met up with the seller again to sort out a mishap with the title (it was all resolved, and now I have a cool American flag license plate) and asked him about the ride height. He said that he raised the torsion bars, which I've never heard of, but after googling it appears to be a legitimate way to level out the right height.
That sounds super appealing, but talk about a drawback. lol
To be honest, the truck has plenty of oomph for me. I don't really do a whole lot of spirited driving anyways, and this thing makes a great cruiser.
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
So what happens in 6 months? Many things. As evidenced by the title, the role of daily driver has been re-cast from the Yukon to a Honda Accord. What brings forth this change? A change of all the fluids caused the transmission to start slipping (typical 4L60e), although it wasn't entirely FUBAR. Not that I tried to repair it, but perhaps @White & Nerdy was right about GMs running badly longer than most cars run at all, because it held itself together and never leaked nor overheated, even during a punishing Phoenix summer. Running badly, however, would be a discredit to the engine, which had no hiccups during my rather brief ownership of 5 months and ~8,000 miles. Although the slipping transmission proved to be a rather large annoyance, it didn't really impede my operation of the car, and 4WD functioned perfectly fine, as you can see here:
The Yukon provided a pretty entertaining driving experience for the day-to-day, although that was diminished by the transmission issues. Despite this, its tires left the pavement on many occasions. The suspension stood up to some light off-roading and even some small distances in the air after cresting small hills. If you're wondering where that airtime was had, it was at this road. I'm not ballsy enough to do that off-road. Nonetheless, it was a pretty versatile vehicle for picking up a bunch of friends and going somewhere, or just messing around in open dirt lot. Small obstacles like curbs and speed bumps became more fun. Around town, its high ride height proved to be convenient for assessing the traffic conditions, being able to see ahead most of the vehicles that would screw your vision in a sedan. Gas mileage was consistently thirsty at 13-14mpg. I once ran out of gas after having used an indicated 23 gallons, however it started back up a minute later and I was able to drive it to a gas station. The actual capacity is roughly 26 gallons, but I filled up in the low twenties or so to avoid having that happen again. This gave a range of about 300-330 miles, which was about every four days at the height of my driving.
Despite no longer being the designated 'daily driver', the LS400 continued its own notable accumulation of mileage. During the time I owned the Yukon, I put roughly the same mileage on the Lexus. A lot of these miles came from road trips I took this summer. Twice I went to Orange County to visit my dad, who spent this summer there. The Lexus felt at home on California's freeways, where the driving etiquette is decidedly more assertive than in Phoenix. It also felt at home on the long stretches of the I-10 between Phoenix, where, even just following other cars, cruising speeds can crest 100mph (in Mexico) for periods of time.
Taken in Dana Point, CA. Basically as far you can get south from Los Angeles before being on your way to San Diego
Being in Orange County placed me a good forty minutes or more from most places I was interested in going, but there was still plenty to do. One night, I went to Santa Ana to meet up with a friend at a car meet. I parked next to another LS400 and enjoyed the cool weather with the owner of the other car. Within ten minutes of getting there, the police showed up - probably due to the burnouts that were taking place. In Phoenix, most people would just go home. But instead, we followed the group to two other locations, both times to find the police already there. Nevertheless, the car culture in LA is still active.
I also re-visited Salt Lake City this summer. Having not been there in nearly two years, it was good to go back and see @Davis and @Zyla again. This time, I went through Las Vegas to drive there. It was a long drive at ten hours, but wasn't too tiresome in the LS400. I didn't venture out to as many of the local driving roads, instead opting to better get to know the city. It was a good trip, with some time spent getting to know some new cars.
A week with a little bit of rain every day wreaks havoc on a dusty black car
After this trip, I was well on my way to 150,000 miles, and near the end of my tires' life. The tires, which were installed around this time last year, were a set of Michelin Pilot Sports. I think the Pilot Sports are a good tire, however one of mine went flat in the garage while the car was sitting for nearly two weeks after I bought the Yukon. After that, that specific tire was fine for the road trips this summer, but afterwards stopped holding air for more than a couple days at a time. The tires, with about 23,000 miles on them, weren't completely at the end of their life, but I opted to replace the whole set. I switched to a set of Yokohamas and went with a slightly higher profile in the rear this time around. However, I wasn't able to get a good impression for the new tires, as I could now tell that I was in need of a wheel bearing in the rear. The new wheel bearing improved the ride quality considerably. The only other fix performed to the car was an ECU replacement. During my roadtrips, I learned that the car had a tendency to idle low after an extended period of highway travel and stall in some cases. This issue was fixed by swapping in a newer ECU. The old ECU is now a paperweight to the side of my desk.
So, still now new mods on the Lexus. With the transmission slipping in the Yukon, I decided to wait until I had sold it and gotten rid of the issue before making those purchases. I did, however, personalize the Yukon a little bit. I installed a set of darker LED taillights, although not without inadvertently blowing a fuse trying to install them the first time (my friend did it, I swear).
I also added a decorative front plate that I found on a trade-in at work. As you can see, I thought the American flag theme went well with the navy blue. I also added a set of floormats, as there was only a set of rubber mats when I bought the vehicle. Rubber mats are pretty unnecessary for our dry climate, so I ditched them for a set of carpeted mats and vacuumed religiously instead. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come across a set of OEM floormats. The mats I got fit, but weren't as thick as OEM and were more susceptible to sliding.
Since I never showed what the painted valve cover looked like before
The Yukon was the first vehicle I have ever directly sold. I put together a fairly comprehensive Craigslist ad and took the most informative pictures possible. It took a little over 10 days, but a buyer came to look at it. He spent about five minutes looking over the vehicle before deciding to buy it, and paid the full price. In less time than it took to drive there, I had sold the truck for $4700. I planned to replace the Yukon with a daily driver more in line with my previous criteria, but I had suddenly been fired a couple weeks prior. Not for poor performance, I promise, but as a strange tactic to discipline a manager, the service director at the dealership fired me and my friend. Coincidentally, that friend and I had been hired on the same day, nearly a year prior, and now we had been fired on the same day, too. I sorted out a new job, and kept tabs on Craigslist ads in the meantime.
Once I was ready, I went to look out at an Accord offered by broker. Most cars on Craigslist are presented by these types of individuals, some who try to flip used cars of dubious quality, but some buy more trustworthy vehicles to sell. The Accord I test drove needed front tires and had quite a steering wheel shake under 40, so I vetoed that as an option. The seller also had another Accord for sale, and while I wasn't particularly looking for a V6, I decided to check it out. Thankfully, this car felt far more trustworthy than the former. For whatever reason, I decided to bring the full cash price of the first Accord - $4300, even though I didn't intend to pay that price - but it worked out, as the seller offered the other to me for $4300. It sounds like a bait and switch, but honestly the other car was quite dusty, and the seller said that there hadn't been any interest and he'd had it for over 80 days. $4300 was the lowest price he was willing to do on top of the fees that he had to pay when selling the car.
The car is an Ohio-built 2006 Honda Accord EX-L. At 192,000 miles, you can see that I still haven't learned better than to buy high-mileage cars. I could go on about the good condition of the car, but I think that is implied, since I did buy it after all. Although I wasn't looking for a six cylinder, this one is a V6. In my opinion, the midsized sedan with a V6 is the perfect car for driving in the U.S. Acceleration comes easy. The ride quality is on the firm side, but it is very comfortable on smooth surfaces and on the freeway. I also wasn't looking for a car with a leather interior, seeing as it will be parked outside. However, I am enjoying the nicer interior of this Accord versus a typical cloth interior. Plus, the heated seats work - the Lexus and the Yukon have heated seats, however they don't work. There isn't much I can say about this car that hasn't already been exhausted by forums and amateur youtube videos - young car people love to talk about their Accords. All I can say is that I see why people like these cars, and that it is nice to have a more maneuverable vehicle as a daily driver.
I'm very glad to have found a car with a gray interior. As an interior color, beige isn't my favorite, and after having two cars with it, I was ready for a change. I'm normally not a fan of brushed silver trim, but I don't mind the application here.
I did wash it before taking these photos, I was just too lazy to use the tire shine as well.
The Yukon provided a pretty entertaining driving experience for the day-to-day, although that was diminished by the transmission issues. Despite this, its tires left the pavement on many occasions. The suspension stood up to some light off-roading and even some small distances in the air after cresting small hills. If you're wondering where that airtime was had, it was at this road. I'm not ballsy enough to do that off-road. Nonetheless, it was a pretty versatile vehicle for picking up a bunch of friends and going somewhere, or just messing around in open dirt lot. Small obstacles like curbs and speed bumps became more fun. Around town, its high ride height proved to be convenient for assessing the traffic conditions, being able to see ahead most of the vehicles that would screw your vision in a sedan. Gas mileage was consistently thirsty at 13-14mpg. I once ran out of gas after having used an indicated 23 gallons, however it started back up a minute later and I was able to drive it to a gas station. The actual capacity is roughly 26 gallons, but I filled up in the low twenties or so to avoid having that happen again. This gave a range of about 300-330 miles, which was about every four days at the height of my driving.
Despite no longer being the designated 'daily driver', the LS400 continued its own notable accumulation of mileage. During the time I owned the Yukon, I put roughly the same mileage on the Lexus. A lot of these miles came from road trips I took this summer. Twice I went to Orange County to visit my dad, who spent this summer there. The Lexus felt at home on California's freeways, where the driving etiquette is decidedly more assertive than in Phoenix. It also felt at home on the long stretches of the I-10 between Phoenix, where, even just following other cars, cruising speeds can crest 100mph (in Mexico) for periods of time.
Taken in Dana Point, CA. Basically as far you can get south from Los Angeles before being on your way to San Diego
Being in Orange County placed me a good forty minutes or more from most places I was interested in going, but there was still plenty to do. One night, I went to Santa Ana to meet up with a friend at a car meet. I parked next to another LS400 and enjoyed the cool weather with the owner of the other car. Within ten minutes of getting there, the police showed up - probably due to the burnouts that were taking place. In Phoenix, most people would just go home. But instead, we followed the group to two other locations, both times to find the police already there. Nevertheless, the car culture in LA is still active.
I also re-visited Salt Lake City this summer. Having not been there in nearly two years, it was good to go back and see @Davis and @Zyla again. This time, I went through Las Vegas to drive there. It was a long drive at ten hours, but wasn't too tiresome in the LS400. I didn't venture out to as many of the local driving roads, instead opting to better get to know the city. It was a good trip, with some time spent getting to know some new cars.
A week with a little bit of rain every day wreaks havoc on a dusty black car
After this trip, I was well on my way to 150,000 miles, and near the end of my tires' life. The tires, which were installed around this time last year, were a set of Michelin Pilot Sports. I think the Pilot Sports are a good tire, however one of mine went flat in the garage while the car was sitting for nearly two weeks after I bought the Yukon. After that, that specific tire was fine for the road trips this summer, but afterwards stopped holding air for more than a couple days at a time. The tires, with about 23,000 miles on them, weren't completely at the end of their life, but I opted to replace the whole set. I switched to a set of Yokohamas and went with a slightly higher profile in the rear this time around. However, I wasn't able to get a good impression for the new tires, as I could now tell that I was in need of a wheel bearing in the rear. The new wheel bearing improved the ride quality considerably. The only other fix performed to the car was an ECU replacement. During my roadtrips, I learned that the car had a tendency to idle low after an extended period of highway travel and stall in some cases. This issue was fixed by swapping in a newer ECU. The old ECU is now a paperweight to the side of my desk.
So, still now new mods on the Lexus. With the transmission slipping in the Yukon, I decided to wait until I had sold it and gotten rid of the issue before making those purchases. I did, however, personalize the Yukon a little bit. I installed a set of darker LED taillights, although not without inadvertently blowing a fuse trying to install them the first time (my friend did it, I swear).
I also added a decorative front plate that I found on a trade-in at work. As you can see, I thought the American flag theme went well with the navy blue. I also added a set of floormats, as there was only a set of rubber mats when I bought the vehicle. Rubber mats are pretty unnecessary for our dry climate, so I ditched them for a set of carpeted mats and vacuumed religiously instead. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to come across a set of OEM floormats. The mats I got fit, but weren't as thick as OEM and were more susceptible to sliding.
Since I never showed what the painted valve cover looked like before
The Yukon was the first vehicle I have ever directly sold. I put together a fairly comprehensive Craigslist ad and took the most informative pictures possible. It took a little over 10 days, but a buyer came to look at it. He spent about five minutes looking over the vehicle before deciding to buy it, and paid the full price. In less time than it took to drive there, I had sold the truck for $4700. I planned to replace the Yukon with a daily driver more in line with my previous criteria, but I had suddenly been fired a couple weeks prior. Not for poor performance, I promise, but as a strange tactic to discipline a manager, the service director at the dealership fired me and my friend. Coincidentally, that friend and I had been hired on the same day, nearly a year prior, and now we had been fired on the same day, too. I sorted out a new job, and kept tabs on Craigslist ads in the meantime.
Once I was ready, I went to look out at an Accord offered by broker. Most cars on Craigslist are presented by these types of individuals, some who try to flip used cars of dubious quality, but some buy more trustworthy vehicles to sell. The Accord I test drove needed front tires and had quite a steering wheel shake under 40, so I vetoed that as an option. The seller also had another Accord for sale, and while I wasn't particularly looking for a V6, I decided to check it out. Thankfully, this car felt far more trustworthy than the former. For whatever reason, I decided to bring the full cash price of the first Accord - $4300, even though I didn't intend to pay that price - but it worked out, as the seller offered the other to me for $4300. It sounds like a bait and switch, but honestly the other car was quite dusty, and the seller said that there hadn't been any interest and he'd had it for over 80 days. $4300 was the lowest price he was willing to do on top of the fees that he had to pay when selling the car.
The car is an Ohio-built 2006 Honda Accord EX-L. At 192,000 miles, you can see that I still haven't learned better than to buy high-mileage cars. I could go on about the good condition of the car, but I think that is implied, since I did buy it after all. Although I wasn't looking for a six cylinder, this one is a V6. In my opinion, the midsized sedan with a V6 is the perfect car for driving in the U.S. Acceleration comes easy. The ride quality is on the firm side, but it is very comfortable on smooth surfaces and on the freeway. I also wasn't looking for a car with a leather interior, seeing as it will be parked outside. However, I am enjoying the nicer interior of this Accord versus a typical cloth interior. Plus, the heated seats work - the Lexus and the Yukon have heated seats, however they don't work. There isn't much I can say about this car that hasn't already been exhausted by forums and amateur youtube videos - young car people love to talk about their Accords. All I can say is that I see why people like these cars, and that it is nice to have a more maneuverable vehicle as a daily driver.
I'm very glad to have found a car with a gray interior. As an interior color, beige isn't my favorite, and after having two cars with it, I was ready for a change. I'm normally not a fan of brushed silver trim, but I don't mind the application here.
I did wash it before taking these photos, I was just too lazy to use the tire shine as well.
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- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Hasn't been quite six months this time, but I feel like updating this thread anyways. The first update post I've made in over a year that isn't centered around me buying a car, this year I have been working to improve the cars I already bought. I don't normally make new year's resolutions, but this year I decided that my new year's resolution was to lower the Lexus. So, I ordered coilovers on January 1st. Luckily for LS400s, there is a wealth of information online about different coilovers; pretty much everything has already been tried multiple times. I saw lots of recommendations for stuff like Megan coilovers, but most of the feedback about those is from nearly a decade ago now. It seems like BC Racing coilovers have became popular on pretty much everything in the past few years, but I've just never been completely sold on them. I decided to go with Fortune 500 series coilovers, which, being a newer option, didn't have nearly as much to read about compared to the other coilovers, but all the feedback seemed to be very positive.
The Fortune coilovers were available with a few different spring options, of which I went with the Swift springs. Soon I'll have to order a set of mounts for the coilovers as well to quiet them down. The coilovers shipped a month after I ordered them, and then I had them installed a month after that. The Lexus has not been in optimal condition for driving, so I haven't put many miles on it this year. Before I installing the coilovers, I had the wheels rebalanced to fix a steering wheel vibration at speed. After installing the coilovers, I had one of the rear cv axles cleaned up and repaired, as well as a rear wheel bearing. The other wheel bearing on the rear was replaced last year, so hopefully I'll be good on wheel bearings in the back for a while. The only remaining issues are that one of the rear wheels is slightly bent (I always suspected so, because at speed it always had an ever so slight vibration from the back) and that the rear could use more camber to not rub. The car drives pretty well with the coilovers; the stock floaty (comfy) ride quality is now far firmer and more controlled. Compared to when the car was stock on the 17" OZ wheels, the ride quality on 19s and coilovers is obviously worse. However, the way it deals with bumps is far better compared to the BMW when I lowered it on shocks and springs. The BMW felt more bouncy where the Lexus feels more tight. I haven't done a whole lot of spirited driving due to the rubbing (left turns feel great! right turns require some care...), but I would say the driveability is still good. It's not low enough to really be threatened by your run of the mill steep parking lot entrances or speed bumps and the like - I'd say most of the difficulty that comes with maneuvering it is in my head. The only recurring thing that can be annoying is that the speed bumps in my neighborhood have to be taken at 10mph or lower now. I'm not really in a hurry anyways so it's not that big of a deal, but the annoying part comes when I'm so unfortunate to find someone behind me, because most people are expecting to bomb through them at 30. Luckily, the only consequence of going a little too fast over the speed bumps is that I'll rub - I haven't scraped over anything.
Right now I think the car sits pretty nicely, and the ride height paired with a better alignment would really be a good cross between looks and driveability. My ideal setup would be to lower the ride height to where the top of the tire is tucking all around. I am still undecided about how much camber I want to do; I'm considering doing as much as -4 in the back, because I've only put about 1,000 miles on this car in 2018, so tire wear is not as great of a concern. It's definitely more interesting to drive now, if at the expense of some of that mindless cruising aspect that makes the Lexuses desirable. After I have the suspension where I want it, I'll move onto ruining the exhaust next. Ever since I sold the Yukon, I've dearly missed having a car where you actually hear the exhaust, especially with a V8.
Going in order of ride height from lowest to highest, the next car I want to talk about is the Mini. You may remember that the Mini was once for sale. Luckily, nobody with an offer of actual substance appeared to want it, so it is still here, which is good, because I think a supercharged Mini is a car worth having around. The Mini, which my mom has now had for 9(!) years last month, has held up about as you would expect for a Mini with 150,000 miles. If your first though was "oh boy", you would be right, as it has incurred a good double digit percentage of its value in maintenance this year. I don't keep up with the specifics of what my parents do with their cars now that I have my own car maintenance to keep track of, but one thing that significantly changed the Mini was some new motor mounts. Over the past year or two, the old motor mounts degraded to the point that the car felt like it had performance motor mounts, i.e. you could really feel those vibrations. The first startup of the car with new motor mounts was crazy; it felt like starting a new car. I don't drive the Mini much, but it seems like the transmission slips shifting from first to second gear. Other than that, it still drives about as well as it always did, it just bobs your head back and forth on that first shift...
sometimes it has a check engine light, sometimes it doesn't
So what about the car I've actually put some mileage on in the past six months? Well, I always liked seventh gen Accords so it really wasn't much of a surprise that I ended up liking mine. Today I hit the big 200,000 mile mark, so I've driven just over 8,000 miles since buying it. For a car that I mainly just use for generic 'daily driver' stuff, I don't have many complaints. The main things I like are the styling, although I actually prefer the pre-facelift Accord, although I will concede that the older design without the LED taillights is a little dated. I also like the steering, although I'm sure the 4cyl would be even better, not having as much weight over the front end. I've driven 4cyl Accords before and drove one immediately before driving the one I bought, but that particular one was hampered by a significant steering wheel wobble, so any comparison was moot. Rambling aside, I've also continued to appreciate the manners of the V6; sufficient power for pretty much anything you'd encounter on the road. It cruises up the hills where I live while the smaller cars are kicking down and losing speed. I average about 25mpg, usually in the high 24s; the most fuel efficient car I've had so far. Going into the Accord purchase, I didn't have high expectations for the transmission thanks to the endless bashing of Honda automatics online. The transmissions does its job and is responsive enough for my preferences, but my complaints are that it takes a noticeable amount of time to shift from park to reverse, or from reverse to drive, and that the shifts are notchier for my liking (I like my slushboxes slushy). My other complaint is one that many Accord people echo: the ride quality. I would still describe it as a comfortable car, but the impact harshness over bumps is more than I expected. Then again, it has 17" wheels on low-ish profile tires and a heavy V6 over the front axle, so I really didn't buy the best-riding configuration out there. I swear those 4cyls with 16s were a little more comfortable...
What have I done besides drive it? Maintain it! Because I'm not the type to exercise due diligence in my car purchases, I bought a very nice V6 Accord that needed a timing belt. So, I had the timing belt and water pump replaced. At the same time, the serpentine belt was done and the transmission fluid was changed (not flushed like the Yukon was, I didn't go full retard). The Yokohama tires that were on the car when I bought it were about at the end of their life, so I replaced them with some Michelin MXM4s. I believe the go-to tire for the seventh gen Accord was the Michelin MXV4, but that tire has since been discontinued. Not surprisingly, the Michelins are more than sufficient for the car, and so far they've stuck to the road through the corners I've thrown at them. After that, I visited the Honda dealer because I thought my car was affected by the Takata airbag recall. It wasn't, but there was actual a different recall on the car, so I got a new power steering pump instead. A battery and an oil change round out the list of stuff I've done to the car. As far as non-mechanical stuff goes, I bought a nice fitted sunshade, since this car sadly lives outdoors. I also bought a chrome "Accord" plate frame, becauseI wanted my car to say Accord twice on the back it makes it look a little less like some random used car I bought. The only stuff left to do to it are a valve adjustment (recommended every 100k) and a new windshield wiper motor, because my windshield wipers are out of adjustment and smack the plastic guard below them - imagine my surprise the first time it rained hard enough to need to use the wipers on more than the slowest speed only to hear THWACK THWACK THWACK! - turns out it's not an uncommon issue with these cars. But, you know, this is Phoenix, so I barely need windshield wipers anyways. I'll probably forget about it until the next time it rains.
I'm not one of those weirdos who puts the e-brake on every time I park in an automatic, I was just parked on an incline here
The Fortune coilovers were available with a few different spring options, of which I went with the Swift springs. Soon I'll have to order a set of mounts for the coilovers as well to quiet them down. The coilovers shipped a month after I ordered them, and then I had them installed a month after that. The Lexus has not been in optimal condition for driving, so I haven't put many miles on it this year. Before I installing the coilovers, I had the wheels rebalanced to fix a steering wheel vibration at speed. After installing the coilovers, I had one of the rear cv axles cleaned up and repaired, as well as a rear wheel bearing. The other wheel bearing on the rear was replaced last year, so hopefully I'll be good on wheel bearings in the back for a while. The only remaining issues are that one of the rear wheels is slightly bent (I always suspected so, because at speed it always had an ever so slight vibration from the back) and that the rear could use more camber to not rub. The car drives pretty well with the coilovers; the stock floaty (comfy) ride quality is now far firmer and more controlled. Compared to when the car was stock on the 17" OZ wheels, the ride quality on 19s and coilovers is obviously worse. However, the way it deals with bumps is far better compared to the BMW when I lowered it on shocks and springs. The BMW felt more bouncy where the Lexus feels more tight. I haven't done a whole lot of spirited driving due to the rubbing (left turns feel great! right turns require some care...), but I would say the driveability is still good. It's not low enough to really be threatened by your run of the mill steep parking lot entrances or speed bumps and the like - I'd say most of the difficulty that comes with maneuvering it is in my head. The only recurring thing that can be annoying is that the speed bumps in my neighborhood have to be taken at 10mph or lower now. I'm not really in a hurry anyways so it's not that big of a deal, but the annoying part comes when I'm so unfortunate to find someone behind me, because most people are expecting to bomb through them at 30. Luckily, the only consequence of going a little too fast over the speed bumps is that I'll rub - I haven't scraped over anything.
Right now I think the car sits pretty nicely, and the ride height paired with a better alignment would really be a good cross between looks and driveability. My ideal setup would be to lower the ride height to where the top of the tire is tucking all around. I am still undecided about how much camber I want to do; I'm considering doing as much as -4 in the back, because I've only put about 1,000 miles on this car in 2018, so tire wear is not as great of a concern. It's definitely more interesting to drive now, if at the expense of some of that mindless cruising aspect that makes the Lexuses desirable. After I have the suspension where I want it, I'll move onto ruining the exhaust next. Ever since I sold the Yukon, I've dearly missed having a car where you actually hear the exhaust, especially with a V8.
Going in order of ride height from lowest to highest, the next car I want to talk about is the Mini. You may remember that the Mini was once for sale. Luckily, nobody with an offer of actual substance appeared to want it, so it is still here, which is good, because I think a supercharged Mini is a car worth having around. The Mini, which my mom has now had for 9(!) years last month, has held up about as you would expect for a Mini with 150,000 miles. If your first though was "oh boy", you would be right, as it has incurred a good double digit percentage of its value in maintenance this year. I don't keep up with the specifics of what my parents do with their cars now that I have my own car maintenance to keep track of, but one thing that significantly changed the Mini was some new motor mounts. Over the past year or two, the old motor mounts degraded to the point that the car felt like it had performance motor mounts, i.e. you could really feel those vibrations. The first startup of the car with new motor mounts was crazy; it felt like starting a new car. I don't drive the Mini much, but it seems like the transmission slips shifting from first to second gear. Other than that, it still drives about as well as it always did, it just bobs your head back and forth on that first shift...
sometimes it has a check engine light, sometimes it doesn't
So what about the car I've actually put some mileage on in the past six months? Well, I always liked seventh gen Accords so it really wasn't much of a surprise that I ended up liking mine. Today I hit the big 200,000 mile mark, so I've driven just over 8,000 miles since buying it. For a car that I mainly just use for generic 'daily driver' stuff, I don't have many complaints. The main things I like are the styling, although I actually prefer the pre-facelift Accord, although I will concede that the older design without the LED taillights is a little dated. I also like the steering, although I'm sure the 4cyl would be even better, not having as much weight over the front end. I've driven 4cyl Accords before and drove one immediately before driving the one I bought, but that particular one was hampered by a significant steering wheel wobble, so any comparison was moot. Rambling aside, I've also continued to appreciate the manners of the V6; sufficient power for pretty much anything you'd encounter on the road. It cruises up the hills where I live while the smaller cars are kicking down and losing speed. I average about 25mpg, usually in the high 24s; the most fuel efficient car I've had so far. Going into the Accord purchase, I didn't have high expectations for the transmission thanks to the endless bashing of Honda automatics online. The transmissions does its job and is responsive enough for my preferences, but my complaints are that it takes a noticeable amount of time to shift from park to reverse, or from reverse to drive, and that the shifts are notchier for my liking (I like my slushboxes slushy). My other complaint is one that many Accord people echo: the ride quality. I would still describe it as a comfortable car, but the impact harshness over bumps is more than I expected. Then again, it has 17" wheels on low-ish profile tires and a heavy V6 over the front axle, so I really didn't buy the best-riding configuration out there. I swear those 4cyls with 16s were a little more comfortable...
What have I done besides drive it? Maintain it! Because I'm not the type to exercise due diligence in my car purchases, I bought a very nice V6 Accord that needed a timing belt. So, I had the timing belt and water pump replaced. At the same time, the serpentine belt was done and the transmission fluid was changed (not flushed like the Yukon was, I didn't go full retard). The Yokohama tires that were on the car when I bought it were about at the end of their life, so I replaced them with some Michelin MXM4s. I believe the go-to tire for the seventh gen Accord was the Michelin MXV4, but that tire has since been discontinued. Not surprisingly, the Michelins are more than sufficient for the car, and so far they've stuck to the road through the corners I've thrown at them. After that, I visited the Honda dealer because I thought my car was affected by the Takata airbag recall. It wasn't, but there was actual a different recall on the car, so I got a new power steering pump instead. A battery and an oil change round out the list of stuff I've done to the car. As far as non-mechanical stuff goes, I bought a nice fitted sunshade, since this car sadly lives outdoors. I also bought a chrome "Accord" plate frame, because
I'm not one of those weirdos who puts the e-brake on every time I park in an automatic, I was just parked on an incline here
- 2,235
- Norway
Yes!! I feel I may have instigated this Lexus on coils and SSRs somewhat 
Hero status achieved! Although I'm looking forward to you lower it more 
Before you mention it rubs, this has IRS right? Just lower it more out back and get some more negative camber in your life to avoid rubbing
Hero status achieved! Although I'm looking forward to you lower it more Before you mention it rubs, this has IRS right? Just lower it more out back and get some more negative camber in your life to avoid rubbing
- 6,092
- Phoenix, AZ
Although I'm looking forward to you lower it more
Me too
Just lower it more out back and get some more negative camber in your life to avoid rubbing
Agreed. So I did:
But the front?
LS400s have pretty good camber adjustment in the back. I was able to achieve my desired -4 degrees with just an alignment. The front is at -1.8, and needs aftermarket camber arms to really open up that adjustment. My goal is -3, then the front ride height will come down like the rear. How does it drive? It's still not the complete low car experience since the front is relatively high (no clearance issues), so pretty practical still. Compared to stock it is obviously worse, but as far as low cars go, this is pretty easy to drive. Since the new alignment, I have been on two vacations and was sick during the downtime between them, so I haven't gone out of my way to try it out on some decent roads. There's only so much you can find out from driving it within the grid where I live. I will say that body roll is noticeably reduced. It's no sports car, of course. In its first configuration, the car was most prone to rubbing during right turns. In its second phase, the egregious rubbing during right turns has been reduced. The car rubs very slightly now if you corner in either direction quickly; much less intrusive than before. Wheel travel causes more rubbing over bumps now. It's more interesting to drive than it was before, but I am reserving full excitement for when its fitment is finished and it has an exhaust. I'm going a little crazy having a V8 I never hear.
I finally got the Accord out of the city after months and months of just local driving. I took it to California, where a V6 Accord probably belongs. The freeways in San Diego aren't as fast-paced as in Los Angeles, but they're still more of an 80 mph deal than the freeways in Phoenix. Driving to and from San Diego, the Accord got around 27mpg. One feature I miss from the BMW and Yukon is estimated range. The low fuel light comes on at 13 gallons, and it has a 17 gallon tank. I hate the guessing game of range, so I usually fill up right away. I am a little more sympathetic to the LS400's fuel pump and usually fill up around a quarter tank. With this highway driving, I usually filled up around 350 miles. Personally, I find anything under 400 miles between fill ups to be too frequent, despite none of my cars doing that on a regular basis (though the BMW did like 470 miles going to Salt Lake City, to its credit). Sometimes you just wanna be able to go a little further in one shot on a roadtrip before the low fuel anxiety sets in.
The last time I was in San Diego was five years ago:
So the Accord could do the typical Phoenix to San Diego trip fine, but so could any car in Phoenix. Could it do a 12 hour marathon to Denver? Well yeah... it's an Accord. The day before I left, I filled up the tank and noted that the oil life was at 30%. I over estimated the the mileage left until 15%, at which point a
This drive was mostly new territory for me, having never been to eastern Arizona, New Mexico, or Colorado. The northeastern stretch of Arizona past Flagstaff was my least favorite part of the drive: police presence, semi trucks, and flat scenery. New Mexico was alright, although this was the state where most of the slow overtaking occurred. I can now say I've been to Albuquerque, but I only drove through it both times. The scenery improves once you get to Santa Fe before flattening out again. The consolation is that this was the easiest part of the drive with the least traffic. I also averaged 30mpg here, my best tank average to date. Colorado is mountainous at the border but that goes away for a while until you get to Colorado Springs. Between Colorado Springs and Denver there is a decent amount of traffic going back and forth between those cities. This stretch reminded me of California in that most drivers tried to go as fast as traffic would allow, sometimes >85mph.
I went to Denver to finally meet @ildd, who was already going there, and I figured driving to Denver would be easier than driving to Houston. Perhaps this could have been a meeting of the mighty V6 sedans, J30 vs VQ37, but ildd flew to Denver, so he rented a car from Turo. It was very appropriate for Colorado, and it was a wagon, so it was very appropriate for him too.
This trip coincided with the Pikes Peak hillclimb in Colorado Springs, so we made two trips out there to the initial fan fest and then the actual race event a couple days later. The drive up Pikes Peak was very memorable. The drive began underneath complete cloud cover, but after several thousand feet, you would drive through and finally be above the clouds. Makes for an interesting view below the mountains. At 12,800 feet, it was as cold as winter in Phoenix, but in June. The weather was very cold and very windy for almost the entire day. For an hour in the afternoon, it even snowed. ildd picked a vantage point at one of the final hairpin corners where spectators are allowed, and it ended up being a place where stuff occurred during the race. We watched a quad drift around the corner. Later, a motorcycle lost grip coming into the corner and motorcycle and rider slid across the road separately. An ambulance from around the corner drove him all the way down, but the crashed motorcycle stayed in the dirt for the rest of the day, later with a tarp over it. We watched an electric Volkswagen fly by us and set a new record by over a minute. Later, we watched a gasoline Volkswagen come around the corner and make a beeline for the side of the road before dumping its coolant on the ground. After the race, all the riders and drivers came down from 14,000 feet, where everyone lined the side of the street and high fived everybody coming past. The drive down the mountain was torturous with the volume of cars that were coming down, utilizing both lanes of the road.
This car had one of the best sounding fly-bys at the hillclimb
It's amazing how much these headlights have faded this year. I would like to replace them with a new OEM pair but I'm not sure if it's worth it until I garage this car more regularly.
This trip added about 2,000 miles to the Accord. On the drive back, I hit 0% oil life in Albuquerque. Once you achieve that, each startup of the car shows a countdown of how many miles you are removed from when you hit 0%. I think I got to -450 miles by the time I got home. The day after, it was treated to an oil change and tire rotation, and a wash that scraped a lot of insects off the front end. The Accord averaged 27-28mpg for most of the trip. It does 80mph at 2500rpm, and it has good passing power for a 75-95 pull. In a perfect world, I would have it fitted with some aftermarket sound deadening material. The wind noise isn't as intrusive as it could be, though. Ride quality is definitely firmer than I would prefer in this kind of car, especially on some of the roads around Denver. The caliber of road imperfections in a place that gets snow is something you usually don't have to deal with where I live. Maybe some day I'll go full retard and buy some 16" Honda wheels for it some day, or go even further down the rabbit hole and get some of these. But at that point, maybe it makes more sense to just get an Accord with the cloth seats and smaller wheels I'm after...
