In contrast to the usual "No good deed goes unpunished" mantra, the owner just offered to give me the car, which he was otherwise going to scrap.
Ooer. Really not my kind of car of course. Wrong century, Automatic saloon, low ground clearance, skinny oil, etc etc
And I just bought 5 new-to-me tyres for the Skywing at 4000 NT
OTOH free is hard to beat (I'd pay the scrappage scheme value, but provided this is maintained should be able to get that back.).
Maybe I'll be corrupted by 21st century luxury
A possible solution would be to give it to the GF. More her kind of thing, if she can transcend her Taiwanese "TOO OLD" prejudice.
I'd guess an oldish but 21st century Honda that goes bang would probably be expensive to fix, but nothing much to lose.
They do go on for years if looked after, and put it this way, it cant be any worse than yours, its a Honda lol, there are earlier versions around my way and have done a lot of miles, so they do last, though paintwork on one is fading a bit
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In contrast to the usual "No good deed goes unpunished" mantra, the owner just offered to give me the car, which he was otherwise going to scrap.
Ooer. Really not my kind of car of course. Wrong century, Automatic saloon, low ground clearance, skinny oil, etc etc
And I just bought 5 new-to-me tyres for the Skywing at 4000 NT
OTOH free is hard to beat (I'd pay the scrappage scheme value, but provided this is maintained should be able to get that back.).
Maybe I'll be corrupted by 21st century luxury
A possible solution would be to give it to the GF. More her kind of thing, if she can transcend her Taiwanese "TOO OLD" prejudice.
I'd guess an oldish but 21st century Honda that goes bang would probably be expensive to fix, but nothing much to lose.
They do go on for years if looked after, and put it this way, it cant be any worse than yours, its a Honda lol, there are earlier versions around my way and have done a lot of miles, so they do last, though paintwork on one is fading a bit
Well, "worse" is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm a bit cockeyed, so I don't plan to scrap The Wing if its avoidable. Hence the "give it to the GF" workaround.
Re "Its a Honda" I've only had a motorcycle and my Actyvan, both of which were impressive, but from an earlier, simpler time.
Here's the Australian Dog and Lemon Guide on current "old" Hondas. I'll look up the Accord if I come across my old printed copy. (The website is pay-per-view for individual cars)
Hondas are beautifully engineered cars with a definite ‘use-by’ date. They glide effortlessly along the road, offering both excellent performance and economy, and unless you fail to service them, are among the most reliable cars available – until they reach the end of their useful life. The end of their useful life is somewhere between 120,000 and 200,000 kilometres, and it is an optimist who owns one after this. That’s why it’s rare to see a Honda taxi. It’s not that Hondas aren’t well built; they’re beautifully built, but they’re a consumer item, designed to give a decade or so of absolutely troublefree use, after which you trash the old one and buy a new one. When a Honda has exceeded its useful life, not only does it become unreliable, but it is sometimes horribly expensive to fix. Hondas may be built like a Swiss watch, but a Swiss watch is complex and often difficult to repair. You have been warned
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In contrast to the usual "No good deed goes unpunished" mantra, the owner just offered to give me the car, which he was otherwise going to scrap.
Ooer. Really not my kind of car of course. Wrong century, Automatic saloon, low ground clearance, skinny oil, etc etc
And I just bought 5 new-to-me tyres for the Skywing at 4000 NT
OTOH free is hard to beat (I'd pay the scrappage scheme value, but provided this is maintained should be able to get that back.).
Maybe I'll be corrupted by 21st century luxury
A possible solution would be to give it to the GF. More her kind of thing, if she can transcend her Taiwanese "TOO OLD" prejudice.
I'd guess an oldish but 21st century Honda that goes bang would probably be expensive to fix, but nothing much to lose.
They do go on for years if looked after, and put it this way, it cant be any worse than yours, its a Honda lol, there are earlier versions around my way and have done a lot of miles, so they do last, though paintwork on one is fading a bit
Well, "worse" is in the eye of the beholder, and I'm a bit cockeyed, so I don't plan to scrap The Wing if its avoidable. Hence the "give it to the GF" workaround.
Re "Its a Honda" I've only had a motorcycle and my Actyvan, both of which were impressive, but from an earlier, simpler time.
Here's the Australian Dog and Lemon Guide on current "old" Hondas. I'll look up the Accord if I come across my old printed copy. (The website is pay-per-view for individual cars)
Hondas are beautifully engineered cars with a definite ‘use-by’ date. They glide effortlessly along the road, offering both excellent performance and economy, and unless you fail to service them, are among the most reliable cars available – until they reach the end of their useful life. The end of their useful life is somewhere between 120,000 and 200,000 kilometres, and it is an optimist who owns one after this. That’s why it’s rare to see a Honda taxi. It’s not that Hondas aren’t well built; they’re beautifully built, but they’re a consumer item, designed to give a decade or so of absolutely troublefree use, after which you trash the old one and buy a new one. When a Honda has exceeded its useful life, not only does it become unreliable, but it is sometimes horribly expensive to fix. Hondas may be built like a Swiss watch, but a Swiss watch is complex and often difficult to repair. You have been warned
Never mind-if you believed everything you read you wouldn't buy a car whatever make it was, 200k miles is a lot lower than they will do and some dont service every year, I know someone with a Y reg accord thats done over 130k without a problem apart from paintwork
is your one fixed now or still having problems ?
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is your one fixed now or still having problems ?
Well, depends what you mean by "fixed"
and "problems"
From the sound, exhaust repair seems to be holding, though I havn't been underneath to try and see if the undersize bolt i had to use is still there.
I just recieved a stickyboot kit posted from the UK (hese seem to be unobtainable here) , so I'll be fitting that sometime farly soon, though the clingfilm first aid seems to be doing ok.
Running OK since I cleaned up and gapped the points, but I can't get it to idle below about 2000 rpm. Another car would reduce my reluctance to take the carb apart again, which will probably inactivate it for a while at least.
Also got 2 sets of points, which, if they fit, should be a lifetimes supply. I may defer fitting until I've built my Maplins transistor assisted ignition kit. Need to practise my soldering.
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In contrast to the usual "No good deed goes unpunished" mantra, the owner just offered to give me the car, which he was otherwise going to scrap.
Ooer. Really not my kind of car of course. Wrong century, Automatic saloon, low ground clearance, skinny oil, etc etc
Air con?
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In contrast to the usual "No good deed goes unpunished" mantra, the owner just offered to give me the car, which he was otherwise going to scrap.
Ooer. Really not my kind of car of course. Wrong century, Automatic saloon, low ground clearance, skinny oil, etc etc
Air con?
Yeh, that too, I'm afraid. And I'm told it works.
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Hondas may be built like a Swiss watch, but a Swiss watch is complex and often difficult to repair
The above was clearly written by a complete m****. Mechanical Swiss Watches (like any mechanical watch) are a very complex device but they are incredibly accurate. The one currently on my wrist (not a top end Chronometer - it has a Selitta SW200 movement and costs around £900 now) is 6 years old and is still accurate to +5 seconds a day. That is poor compared to a quartz (I have one that does 6 seconds a year and cost £750) but it has a far greater number of moving parts. Just consider that it "ticks" 8 times a second, that is 691,200 times a day and to get that 5 second a day accuracy each tick is 0.000007233796296 seconds out, how do they do that on a mechanical device that has run non stop for 5 years (when I am not wearing it it sits on a winder).
As for repairing one any good watch maker should be capable of doing the work and then setting the watch up to be accurate as a new one. Not cheap of course but well worth it.
For the record most Swiss Made mechanical watches use original or modified ETA or Selitta movements. They are also used by manufacturers outside Switzerland but these should be marked "Swiss Parts". High end Swiss manufacturers use thier own movements but some of these can trace their roots back to earlier ETA (or their predecessor) movements. Because of this all parts (and even complete replacement movements) are readily available making it easy to keep an old watch "on the road".
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Hondas may be built like a Swiss watch, but a Swiss watch is complex and often difficult to repair
The above was clearly written by a complete m****. Mechanical Swiss Watches (like any mechanical watch) are a very complex device but they are incredibly accurate. The one currently on my wrist (not a top end Chronometer - it has a Selitta SW200 movement and costs around £900 now) is 6 years old and is still accurate to +5 seconds a day. That is poor compared to a quartz (I have one that does 6 seconds a year and cost £750) but it has a far greater number of moving parts. Just consider that it "ticks" 8 times a second, that is 691,200 times a day and to get that 5 second a day accuracy each tick is 0.000007233796296 seconds out, how do they do that on a mechanical device that has run non stop for 5 years (when I am not wearing it it sits on a winder).
As for repairing one any good watch maker should be capable of doing the work and then setting the watch up to be accurate as a new one. Not cheap of course but well worth it.
For the record most Swiss Made mechanical watches use original or modified ETA or Selitta movements. They are also used by manufacturers outside Switzerland but these should be marked "Swiss Parts". High end Swiss manufacturers use thier own movements but some of these can trace their roots back to earlier ETA (or their predecessor) movements. Because of this all parts (and even complete replacement movements) are readily available making it easy to keep an old watch "on the road".
I've got nothing against Swiss watches. I even had one once, IF a SWATCH counts (From the above I suspect they possibly don't. it was a present)
.I daresay the user of the analogy quoted above has nothing against Swiss watches either, BUT most of what you say above (except maybe the point about parts commonality, which I didn't know about) reinforces the point that was being made.
These are complex items and are not user servicable, Does the same tend to apply to a Honda Accord?
Relative to my usual choice of vehicle I'd say its quite likely. It'll be interesting to find out, if the offer actually materialises.
Cars not there at the moment. Maybe its "gone"
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I've got nothing against Swiss watches. I even had one once, IF a SWATCH counts (From the above I suspect they possibly don't. it was a present)
Does a Swatch count as a Swiss watch, be prepared to learn.
Swatch group is the all powerful company that virtually controls the Swiss watch market. As well as the well known Swatch brand they own Breguet (fantastic history since 1775 - worth a Google on its own), Omega, Longines, Rado, Tissot, Certina, Hamilton, Calvin Klein and several lesser known brands.
They virtually control the manufacture of Swiss movements through the ETA company and its associates. About 10 years ago they tried to limit supply to the small independent watch makers that relied on ETA movements but luckily the attempt failed and ultimately cost them. A company called Sellita had already been making movements for ETA when they had insufficient capacity to fulfil orders and when the ETA embargo took effect and Sellita were no longer required they rather cleverly took advantage that the patents had expired on many of the ETA movements they had tooling for and added a single jewel and called them different name. The independents (and watch repairers) could use the Sellita movements instead of the ETA's with no modifications since other than the single jewel they are identical and even though ETA backed off the independents have never really returned to buy from them unless its a specific movement they need. The Sellita movements are every bit as good, just as accurate but far cheaper.
And lets not forget that the Smart Car was originally born as a collaboration between Swatch Group and Mercedes (that is where the S and M are from and to those letters they added ART).
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<< That is poor compared to a quartz (I have one that does 6 seconds a year and cost £750) but it has a far greater number of moving parts. >>
If we are now into the accuracy of watches, it's not necessary to pay £750 for that. I have my second Timex (I think it was about £35, but may be wrong) with both analogue and digital readout. It gains a fraction of a second a day. I would hesitate to suggest that all other examples would be that accurate, but I am certain that it won't be snatched from my wrist by any passing moped rider (motoring connection).
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<< That is poor compared to a quartz (I have one that does 6 seconds a year and cost £750) but it has a far greater number of moving parts. >>
If we are now into the accuracy of watches, it's not necessary to pay £750 for that. I have my second Timex (I think it was about £35, but may be wrong) with both analogue and digital readout. It gains a fraction of a second a day. I would hesitate to suggest that all other examples would be that accurate, but I am certain that it won't be snatched from my wrist by any passing moped rider (motoring connection).
Me and mum bought dad a Rotary for Christmas in 1975, think it was about £25. He wore that watch daily for almost 40 years and it was never repaired, had many strap though. It was a manual wind watch but the cost of a new mainspring and service did not make sense at the time, I will get it sorted one day.
So I got him another Rotary, this time a quartz. This model was made in Switzerland like in the 70's and really nice (some Rotary's are made in the far east now - probably just as good). The best part was the price, retailed at £329 (I think) but the local H Samuel was closing and in their sale it was £79. It gains about 16 seconds a month which was fine for dad, in truth fine for everyone on the planet virtually.
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A bit downmarket from the above. but liking the idea of a mechanical watch I bought a bottom of the range self winding SEIKO, lost it, bought another one, bought my girlfriend one, and then found the lost one.
Nice watches. Simple and unpretentious. I like them.
But no good. All have failed just out of warranty and repair cost was quite close to replacement cost.
I've had a similar style Citizen Eco-drive for a few years which so far has been fine.
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All have failed just out of warranty and repair cost was quite close to replacement cost.
That's pretty typical for most modern devices, technology is mass-produced and often unfixable. Bit like cars really ....
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Bit like cars really ....
Which is where we came in.
(If you remember, that's a phrase from the days of "continuos performances" IIRC I saw Dambusters 3 times sequentially. By the time I staggered out I could have flown a Lancaster, if I could have reached the controls.
But tell that to Young People Today, and they'll not believe you.)
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I've had a similar style Citizen Eco-drive for a few years which so far has been fine.
Your lucky, I bought mine 2016, it went wrong about 2 months after the warranty ended, though it was sent back 3 times as it lost 5 minutes a week, then bought a Storm watch and so far most accurate watch I have had.
Funny how its changed from Accord to watches lol
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Bought a Seiko automatic chronograph in 1974 when as an apprentice I passed 18 and my wages virtually doubled overnight. Very nice watch, still in the drawer upstairs, still works perfectly but it not the style a mature person of today would wear.
A few months ago I was browsing the car mags in Tesco's and one of the mags has a watch page. On it was an article about the first Chronograph in space and there was a photo of my Seiko. Seems that although NASA issued Omegas to the astronauts for the missions they used their own watches in training and of course they became familiar with them. One of then (against the rules) took his Seiko on the actual mission with him and used it for timing certain critical parts of the mission thus became the fist Automatic watch in space.
3rd one down in the article but still virtually worthless. Also not that one has the wrong bracelet.
www.60clicks.com/best-moon-space-watches/
www.dreamchrono.com/2013/11/seiko-6139-pogue/
Edited by thunderbird on 17/07/2020 at 10:03
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Meanwhile, back on Planet Earth, but far far away, I took a 2003-ish Honda Accord for a drive on quiet roads.
Very comfortable compared to what I'm used to of course, but the gift horses oral impression was that ir also rather, erm, dead, with rather sudden, non-progressive braking, and rather sticky, non-progressive throttle response.
Daresay you'd get used to it though.
I'm assuming these are characteristics rather faults. I have had another automatic here (Ford Sierra DOHC 2.0L) but itx a while ago. and when I bought it I hadn't driven anything else fodr a couple of years,
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DP
Edited by edlithgow on 18/07/2020 at 15:26
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I'm not at all surprised that you're finding the Honda a bit better to drive than the current skywing or previous Lada. Would also reckon that you finding the Honda brakes a bit sharp is because of the comparison to the current car rather than any fault with them.
Anyway the accord sounds like a quantum leap in comfort and technology for you. The fact that it was free should be a good enough reason to stick with it, you never know but you may get to like it.
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No, i said I was finding it worse to drive than the Skywing, at least when the Skywing is having a good day. I'd think that'd be almost inevitable with automatic transmission and power steering, plus its clearly a lot heavier.
My previous Sierra DOHC 2L would be a fairer comparison, since it was an automatic saloon and about the same size. I THINK that was a better drive too, probably having a higher power/weight ratio, but its a while ago so I can't be sure. That was older technology so maybe I'm just assuming it to be better .
The Accord is certainly comfortable, and a crash is likely to be a lot more survivable than the Skywing.So far I'm finding the biggest edge to be the remotely-adjustable mirrors, Skywing mirrors keep going out of position.
Its also certainly a quantum leap in technology. For example, its got a Check Engine Light. Never had one of those before. It also brings up an exclamation mark in a red circle on acceleration sometimes. Dunno what that means but from the timing it might be emmissions or transmission related.
I understand it may be possible to get fault codes from flashing light sequences by shorting out a diagnostic plug, so I'll look into that, and an OBDC reader. There'll be no market for those in Taiwan but should be shippable.
Edited by edlithgow on 20/07/2020 at 01:13
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Car doesn't seem to be OBD2 compliant, but from the flashing lights the CEL code seems to be 80 EGR insufficient flow:
Never had a car with EGR before either, and TBH dont feel Ive been missing much.
Remains to be seen whether this is fixable by cleaning or by buying new bits, but I'd guess 'new bits is the way to bet.
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I had a good look around and couldn't see a port, apart from the wee 2-pin jumper thingy (OBD 0/1?) that makes the CEL light flash, which gave me the 80 code.
I've been told Taiwan didn'r require OBDII until 2008, so it may not have it, although you might think such model divergence in different markets would be more trouble and expense than it was worth.
Based on photos Americans think this is a 98 or 99 car. The owner can't remember.
www.driveaccord.net/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,oner.../
www.driveaccord.net/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,oner.../
www.driveaccord.net/cdn-cgi/image/format=auto,oner.../
Edited by edlithgow on 25/07/2020 at 04:30
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.So far I'm finding the biggest edge to be the remotely-adjustable mirrors, Skywing mirrors keep going out of position.
But when manually positioned mirrors go out of position you just shove them back.No knowledge of stepper motor control algorithms required.
Drivers mirror isn't going out far enough so I'll have to take it apart and fiddle (no doubt futilely) with it. Looks very breakable.
Serves me right for being momentarily seduced by the technology.
Any tips?
Edited by edlithgow on 07/08/2020 at 12:30
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Serves me right for being momentarily seduced by the technology.
Any tips?
Just shove the mirror-glass against the mechanism. I'd be surprised if it can't be adjusted 'manually' by some amount.
EDIT - I mean gently, of course .....
Edited by Andrew-T on 07/08/2020 at 15:19
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