SSMAccord : 1992 Accord EX

[owequitit]

My shifter was part of a group buy at some point, probably 2005 or so. The shift boot wasn't too short, but it would be taut in certain gear position. The original P Spec boot eventually wore out, I used it as a template to make a replacement boot. I did add an extra 1-1.5 inches to the pattern to allow more play in the shift boot overall.

Thanks man!

Mine is still OK. Not stellar, but not bad. It just irritates me that the back side is about 1.5" too short, so it pulls free and comes out. Only way to fix it is to take the whole console apart again. I was considering doing what you did, but I also may just buy something like a Type-R boot.

I really appreciate the response!

[SSMAccord]

I managed to get the brake set up completed just in time to do a very late night oil change and a mechanical once over of the car before having to head off to a weekend of camping and a track day at Gingerman Raceway in west Michigan. The event was hosted by AutoInterests and is currently the only organization that runs the Gingerman course in reverse traffic direction. I had not previously run with this organization or in this configuration of the track, but I was eager to kick off track events for the season.

FT Inspection Label



The day started with a few more last minute checks on the car; I discovered that one of the rear sway bar mounting bolts was loose, so I set about tightening that up before the driver's meeting and first classroom session of the day. During the travel to the track, I encountered a Code 21 that caused the car not have valve lift functionality, I did some troubleshooting but was not able to resolve the issue and decided to deal with that after the event.

Morning Check In


The AutoInterest event was really well done; they pair you up with a dedicated instructor, have really informative classroom sessions, they also have vehicle dynamic sessions in between the on track sessions that keeps the fun going throughout the day. They also do a track walk which is really useful for learning more about the track surface and some of the more intricate details for navigating certain turns and sectors. I really enjoyed the event overall and look forward to running more events with this group.

Track Walk


Before the first on track session for my group, there was a vehicle dynamics sessions that was a good warm up before heading on to a hot track. After that task, I decided to check the vehicle just before going out on track and discovered one of the small hoses that feeds between the thermostat and the IACV had split and sprung a leak. Fixing it by cutting the end was simple enough, just inconvenient. Other than the consistent Code 21, the day was pretty uneventful mechanically. I did decide that as my last track session of the day wrapped up, the front wheel bearings might need to be replaced; they likely suffered premature wear from being overheated last year. The brakes themselves seemed to perform as anticipated, the color grading indicated that the rotor faces got pretty warm but the rotor hat areas stayed cool, which was the intent. The pedal is firm and the amount of brake pedal travel needed has decreased which led to a modification of my heel/toe technique due to the relative height of the brake pedal versus the accelerator pedal.

Vehicle Dynamics Session



Post Track Brake Check




Cool Down between Sessions




The track itself was really fun in reverse configuration and the variety of cars at the event was quite good. I found myself really digging a patchwork-y Fox body Mustang that was in the advanced group amongst other cars. Casey's ND Miata was also doing really well on track, riding along with him is always really informative. There were also a few WTAC and GLTC cars in attendance as well.

Track Photos from NVUS Images

[Grumpys93]

That looks like so much fun. That stinks about the code 21 and not letting you go into vtec. But glad to hear your brake issue was resolved. I need to go to a track one day and see how my car performs. But I will lower the boost to something that won’t crack the wheels loose every time I give it a decent amount of gas.

how do you have your feet positioned for your heel toe? I could never find a good positioning that allowed me to effectively use the technique.

[owequitit]

That's awesome! Getting to any track has traditionally been difficult for me since there were none anywhere near me. Hopefully, I'll get to try it out here someday just to see how it is setup.

I assume you are running a 1" master cylinder on this brake setup? I am trying figure out exactly which cars have them (I thought all VTEC Preludes did, but that may not be correct). I will also have to adapt mine since I have a 15/16's and the one of the fittings is apparently different. I think the ABS Accords came with a 1" standard didn't they?

I also followed your lead and ordered the Honed Performance rear spindle nuts. They should be here shortly after they finish clearing Customs, which is where they are now.

[SSMAccord]

That looks like so much fun. That stinks about the code 21 and not letting you go into vtec. But glad to hear your brake issue was resolved. I need to go to a track one day and see how my car performs. But I will lower the boost to something that won’t crack the wheels loose every time I give it a decent amount of gas.

how do you have your feet positioned for your heel toe? I could never find a good positioning that allowed me to effectively use the technique.

It is really fun. It is also really informative about how your behaves and identifying deficiencies in the car and personal driving skills lol. I do have a great time, but it can be tiring after like the 5th or 6th session of the day. Usually by 4 I’m too exhausted to participate in the free track/all groups track time.


I think you’d have a blast a track day! Too much power and not enough grip can be an issue on track, but you may find that leaving alone initially might be ok. There are actually less moments of full throttle usage on track. It’s mostly trying to manage car placement, balancing available grip and focusin@ weight transfer as you set up for the next turn/sequence.

I did a bunch of troubleshooting after the event, it seems like the ecu might be the culprit as everything else meets the criteria in the service manual troubleshooting guide.

My heel/toe technique is very influenced by the Best Motoring videos lol. Pressing the brakes with the ball of the foot and rotating the heel out to blip throttle, it also requires more throttle that you’d think for a good ‘blip’. The maneuver got slightly more difficult after installing braided brake lines since there was less brake travel needed for adequate braking which left my heel kind far from the throttle when heel/toeing. The new brake setup needs even less travel, getting the brake pedal far enough down to contact the throttle puts the car into panic level braking. I think the solution is a pedal cover that is spaced to make the relationship between the throttle and brake closer.

[SSMAccord]

That's awesome! Getting to any track has traditionally been difficult for me since there were none anywhere near me. Hopefully, I'll get to try it out here someday just to see how it is setup.

I assume you are running a 1" master cylinder on this brake setup? I am trying figure out exactly which cars have them (I thought all VTEC Preludes did, but that may not be correct). I will also have to adapt mine since I have a 15/16's and the one of the fittings is apparently different. I think the ABS Accords came with a 1" standard didn't they?

I also followed your lead and ordered the Honed Performance rear spindle nuts. They should be here shortly after they finish clearing Customs, which is where they are now.

Yeah, this car had the 1” stock, but my old 91 used a modified hose to install the 1” master cylinder.. I think all Si and Si Vtec Preludes do have 1” units.

Good choice on the axle nuts! I’m glad that they aren’t backordered for the time being.

[owequitit]

Yeah, this car had the 1” stock, but my old 91 used a modified hose to install the 1” master cylinder.. I think all Si and Si Vtec Preludes do have 1” units.

Good choice on the axle nuts! I’m glad that they aren’t backordered for the time being.

Thanks for the input. Perhaps I can just order one from an ABS CB7, since I believe those are 1". I have a master cylinder from a Prelude (it was supposed to be a VTEC), but it is only 15/16, so I think it must have come from a "base" model. I bought it on ebay years ago, so I'll just have to chalk it up as lesson learned. The hardest part will probably be figuring out the adapter, but that should be doable. If nothing else, I'll buy the stuff to do it since it would be nice to have those tools anyway. Any excuse to buy tools! LOL.

Yeah, I was happy they were available too! One of the reasons I didn't wait was that I think I got the last set they had in stock!

I was curious if wheel lock was an issue in a track setting. Having brakes that powerful without any sort of ABS intervention makes it seem like that they would lock really easily. I know it is a fairly common setup these days, but still.

Other than that, how was the car's overall setup? Do you need to tweak some stuff, or is it pretty good out of the box?

[SSMAccord]

Thanks for the input. Perhaps I can just order one from an ABS CB7, since I believe those are 1". I have a master cylinder from a Prelude (it was supposed to be a VTEC), but it is only 15/16, so I think it must have come from a "base" model. I bought it on ebay years ago, so I'll just have to chalk it up as lesson learned. The hardest part will probably be figuring out the adapter, but that should be doable. If nothing else, I'll buy the stuff to do it since it would be nice to have those tools anyway. Any excuse to buy tools! LOL.

Yeah, I was happy they were available too! One of the reasons I didn't wait was that I think I got the last set they had in stock!

I was curious if wheel lock was an issue in a track setting. Having brakes that powerful without any sort of ABS intervention makes it seem like that they would lock really easily. I know it is a fairly common setup these days, but still.

Other than that, how was the car's overall setup? Do you need to tweak some stuff, or is it pretty good out of the box?

You probably do have a MC from a Prelude S, Si and Si VTEC have the 1" MC. You can actually just carefully cut the flare off of your existing brake hose, the one closest to the firewall if my memory is working, and remove the old fitting and put on the correct fitting and reflare the hose. It is a tight fit for the flaring tool because of the bend in the hose, but it can be done. (you also only get one chance because the hose will be too short if you screw up the flare and have to attempt it twice.)

Wheel lock is generally not an issue on track unless the surface is compromised from moisture, dirt/debris that someone has brought on track or automotive fluids. Wheel lock is very dependent on tire friction; sticky 200TW tires require a lot of force to lock once they are heated up, pedal modulation is key and having wider range of braking torque available allows for more precision in the amount of braking being applied.

I have found during the pad bedding process that the rear brakes do tend to lock up before the front brakes, this is likely a common occurrence as people tend to refer to that kind of scenario as an indication of brake proportioning. It actually is due to weight transfer; when the car is in "daily driving" mode I turn the dampers adjustment to full soft front and rear which allows for very abrupt weight transfer to the front in panic/brake bedding levels of brake engagement which causes the rear brakes to lock up because the rear wheels are suddenly carrying less weight. This would also be very likely to happen on a stock or worn suspension setup. On track the dampers are set to be much more firm to slow the weight transfer to the front of the car which allows the rear to maintain traction and avoid locking the rear brakes.

The car feels ok on track, I have not fully dialed in the alignment yet. I intentionally have it set up to be "safer" and rely on understeer at the limit instead of trying to coax the rear to rotate. Once I get a better alignment setup, I will probably try to dial in more rear rotation. It is very clear that the car is quite heavy compared to EK hatches, newer Civic Si's and Miatas and the longish wheelbase keeps the car from being overly nimble with the benefit being that it is more stable.

To that end, one of the last backordered parts, Hard Race roll center adjusters finally arrived. These would have had an effect on the demeanor of the front end and how the weight transfers laterally. I had a machine shop replace the wheel bearings and I installed the RCAs with balljoint kit. Hopefully most of the suspension setup is ok for a while. The old wheel bearings were allowing a bit of play as I noticed when disassembling the front end, the previous overheating must have really caused them to start to fail prematurely. The old bearings were also not OEM parts which might also be a factor.


Wheel Bearings



Roll Center Adjusters



Roll Center Adjusters Installed

[SSMAccord]

2022ish... CB update. I hadn't planned to do much of anything to the CB during the winter downtime and into 2023. I did want to solve the car losing its VTEC functionality and indicating Code 21 which plagued me the entirety of 2022.
Late in 2022 I decided that none of the things I had tried resolved the Code 21 issue. I went through checking for continuity in the wiring, checking for VTEC solenoid operation, checking for broken ECU pins, leaky capacitors and bad grounds to no avail. Not having a back-up ECU I decided to acquire a stock P13 ECU to see if that would solve the issue.



The first thing that happened is that the P13 threw a few error codes: EGR operation and Knock Sensor in addition to driving like absolute crap. The knock sensor wire was disconnected because the knock sensor itself had been damaged previously. The chipped ecu didn't need if for operation so I never bothered to fix that until this incident warranted it. Given the nature of this problem solving method, I went with an non OEM knock sensor from Rock Auto. After some creative wrenching the old broken sensor was removed and the new sensor installed.







That repair complete, I checked the EGR for issues and found none, ditto for the wiring as well. Turns out the vacuum hose was split and not allowing the system to function. With all of the repairs made it was time to find out what results this combination of parts would yield. Firstly, the car drove like normal which was a relief and no codes were being indicated. I cautiously approached lift threshold expecting to get Code 21. To my surprise the car engaged lift with no codes indicated, yay. At least for a while, after about 10 minutes the car would indicate Code 23 for the knock sensor which I figured would happen with a cheapo part. Not a huge deal, at least I was able to single out the chipped ECU as the likely culprit for my VTEC woes.


The problem of the car leaking a small amount of coolant when the heater valve was opened had also reared its ugly head again. Having already replaced the heater valve in 2021, it seemed like the issue was that the heater core was blocked and leaking out of the hose. It seemed odd because I still had heat from the vents...I figured that I would reverse flush the heater core in the spring and try to remove the blockage and alleviate the issue.


For a simple winter project I was planning to replace the 3M PPF that was used on the taillamps and wheel center caps. I thought that it was just the passenger taillamp being affected by exhaust gas, but as I started to notice all of the taillamps were yellow and the PPF on the wheel center caps was also prematurely yellowing. I use PPF on the taillamps to protect the painted part as it is quite fragile, the wheel caps are PPF'd to keep the metal part of the cap attached to the plastic cap, these tend to fail and go missing as the adhesive pads loose their adhesion. The PPF is only 2.5 years old which is kinda odd for it to be so yellow. The internet searches indicated that the film likely was not yellow, but the adhesive may have been the actual culprit. Anyhow, it needed to be replaced and can easily be done indoors. I decided to change PPF brands to XPEL in the hopes that it will not yellow a prematurely.



This was the state of the PPF on the taillamps and wheel caps. The left cap is the old PPF.