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9 January 2006: Understanding Accord

G

etting back to the United Kingdom from three weeks in California is always going to be difficult. It was 26°C and dry when we left Los Angeles and 3°C but wet when we arrived at Manchester. After three weeks of being sat still, the Accord started just as though she’d been left there for three hours.

She? Yes. We’ve named her Hoshi. We happened across this name by accident, I was explaining to somebody that we had a Honda but Hoshi slipped out instead. It’s stuck ever since.

Unfortunately, whilst we were away it appears that something dropped on to the car from a house roof. Hoshi has an “interesting” (for the wrong reason) scratch on the roof. It has penetrated through to the metal. This will probably need bodyshop attention.

Just before we flew out to California Hoshi’s cruise control stopped working, as I detailed in the last entry. At the time I believed all I’d have to do is adjust the brake pedal microswitch and the system would work again. This was indeed the case: unplug the wiring connector, screw down the switch a couple of turns then reattach the switch. Now Hoshi’s cruise control is working exactly as it should.

I’m also getting used to the size and shape of the car. We live on what is often a congested street and parallel parking is necessary. Kermy’s relatively large rear and poor visibility out of the rear glass made him difficult to reverse park into a tight space (for a small car). The Accord is no different. Parking sensors (or a tow bar) would make matters easier!

On that note, comparing the Accord with the Ka is something I find myself doing on a subconscious level. The three things I miss most about the Ka are easy. One, Quickclear. I have to de-ice my own windscreen these days. Two, the cruise control preset speeds and three, the brilliance of the Morette headlamps’ main beam. But the three things I like most about the Accord are one, the refinement on the motorway. Two, the VTEC bit and three the electric sunroof.

I don’t subscribe to the belief that the car’s engine is its heart and soul, but of course it’s a fundamental aspect of the machine. There are significant differences between the Honda and the Ford. On the face of it the Ford’s engine is an antique compared to the Honda. The Endura-E is an iron block, pushrod design whereas the Honda donk is an all-alloy, SOHC VTEC design. In many respects the Ford unit is aged but it doesn’t offer an antique performance for everyday duties. Both start just as easily, both settle down to a steady fast idle (1,400 rpm when it’s at freezing). Both are providing warm air within a mile from a cold start. One might expect this of the alloy block Honda but perhaps not of the iron block Ford.

As I have alluded to in CruiseControl, the Accord’s engine is very smooth and refined for most of the time. Actually the engine is always smooth apart from at a warm idle. The engine’s warm idle speed is 800 rpm, which feels slightly too low. Otherwise on the move that four cylinder unit disguises what it is very well. The induction growl the engine makes when it’s working with the higher lift camshaft profile (over 4,000 rpm) is addictive.

I called in to York’s Honda dealership, De Vries to increase my knowledge of all things Honda, starting off with the service schedule of this particular generation and age Accord. Hoshi has a 9,000 mile service interval. Given my use of the car and how frequent she’ll be receiving dealership attention I’m probably not going to bother performing interim oil changes every half service interval. The helpful staff at de Vries explained that they offer a less expensive range of services designed for owners of older vehicles. On the face of it, these services should save money however looking at Honda’s recommended service interval for various things (spark plugs, coolant, transmission fluid) and what is not covered in the discounted service I’m leaning more towards using the official service schedule. I accept that it may not be cheap, however the car has benefited from a full Honda service history (apart from the service she had when we bought the car) and I’m of a mind to keep this up.

When I had my accident in Kermy, very little was damaged (apart from the kid, of course). Unknown to me at the time, my PDA cradle was one of the casualties: the unit took a knock, which cracked the back such that it would no longer hold my Tungsten T2. I’ve taken this as an opportunity to upgrade my cradle to a Palm Tungsten-specific powered unit, which incorporates a built-in amplified speaker (perfect for the GPS), a spare powered USB port (handy for charging anything up that uses USB) and it also provides power (and charges) the Tungsten T2.

Hoshi wears 195/60 tyres on a 6J 15” steel rim. Honda’s specification is for “V” speed rated tyres but Hoshi is wearing “H” rated tyres on the front (the same speed rating I used for Kermy, as it happens). I suspect the previous keeper decided to economise on the tyre choice and fitted the slower speed rated tyre. “H” tyres are designed for vehicles with a maximum speed of up to 130 mph, “V” rated tyres allow a maximum speed of up to 149 mph. The 1·8 Accord has a maximum speed of somewhere close to but not exceeding 130 mph so one probably isn’t breaking the law by fitting “H” rated tyres. When I’ve worn out these tyres I am planning on replacing them with “V” speed booties.

Honda recommend that unladen tyre pressures are 32 PSI at the front and 30 PSI at the rear. Having driven Hoshi with the standard pressures I am now experimenting with slightly higher pressures of 34 / 32 PSI for the front and rear tyres respectively. As this point in time I don’t know how the car behaves when approaching the adhesion limit, this experimentation is more to establish what tyre pressures I can run at so as to maintain a supple ride. The basic assumption I’m making is that the higher the tyre pressure the lower the rolling resistance, hence the lower the fuel consumption. This is true through a small range but once the tyre pressure gets to a certain level, increasing the pressure makes almost no difference to rolling resistance. Honda’s maximum recommended pressure is 38 PSI front or rear so I have plenty of scope left. A learned friend of mine runs his particular car at the maximum tyre pressures for maximum high speed stability, but then he adopts materially higher cruising speeds than I do!