8th Gen used - what to look out for

[Michael S J]

Evening, currently weighing up going for an 08 2l petrol accord or an 8th gen 2.0 petrol, 2012 facelift - option is basically save money and have a nice car (08 7th gen) or spend (get a loan of a bit more and tighten up on spending) and have a really nice car.

Question is about the 8th gen -
It has 105k miles, a decent bit of history, seller seems a gent (non-native English speaker, which is relevant to interpretation of what he said below) and you can just tell he looked after it while at the same time enjoying driving it. 3 owners.

After a test drive it seems good, really nice drive. Two issues that showed up though -

1. It pulls slightly to the left, the seller said it was always there since he bought it two years ago. Not noticeable unless you let go of the wheel at speed and even when you do, it doesn't pull hard, but it's there - having driven a straight as an arrow 7th gen 07 for a long time, i know the difference. Question is, should I check anything on the car to make sure this is nothing more than an alignment issue? ( as it's possibly tyres from what I've read here)

2. He said the seal around the engine needed replacing, specifically a black rubber seal around in between the top and bottom of the engine - if you imagine where the coils are, the half cm rubber seal that goes around that part about an inch or two below the side of the coils cover.

He said something was leaking there, steam or something. He had the part and was going to change it himself, showed it to me. Pretty sure it was the rocker cover gasket. He does the maintenence himself. Could this be a sign of something majorly wrong or has anyone else with a 2l come across this? Could it be a sign that he has been driving the absolute boll0x out of it?

In general, is there anything else that needs servicing after 100k miles on these that I need to check?

Really appreciate any insight, thanks.

 

[Trawa]

My 8th does the same even after full laser alignment, might be subframe shift but I haven't dug deeper.

Rocker cover gaskets like to leak regardless of engine especially at this age so imo nothing to worry about.

Not sure about 2.0s but the 6mt has an issue with inner CV joints wearing out, check for floor wobble when accelerating between 30-40 and 60-70mph that goes away when coasting. Inner joints are fairly expensive (£350) and can only be obtained from Honda. I heard these have been improved in the facelift and are more resilient to wear but worth checking nonetheless.

Driver's door window control panel likes to go bad, £100-150 used and a pain to source as you need to match the trim (ES/EX)

Check for any rattling/knocking noises coming from the drivers side, might indicate a worn timing chain.

Other than that I can't think of anything really, the cam actuator rattle is exclusive to 2.4s.

 

[Michael S J]

My 8th does the same even after full laser alignment, might be subframe shift but I haven't dug deeper.

Rocker cover gaskets like to leak regardless of engine especially at this age so imo nothing to worry about.

Not sure about 2.0s but the 6mt has an issue with inner CV joints wearing out, check for floor wobble when accelerating between 30-40 and 60-70mph that goes away when coasting. Inner joints are fairly expensive (£350) and can only be obtained from Honda. I heard these have been improved in the facelift and are more resilient to wear but worth checking nonetheless.

Driver's door window control panel likes to go bad, £100-150 used and a pain to source as you need to match the trim (ES/EX)

Check for any rattling/knocking noises coming from the drivers side, might indicate a worn timing chain.

Other than that I can't think of anything really, the cam actuator rattle is exclusive to 2.4s.

Thank you so much for all of that Trawa.

Good to know on the alignment particularly and will check all of those other issues.

Great on the gasket cover that's a relief.

On the timing chain specifically, should they be changed at any particular interval, and roughly what's the cost if you know?
Thanks again

 

[btjtaylor]

Check that the valve clearances have been adjusted. It's only a £75-ish job and is on the service schedule (every 62.5k I believe) but most garages won't know it needs doing. Even my car that had full main dealer histroy had no evidence that it had been performed. The rocker cover needs to come off to do it so a great opportunity to kill 2 bits with 1 stone and change the gasket. It's possible DIY but you need a special tool and experience of feeler guages

It makes the engine much quieter at idle and improves performance/MPG and if it's extremely out can cause poor running and possible engine problems (so i've been told)

The build in satnav is rubbish and a nightmare to replace (im going through that at the moment) if you are not fussy about sound quality you are acutally better off going for a car without, as you can more easily replace the head unit with a modern carplay etc one, if thats something you want to do

My exhaust flexi joint was really degraded and blowing. It was an MOT advisory a couple of years back but nothing had been done about it. Its quite expensive from Honda if it needs replacing as I believe you have to buy a complete downpipe with pre cat, I replaced mine with a high flow aftermarket one which was also not cheap (USA import). A local exhaust shop could probably knock something up cheaper.

 

[Michael S J]

Check that the valve clearances have been adjusted. It's only a £75-ish job and is on the service schedule (every 62.5k I believe) but most garages won't know it needs doing. Even my car that had full main dealer histroy had no evidence that it had been performed. The rocker cover needs to come off to do it so a great opportunity to kill 2 bits with 1 stone and change the gasket. It's possible DIY but you need a special tool and experience of feeler guages

It makes the engine much quieter at idle and improves performance/MPG and if it's extremely out can cause poor running and possible engine problems (so i've been told)

The build in satnav is rubbish and a nightmare to replace (im going through that at the moment) if you are not fussy about sound quality you are acutally better off going for a car without, as you can more easily replace the head unit with a modern carplay etc one, if thats something you want to do

My exhaust flexi joint was really degraded and blowing. It was an MOT advisory a couple of years back but nothing had been done about it. Its quite expensive from Honda if it needs replacing as I believe you have to buy a complete downpipe with pre cat, I replaced mine with a high flow aftermarket one which was also not cheap (USA import). A local exhaust shop could probably knock something up cheaper.

Thanks Btj, if I take it might ask him to hold off on changing the cover and it get it done professionally with the valve clearance adjustment (I would never have known about that so thanks).

I'm really not a fan of satnav and doubt I'll ever use it. To be honest I'd prefer to completely disable it if I get the car and will look into how to do so (nothing illegal, just hate the idea of being tracked).

Will take a look at that flexi joint thanks

 

[stellamon]

He said something was leaking there, steam or something.

Hope it's not steam from a rocker cover

 

[btjtaylor]

Yes, good point, if there's actually steam/water coming out the rocker cover gasket then the head gasket is gone, do the usual checks (e.g. check under oil cap for mayo). I think from your message it sounds like a bad translation rather than that but better to be sure

 

[Michael S J]

Yes so oil cap was clean as a whistle and looked good (could have cleaned it off I suppose), but he did say steam so thanks for the heads up, I'll clarify that with him.~

Would it be driving well if the head gasket is gone? The drive was good when I tested it.

Also, presuming the only other thing that could be coming out of it is oil right?

Thanks

 

[btjtaylor]

Yes so oil cap was clean as a whistle and looked good (could have cleaned it off I suppose), but he did say steam so thanks for the heads up, I'll clarify that with him.~

Would it be driving well if the head gasket is gone? The drive was good when I tested it.

Also, presuming the only other thing that could be coming out of it is oil right?

Thanks

Yeah generally you would notice some loss in power, temperature guage climbing, and maybe some white smoke. On modern cars usually an EML will come on as well depending on how sensitive the ECU is.

It's probably an oil leak, but just be 100% before you buy, in my opinion. Maybe look for evidence of a thick black oil leak around the gasket just to confirm that.

I am always very suspicious though when people aren't willing to do jobs before selling a car ... rocker cover gaskets can be a hassle as they might not seal well if you get it wrong but on honda engines I don't think thats a big issue ... they're not a hard engine to work on in the scheme of things really and access in the accord engine bay is generally good. The amount of times you see cars on ebay with descriptions like "engine light on not had time to look at it", which really means "I plugged a scanner in and got scared by the codes" or "I tried some cheap/easy fixes and they didn't work".

Generally speaking though they're strong cars especially petrols so I think you should be OK

 

[Michael S J]

thanks Btj, will look for that, he has since clarified its a mist on there so probably fine. Couldnt agree more on people not fixing things before selling - in this case though it's maybe not the worst thing in the world as at least I'm aware of it, ill probably make the point id like it done at a specialist and ill get the valves done at the same time, to knock a bit off the price

 

[Trawa]

The "mist" might be oil leaking onto exhaust manifold and burning off. Happened to me a couple of times after taking the cover off and forgetting to wipe any spillages.

It's not a hard fix but make sure it's sorted out since it's a potential fire hazard.