[CSA]

Hello/Namaste to users and readers of Team Bhp.

I request moderators to let this review be a separate new thread in long term reviews as my first post was merged in Accord Automatic Review post.

Now I come to my review of 2007 Honda Accord 7th Generation 2.4L Manual Transmission and it's story of how I got it and what is my progress with it as of writing this review.

I purchased a 2007 Facelifted 7th Generation Honda Accord in January 2021 from its 4th owner and at that time said car was registered in New Delhi, after 1 year in January 2022 my car was de registered by Delhi RTO authorities because of 15 year ban on petrol cars.

I live in Aligarh Uttar Pradesh and said car was also driven in Aligarh so it was not much of a concern for me but when I took my car to another state while it was de registered I was scared. What if? Some police man or traffic inspector checks my cars registration certificate. Thankfully nothing happened and I came back to my hometown after driving this car for 5 to 6 days.

Now I was very uncertain about this car as I cannot drive this car with full freedom on road because at any time my car can be impounded and my hard earned blood and sweat I invested in this car can be multiplied by zero by any Police or Traffic Inpector
on duty.

I was heartbroken because I cannot drive my car legally. From July 2022 till January 2024 my car was parked most of the time and I drove it illegally in my city and near by areas. I drove my car for around 10000 kms during this period.

Now comes my stubbornness to save my investment.

In November 2023 I applied for issuing NOC from Delhi (DL 3C) to Kasganj Uttar Pradesh (UP87). Getting NOC from Delhi was seriously very difficult as I live in Aligarh and I do not have time to go to Delhi again and again but somehow I managed to get NOC without visiting Delhi RTO even once. I got approval in January 2024 and got my car registered in Kasganj Uttar Pradesh where 15 year rule is not applicable as of now. After paying Taxes and Re Registration fees I got my car Registered.

Finally After 2 years of stress and sadness of owning a healthy De Registered vehicle I was happy and now I can invest more money in minor Repairs and enjoy what I missed for past 2 years.

Now my 2007 Honda Accord is even more healthier and registered for Non National Capital Region use.
In June 2024 I took my car for a road trip of around 1900 Kms on roads of Himachal Pradesh fully loaded with 1 driver (me) and 4 passengers, boot space 90 percent loaded.

After waiting for two and a half year of stress for a de registered vehicle I finally achieved remarkable experience and enjoyment from a 17 year old vehicle which was launched in 2003 when I was just 11 years old. This old Japanese 166 Horse Power vehicle is so good even today. I hope all Honda Accord owners like me feel same for there car.

I am driving this Honda Accord since 2021 and like every car it has its advantages and disadvantages.

First there are advantages according to my experience :
1- Reliability Factor of Made in Japan parts. This car never broke till now road side.
2- K24A4 engine is a cheap version of performance oriented K24 engine family but it's good mixture of 166 Horse Power and fuel efficiency. If it's performance oriented it will not return fuel efficiency of 10-12 Km/L.
3- The Double Wishbone front Suspension and Rear 5 Link Suspension combined makes this car glide effortlessly and sometimes it feels like car is riding over air Suspension over general or extreme damaged roads of India. Front Double Wishbone Suspension is also rare to find now a days in luxury sedan car of lower price segment I am not sure about BMW 5 Series and E Class but Double Wishbone is non existing in 3 Series and C Class Cars. Every one is using McPherson Setup for cost cutting.
4- Cost cutting in this car is very minimum at the time of its manufacturing. Door Garnishes and Beading are made of stainless steel instead of plastic coated chrome straps.
5- Having a low ground clearance of 155mm this car is stubborn on rough roads it is very rare I touched Underbody of this car over rocks and speed bumps. Thanks to its excellent Suspension setup.
6- Rear Seat comfort is so good and spacious for 3 Rear passengers.
7- Vtec Engagement is at 3500rpm. It's a family sedan upto 3500 rpm and after that it can be turned into a powerful family sedan.
8- Steering Feedback is excellent.
9- 2007 Facelifted model is different from Rear side and looks better and best than it's pre Facelifted model, I also feel I am driving a rare car which was in production and sale for just 1 year.
10- Air Conditioning is powerful. Air discharge from vents is very high. Recently I cleaned its evaporator coil after 17 years of service. I was surprised to find the size or evaporator coil is a close match to Radiator size of Maruti 800 or Wagon R in size.
11- Power Adjustable Driver seat can be adjusted 8 ways. Plus Lumbar Adjustment.
12- Tyre size is common to Type 1 Innova so Tyre Replacement is cheaper and there are plenty of options and I replaced my tyres with Yokohama Earth

Disadvantages according to me.
1- Parts Availability is major issue.
2- Engine is comfort oriented instead of performance oriented.
3- Hydraulic Power Steering will always leak at some point.
4- Parts are expensive because of inventory costs associated with old vehicle parts.
5- Low Beam Headlight is not effective.
6- Music System and Air Conditioning controls are integrated to one unit so Replacement of music system is very difficult. I have installed another music system parallel with car speakers.

I run a independent car workshop since 2019 and almost all the time I engage myself when my car or bike needs repair or part replacement so I will try to share my experience about what is takes to repair Honda Accord.

Thank a lot for reading my experience.

I hope this helps everyone.

Here are some pictures of my car both exterior and interior as of now.

[CSA]

Some more pictures of interior.

Notice steering wheel garnish is all damaged I am searching for used steering wheel when I find it I will change it. It's very difficult to find this type of steering wheel even in Mayapuri because wood garnish steering wheel only come is VTI L variant.

[CSA]

Serviced air conditioning systems evaporator coil of my car first time in 17 years of its existence.

Check before and after results I washed evaporator core with just water and Rin supreme soap.

If you use chemical agent for cleaning there is a major risk of core leakage which is bad for my pocket.

Air flow after cleaning is so good now.

It took me 2 complete days to remove all related parts and put them together without any breakage or damage. Parts of Accord are hard to find I jokingly call Accord Parts Eagle's Piss. Translate it into hindi and you will understand real meaning.

Joke

[CSA]

Honda Accord getting engine swapped

It's a K24Z2 engine of a 2010 Accord and not my Accord, posting it so that Accord users can see K24 engine sitting on engine Subframe.

Damaged engine is sitting on subframe and healthy engine is sitting beside wall in background.

Also notice K24 engine is very tall that is why it's inclined towards back in engine bay in Honda Accord.

[CSA]

These photos are of Himachal Pradesh trip. It was my first time I took my car for a road trip of around 1800Kms and everything went well.

Cars take people from point A to point B but good and reliable cars take you Far Far Away from Point A to point B in lesser time and with greater comfort.

Technically Honda Accord 7th Generation is a E segment car because its length is greater than 4800 millimeters, 4854 millimeters exactly but category wise it's a D segment car because 54 mms are negligible.

Comfort and space inside sedans of this size is so good my parents and relatives like to sit in Accord more than my uncle's XUV 700 on long family trips.

[ads295]

Superb thread sir.

Your post immediately brings up 2 questions for me:

1) Your car was deregistered in DL RTO in Jan '22 and you applied for an NOC in Nov '23? Is that even possible? Please elaborate how you pulled this off! :-)

2) The engine swap - why? Any issues with the old one? How difficult was it, did the engine mounts match? Did the trans go straight in? How does the car feel now?

[nik0502]

Hey CSA,

Great car. I am a fan of old Hondas. Had a Civic VAT for 10 years and it is one of the best cars one can own. Where in Aligarh is your garage.

[CSA]

Originally Posted by ads295

Superb thread sir.

Your post immediately brings up 2 questions for me:

1) Your car was deregistered in DL RTO in Jan '22 and you applied for an NOC in Nov '23? Is that even possible? Please elaborate how you pulled this off! :-)

2) The engine swap - why? Any issues with the old one? How difficult was it, did the engine mounts match? Did the trans go straight in? How does the car feel now?

Thanks a lot for your appreciation.

My car was de registered in Jan 22 and after that I was unable to figure out what to do and how to do NOC process.

In July 2023 I got a reference in Hathras RTO UP 86 this person was a contractor. He said NOC can be arranged easily but it will take time as legal owner of vehicle lives in Delhi and for NOC issue signature of legal owner is mandatory infront of Regional Inspector of RTO. NOW contractor lives in Hathras but he had a close connection in Delhi RTO, car is in Aligarh with me and what a complicated and difficult situation this is.

But somehow he travelled to Delhi took legal owner with him to Delhi RTO and legal owner being my friends cousin signed for issuance of NOC.

Actually I applied for NOC in August 2023 but contractor was not interested in my car but I emotionally blackmailed him and in November 2023 I motivated him enough for interest in my work.

In November 2023 my contractor started process of sending documents to Delhi RTO in December 2023 NOC process started in Delhi RTO system and in Jan 2024 I had NOC in my hand.

I registered my car in Kasganj and process was fairly easy I visited Kasganj RTO only once, I also had a contractor in Kasganj RTO he took charge of everything after I visited RTO for signing documents and showing my face and document verification to Regional Inspector of Kasganj RTO.

This is how I registered a de registered car from Delhi RTO to Kasganj RTO.

If anyone is planning inter state transfer of vehicle please hire a reliable or known contractor of RTO because they are so experienced that they will make these kind of processings hassle free. Of course you have to pay them money but they are saving your time and time is money right?

I hope this helps everyone.

[CSA]

Originally Posted by nik0502

Hey CSA,

Great car. I am a fan of old Hondas. Had a Civic VAT for 10 years and it is one of the best cars one can own. Where in Aligarh is your garage.

Excellent sir, civic is a proper sports sedan one can own.

One of my friend bought a used 2009 Civic Manual I drove it for quite sometime and it's an excellent sports sedan.

It's air conditioning is focused towards driver, speedometer and tachometer are separated for focus on RPM only while driving overall it was and it is a quite excellent sports sedan package provided by any company in India for such a low price.

Kudos to Honda

Here is a pic of that Honda Civic with my Accord.

Our Workshop is located on Quarsi Bye Pass road in Aligarh.

We call it CSA- Car Services Aligarh.

[CSA]

Originally Posted by ads295

Superb thread sir.

Your post immediately brings up 2 questions for me:

2) The engine swap - why? Any issues with the old one? How difficult was it, did the engine mounts match? Did the trans go straight in? How does the car feel now?

Apologies, I forgot to mention in my post that its a K24Z2 engine of 2010 model Accord being replaced/swapped.

I posted this photo for Honda Accord owners so that they can see K24 engine outside of engine bay.

Here is a video of that Accord without engine.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=_TF62Fld...m_H5a_igIGKW42

This specific 2010 Honda Accord brought total chaos inside my workshop.

[fordday]

Lovely thread. The major advantage I see is you also run a car service workshop and that solves 80% of the problems.

You brought up this car with so much love and dedication. It will serve you well.

[vyom_elan]

Originally Posted by CSA

Thanks a lot for your appreciation.

If anyone is planning inter state transfer of vehicle please hire a reliable or known contractor of RTO because they are so experienced that they will make these kind of processing hassle free. Of course you have to pay them money but they are saving your time and time is money right?

.

I might go through a similar process and I wanted to know how much this whole process will cost. (with and without an agent)

Please note that in my case I am not selling the car to anyone just want it to be registered elsewhere before the NGT deadline.

[CSA]

Originally Posted by vyom_elan

I wanted to know how much this whole process will cost.

You have to pay 25% of original road tax paid in case of inter state transfer plus new registration fees of 10-15000 ₹ or more depending on cc capacity of engine.

In case of intra state transfer fees and hassle is less because you don't have to pay road tax for example if your car is registered in noida and you transfer it to anywhere in Uttar Pradesh non NCR Region cost of transfer is just 10 to 15000 ₹ .

Again cost varies from RTO to RTO so for estimate visit your RTO office.

I hope it helps.

[CSA]

Originally Posted by fordday

Lovely thread. The major advantage I see is you also run a car service workshop and that solves 80% of the problems.

You brought up this car with so much love and dedication. It will serve you well.

Yes running a car workshop has helped extensively. I learned a lot and still learning.

I have lot of tools and machinery which are needed during repairs but 99% percent of the time we are engaged in repairing other people's car.

I started my car workshop project in 2019 so that we can repair Folks wagon's properly because I was never satisfied with work done by ASS.

Mechanics in ASS just work according to there experience or what they have learned just by seeing other mechanics and technicians.

I am in touch with so many technicians and Mechanics in my area 99% of them do not know what is a torque wrench.

[DrZhivago]

Thanks a lot for this thread good Sir. I have doing up keep on a 2006 model 2.4 MT and I am glad to see you taking yours in good shape. I have some major work coming up because the SC spotted the power steering fluid moistening up. It's supposed to be a common issue I guess. Also changed the evaporator 2 years back. Parts are hard so I am sourcing it from outside India. Looking for the fuel strainer now even though there isn't clarity about changing it. The SC cleaned it during the last service. God Speed