[Akshay1234]

ICE UPDATE -

So last monday I dropped of the car with Ajay (B&T) to install the Alpine SWR-1243d subwoofer along with the Alpine M500 monoblock. Also the bootlid needed to be damped.

The install was finished in about 3.5 hours and as usual a top class job done. He has also given me an MTX type enclosure. Will post pics up tomorrow. The amps are installed on either side of the boot and no wires can be seen.

And WOW, the bass this thing generates. It can give you a back massage. The system sounds much more complete than earlier, and will sound even better once I get my processor which should be by Feb.

Though I was hoping it would be a little more SQ oriented, im not unhappy at all now. Maybe a couple months down the road I will go back and get it tweaked a bit for SQ.

Bottomline - I would recommend Ajay to anyone, his installs are top notch. No wonder people with Jags go to him for 30lac installs.

[Akshay1234]

15000km Update -

The car has almost reached 15000kms, and it is running perfect as ever. The monstrous V6 engine continues to surprise me, with its power, and its fuel guzzling.

I sent it for a service a few days ago. Changed the engine oil after about 8 months, moved from Mobil 1 to Shell Helix Ultra 5w40. Now the engine is soo smooth it will give most german cars a run for their money. It is absolutely inaudible below 3000rpm, and even at the redline it feels like it can rev another 1000rpm easily. Makes me think the redline should have been closer to 8000rpm.

Some other small things have been done. The front brake discs were skimmed, and the braking has improved my leaps and bounds. I think I may just potpone getting performance pads since there is such a difference. Brake judder seems to have reduced a fair amount too. Im really happy I got them skimmed, since I wasnt sure it would help at all. I though the stock brakes were terrible and now ive changed my view.

The suspension was also retorqued, and now it drives like a new car. Though I feel it still cant handle my upsized wheels too well, it is stiff at lower speeds. Also there are a few squeeks and if I hit a very rough patch an odd rattle. Jap build quality, thats all.

Also the car has got 2-3 scratches on the bumper, which is inevitable in Mumbai, and ive stopped caring now. The most irritating one was in my building parking itself, LOL, where someone scraped their car against mine. Luckily its small.

Along with the cooler air nowadays, the car seems much quicker. I cant give it the beans in first gear, there is no traction inspite of the great Advan Sports. But what really made me happy was the fact that a friend was driving his E60 530d alongside on the Sealink, and this was just after the supercar show. So we were in a ripping mood. My car started off a little ahead and continued to stay ahead till the double ton where we both had to break. But the Bimmer was catching up slowly. Torque that thing has.

My music system sounds great and ive got many compliments for that, thanks Ajay. And the Alpine PXE-H650 processor has been ordered and will hopefully reach be in a month. Then it will sound soo much better.

Now I dont know what my next mod will be, but after hearing all those supercars I want a nice exhaust on my car. Magnaflow seems to be a good option. The only problem is getting ripped of here where people are charging 50k and it is available for 30k in the US.

Hope I didnt bore you with this post. And I need to take some more pics of the car.

Thanks. Any comments or suggestions?

[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

[b]15000km Update -

The suspension was also retorqued, and now it drives like a new car. Though I feel it still cant handle my upsized wheels too well, it is stiff at lower speeds. Also there are a few squeeks and if I hit a very rough patch an odd rattle. Jap build quality, thats all.

Thanks. Any comments or suggestions?

Congrats on the music system, would love to hear it someday.
You got the car serviced at Honda or elsewhere? And this suspension re-torquing, was it a part of the routine service or you had to ask for it specifically?

My Civic is also nearing its 25K service and hence these questions.

Good luck!

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by hiren.mistry

Congrats on the music system, would love to hear it someday.
You got the car serviced at Honda or elsewhere? And this suspension re-torquing, was it a part of the routine service or you had to ask for it specifically?

My Civic is also nearing its 25K service and hence these questions.

Good luck!

Got it serviced at Arya Honda at Lalbaug. I asked for it specifically, but you wont be charged for it. I ask for this everytime I send my car there. Ask for it to be done on your Civic, your car will probably feel a lot tighter.

[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Got it serviced at Arya Honda at Lalbaug. I asked for it specifically, but you wont be charged for it. I ask for this everytime I send my car there. Ask for it to be done on your Civic, your car will probably feel a lot tighter.

Thanks, will surely ask for it among a lot of other things that I have in mind.

Cheers

[Xehaust]

Great to hear the update on your car. Am hearing about this re-torquing thing for the second time. Will definately get it done at the next service as my car has started feeling kinda wobbly & shifty when turning on an uneven road. If the re-torquing doesnt work, perhaps the suspension is wearing out & if thats the case, am definately considering a suspension upgrade
On another note, are you coming for the meet this Sunday?
Heres the link - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/team-b...eb-mumbai.html

[raghav.carfreak]

Hey, I just gave my civic for service(pick up -drop), and i mentioned suspension re torquing on the jobs to be done,I got a call from the service centre, and they didn't know what suspension re torquing is, I told them I'd read about it online(because i got to know about it from this thread only) and I wanted to know what it was, They said, They just tighten the suspension? Someone please clarify the same so that when he calls, i can ask him to do the needful

[Akshay1234]

Just to clear that out. In the retorque they tighten every bolt on the suspension back to factory specs. So in my case, since my car has larger rims the load on the suspension is more so each time I send it to the service centre I ask for this. And what a difference it makes to the feeling of the car.

[raghav.carfreak]

Hey, I'm guessing thats what they did, and charged me 265 for it, Just got the car back from service, havn't driven it around extensively besides the routine test drive around the block, but I'm guessing it should've made a difference.

[Akshay1234]

Hey, here are some random shots of my Accord. Sorry for the poor quality but all of them were taken with my cellphone. Let me know what you think.

The car is still running perfectly. It got a small ICE upgrade in the form of a processor, but thats for another post. I really need to upgrade the suspension and brakes though.

[Akshay1234]

Earlier I had upgraded my ICE with Alpine Type R 6.5" components in the front and 6x9s in the rear, and added a Focal Solid 4 amp to power these. The sound improved a whole lot after adding these and it became loud. But due to the OEM HU there was a hissing noise present. It prompted me to start looking at other options, like processors. I didnt want to change the HU since I wanted a complete stock look.

Later I added the Alpine Type R 12" sub and the M500 amp. The hissing noise was still present, and I decided I had to get rid of it somehow. I started looking at processors and since I couldnt spend much I decided on the Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.1 since only that fit in my budget. I ordered it and unluckily (or luckily) it was out of stock, so I couldnt get it.

Fast forward to this month. I saw the Alpine PXE-H650 just a few $ more than the RF 3sixty.1. And after taking the opinion of a few ICE gurus I ordered it. It has a few features over the 3sixty.1 like time alignment etc. So I got the processor last night. And headed over to Ajay to install it, since he had done a brilliant job of installing everything else.

Basically the Speaker outputs from the HU go into the processor, which flattens the EQ and then processes the sound and outputs it to the amps, which in turn output that to the speakers/sub.

Tuning the processor was quite cool. There is a cd with it which contains software. You attach the processor to your laptop with a usb connection. And the same cd goes into your factory radio. So first the processor has to flatten the factory radio eq. For that a certain track of the cd is played and the setup is chosen on the processor, which does this.

After that is done, there is a mic provided, which has to be placed in different positions so that the time alignment etc can be set. You have to place the mic in the position, close all the doors etc, and then through the laptop start the process. Sound is played through the speakers and the mic analyzes it and the processor sets its settings. This has to be done for 4-8 places depending on your choice.

Anyway the results were great. The sound is so much clearer than earlier, and the sound stage seems to have moved to the front. Im enjoying my system even more now.

Here are a few pics I took later, sorry again for the crap quality. Only one is of the processor itself.

[saketa]

Amazing pics!
I wanted to change the head unit for my accord but the guy at the shop said that it isn't desirable because the Stock HU comes with an inbuilt amplifier and a new HU without a good amp will sound pretty bad. Is there any options for available to play MP3s through the stock HU? (Apart from radio transmitters)

[Sajuanchorage]

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[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by saketa

Amazing pics!
I wanted to change the head unit for my accord but the guy at the shop said that it isn't desirable because the Stock HU comes with an inbuilt amplifier and a new HU without a good amp will sound pretty bad. Is there any options for available to play MP3s through the stock HU? (Apart from radio transmitters)

You cant change the HU. You can add amplifiers etc to the current HU like I have done and then add speakers. It dosent sound bad by any means.

Or you can add another HU below the AC controls in the cubbyhole. And you can attach amps and speakers to that. It will sound better.

ORRR see this link
Honda Accord Accessories - Audio and Electronic Accessories - Discount Genuine Honda Accessories
You can add the USA spec ipod connector to the stock hu, and then you get an aux. The second option is the mp3 player which connects to the stock HU, it fits in the cubby hole below.

[np23]

Your V6 is looking as good as ever,great to see you enjoying the best of it.
Its great to see that not only does the system sound so insanely good but what is even better is that such a near and good job took only about 3 hours!!!
I know most of the other dealers would've started by quoting 3 hours but ended up taking much more time.
Good job