Early Christmas - 04 TSX for the cost of the Mugen suspension

We brought home an 04 TSX, 2nd owner, auto (for wife & daughter), skipped time, 228,000. 
It experienced about the only issue that the K has- low oil pressure timing chain tensioner collapse. Typical on start up & that's what happened in the PO's driveway.
We went to drag it home & I mentioned that it seemed to sit a little lower than stock, he said oh ya his friend the original owner put the Mugen -Showa strut/spring setup on it. I looked it up & those were $1500 & quite nice, not harsh.  Hopefully still good. That's what we paid for the car.
To go along with these will be a 24mm Progress adjustable rear sway bar since the TSX's apparently undesteeer badly due to the wimpy oem rear sway bar. Also ordered a stock TL-S front 27mm sway bar. 
Also ordered the replacement JDM K24A & a transmission. 

CONGRATS..good car. We love our 12 TSX wagon we owned since new. Bladder busting range for us.... but our K24 mated to the autotragric has no soul. I much prefer our K20 6MT in the Si. 

Between DW and I we drove an '04 TSX for 15 years and 90,000 miles.  It was a really nice car, though we did indeed have the timing stuff replaced at about 80,000 after it skipped a tooth.

Congrats!  That looks pretty clean and will make an ideal driver for your family.  I bet with the good springy bits underneath it will be even nicer.

My son wants to help me do a new timing set & improved tensioner as well as a VTC with 50 degrees like the K20 & a flash tune. Good for another 30-40hp from what I've read. 
He really wants me to turbo it but being an auto & fwd not doing that. He's doing a turbo K24 for his e30 318is. The motor & trans are almost ready to come out.

We'll have this motor to rebuild for boost later also. 

 

Ours turned 135k miles 

aside from axles under warranty - Havent needed anything. I keep reading about vtec actuator and oil burning problems on acurazine forums - luckily mine hasn't had any issues - yet 

More info on the Econo van-truck.

dxman92 said:

More info on the Econo van-truck.

This.  The tow vehicle caught my eye before the TSX did.  

EDIT: found the build thread in the project cars section.  So neat.  

In reply to rothwem :

Link to that? Looks like something i need.....

And this project will be fun to watch! These cars are really starting to appeal to me. 

I picked up an 05' TSX Auto a year or two ago that was in need of transmission work for a similar bargain price.  It didn't hurt that I bought it from the original owner who had meticulous service records for all 175k miles.  Once it was fully functional again I was really impressed with the car.  Perfect size, enough power, comfortable interior.  I could go for some more power and better acceleration, but I've rather have a 6spd car at that point.  Good find!

I would rather have a 6 speed but my wife & daughter prefer the autos. Looking forward to driving it. I've never driven one & ever had a car newer than 2002, so it will be our "new" car. I wondered why the intakes were 2 piece, then I found the starter. Easy to get to after removing the intake runners which was also really easy & it has a non-stick re-usable gasket. 

Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) said:

I picked up an 05' TSX Auto a year or two ago that was in need of transmission work for a similar bargain price.  It didn't hurt that I bought it from the original owner who had meticulous service records for all 175k miles.  Once it was fully functional again I was really impressed with the car.  Perfect size, enough power, comfortable interior.  I could go for some more power and better acceleration, but I've rather have a 6spd car at that point.  Good find!

Trans work with only 175k miles? There are 500k mile Tsx with stock autos 

mr2s2000elise said:

Nitroracer (Forum Supporter) said:

I picked up an 05' TSX Auto a year or two ago that was in need of transmission work for a similar bargain price.  It didn't hurt that I bought it from the original owner who had meticulous service records for all 175k miles.  Once it was fully functional again I was really impressed with the car.  Perfect size, enough power, comfortable interior.  I could go for some more power and better acceleration, but I've rather have a 6spd car at that point.  Good find!

Trans work with only 175k miles? There are 500k mile Tsx with stock autos 

I think it had some shift solenoids that were dying - but when a complete low mile transmission from Japan is only $250 I didn't want to repair the original only to find something else wrong.

In reply to dxman92 : I made a build thread & tried to link to it but I guess I don't know how to link to it.

The JDM motor & trans arrived. The only difference I can find so far on the motor is that the cold start air valves/tb's are different. Since I removed half of the intake with the tb anyway, that's not a big deal swapping them. The trans mount uses studs on the JDM instead of bolts. We tried to remove the studs but they are not coming out, so will cut them off shorter because one will interfere with a bracket & use nuts on them.

This is the RBB head 200hp K24. Replacing the trans also since it has 231k on it. There are some that have gone 500k but thought that since it's getting separated anyway may as well replace it with a lower mileage unit.  
The main pulley was really hard to get off. Used a diy pipe fitting in the center but still had to put a 1/2" extension trough the flex plate to get it off. 
Removed it because even with this lower mileage there was a little timing chain stretch, so it got a new tensioner, chain & guides.  
Also replaced- water pump, thermostat, front seal, valve cover gaskets, axle seals, trans seal.  

There is no timing cover gasket, it uses Hondabond. Hondabond is awesome stuff.
Making  a diy cold air intake by putting the AEM cone filter in the stock air box & pull air up from in back of the bumper. 
Also replacing radiator & condenser since the originals are really beat up. 
The passenger side power lock was not working which is common, so replaced that & while the panel was off, saw that the speakers were ripped so installed new 6.5" Pioneers. Will check the rear door speakers later. The rear deck speakers look fine, at least aren't ripped. 
The passenger outer window seal was ripped so replaced that also. 
Decided not to do the 50 degree VTC gear.  It would have required a Hondata Flash Pro, a 07-08 ecu, doing some wiring, then towing it to the dealer to enter the vin into the new ecu. All this for 20-30hp it  just isn't worth it. I do have the 50 degree VTC gear so we can use that on a turbo RWD project. 
Also installed the new 24mm adjustable sway bar & new end links. The 27mm TL front sway bar arrived, will put that in last after the motor & trans are done. 
We'll be pulling the motor out the top since the battery, air box, radiator are already removed. This way we don't have to drop the subframe.  Honda & most everyone else drops the trans out the bottom & motor out the top. We're removing them together.  This week @ Wednesday we will be removing the motor & trans.
I want to find some stock wheels to change from these white Enkeis. These were gray but the PO had them powder coated white. The tires are Firestone Fuel Fighters so will be getting some better performance tires.


 

Sounds like a fun project. 

I might suggest dropping the subframe for engine/trans removal if possible. Gives you great access to the control arm/steering rack/subframe bushings which are likely showing the 200 some thousand miles traveled. 

We went out the top route.  Still had to loosen the subframe & drop the back a bit to install the TL sway bar. Put in the TL front sway bar since we put in a 24mm adjustable rear on the stiffer setting. Read that they balance really well then. 
Would post pics but looks like my wife accidentally deleted them.

Got the new motor & trans in. Had a few issues getting it running. It would not fire initially, the JDM fuel rail & injectors were so clogged up with old gas they were dead, so swapped in the old set. It fired right up.

The trans cable mount on the trans was not right. Finally figured out that the cable shifter arms between the JDM & US trans's are different. Swapped the US version onto the JDM & now is fine.

Let it run a while & topped off all fluids & went for a drive. It drives really nice. Not a big fan of the auto but since the K24 can rev so high, just stomp on it & go.  The AEM cone air filter is really loud but I like it. I plan on modifying the stock box top to suck air up from in back of the bumper but right now the filter is sitting in the lower box & still sucking from below but the top is also open. 

It drives really nice. Corners great with the big sway bars & Mugen struts & springs. Now just waiting for the wheels & tires to arrive.