Photography Phridays 1.04.19

What a better way to end 2018 than car repairs…I had something planned today, but as it turns out my car had other ideas

*wasn’t expecting so I am on mobile* Don’t get me wrong I love my 2015 Honda Accord sport abate with a 4 cylinder & cvt, the v6 would be nice doh, but 29 mpg is the plus side of the 4 banger and decent cut. Though when I got the car almost 2 years ago it was salvaged from a friend my uncle knows( I was partial to the guy,but my uncled helped me pay so I didn’t argue). Originally it was 13.5k$ @ 138×× miles which is a fair price,but increased to 15.5k$ around the price of a higher mileage clean model…that was after we agreed at the 13.5k price and he began repairs cause it was salvaged!

Unfortunately, I wasnt in the position to say otherwise and the plus side was the idea of having a new car over my 02 accord was more enticing. But oh was I wrong! Buying salvage is not bad per se, but know what you are getting into. In this case we trusted my uncles friend and he turned out to be sketchy.

First, off it took forever for him to get paperwork done, on top of jacking up the price, he dismissed problems I asked him about as “it can’t be messed up because I did it” -without actually checking it out-!! Again things felt like a mixed bag driving as if it was better than my old 02 accord cause that car was over 10 years old, but something felt off on the 15 accord. After replying all 4 times after a few thousand miles things started to raise some flags. Again the car had under 14k miles when it was purchased replacing the tires that early was weird. There was also a lot of squirrliness in the rear wheels when on wet pavement or if I hit bumps -the majority of SoCal- I thought it was traction control doing its thing since my 02 accords had nothing of the sorts so I let it be. IT WAS A NIGHTMARE!! Driving in the rain was like a slick squirrely nightmare!! The rear would step out about 40mph on the rainy wet ground! Literally, a 12 miles trip on the freeway seemed like an eternity of impending doom!!after that I didn’t bother going to the guy we bought it from, I just wanted the thing fix, repair, SAFE!! TLDR; it was fixed after a few different trips to various mechanics to diagnose it.

yeah…so the rear right caliper was missing the bottom bolt to clamp it together. This caused uneven breaking and the squirrliness on the roads. The mechanics were surprised I was even alive cause the brake pads were worn so unevenly the rotor was done as well! Although I find it pretty impressive in the time I racked over 15,000 miles! I was able to do everything relatively normal in terms of driving and make the drive to Las Vegas and back. That fixed the back end from spinning out during the spurts of rain in SoCal. Now the major unexpected issue at over 43,000 miles, TLDR the suspension was failing. Don’t get me wrong I prefer the slightly firmer ride of Hondas compared to Toyotas, but there was a distinct crashy feeling when I would drive over broken pavement and expansion joint. But it wasn’t so bad that I was complaining about it so I left it as is. I wasn’t until I realized the wheels were worn out pretty quickly and there was a lot of nose dive when I break the car. there was also a distinct creaking when I had to go over speed bumps and up driveways. Had to get my mechanics to check it out …yup shocks were failing and the rear strut ( where the noise came from) was also failing… and yes I looked at my car with the mechanic in disbelief. The cupping tires and everything else all went together…sad days right before the holidays spending over 1k in repairs… HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

The main thing is now my car is driving wonderfully, it is safe, and I basically gonna keep the car forever since so much money has been sunk into it. I am definitely thankful that nothing happened to me while all these issues showed up! The plus side is now my car has nice smooth Monroe shocks! 😀