Over 1500 miles since I bought the car two weeks ago and it WON'T STOP RAINING. Time to deal with the fact that the wipers suck. A good scrubbing with Bar Keepers Friend is the key, but new blades don't hurt either.
Tomorrow we'll discuss tall tires and finding proper track rubber for the 7th Gen Accord. Also, we'll see if these actually fit. 
Do you use barkeeper's friend on the windshield??
If you can't fit a 225-45 I'd be blown away. That's not a big tire...
I thought Hankook backed out of the OneLap Tire Program?
Beekeepers friend is fantastic on glass. Glad im not the only guy to use it.
Dusterbd13 said:Beekeepers friend is fantastic on glass. Glad im not the only guy to use it.
LoL, I needed that. Thank you autocorrect!
Ah!!!!
Damn you autocorrect! DAMN YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sleepyhead said:I thought Hankook backed out of the OneLap Tire Program?
It would appear that you are correct. Crap. Interestingly enough they branded them. Oh well, looks like I have to pay for that fourth tire. Crap.
it's a this year change to the tire policy.
re:autocorrect
I actually have it off on my phone... otherwise typing the "short" four-letter nickname we use for sleepykid#1 would be a 15-20 button pushing nightmare (and I don't want to have to teach a new phone dictionary constantly)
285/30/18 isn't that tall of a tire 
In reply to klodkrawler05 :
There are only two groups of tires, those that fit under the sheet metal, and those that need flares. If we're going to flare, sizes start at 305 and go up. 
After I get them on the car and take some pictures I'll explain how I ended up with this size. It really comes down to gearing.
dculberson said:Do you use barkeeper's friend on the windshield??
Barkeepers friend is the best glass friendly scrubber that I know. I use it on all of my cars to clean off the years of goo and water marks and get it back to clean glass. There is a noticeable difference in how well RainX works if you clean the windshield first.
I was going to say that it's safe on the outside glass of everything, but I'm not comfortable saying that considering all of the weird stuff that people drive around here. I'm also not 100% sure about using it on windshields with the rain sensing coating. If you have a "normal" car though it's basically a windshield restorer. Good stuff.
mazdeuce - Seth said:In reply to klodkrawler05 :
There are only two groups of tires, those that fit under the sheet metal, and those that need flares. If we're going to flare, sizes start at 305 and go up.
After I get them on the car and take some pictures I'll explain how I ended up with this size. It really comes down to gearing.
I like your style! I look forward to seeing shots with the flares.
In reply to mazdeuce - Seth :
Awesome. In going to give the barkeepers friend a shot on my Mazda 6 that badly needs its windshield cleaned up.
Tires. Racecars exist to make tires go fast. The Accord was NOT designed as a racecar. My car came with 205/65 R15 tires on steel wheels with hubcaps. The V6 Coupes came with a 205/60 R16 and eventually the 7th gen cars came with up to a 215/50 R17. All of these tires are about 25.5 inches tall. What I want to do is stay close to that height to keep the gearing about where it is as I'm pretty happy with second topping out a bit over 60mph for autocross. I also want to keep the wheels as small as I can to keep weight down and I'm looking for something in the 215-225 width range.
15 inch wheels would be great but the 225 size is usually a 225/45 R15 and that's 10% off.
16 inch wheels would be the next best, 225/50 R16 is only 2% off but a 225 needs at least an 8 inch wheel, and there aren't too many 16x8's, in fact Tire Rack lists exactly zero for my car. Crap.
Let's step to 17's. Lots of 8 inch wide wheels, still not too heavy, and I can get them in 225/45 R17. Also, these will fit on the One Lap Civic for testing and maybe for One Lap if need be. Spares are good.
So I looked around, decided I've had good luck with Hankook RS3's in the past, I ran them in 2015 on the V Wagon, people are saying good things about the RS4, and called Tire Rack to order a set of Motegi MR131 Tracklite wheels (claimed 17.2 lbs) and a set of RS4's in 225/45 17R. You have to call to get One Lap tires because they need to be branded for the event. I generally hate calling people on the phone but I love calling Tire Rack. They came yesterday and I put them on today.
They fit well for a tire that's almost nine inches wide. There is several whole fingers of width still available on the inside of the tire as well. Clearly I need to go wider in the future, but this is a good start. I also need to hit the car with the lowering stick. Hard.
The rules readers will note that an 8 inch wide wheel is not legal in STS. I'm going to chat with the local guys and see if it's cool that I still run with them because it's a good benchmark for me. If I end up actually competitive then I'll take a bump to SM or whatever I end up with. The rest of the rules readers will remember last nights conversation where I learned that Hankook bowed out of the One Lap tire war. I didn't catch that, and Tire Rack didn't catch that, but there it is. I called them today and they offered to take them back but frankly getting them dismounted, shipped, having TR throw them away, and getting new ones shipped and mounted seems silly. They're good tires. They will work for testing and if all goes well we'll be on 275's for One Lap this year anyway. I'm a bit bummed about not getting the 25% discount, but I suppose that's what I get for lack of reading comprehension.
A bit of data on old vs. new.
They are indeed shorter and wider.
Cheaper wheels maaaaay need a bit more weight to balance.
I like ordering tires and wheels from tire rack. You buy those two things and you get valve stems, lug nuts (if you need them, which I did) and centering rings. They even put the rings in the wheels for you and make SURE you know what it's all about.
And if they're directional they let you know where they go.
I'll leave them on the car for a couple of days to scrub them in and then pull them off until the beginning of next month when I have another autocross and then a track weekend back to back.
I had a feeling they were Motegi's on the way... I dig the color
I ordered this year's wheels and snow tires for my Accord from Tire Rack and was very impressed. They do a great job every step of the way. Funny enough I went the opposite way as you, from stock 17s to winter 15 inch steelies.
I always go for the subject path less important on your threads.......thanks for the BarKeepersFriend tip(HEB,Kroger,MalWart?), the front /rear screens on the 'V' are e36m3......any special application tips?
Oh great rim color choice 
mazdeuce - Seth said:
Let's step to 17's. Lots of 8 inch wide wheels, still not too heavy, and I can get them in 225/45 R17. Also, these will fit on the One Lap Civic for testing and maybe for One Lap if need be. Spares are good.So I looked around, decided I've had good luck with Hankook RS3's in the past, I ran them in 2015 on the V Wagon, people are saying good things about the RS4, and called Tire Rack to order a set of Motegi MR131 Tracklite wheels (claimed 17.2 lbs) and a set of RS4's in 225/45 17R. You have to call to get One Lap tires because they need to be branded for the event. I generally hate calling people on the phone but I love calling Tire Rack. They came yesterday and I put them on today.
They are indeed shorter and wider.
This is kind of funny from my perspective... The silver car a page back had 17" Motegi wheels with 225/50 tires. I went with 225/50's because they were a smaller increment taller than the 225/45 were smaller. But again, no suspension lowering for me. Also hated the ride and handling of the 18" wheels on the white coupe.
I found the combination on the silver car was just the perfect balance of compliance along with grip. But again that was grip for the street, not racing. I always loved hitting exits from the highway when they were clear of traffic in front of me. I think the control arm suspension, even stock, will really impress you with nice tires underneath..
And that set of Motegi's on the silver car came from the Rack.... I agree with all your comments about liking them.
3.25 oz of weight! On one side even. I'm guessing there was even more weight 180° from those. That is quite a bit for a 25" passenger tire.
I'd suggest taking those wheels to your nearest friendly tire dealer for a better dynamic balance. They should be able to deflate the tire, pop the beads, and rotate it 90°, 180°, or 270° to get a better match between the imbalance of the wheel and of the tire. And possibly check for an out of round wheel.
My current Dream Car is a 2003-2007 four cylinder Honda Accord sedan.
In reply to Woody :
Or......I might pull a Tom Suddard and blow up a couple of motors on an appliance trying to prove it works and throw in the towel.
It looks like there's a lot to think about at far as the '03-'07 run of cars. From my reading the 2006-07 cars switch to drive by wire and are better supported by ECU tuners because they use the same general ECU at the TSX. KTuner offers a solution but it requires you to run an ECU from a 2005 Car if you have an '03-04. Still trying to figure out what I'm reading, but tuning ability may or may not be one of those things that pushes someone toward one particular year.
Nice wheel choice, i like the color and general look of them (been running 17x8 Traklite knockoffs on my original Modified FWD Family Car since 2006).
Good tip on the ecu stuff. I'm filing such useful tidbits in case i ever do buy one of these cars that i claim to like so much.
mazdeuce - Seth said:Tires. Racecars exist to make tires go fast. The Accord was NOT designed as a racecar. My car came with 205/65 R15 tires on steel wheels with hubcaps. The V6 Coupes came with a 205/60 R16 and eventually the 7th gen cars came with up to a 215/50 R17. All of these tires are about 25.5 inches tall. What I want to do is stay close to that height to keep the gearing about where it is as I'm pretty happy with second topping out a bit over 60mph for autocross. I also want to keep the wheels as small as I can to keep weight down and I'm looking for something in the 215-225 width range.
15 inch wheels would be great but the 225 size is usually a 225/45 R15 and that's 10% off.
16 inch wheels would be the next best, 225/50 R16 is only 2% off but a 225 needs at least an 8 inch wheel, and there aren't too many 16x8's, in fact Tire Rack lists exactly zero for my car. Crap.
Let's step to 17's. Lots of 8 inch wide wheels, still not too heavy, and I can get them in 225/45 R17. Also, these will fit on the One Lap Civic for testing and maybe for One Lap if need be. Spares are good.So I looked around, decided I've had good luck with Hankook RS3's in the past, I ran them in 2015 on the V Wagon, people are saying good things about the RS4, and called Tire Rack to order a set of Motegi MR131 Tracklite wheels (claimed 17.2 lbs) and a set of RS4's in 225/45 17R. You have to call to get One Lap tires because they need to be branded for the event. I generally hate calling people on the phone but I love calling Tire Rack. They came yesterday and I put them on today.
They fit well for a tire that's almost nine inches wide. There is several whole fingers of width still available on the inside of the tire as well. Clearly I need to go wider in the future, but this is a good start. I also need to hit the car with the lowering stick. Hard.
The rules readers will note that an 8 inch wide wheel is not legal in STS. I'm going to chat with the local guys and see if it's cool that I still run with them because it's a good benchmark for me. If I end up actually competitive then I'll take a bump to SM or whatever I end up with. The rest of the rules readers will remember last nights conversation where I learned that Hankook bowed out of the One Lap tire war. I didn't catch that, and Tire Rack didn't catch that, but there it is. I called them today and they offered to take them back but frankly getting them dismounted, shipped, having TR throw them away, and getting new ones shipped and mounted seems silly. They're good tires. They will work for testing and if all goes well we'll be on 275's for One Lap this year anyway. I'm a bit bummed about not getting the 25% discount, but I suppose that's what I get for lack of reading comprehension.
A bit of data on old vs. new.
They are indeed shorter and wider.
Cheaper wheels maaaaay need a bit more weight to balance.
I like ordering tires and wheels from tire rack. You buy those two things and you get valve stems, lug nuts (if you need them, which I did) and centering rings. They even put the rings in the wheels for you and make SURE you know what it's all about.
so... uh, what's the centerbore on these again? you know... just for reference.
Back to the junkyard!
Armed with the theory that the heavier cars must have heavier springs, all I need is to remember my caliper, measure stuff, and get the biggest. Except I forgot my caliper. Crap. I decided to take a flier and pull all four assemblies off a 2005 Acura TL. I got lucky with the fronts (probably) and when they came off they were newer KYB's.
I also pulled the rears and then did just a bit of wandering before I found this unicorn.
In theory this car might have the stiffest springs of any of the Accords because it was the heaviest due to the battery behind the rear seat. As I started pulling stuff apart I noticed something interesting. This car has aluminum rear knuckles. I haven't seen these in ANY other Accord that I've looked at so far. The TSX next to it had aluminum rears, and they look the same, but I'm not sure it's that easy, and if it's isn't then I was facing the possibility of passing up a very cool factory part. So I took them.
So does anyone know if they put aluminum rear knuckles on any other 7th gen?
I got home and found the calipers right where I left them and measured the springs at 13.89 and 12.11mm F/R. This is annoying because my initial measurements were 13.47 and 12.16. I think the fronts are bigger but as of right now it looks like the rears are the same? Maybe? I'll have to lay things out next to each other to see. Either way, springs are getting cut and the next time I go I'll remember the calipers.
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