1994 Honda Legend Coupe - Gone! 20/4

So since the start of the month, the passenger side of the interior has looked much like this



In preparation for my little transistor/resistor to arrive from the US so I can have more than one fan speed on my heater blower.

The issue I was having, was trying to locate the transistor unit to remove it from the car. I had this handy diagram from a Honda Parts website (quite handy if you have a Honda www.parts-honda.uk/)



Part 15 is the offending article but I couldn't picture how to get to it on the car. I actually started taking out the glovebox frame and the heater blower motor unit itself before I asked on the Acura Legend group on facebook. Where I was told it should be just there when you take the glovebox out, two screws and you're done..

Had a look for anything electrical held in with two screws..



(There was a screw hiding behind the brown plug) Yes, it had been hiding in plain sight all along



Once you undo the screws and pull the unit out, you're left with this. The little circular transistor is what I'd be replacing.

For anyone who happens to be reading this, has a Legend and is planning to do the same fix. The transistor is SOLDERED in. You can't just unscrew the screws and lever it out. (Well actually you can, but I highly advise you do as I say, and not as I do )

Anywho, flipped it over, unscrewed the back cover and revealed the inner workings



I'm not going to pretend I know how it works, all I know is I had a like for like replacement and two pins needed soldering



I am no master solderer but that shows where the pins come through

I'm not sure if the rusty marks on the old transistor were signs it had failed but the new one certainly looks better in place



Chucked it back in the car, reassembled the glovebox area and I now have all the heater fan speeds at my disposal! A little fix but a very satisfying one nonetheless.

Even though it took a while to arrive, a grand total of £14.46 is a handy saving over £154.81 (plus shipping) for a whole new resistor unit





That leaves me with the electric windows and the rear demister as the next two big electrical jobs to sort, so they'll get tackled sometime soon!

I figured there probably would be I'm not clever enough with electronics to have found an equivalent though hahah

My Toyota Carina II had the speed resistor listed as £40+ on eBay...

I studied it (as illustrated in the posting) and found the 'guts' identical to Honda/Rover 200 @£6.

I just cut the plastic down on all 4 edges to make it smaller + drill a securing screwhole.. SlamDunk

Love savings me... Just rebuilt the 'winker switch' with a bit of part swapping from MR2.

OVIMOR

Stunning. Right up my street this one. In fact, I was quite tempted when it was available on here.

The colour suits the lines perfectly. I just love it's rarity and 'oddness' (in the nicest possible sense) being a big coupe. The interior looks like a smashing place to be.

Bookmarked Adam. Keep the updates coming.

Quick update from daily life with the Legend

Got chatting with another Coupe owner on the Acura Legend forum, turns out I may have something to add to my electrical gremlin list as the boot is meant to be soft close as well as the doors currently it takes quite a slam to close which would certainly explain a lot...

Also I went for a drive up to Lincolnshire to see some family, on my way back I heard some scraping noises from the back at low speeds. My mind immediately thought of the state of the rear suspension and I assumed that one of the bushes had collapsed or something.

Pulled over into a layby fearing the worst to find this...



No change in exhaust note at all, just an outer layer of the rear silencer peeled off haha. With a bit of yanking it came free and was deposited in a bin



I don't know how many layers of silencer there are, but I expect the original exhaust's days are numbered. When it does start blowing, I'll invest in something new and shiny to sort it


Other than that, its been providing good daily service. I do still need to complete the deep clean, and I do still have jobs to sort on it but I'm getting round to those in time. I'm having a bit of a clearout of car bits and projects at the moment so once I'm a bit clearer, the Legend will get some TLC

Been a while without an update! Mostly this is because there hasn't been much to mention, the Legend has been doing good service as a daily driver while I've been generally having a big sort out of everything car related that I own.

I had one scare the other week when driving to work in some crawling traffic where the temp gauge needle looked a little high, then I realised it wasn't stopping its climb towards the red! Put it in neutral and turned off the engine while coasting down a slight incline, turned it back on and the needle was back to normal, drove to work fine. Checked the coolant level later and it was a little low, topped it up and its been fine since. I should probably be more careful in a car that has a bit of a reputation for HGF (in the US at least)!

In happier news, I got a pic of it next to a Prelude that frequents the work car park





Not long after that, I noticed that the drivers side headlight had a crack in it while washing the car



Coupe and Saloon headlights are different, and the only one I've seen on ebay lately is £120... So I'll live with the cracked one for now

I haven't made any inroads on fixing any of the issues with the car so far, although I have been pricing up various bits. One bit which arrived recently is a receiver dryer for the air conditioning which I want to get working. The condenser is pretty beaten up so I'll be replacing that, I also checked the compressor recently but it doesn't seem to respond to input from the switch. So I'll add diagnosing that to my list of jobs!

The big-ish job I have started lately, is trying to finish off the big clean/detail of the car and get the paintwork shining a bit more.. I've given the car a couple of washes in the time I've had it, but I kept finding remnants of pine needles and other such gunk coming out from the seals while rinsing.

So this weekend just gone, I took the plunge and decided to take off the roof, windscreen and rear screen trims. I didn't really want to do this as they're all very fragile and very much out of stock for new replacements.

Ignore the state of the roof trim, but you can just see down the side, pine needles hiding in there, which come out under water pressure



Removing the trim made it very clear why repeated washing, wasn't shifting the dirt







Mucky! And very satisfying to clean out





Annoyingly I slightly bent one of the rails on removal, thankfully its gone back to shape with some very careful hammer work

Front trims came off next, weren't too much trouble to get off, but still a very nervy job which I didn't enjoy. Broke a clip or two here and there..







The dirt levels weren't too bad here actually, the channels act as a gutter for water from the roof though so I made sure to clean them out as best I could. I also discovered a couple small surface rust bubbles around the windscreen frame, gave them a quick rub back, rust converter and some paint. I'm always glad to catch little things like this early so made removing the trims a little more worth it









No pictures of the finished product as I was in a bit of a rush! Finally was the rear screen.. The trim comes off in two halves and was an absolute pig to get off



When I did finally get both the trims off, it was clear that this was the worst offender for hidden dirt













There was also a curiously large amount of sealant underneath the drivers side trim near the top of the pillar, I think these trims have been off before at some point in the car's distant past..

In any case, it was very satisfying to get rid of all this hidden curse word and reveal clean bodywork once again







What I didn't count on, was the rear trims being an absolute pig to refit, they absolutely refuse to click into place and remain there. I think I may have to also invest in some sealant...


Thats us up to date on the Legend. I've been on a self imposed car parts buying embargo for the past month or so so progress has been slow, but I'm probably going to allow myself to buy some bits in the next month, I'll either focus on getting the AC working, or getting the suspension overhauled, while also remembering the list of other little issues that need sorting!

Yep looks to be all electric on the Legend, I've got quite used to the little whirr of the soft close and seatbelt butler everytime I get in now

I used to have a 750i E38 and I think that had electric soft close doors as well if I remember rightly, or that might have just been the boot lid..

Swapped the rear caliper over today, pretty straightforward job so I didn't really take any pictures, there was a spring to transfer from the old to the new caliper but apart from that it was just a case of unbolt the old, install the new.

A slight issue appeared when it came to bleeding the brakes, I've got an eezibleed kit but the master reservoir on the Legend has a huge diameter cap on it which mine didn't fit. I also didn't have anyone handy to do a 2 person bleed

So I ended up pumping the brake pedal by hand and holding it down by wedging my trolley jack handle between the accelerator, brake and hand brake pedals like so



I was then able to go and crack off the bleed nipple and get some air and fluid out. Not the most scientific way to do it but it seemed to work for now at least.

Taken it for a quick drive round the block and the brakes certainly don't seem any worse than they used to be so that might be sorted. The car still needs a brake fluid change at some point, but that can wait until I come to sort out the ABS pump

Tomorrow might see me re-attempt to fit the rear window trim but apart from that its just fingers crossed for either a pass, or a not too heavy fail on Tuesday