{"id":2698,"date":"2017-04-20T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/?p=2698"},"modified":"2017-04-20T06:00:23","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T10:00:23","slug":"so-long-2003-accord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/2017\/04\/20\/so-long-2003-accord\/","title":{"rendered":"So Long, 2003 Accord"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After many faithful years of service to my family, our 2003 Honda Accord has been decommissioned.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2704\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_01.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_01.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A 2003 Honda Accord LX, 4-cylinder, automatic transmission. Bought new in 2003 to replace our old Ford Taurus, I was only 8 years old when we brought it home.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2705\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_02.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_02\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s had its share of accidents. On a snowy night in 2007 it rear-ended another car.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2714\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_031.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_03.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And in 2015 it was on the receiving end of a rear-ending.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2717\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_04.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_04.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At just over 7 years old, in 2010, it reached the milestone of 100,000 miles.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2721\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_05.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_05.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A great highway cruiser, the Accord has been the vehicle of choice for many road trips, including trips to Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, Maine, and a 3,600 mile round trip to Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2727\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_06.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_06.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While the first car I ever drove at all was our 2001 Civic, the Accord was the first car I drove on public roads.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2728\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_07.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_07.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I also did my first oil change on this car, right before the Texas trip. Like many high-mileage Hondas, the Accord suffered from moderate oil consumption.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2735\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_08.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_08.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the summer of 2016, all the indications showed that the timing chain had stretched, and I was all ready to replace it when it miraculously healed itself. The same symptoms began to happen about a month ago, in March 2017. As the Civic was out with a bad brake line we didn&#8217;t get a chance to diagnose and repair this time, and we were too late.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2739\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_09.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_09.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The timing chain failed on April 11th, 2017, and the trusty 2.4 liter four-cylinder was no more.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2743\" src=\"https:\/\/mechanicalmalarkey.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/2017_04_20_10.jpg\" alt=\"2017_04_20_10.jpg\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" \/><\/p>\n<p>14 years, 179,158 miles. Loved by many, the 2003 Accord is survived by its brethren, the 2001 Civic, 2001 CR-V, 1997 Civic, and 2003 Subaru Outback.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>-Dan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After many faithful years of service to my family, our 2003 Honda Accord has been decommissioned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-2698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-cars","tag-engines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mechanicalmalarkey.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}