2002 Honda Accord EX from North America - Comments

Rear Brake Pads replaced due to simple wear, still had the original ones when I replaced them at 63000 miles.

Front Brake pads are about to go out, still have a couple thousand miles left though. $50.00 for genuine Honda pads, not bad.

Had to adjust lifters due to some knocking when engine cold. This was simple routine maintenance, the manual says to do this every 60K miles, but people who know these cars say every 30K miles.

The moonroof seal makes some squeaky noises, I just applied a little bit of grease to fix.

After one year of ownership and 11000 miles this car has brought mixed emotions, but overall a very good taste. Keep in mind sometimes I drive the car really hard. And it swallows punishment and asks for more.

To start, the car looked so new on the dealership and everything under the hood and underneath the car looked brand new and clean too. And with some basic maintenance every now and then, it still looks new. So that convinced me to buy this car.

What I like about the car:

The suspension is a very good compromise between sport and comfort, but leaning more to the comfort. It handles great on turns and it will surprise how much grip it has. Although the new Michelin Energy's are no sport material. I guess that dual A-arm in the front and rear really do the trick. You can surely tell the difference in steering and grip past adherence limit from FWD cars with McPherson configuration.

The brakes are simply excellent, from high to low speed stops. They always stop the car with safe feeling and in very very short distance. It gives you confidence to go fast. The feel of the pedal is solid and very short travel. No sponginess whatsoever. The ABS works like a dream and I discovered it has a threshold memory feature. This worked excellent in snow and ice, ABS starts modulating even before you actually lock-up. Fading resistance is not the best, but for sure better than the competition.

The engine revs up pretty quick and the car is fast also, but the gear ratios on the 5 speed are a tad too long. And I guess they are a lot longer in the 4 speed auto tranny. But it makes up for excellent mpg on the highway. So it gives you a sensation that for 150hp/150lbft it should do better. Although I timed 8.5 sec from 0-60. Same as an A4 1.8T and less than a 4 cyl Mazda 6, Camry and Altima.

The interior is nice, nothing luxurious, but very well laid and practical. Stereo sounds good too (6 CD in dash). Seats are comfortable, but lack good side support and the headrests feel improvised. Heater and radio controls feel like quality and work very well.

The car looks good and is very sleek. And to my opinion much better looking than some newcomers and current cars (2006 civic, 2006 sentra, previous altima, previous camry, Malibu, Impala and many more)

Parts are very easy to get and fairly inexpensive. Also it is very "mechanic-friendly". That is a big plus if you are a DIY and hate to give money away to rip-off auto shops. I adjusted lifters, changed rear pads, inspected: seals, spark plugs, timing belt, tensioners and cleaned the entire throttle body in one morning. VTEC is not as complicated as it looks.

What I dislike:

Car uses oil when pushed too hard (opening the VTEC to often or for too long) Last time it used one and a half quarters in 3000 miles. Although I love the sound of the engine when the VTEC opens.

The steering, even though is precise, is too light and a little slow. Also the steering wheel is terrible, both in looks and feel (too thin, specially if you are a guy) It is like grabbing a 1955 Bel-Air wheel. But an ugly steering wheel is not decisive factor for an entire car. Fixed with a cover.

Paint, although is good quality (shines and holds up very well) is way too thin, and sheet metal is also very thin. Picks up dings just by looking at it.

Overall the car has been very reliable, except the oil consumption thing, which I hear now is typical Honda. Also behaves excellent in long trips and in the snow/ice. Has plenty of cargo space and very economical to maintain. In the highway, I can easily keep up with BMWs, MBs and Caddys.

I would definitely recommend this sedan or coupe to anyone looking for a car in the $7K to $12K neighborhood. Just avoid cars with more than 150K miles, with those miles, the oil problem becomes a nightmare. But I believe it would be worthy to rebuild the engine, because the rest of the car seems to last a lot longer.

I have 156,000 miles on my 99 Accord, and it runs beautiful. I am tired of tuner crowd people going out and buying a perfectly good Honda with decent mileage, and then ruining it with an engine that is supposed to be in a different car.

Some tuners have pulled this off well, but most of them are done half ass, and can be more dangerous than driving a Honda with over a million miles.

I have seen a Honda with over a million miles BTW.

Funny you should mention that thing about not getting them over 150k because I've gone and done just that. Can you elaborate at all on the type of problems encountered for vehicles over this threshold. you could email me at jks9x@virginia.edu I'd appreciate. Thank you and a very well written article by the way, I rated it as brilliant.

Also what kind of oil were you using in the car.

The oil consumption issue was while using the Honda-recommended 0-20W oil. I believe I was burning some oil due to the very hot weather (90-100 F) and me pushing that needle to 6500 rpms too often. After changing to 10-30W the oil usage is unnoticeable. For this past summer I opted for the Mobil1 15-50 (synthetic), and it works like a swiss clock. Let's see how this "thicker" oil does in cold-starting in winter days..

I bought the 2002 Accord V6 four-door new for my wife. It now has 86,000 km. on it and has been great - although we have had Honda service since new. I think they go overboard on a lot of service items, but it was close to wife's work and convenient, if expensive.

Brakes were replaced at 82,000 km. and no other significant items.

Now, however, we have a water leak coming in at front passenger side, soaking the floor mat. Cannot seem to find

the leak. Possibly from sunroof drain, but everything looks as clean as brand new.

More troubling is the engine oil leak - minor drip - discovered recently by dealership at routine service.

Service manager told my wife there was a major leak, but he could not look to see from where because it would soil his clean shirt. He was, however quite sure about the cost of repair - $1100.00. He said the engine would have to come out and full day to repair.

Since Hondas are pretty tight, I think the leak must be from a seal, torque converter, etc... something which could have overheated and started to leak. Again, improbable, given that my wife NEVER abuses the car.

Have any of you folks had similar problems with your 2002 Honda Accords?

Probably the oil pan gasket. And it would cost a lot less to fix it somewhere else than a Honda Dealer.

I have had 5 Honda's and they all have leaked from the oil pan gasket once they were older than five years. My Hondas range in miles now from 100,000 to 260,000 miles.

The only other problem we have had with oil was with the 1994 Accord. When the timing belt was replaced on her, they did not do the oil seals around the timing belt on the camshaft, etc and oil leaked out the timing belt cover. Not a lot though, but it could be considered major.