markspan6243

Well i finally got a new car. March 4th my del sol got totaled, 2 days before i had it sold. Insurance gave me 5000 from the car so thats what i had to work with. so between then and now ive been looking at cars all over the place. recently i thought i found a great car in GA, but it ended up being a POS in person. so ive been driving around my moms old 2001 oddessey lx because she now has a wrx wagon. so i almost gave up on getting a car of my own, until i found my new love . a 2003 Honda Element Ex 5spd RT4wd. I got it for 7k out the door (with a 2k loan from my parents) yesterday in Columbus OH. The car drives great, runs great, and is just all around awesome. It has 157xxx miles on her, and all it needs to be in tip top mechanical condition is the A/c fixed, and the exhaust leak fixed. Its loaded up with 7 speaker audio, aux hookup, mudflaps, alloy wheels, roof console and such. Plans?:

1) A/C!-Ohio gets hot in the summer, and im not gonna take it. the del sol didnt have a/c and it sucked lol. CHECK
2) Roof Rack-i actually use one, its not for the "JDM", i just need to transport my bike around. it already came with yakima landing pads, so ill just cop the control towers and bars from my dads 4runner and use them (he doesnt use the roof rack)CHECK (plus a roof basket im borrowing from [EJ]jonthan)
3) Exhaust leak- the dam thing sounds like a pooper lol
4) Pay off my debt-i wanna pay off my debt to the parents before i get the next item
5) any and all (well most) OEM optional parts!- i want pretty much every option for the element. the more, the better! and unlike Billboard's element, i have the EX so there already is most of the options on there
6) replace worn out things on the car- the person(s) who had this element before me used it.....WELL. so theres interior panels scrapped up and whatnot, which will be replaced

and now for some pics. bad pics, but hey, they work for the time being. its dark out and about to storm :/







157515 running like a tank


K24A4 FTW (not really, only 160 hp and 160 lb :/ lol slow pig)

yakima control towers!

now she isnt perfect. like i said, previous owners used this car well. its got a couple dents in the roof, the doors and whatnot, but they really arent bad. and you cant even see the roof so those arent bad, plus the roof rack will cover them up. the valve cover needs repainted also (lol not, getting a type r one ). more updates whenever i feel like it.

this build is a functional, practical build! little to no JDM/JDM-esque parts. after market parts may include but not limited to:
yakima
hella
....well thats all i can think of now lol. stay tuned!!

markspan6243

talkin to my self here probably lol but i ordered a bunch of OEM manuals because the element didnt come with them. this coming week im going to take it up to honda and see if they can fix my keyless entry because it wont unlock the drivers side, and the power lock button on the inside wont lock it either so i have to lock it with a key :/ not really a big deal but oh well. also, ordering some OEM parts to replace the beat up ones that the car came with lol.

As for today put my first tank of gas in and rainex-d the windows and healights. also degreased the interior because the stupid dealership that i got it from like hosed down the inside with armor all. lame, but its all gone now pics up tomorrow

Frozen E

I'm so glad they did away with those blue and green interiors. ACK!!!
Love my '08 EX AWD 5sp.

Have fun with yours. I'm loving the hell out of mine.

Get a set of 07 or 08 headlights on there.

markspan6243

lol man i actually like the green interior! and i just looked up the 07 healights, and i want them lol.

my manuals should be here next week, and i just ordered a set of carpeted floor mats so thats some updates! getting the car washed tomorrow, other than that, nothing lol

Frozen E

I was never big into the carpets in the E. I ended up going a different route and got some of those foam 24"x24" floor tile things (interlocking puzzle piece type pieces) and covered the entire back of the E with them. Since they're foam I cut them to size and made them fit perfect into all the nooks and crannies. Made a pretty big difference as far as road noise goes.

I did a few other things so far. The biggest looks wise on the interior has to be dying the factory tan interior pillar pieces black to match the dash. I hated that grey/tan look.

Also, you might want to look into getting some new seat covers for yours, as I'm pretty sure your front seats suffer from that dreaded cracking seat fabric thing. Wet Okole makes some really nice ones, but you're going to pay a pretty penny.

markspan6243

i was thinking about getting OEM honda ones. they are like 70 bucks a piece and 120 for the back 2 i think.

[ej]Jonathan

sounds like its be nice!

markspan6243

alright so the other day my floor mats and owners manuals came in, and i cleaned out the floor of the element. the dealership i got it from armor-all-ed the whole interior so everything was greasy, so i just used some dawn soap and scrubbed the floor down.

love how those seats fold up!

vacuum the bitch out



scrub scrub scrub

more scrubby

wet floor

clean out the spare tire well while i was there

dirty water!

clean now

heres all the stuff i got in the mail the other day


all the oem manuals and stuffs

then to install the floor mats you have to cut off these little nipples



then install the brackets


front ones installed!


then for the back one you need to drill into the plastic. this part was a bitch!!!!




used this to open up the hole i drilled

my buddy thought of using vice grips to tighten the screw because a screwdriver wasnt working


finally in!

and the rear installed!

later this week (hopefully) ill be getting some more parts in. stay tuned

SlowPokeEg

Nice! Elements are like Civic Hatchbacks, you either love them or hate them, and it's a look only a mother can love.

I've never really looked at one very closely, but they're growing on me!

O.H.!

johnnykash

not to shabby! looks pretty sweet

markspan6243

Thanks guys! Working a **** load this week so I'll have money to pay her off (and maybe some extra cash to buy some more oem stuff!)

markspan6243

I.O.!!!

SlowPokeEg

Like the color too. If you're ever in a fender bender or something, at least there won't be much of any painting. Replace plastic panels...DONE!

My Aunt's BF has an orange one. Love that color too...I'd rock one!

mportedcivicsi

iTrader: (3)

Looks great man. I really dig these things

markspan6243

ya im loving the car, but i hate the fact that the a/c doesnt work! oh well, soo enough my a/c parts will be in and ill be cool in my green refrigerator

markspan6243

well i got the oil changed at hidy honda today because its hot out and i had a coupon. parts for the a/c should be here saturday, along with my new sunroof bag!

markspan6243

got all the parts in, pics to come once the a/c gets fixed by my mechanic and the IA 11!!!!

Frozen E

I used to have an official "ELEMENT THREAD" in the E section. Wonder if I should bump it.

Did you do the "always on" mod for your accessory plugs yet?

How about the "2 dome lights come on at the same time" mod?

I need to take some new pics of mine and post them. Haven't done anything to the outside really.

Finally finished replacing the crappy factory sub with a 6.5" kicker, sealed the port up on the factory box and mounted my Alpine amp under the driver's seat. I wish I had the clearance of the 03-06 Es under mine, but with the seat mounted airbag stuff, it gets really cramped under there.

markspan6243

no i was going to try to do the rear power outlet always on mod this week before IA. it doesnt seem to tough and it would be handy. i dropped the E off at quickrev (my guys shop) and he should have it done today or tomorrow. i need to get a new template for the rear sunroof shade so i can mount that up, but that wont get done before IA. so far my crew down to IA will consist of:

me-element
[ej]jonathan-93 eg hatch w/ built b16b
my buddy dylan-r23 golf
my buddy jesse-wrx w/ sti shortblock
and my buddy joey-riding with me lol

i hope to see a lot of honda techers down there! you all will see the E, hard parked like a ***** ****a!

eghatch4sale

I Have a galapagos green element too ..... i was in love with it but getting a lil tired of the gas mileage

markspan6243

ya the mpg is a lot less than the del sol i had (it got 35 city ) but i <3 my new element is such a great car. A/C got fixed today by Jim Grey at QuickRev in kettering ohio! if you guys need anything done to your car, especially turbo stuff, check him out. pics to come of the stuff i just got done

dumpdEKcoop

I wish I had an element to daily man, yours is super clean and I'll be checking in on your progress. Any more plans for it?

And maybe I'll see you at IA, but it will probably be unlikely, there's supposed to be over 6100 people there which is 6 times as much as last summer!

In for updates though, its nice to see cool mods for daily drivers, and its nice to get a break from all the built civics and integras. Whats up with the two mods frozen E was talking about though?

markspan6243

thanks for the kind comments! frozen e was talking about 2 common mods for E owners. one is how you bypass a relay so that the back power outlet will consently have power. normally it only has power when the key is on acc. the other is something about both of the dome lights dimming and coming on at the same time (i need to check it out more on elementownersclub.com)

mostly plans include buying ever single OEM optional part for it (running boards, cargo cover, cargo net, ect ect), getting a yakima roof rack with a basket, Hella super tones, a trailer hitch (only oem ) and a bike rack that mounts to it, and maybe some off road wheels or something.

im gonna buy a new oem filter soon because mine is all poopy.

there really wont be any performance mods unless my current k24 starts to poop out, then there shall be boost but other than the oem stuff and roof rack, its mostly a DD. might take it cross country next year to California with my twin [ej]jonathan!

A D NOH

Awesome car! I almost bought that color but I found an EX-P for a good deal.
You are going to love the car. A friend of mine always tells me how he doesn't care too much for the outside of the car but then the next sentence is when am I going to sell it as he loves the functional aspect of it.

Frozen E

DON'T get the OEM hitch. Get yourself a nice beefy Class-3 made by either Valley, or the other manufacturer (whose name I can't think of right now).
I know that you're not supposed to tow anything close to what the Class-3 is rated for with the E, but it's not even the capacity. It's the number of accessories you can get for a 2" receiver vs the dinky 1 1/4" OEM one. Bike racks especially.

On top of that, the OEM one is a hell of a lot more expensive than the Valley 2".

If you keep an eye out on eBay, you can usually find the 2" ones for around $130 with free shipping.

I'll have to snap some pics tomorrow of the stuff I have done to mine.
Full front brush guard, nerf bars, tail light guards, Piaa 550s on front, HID conversion, LED interior lights and dome lights, extra power outlets hard mounted and wired in on the front of the center console, 6.5" Kicker sub upgrade, Alpine sub under the driver's seat, painted my interior panels Black vs keeping them that really light grey color, remote hatch release for the back for when we go camping (so you can pop the hatch from inside, OEM roof rack, color matched engine covers, 2" hitch, and a couple other things I can't think of right now. I have a cooler console from a junked 2011' EX I have to transplant into mine still.

Anyway, this is your thread. I won't go jacking it.