Hey folks, new to Honda, definitely not new to being a car enthusiast. First post on H-T! Anyway, I'll skip my intro in the interest of someone catching this thread on a search someday.

As the title states, I'm operating a bit behind the due diligence curve in that I actually just last night bought a 2012 Si with about 155k on the clock. The appropriate course of action would be to start this conversation BEFORE buying the car, but here we are...

So now that the 9th gens are getting to the age of evolution where there are some truly high mileage examples starting to come available on the used market, I wanted to canvass the Honda faithful to proactively identify some areas to start monitoring for things that may need attention. I know every generation of every car has their quirks, and some may not manifest themselves until late in their lifespan. Hopefully this results in the thread being useful to others besides myself.

For context, the particular car I bought is a Sedan without navigation. I think those were the only significant options for these cars (it's also Dyno Blue Pearl). I did of course take it for a lengthy test drive on a variety of conditions, and all seemed well. Tight shifter, good clutch, smooth engine operation, no shakes or wobbles, etc so I thought all was well... until the ~30 mile drive home. During an extended highway drive at speed I noticed a slight vagueness to the steering but no big deal; could be attributed to aging suspension components or just not that great tires (goodyear all seasons, relatively fresh). But when I got off the exit and turned into my neighborhood, I rolled the windows down and there it was- an unmistakable grinding noise coming from the right front, more pronounced at low speeds and independent of brake pedal activation. The car just had new brakes put on it as part of the used car reconditioning process, my guess is one of the "noise clips" either was left off or became dislodged during the drive home. But it could be a wheel bearing, frozen caliper, who knows- I'll be getting it back to the dealer I bought it from and they can diagnose it and hopefully cover whatever repair is necessary because it literally happened on the drive home.

Anyway, the point of this thread isn't necessarily to diagnose a problem that's more than likely specific to the work that was done and not the car itself, but it is to establish anything that is particular to the model and generation that I and others should look out for as the miles climb. For example, I also noticed a smell that reminded me strongly of oil burning on an exhaust manifold, so was wondering if anyone else has dealt with a leaking valve cover at a certain mileage. Or if CV joints are bound to go bad at 120k miles, etc. etc. This car supposedly passed a Maryland state inspection- which is fairly intensive at least compared to other states- so I would have to imagine anything overtly obvious would have been handled... but it was done by the selling dealership so there's some inherent trust issues there. While they will be taking a look at whatever is creating the noise, I'd probably want to try to see if there's anything else I could call out during its visit and hope for at least a partial assistance on any necessary repairs, however unlikely that may be as I'm painfully aware of typical expectations of used car dealerships (this one at least is connected to a network of somewhat reputable manufacturer dealerships and not just a random uncle Tony's used cars... and actually has a limited 30 day warranty).

Also, the ultimate goal of this car is more or less a daily for my 20 year old son, and a project car for the two of us. Nothing crazy, just a fun street car with an occasional autocross or the like. So I'm definitely not opposed to upgrading any part that needs to be replaced. So another direction this thread could potentially go, is as OEM components get to a point where they have to be replaced, what are some solid upgrades to consider? For example, this steering vagueness I described earlier- should I look into replacing control arm bushings/tie rods/sway bars/etc., and what are some recommendations for brands to consider?

TIA, hopefully turns into a good discussion.