Official Warnings:

1. Follow the posting rules, more than 500 posts (11 pages) worth of posts have been deleted already; no more leniency.
2. Inaccurate is aware of the dangers of removing certain items, there is no need to continue posting on this topic.
3. This thread contains information/info on removing devices that are considered "Safety" devices. Please read, post and work on your car with common sense.
4. By reading any of the information in this thread (besides these warnings in bold within the first post), you are releasing inaccurate, acurazine, and any other affiliated members and companies of any liability.

Linked Summary and Updates:



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INTRODUCTION
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There are two things that I have found that KILLS the TL's performance: Underhood ambient heat and weight. In the following post, I wish to discuss the advantages of weight reduction.

The benefits from weight reduction is threefold. Not only is acceleration improved, but braking and handling improves too.

The two areas that I enjoy the most with the weight reduction is the handling and the easy acceleration under light throttle.

The car's suspension has greatly firmed-up. By the way, my car is NOT ASPEC. I have the oem regular suspension in my 2006. The handling has greatly increased. It is now extremely nimble. If you was following me from behind, you would see the car rigidly following each bump and ripple in the road. It is getting to the point that I feel uneven expansion joints lightly in my kidney (which I like). The road-feel is fantastic.

I love how the car now accelerates with light throttle. If I am first in line at a red light, I love to give the car light throttle just to see how easy it is for my car to pull thru each gear and leave normal traffic way behind. It is hilarious. The engine just zips thru each gear as if I was traveling down an incline. Before, in oem trim, I was somewhat embarrassed that such a powerful car would somewhat labor just to accelerate briskly with everyday traffic (using light throttle...sure it hauls ass with WOT even in oem trim).

As you read, please keep the following in mind. If you are the type that tunes-in your radio and tunes-out you mind to how the car behaves, you will not notice the incremental improvements. And this is an important point. People will say that you will not gain any meaningful performance improvement by removing a certain piece from the car. I agree. Improvements from incremental weight reduction (piece by piece) in hard to notice. But, keep your eye on the CUMULATIVE effect. A pound here, a pound there.... it adds up to a meaning difference in the end. However, you would feel the "before" versus "after" difference even if you were not paying attention if you could experience it as a single step (all items removed at the same time).
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TIME TO BUY GROCERIES
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To give you a idea of what improvements can be gained, let's use this example.

When I go to the grocery store, the car feels like I am pulling a boat trailer behind me. Normally (without groceries), I apply very light throttle, and the car effortlessly climbs each gear as if the front-end was sitting up on blocks -- the engine seems to have zero resistance. Even with this light acceleration, I can feel the car pulling thru the gears and I can feel the car lightly pushing me into the seat from the light G's.

Now, let's compare the experience with groceries in the trunk. I buy $70 - $100 worth of groceries each Friday on my way home from work. This included typical items such as bath soap, frozen foods, frozen veggies, fruits, coffee, canned items, etc. The heavy items include three packs of sodas (12 cans per pack), a gallon of milk and sometimes a large container of Tide. Now, the car feels like stock oem again (me sad). So, compared to before buying the groceries, the car feels like I am pulling a boat trailer behind me. I hear and feel the engine straining it's way thru each gear. It takes much longer for the engine to works it's way thru each gear. I no longer feel any light G-force while accelerating. The car is just plan sluggish and lacks power given the same amount of light throttle. While waiting for the engine to works it's way thru the gears, I spend most of my newly-found time looking in the rearview mirror searching for the boat that someone hooked-up to my rearend. And, I no longer feel the ripples in the road.

And hard as this is to believe, I can instantly detect the added weight from groceries just from putting the car is reverse and backing-out from the parking space. Granted, I might not had been able to perceive the added weight months ago. But now after months of paying attention (admiring and appreciating) how my car feels with the weight removed, I spot the added weight instantly.
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YOUR MISSION IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT
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Here is an experiment for you if you wish to try. Run your gas tank down to approx 1/4 tank or less. Take out any heavy clutter (personal items) from your car and trunk. If you really feel brave, even remove your spare tire and jack. For the next day, turn off your radio so that you can tune-in to how the car feels as you drive around doing your daily routine. Pay attention to how the car pulls thru each gear as you lightly and moderately accelerate. Pay attention to how the car responses when you punch it to zip around slow drivers. Pay attention to how the car feels when you toss it into turns around town. When on the freeway, take curves much faster than you normally would to see how it handles (provided the girlfriend or wife is not with you).

Now, after a day or two of driving with the empty gas tank and possibly no spare tire, let's compare the difference. Now, go get a full tank of gas. Put your spare tire back in the trunk. Go to the store to buy some grocery (be sure to buy several cases of soda). Now, apply the same amount of throttle as before to lightly accelerate, and pay attention to how the car sounds as it climbs each gear. Pay attention to how much g-force you feel while lightly and moderately accelerating. Punch it to aggressively get around slower traffic. Toss the car into a few corners around town to see how toss-able the car is. If you really feel brave, take a few curves on the freeway going faster than normal. However, I do not really recommend the fast freeway curves with your car being heavy... the handling will be ugly.
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HOW IT BEGAN FOR ME
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My first experience with removing weight was removing the underhood plastic panels. I initially removed the panels to help reduce the temps under the hood during the summertime in Texas. My performance was being zapped by the heat. This was with the oem air induction before I got a CAI. So, as an experiment to reduce underhood temp, I removed the cosmetic panels under the hood. While removing the panels and by chance, I happened to notice the "boat anchor" mounted above the front bumper. The anchor seemed easy enough to unbolt. So, I remove the anchor too just because it was ugly - bare steel with ugly rust.

After driving the car for the next couple days, I noticed that the car had a lighter feel to the nose of the car as I tossed it into turns around town. I thought I was crazy - there is no way that those few pounds could make a difference. But, it was undeniable to me. After days of doubting myself, it was obvious that there was a difference in how easy the car was to toss around. So, the illness began... I had a taste and wanted more.

As I removed more items from my car, I noticed the more brisk acceleration under light and moderate acceleration. I noticed that I was leaving the normal traffic further and further behind me with each item removed. Again, this is with light acceleration. The TL is such an animal under WOT that it is hard to perceive a difference in performance with WOT. However, when I give my car the typical amount of throttle for normal acceleration around town (light to moderate acceleration), I can easily spot the improvements in acceleration.

At this point, I decided to get the mid-muffler removed for the purpose of making the car sound more masculine. Cool, more pounds removed.

In my search for items to remove to lighten my car's weight, I became interested in getting a CAI and UR Pulley mainly for the purpose of the weight reduction that each provided. And, I was not disappointed. The CAI and UR Pulley was able to shed many pounds. Not to mention that both increased the throttle response to make the car feel even more light.

At this point, the car has so many pounds removed that my headlights are aiming too high. So, I learned to adjust the headlights to aim them down again. But, the point in mentioning this is that there was enough weight removed to cause this issue.

The addiction continues. Next, I attack the trunk. There is more weight in the trunk than you think. And, I am not including the spare tire and jack yet !!!! So, I drive around for a week or two, loving the gains.... That damn addiction.... The weight reduction has so many benefits (handling, braking, part throttle acceleration).... Need to remove more.... Next is the subwoofer because I don't use it anyway. Not an easy job to remove the subwoofer, but my addiction provided the motivation to get it done.

So, I drive around for another week or two, loving the gains.... That damn addiction.... Need to remove more.... Next is the side airbags. Big, big job to get removed. Required some internet research how to prevent warning light from appearing in dash. One whole weekend to remove the side airbags. Once I got the side airbags out and felt how heavy they were, I was happy and felt the effort was worth it.

The addiction continues, but all of the "low hanging fruit" is nearly gone. It is becoming harder to find things to remove. Up to this time, I have refrained from removing my spare tire because I need it. This car is my daily driver. But, I am haunted by that spare being in there. How can I remove it ??? Then, I find the answer. Get a lightweight air pump. So, I go to Walmart and purchase a 12V automotive pump. Once at home, I let the air out of my tire to test the new pump. It works good enough !!! The pump can only muster enough strength to add approx 28 PSI to the tire, but this is enough to get me home in case of a flat. And, the pump weighs only 2 pounds. Done. Out comes the spare, along with the jack. As I am driving to work on the next morning, I lightly punch the car (approx half throttle) to get around a slow driver. Holy Shit !!!! My car never before pushed me into the seat like this. Sold !!! That spare is staying out. On the same morning to work, on the freeway, I take a curve going much faster (90 mph) than I ever dared before. Holy Shit !!!! My car never handled like this before - glued to the pavement and very confidence inspiring. No way in hell that spare is going back in. DISCLAIMER - I use my car only around town as a daily driver. For trips, we take my wife's RL. Only if I was taking a trip in my car would I temporarily put the spare back in the trunk.

This is where I am at today. I see no further items that I can remove. Perhaps the actual rear bumper that hides behind the rear facial. I will need to look to see if the bumper is removable via bolts, and if the bumper is required to support the facial. I quickly looked at the front bumper, and it looks like it is needed to support the front facial. So, the front bumper seems to not be a candidate.

In the future, I would like to try a lightweight battery. Perhaps later, I might try lightweight rims.

And for those folks that enjoy teasing about removing the car seats, this is not an option. My guideline is not to remove anything that is readily apparent to the normal person.
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THE UGLY SIDE
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I know that some readers will say that I am destroying/trashing a nice luxury car. My feeling is that it's just a car. The car will serve a useful life of approx 10 to 12 years. I might as will make these years enjoyable *to me*. I have no intentions of trading-in or selling my car. Didn't with my previous car... the car died naturally. It was 14 years old (190,000 miles) and encountered a "fender bender". So, the insurance company totaled it. Probably will be the same fate of my TL.

On the surface, one could say this weight-reduction modification is free. Actually, it is free today. However, tomorrow it could cost in the resell value of the vehicle. For me, I have kept all of the pieces that I removed. If I decided to trade-in the car, I would attempt to restore most of the pieces as possible. But, I realize that most likely the car would not be restored perfectly. Worse case scenario would be if something happened to me (sudden death or disability), my wife would be stuck with the de-valued car. But after the car gets paid-off in another two years, this will not really be a concern any longer.
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WHAT WAS REMOVED
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The following items are sorted from heaviest to lightest (based on my judgment, not actually measured).

1) Tires. Changed to 255/40-17 on oem rims. This was not a weight saving modification. However, it had the same effect. The car felt lighter because the overall diameter of the tire is less than the oem tire. So, in effect, the car can stop easier and accelerate easier due to the smaller diameter tires. And, the car steers more precise and has a lighter feel with these 255/40-17 tires. Overall, the tires make the car feel lighter.
2) Carry just enough fuel that I need for 2 days (4.8 gallons). I go from 3/8 tank to empty tank.
3) spare tire & jack. Use a small lightweight (2.0 Lbs) 12V air pump instead.
4) Oem crank pulley replaced with UR Underdrive pulley.
5) Mid-muffler and it's heat sheild.
6) Vibration dampner located above front bumper.
7) Subwoofer speaker.
8) Oem air filter/resonator replaced with AEM CAI.
9) All interior trim pieces in trunk and trunk lid.
10) Removal of the side airbags (front airbags still functional).
11) Plastic covering (ground effects) under engine and under transmission.
12) Plastic coverings located underhood. These includes the obvious pieces along the perimeter, and also the plastic piece covering the intake.
13) Rear floor mats and passenger floor mat.
14) Heavy Owner's manual.
15) Use only one pint of water in windshield washer.
16) Plastic cosmetic cover located under the trunk on the outside under car. Most people mistaken this cover for being the fuel tank.
17) Thick felt covering on backside of hood.
18) Plastic cosmetic covers located under car (under the rear floor mat area).
19) Vibration dampner located inside trunk lid.
20) Rubber weather strip running along back of hood near the bottom of windshield.
21) coin holder in center console and sunglass holders in side of doors.

And, obviously, I do not carry any personal items (aka, junk) in the car.

 

Here is the pictures.

1) Tires. Changed to 255/40-17 on oem rims.


2) Carry just enough fuel that I need for 2 days (4.8 gallons). I go from 3/8 tank to empty tank.


3) spare tire & jack. Use a small lightweight (2.0 Lbs) 12V air pump instead.


4) Oem crank pulley replaced with UR Underdrive pulley.


5) Mid-muffler and it's heat sheild.


6) Vibration dampner located above front bumper.



7) Subwoofer speaker.


8) Oem air filter/resonator replaced with AEM CAI.


9) All interior trim pieces in trunk and trunk lid.




10) Removal of the side airbags (front airbags still functional).


11) Plastic covering (ground effects) under engine and under transmission.


12) Plastic coverings located underhood. These includes the obvious pieces along the perimeter, and also the plastic piece covering the intake.


13) Rear floor mats and passenger floor mat.



14) Heavy Owner's manual.


Nothing in center console either


16) Plastic cosmetic cover located under the trunk on the outside under car. Most people mistaken this cover for being the fuel tank.


17) Thick felt covering on backside of hood.


18) Plastic cosmetic covers located under car (under the rear floor mat area).


19) Vibration dampner located inside trunk lid.



This is how high my trunck pops open when I hit the remote because the trunck lid is so light now.


20) Rubber weather strip running along back of hood near the bottom of windshield.

 

good stuff..
I think i like more your attitude than anthing. Everyone else seems to forget that its just a car..have fun with it while its still up to date, running and you are alive. don't plan on selling mine anytime soon...don't think im gutting it anytime soon either but would like to produce a major engine mod for it

 

I didnt mean anything negative about the seats... They just weigh alot... I was thinking about racing seats... I don't know if you need to keep them, but perhaps removing the electric motors for the front seats... If you are the only driver there isnt a need for adjustment.


I'm going to take the weights out of the front and trunk this weekend.

Thanks

 

thats alot off weight you must have removed. Now get some elightweight rims, get rid of the stock hood and get a carbon fiber one like michealbenz has, and start loosing weight urselft to help the addiction. BTW, if you carry passengers in the back seat, i'd stick those airbags back in. BTW, the polyfill under the carpets should weight like 10lbs, try removing that.

 

i have a list going too... ive shaved ofr 100lbs just by removing stuff, not counting replacing parts w/ aftermarket parts which is another 100+, ive taken about 250 off the car. but im in a cl-s.

 

I have not had any problems thus far with anything that I have removed. The only thing that comes to mind is the subwoofer hole. There is an opening under the subwoofer speaker grill that once housed the subwoofer. So, if there is anything loose in the trunk that might make a noise or roll around, you would hear it bigtime via this opening. My trunk is clean, so I have no noise. But, when I do carry something like grocery, I can easly hear stuff back there. The sound gets somewhat amplified too when the stuff makes noise. But, if you keep it clean, then no problem.

Regarding the dampner
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Using www.acuraoemparts.com as a reference, this "boat anchor" is called a "WEIGHT, FR. BUMPER DAMPER" and also refered to as a "FR. BUMPER DYNAMIC DAMPER". This is all that I know as facts.

Now, I do feel confidient to speculate the purpose. I am a very mechanical type of person. From the looks of the anchor and the manner in which it is mounted to the car, and the locatiuon that it is mounted, I speculate that the purpose of this anchor is the minimize light vibration at idle.

When I removed mine, I notice no differences in the car that would give a clue in the purpose of the dampner. Perhaps I had a very slight increase in vibratation as the engine idled in gear. But, this smoothed out when I installed the UR Pulley. But, as far as removing it, the key point is that I have suffered no perceivable bad effects. But as discussed many times, I did notice that the car was easier to toss into turns around town. Not a huge difference, but if you are paying attention, you will probably notice. I did.

 

Would you be able to weight the front and rear dampener? I would like to know how heavy they are. I might want to remove them as well.

 

Weight reduction certainly is the cheapest way to make any car move faster. Just think how fast the TL would be if it weighed 2500lbs as opposed to 3500lbs.

For every 100 lbs you shave off should take approximately .1sec of the 1/4 mile time.

I've done a few weight reduction mods:
-19lb rims
-Cf hood
-Sparco torinos
-rear seat removed
-single outlet exhaust


...very comprehensive post innaccurate...it contradicts your user name!

 

Inaccurate, very nice thread and post !. I agree with your concept of reducing weight and have been doing the same to my RL. One thing I noticed you removed from under the car's rear area is the rear plastic diffuser. This piece is actually there to smoothen airflow exiting the rear I believe.

For the airbags I assumed you used a resister on the harness once you removed them to avoid the airbag light going on ?.

Not sure on the TL, but on the RL there is even a dampener on the steering wheel and the front subframe. You could look into those too.

So far I've reduced 52 lb of the car (removed trunk dampener, aem intake, pulley, spare/tools) . More reductions on the way =)

ACCURATEin, I think te37's are calling my name .

 

I am glad to see you have finally shared this information with others, dont worry about the doubters. This is all very good information

 

...TE37s on a RL!!

...you've seen the Spoon RL i suppose...they run both the bronze and yellow TE's.

 

The front dampner wieghs 7.5 pounds. I used a bathroom scale that readouts to the nearest 0.5 pound. I weighed myself (tare), and then myself again while holding the dampner.

The rear dampner wieghs 1 lb and 8 ounces. I used an electronic food scale that readouts to the nearest 1/8 ounce. The actual readout was 1 lb 7 3/8 ounces.

Both included the fastners while weighing.

For reference, I weighed the oem crank pulley. It weighed 8.0 pounds. I used the same bathroom scale and tare method mentioned above.

 

Please share.

If you are limited on time, perhaps just list some of the heavier items.

 

Holy twilight zone batman! This sounds like a discussion from the Lotus Elise forums. LOL Keep it up guys! This is interesting.

 

ill post the whole list i have going very soon.

but you should get one of these:


i'm running this battery, it weighs about 15.5 lbs, my stock battery was close to 40 lbs. also this has available tiedowns and holders for it. i ended up yanking my whole battery tray and using a custom aluminum one for this saving even more weight. a very easy mod that shaved 25 lbs off. i live in NY and have no trouble starting in cold temperates, no dimming lights, everything powered just fine. just dont leave your lights on for a very long time.

http://www.odysseybatteries.com/battery/pc680mjt.htm

 

Regarding the rear plastic diffuser - I was guessing that it was for aerodynamic purposes, along with the other ground effects under the car. However, I actually dislike high speed. But, I love quickness. At heart, I am a 1/4 mile racer. So, I value the weight savings more than the clean aerodynamics for high speed. I think the fastest that I have had my TL is 100 mph. I use the shift into 4th gear (auto trans) as a signal to end the race. But, don't misunderstand... I WOT the shit out of my car. Just don't like those high speeds though.

Regarding the airbags - I purchased resistors from www.airbagsystems.com/simulator.html. However, I really do not recommend these folks. I need to measure the resistor value so that I will know what is required. If you order from them, you get a nicely packaged resistor for $60. In hindsight, I would rather go to RadioShack to purchase a resistor.

Thanks for the suggestion of those other dampers. I will study the schematics to see if I can spot any others on the TL.

 

Very cool thread.... and very true....

You should swap out your seats, they weigh a lot...

 

Thanks for the reply CleanCL.

Those batts are definitely on my radar screen. I have been studing these batts for several months. I just have been somewhat scared of getting stranded. But, with your encouragement, I will be moving forward with getting the small batt.

I have narrowed my options down to either a BRAILLE battery or Odyssey PC680 battery. Do you have a preference between the Braillie or Odyssey PC680 ? Which would you recommend ? Can you recommend an online vendor ? THANKS




NOTE - This is not a Acura TL.[/QUOTE]

 

Inaccurate, do you have a weight on the airbags ? I'm just curious to how much they weighed. For my WRX I used 2.2k ohm resisters from radio shack to disable the airbag light on the cluster.

 

odyssey is top brand. most other batteries you see are just relabeled odyssey. cant say anything bad about braille, but like i said, i haven't had a single issue with my smaller battery. i feared the same, thought it would lose its charge, but i just hooked it up using stock lines and its fired up every time.

honestly i got the battery and tray from ebay. had the best price i could find. just make sure its the pc680mjt because that will come with the auto terminals. if you get the plain pc680 it will come as shown in your picture with no terminals (but you can buy them separately). also fyi, the red metal sleeve can be removed so technically the battery weighs no more than 14.5 lbs, and its drycell so you can mount it however you like.

 

Ok, at first I thought folks were being a wise guy to suggest this. But, I am starting to think that this could be a viable option. Does anyone have any pics of aftermarket seats in a 3rd Gen TL ? What brands are recommended ? What vendors are recommended ? Do the oem seatbelts work with the aftermarket seats ? How would I hide it from my wife ? (just joking on that last one)

 

Here is the side airbag stuff. It wieghed 8.5 pounds. I used a bathroom scale that readouts to the nearest 0.5 pound. I weighed myself (tare), and then myself again while holding the stuff.

 

Take out the third cat and replace it to a pipe I just did it and it dose make the car faster and our's third cat is heavy as well, I think is about 10lbs btw I got a brand new buddy club racing battery(14.5lb) pm me if you are interested.

 

Picture is a little dated but since then, I believe ACCURATEin has changed out the other seats...

 

Haha, wow, you take a rather interesting approach... you know you *probably* don't need all 5 lug nuts per wheel, and those suckers are solid metal. j/k

Anyway, aren't you concerned about the fuel pump failure? I was always told running on 1/4 tank or less for an extended period of time is a main cause.

So what's the total # reduced? I'm only asking because all I saw in your post was your opinion and what you felt...

 

You know, you folks are right about the air bags.

So, let me think out loud here. I have a set of unused side airbags. I have several cars that I own. One car is my '06 TL. I also have a '02 TL and a '03 RL.

So, let me think. I never have passengers in my 06. On the otherhand, we take many short trips with the RL. This often includes three passengers in the rear seat. This often includes a baby in a babby seat in the rear too. And, THE '03 RL DOES NOT HAVE SIDE AIR BAGS !!!!! You folks are right, I am going to install those side air bags in the '03 RL !!!!!! THANKS GUYS

Ok, sarcasism aside. But, that is my point. I would venture to say that the VAST MAJORITY of the cars on the road do NOT have side air bags. Should the vast majority of people on the road NOT be carrying passengers in the rear seat ? My '02 TL and '03 RL have no side airbags. Should I stop carrying passengers in the rear or perhaps refuse to drive these cars at all ? All of my previous car never had side air bags either. How did I ever survive.

 

Regarding the fuel level - Yep, I looked into. There are a few in-depth threads here that cover this topic. The bottom line is that when you have Range=0, there is still three gallons remaining in the tank for the purposes that you mentioned. I even started a thread too asking if ANYONE EVER ran out of fuel before the RANGE indicated zero. No one ever ran out of gas with the RANGE being greater than 0. And, I do not run lower than RANGE=0.

Regarding the total poundage - If I said that "X" pounds were removed, what does this mean ? The average reader is left with using their judgement as to what the car's performance might be with those "X" pounds removed. So, the bottomline is not how many pounds were removed. The bottomline is what the effect is on performance. This is how I wish to comminicate to the reader. The effect of removing the weight from my car was impressive to me.

 

I just dont know what to say. It just seems like alot of work for such minimal gain.

When you say the effect was impressive, what exactly do you mean? How impressive?

What is your goal here. I didnt read your entire first post, so give me cliff notes to what your intent is here... Just to see how removing all this weight effects performance?

 

Don't forget that you have to account for your own driver's weight too
If you're over 200 lbs. then maybe you could lose 20 to 30 lbs.

 

Perhaps I should address this so that folks don't think I am over weight. I see this mentioned often. I refrained from commenting because this seems to be an obvious suggestion, and a GOOD SUGGESTION. I am just commenting to set the record that I am on the skinny side, as in not fat.

As other have stated, we all should watch our weight to increase our quality of life. By the way, I am 5'8" and 152 lbs. If you seen me in person, you would think that I was slightly skinny. I have no beer belly. However, I am not at my ideal weight either, so I agree that I should loss about 10 - 15 pounds.

 

Hey Inaccurate,

Why did you respond to everyone elses post but mine?\

and about the gas tank, there is build up that occurs in if you dont fill it up. thats why its bad if you dont fill it up. i guess it should be fine if you fill up once in awhile.

lighter rims give you 2 bonuses. lose weight and lose the rotational mass weight as well. that will make your car feel a lot lighter.

 

Inaccurate thanks for the weight. In the pics is that the rear and front curtain airbags or just the rear ?. I was considering removing the rear curtains cause usually I don't have anyone in the back.

For the battery I'm going to use a civic/tsx battery as the RL has so many electronics. The civic battery is about ~23-25 lb and usually less than $60 at most autoparts stores. Just another option for ya.

 

I wasn't talking about running out of gas and getting stranded. I'm not 100% positive, but by running on 1/4 tank or less means your fuel pump is much more likely to fail. IMO, I'd carry a tad above 1/4 tank... or say 5 more gallons, which would be about 30 lbs or so.

And actually, you're leaving the reader to their own judgment by leaving out the actual pounds removed. The weight removed will show the change in power to weight ratio, showing if there's any measurable difference... especially considering it's the same car, and the power remained virtually the same. You really can't communicate to the reader without any data/numbers when you're claiming you can feel the difference in all aspects of performance.

for effort, though.

 

Touge,

The side airbag is not just for the rear. The side airbag starts from behind the head of the passenger in the rear and extends forward to the front of the person in the front seat. It runs along the top of the doors and down into the A-pillar. If the side air bag was removed, a resistor would need to be placed into the connectors to prevent the warning light from appearing in the dash.

Thanks for the tip on using TSX battery. This is the first time I heard about this. Thanks

 

ndx2,

I agree with you about needing hard data to comminicate a concept. I suppose I am just trying to avoid a pissing contest. We see this already with the numbers that I have put out there already.

"Damn, just 8 pounds !!! Go take a piss and you can loss 10 pounds right there !!"

See, like I predicted... a pissing contest.

 

ayethetiense,

Thanks for the suggestion of the lightweight rims. I do feel that this would offer a big improvement. It would probably be similiar improvements that the UR Pulley offered, which I feel is the best single performance mod for the TL.

I am just relucant at this point. I like the looks of the oem rims. Plus, they are still new and unscratched. But, a year or two from now, I might be more open to getting aftermarket rims.

 

Well, that's partly because we're talking about a safety device... which you argued as an unnecessary dead weight that's a result of "one upmanship" of car companies.

Really, on a 3500 lbs car, 8 pounds isn't gonna make any difference, but I was asking for the total weight, and that will show if what you did is worthwhile. I mean it could be in the upper 100's or even 200's, meaning your claims of performance gain is plausible, whereas 80 lbs could mean all of this could be in your head.

I mean, it seems like you have a scale and probably weighed 'em out... so why not share it to make your claims more objective? It's not like anyone disagrees with the benefits of weight reduction.

 

Like I said before, I have no problems with you removing your airbags, just something I could not do to my own car mainly because I do carry my 4 y/o brother and parents quite often, so to me, those 8lbs are worth while. Yeah, my last car didnt have side airbags, but my TL does.....

Basically it comes down to this:

It's your car, do what you see fit with it and dont worry about what anyone else thinks. If they have a problem, tough....deal with it. If I could get rid of all the extra junk that I didnt need, I would too......again....more power to you Inaccurate!

 

Per the tire size calculator on 1010tires.com, the difference between them are 0.29 inch (7.36mm) pretty much insignificant. As you said, this is not a weight saving mod and should accelerate easier due to small diameter tires. However, the improved stopping is not due to smaller diameter tires. It's because you're now running wider tires (bigger contact patch).

More than likely that's due to the tire itself... Are those GS-D3's? What were you running before these set? Are you comparing your OEM tires to these max summer's? Summers will of course give you better handling (precise and lighter feel) than your OEM tires.

I always find it funny that someone would buy a set of wheels for $2k+ than get the cheapest tires possible. Tires are what keep one's car on the road and those are things anybody should not cheap out on.

I applaud your effort...

what happens when you get a nail in the tire? You should carry a can of fix-a-flat... on 2nd thought, that will mess up your TPMS.

Those engineers put heat shields at certain locations for a reason. I don't think this is wise.

I applaud your effort... I just can't see it done for the TL.

People went there... I am not going there.

Someone removed the lower engine cover on the A4 thinking it might save weight and improve cooling. Another guy set up temperature sensors in and around the engine bay and took down temperatures with the engine cover and without. Suprisingly the engine runs cooler with the engine over on. On the Audi the lower engine cover actually improves engine cooling by channeling air to key locations. I don't know about TL's but I believe they put those ground effects there for a reason. And it's not for cosmetic ones.

I guess you never give anyone rides unexpectedly.

Way extreme, but I applaud your effort.

From what I understand Honda/Acura are not the best when comes to rust... This might not be wise.

For sound deadening.. perfectly fine to remove.

How much weight did you save by removing these items?

no flash light? no jumper cables?

I applaud you for your efforts. The issue is why did you buy a car that's loaded with bells and whistles and THEN decide to gut the car? TL is supposed to be an entry level luxury car and not a stripped track car. It makes more sense if you do all those on your 2nd gen Miata as a dedicated track car then on your daily driver.

And where are the numbers? Obliviously dyno won't tell a difference (well, except maybe from the removed muffler and the flywheel) so unless you have before/after time slips how can you quantify the difference between real performance gain vs. placebo effect? A louder car does not equal a faster car.

If you really intersted in saving weight, start with all the sound deadening material within the cabin, in headliners, under carpets, and firewalls. TL is front heavy so another thing you can do is relocate the battery to the trunk, switch to an optima which should lighter than your oem battery - essentially killing 2 birds with 1 stone.

Another thing is to get carbon fiber hood... but lighter wheels should definitely be on the top of your list.

Good luck!