I recently bought a 2009 RDX and love it. I'm thinking of doing the Hondata mod and I am curious as to what others think of the mod that have had it done. My expectation, based on other reviews, is an increase in performance at the low end and 1 mpg improvement on gas mileage. Let me know if I'm missing any other improvements. Thanks!

 

i believe power is the trade off.
with hondata flashpro; tuning the car gives better fuel economy, better power and most importantly tuning for knock.

 

 

I did the Hondata upgrade around 7 years ago when they dropped the price by more than 1/2 to $295. I had around 35,000 miles at the time and felt an instant boost in power, much faster spool time, more TQ across the power band, and more top end power at hwy speeds at +70 mph. The extra power came in handy since I live and drive from 5000ft to 11,000ft. You can pretty much start to leave almost any NA V-6 or V-8 engine behind once you get above 8000ft with a turbo or S/C engine. The added bonus was a slight bump in mpgs of about 1 mpg combined. I never got above 22 mpg on the hwy since the speed limit is 75 mph in the southwest with an average of 6000-7000 feet elevation when I travel. It was just Hondata + K/N drop-in filter until the ETS intercooler group on Acurazine buy back in 2013. I've had around 100k on the RDX and I added the Hondata heatshield gasket also. I never felt a difference in power with the stock intercooler with +100 degree summers compared to near/below freezing winters in the southwest. The stock intercooler always felt hot to the touch after normal driving year round (more so in the summer). I really felt the difference on the butt dyno when the temps started to dip in the low 40s or below.

The combo of ETS+Hondata+K/N+heatshield gasket seemed to work very well for me for most bang for the buck for bolt on power. The ETS intercooler bumped up the summer performance and mpgs by another +10hp/+15tq and 1 mpg more on combined (average 18.5 - 20 mpg combined depending on how heavy my foot is). The ETS intercooler felt a lot cooler to the touch compared to the stock intercooler after normal driving. There is an improvement in winter performance and mpgs above that what you get with the summer time performance upgrades. I don't know if the power bump is the advertised max ETS increase with the winter time temps or above and beyond that because of extra cold dense air?

I now have +145,000 miles on my RDX and hand zero issues with the power upgrades. I think the mpg improvements alone paid for the $300 reflash over the last +7 years. You just need to figure out what combo you want and the amount of $$$ you want to spend:
- Hondata
- FlashPro
- Heatsheild gasket
- larger injectors
- K/N drop or short ram or cool air intake
- ETS intercooler
- down pipe(s) to eliminate one or both of the catalytic converters
- upgrade exhaust

You still might want to upgrade brakes, tires, and suspension if you want to get the most for the power upgrades and sh-awd (I did Eibach lowering springs+Progress RSB+Conti DWS tires and kept the brakes stock).

 

Thanks for sharing your mods! Looking forward to checking a few of these off the list in the next few months.

 

I'm selling my Flash Pro 600 shipped call or text 909366214 unlocked and ready for new owner