My First Major Upgrade!

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Old Aug 8, 2009 | 04:35 PM
  #1  
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My First Major Upgrade!

Just got the estimate for some upgrades for my car. I'm going to get them done in the next month or so. Just wanted some opinions.
  • Cold Air Intake(K&N or Injen?)
  • Window Tints
  • Damplify doors
  • Customer Enclosure(Fiber glass, boomtube or wood)
  • Interior lighting(I was thinking purple cause I have some blue lighting that I did already)
I'll upload some pictures once I get this upgrade. I recently tinted my tail lights and reflectors so I'm excited to see how it goes with the window tints! I also painted the engine manifold a few weeks ago too.
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Old Aug 8, 2009 | 05:46 PM
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I have an Injen intake and it's loud after 3000 rpm!

As for interior lighting, I think white looks better but it's up to you.
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Old Aug 8, 2009 | 08:05 PM
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I just put in my Injen cai yesterday and Loveeeee it, but I have to gas up a little more frequently because of it. but its all good. =P

IMO, i dont think purple is a great color for interior.

what exactly is damplify doors? (sorry if that was a stupid Question. but i just don't know.)
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Old Aug 8, 2009 | 08:46 PM
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Its more or less insulation for people that have powerful stereos so their cars don't rattle. I was thinking about doing white but I feel like that would be too bright on the eyes. How much did the intake effect your gas mileage?
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 10:46 AM
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An intake itself doesnt really effect gas mileage, its more or less the perso. I know when I got intake installed, I tended to want to gas it more often because of the little bit of added power. So basically, the more power you put in your car, the more your going to want to gas it and push it, the less gas mileage you might get.
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 01:20 PM
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Go with blue LEDs for the inside. They'll match the ambient lighting that's already in the TSX. I have them, and they get compliments from everyone that sees them at night.

You should also consider suspension. Dropping the TSX is, IMO, the most important thing to do
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 01:49 PM
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I wanted to drop my suspension but I live in New England so my bumper would probably fall off a week later.. I put blue LED's in my doors so I feel like if I did the blue lighting under the seats it would be too much blue. I thought a two tone would look nice, just couldn't decide what second color I wanted.
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 04:16 PM
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IMO... Over here in NC it seems like the blue's purple's and red's seem to be more of the ricer look. I went with white LED's but my first initial idea was to do blue. After doing white I was quite pleased. It compliments the Acura name in terms of a classy car. The blue probably looks fine but it's not for me nor the purple. Although if you're doing a lot of interior mods you could get a theme going with other neon tubes/bulbs and turn it into more of a show car. PM me if you want pics of my lights.
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 07:53 PM
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Originally Posted by Thecrazytrains
I wanted to drop my suspension but I live in New England so my bumper would probably fall off a week later.. I put blue LED's in my doors so I feel like if I did the blue lighting under the seats it would be too much blue. I thought a two tone would look nice, just couldn't decide what second color I wanted.
Do white, for sure. It'll look perfect with the blue.

And you can drop your car without having issues, as long as you get something conservative. I've got Tein S-Tech springs and it gives less than a finger gap, and I've never scraped on anything

Here's what it looks like

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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 08:05 PM
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OP, did you order any parts yet? If not, I'd recommend checking out our forum vendors... Excelerate can get you anything you need at a good price and he can do it quickly. I've dealt with him for years and have nothing but good things to say about his service.

I may be mistaken, but I think the K&N CAI is harder to find nowadays -- wasn't it discontinued? I've had my Injen for nearly three years and love it. It sounds aggressive (but only when you're WOT; for normal driving you don't even know it's there) and is switchable between short-ram and cold-air intake (two for the price of one is always a win).

Good luck and happy modding. Welcome to the addiction.
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 09:17 PM
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Yeah, I've had great experiences with both Excelerate and MrHeelToe. Can't go wrong with either of them
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 10:34 PM
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I went with INJEN and I wouldn't change that if I was to choose again, and I wouldn't suggest going for purple leds. I have white it looks more classy
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Old Aug 9, 2009 | 11:27 PM
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I'm really interested in the white now, I just wanna see what it looks like. I looked into an Injen cai more and it seems like everyone with a tsx has gotten one and has loved it, so it seems like I can't go wrong there.
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Old Aug 10, 2009 | 07:31 AM
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I recommend white LED bulbs from autolumination. I've had great experiences with the products I've purchased from them. My entire interior lighting setup (dome/map lights, door lights, glovebox, license plate and trunk lights) are all hyper-white bulbs from Autolumination.
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Old Aug 10, 2009 | 12:05 PM
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And you can drop your car without having issues, as long as you get something conservative. I've got Tein S-Tech springs and it gives less than a finger gap, and I've never scraped on anything
How low of a drop is that? It looks really nice. I'm still a bit concerned thought cause I already blew a tire and bottomed out my car a few times just on pot holes. I'm one of those drivers who goes around the potholes... I did the lighting myself for the dome lights, door lights and trunk. I wanted to do my glove box too I just wanted to see some pictures so I can see if it is like the style I was going for. As for the drop, I was looking to get 18"s in the next year or so, would this cause an issue?
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Old Aug 11, 2009 | 02:53 AM
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Audioserf what size hyper-white bulbs from Autolumination did you need to do the dome/map lights, door lights, glovebox, license plate and trunk lights? Just curious because i wanted to do the same to mine.
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Old Aug 11, 2009 | 08:08 AM
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Originally Posted by noclownn
Audioserf what size hyper-white bulbs from Autolumination did you need to do the dome/map lights, door lights, glovebox, license plate and trunk lights? Just curious because i wanted to do the same to mine.
I bought all of the bulbs over two years ago so I've honestly forgotten. However, I got all of the bulb size information from threads on this forum -- run a search and you should find what you're looking for.
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Old Aug 11, 2009 | 09:10 PM
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Here are the pictures. Apologize for the bad quality. I tried a few different nights with different camera's and this is what I got... Note: I have a flip down DVD screen for the back seat so that's where the extra dome light is. Don't use it but I like the extra lighting!



















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Old Aug 12, 2009 | 01:56 AM
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Those white lights look really nice, That's what I put in for my dome lights. The lighting I was talking about was where you feet go, like for the front it would be where the pedals are and under the glove box, then same thing for the back except the lights are going to be under the front seats glowing the back seats.
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Old Aug 15, 2009 | 01:46 AM
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Yeah I can picture that. It'd look sweet just gotta make sure you wire everything up well. If you do it be sure to post some pics!
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Old Aug 24, 2009 | 01:53 PM
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Going in for the upgrades tomorrow! I'm gonna detail my car and post some pictures. However I won't have my car til Thursday or Friday so it may be another week before I can get picture up on here. I ended up going with blue lights under the seats. The final list of upgrades....

*Window Tints(Darkest legal limit)
*Injen CAI
*Custom Enclosure
*Dynamat in doors(trunk already done)
*Radar Detector hard wired
*Blue interior lighting
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Old Aug 27, 2009 | 08:06 AM
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Pics when done please and good luck!
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Old Aug 28, 2009 | 12:23 AM
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How much did you get that rear DVD unit installed? How much was the unit?

I'm asking cause I am interested in getting one of these for my TSX.
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Old Aug 28, 2009 | 02:13 PM
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Originally Posted by mdkxtreme
How much did you get that rear DVD unit installed? How much was the unit?

I'm asking cause I am interested in getting one of these for my TSX.
Surprisingly enough it actually came with the car when I bought Jan of this yr. Just did a quick google search for "tsx rear entertainment" and this was what I found under the first link: http://acura.bernardiparts.com/Acura...3-2E1-011.aspx

I wouldn't pay for it but it came with
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Old Aug 30, 2009 | 04:08 AM
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i have a injen cold air and single exhaust
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Old Sep 3, 2009 | 01:04 AM
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Old Sep 3, 2009 | 01:24 AM
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Sorry I screwed up on my previous post and couldn't find a way to delete it. Anyway, here are the pictures of my first major upgrade.





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Old Sep 3, 2009 | 07:51 AM
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Very nice results. I see you went with a blue theme. Love how the engine cover came out. Did you end up doing the map/dome lights in blue as well?
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Old Sep 3, 2009 | 03:47 PM
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I put cool white LED bulbs in the dome lights. I felt too much blue would kill the theme of the car. I wanted to originally go with purple lights under the seats and such but ended up getting blue. I put blue LED's in the glove, center console and the spot above the not an ash tray, it was too light for those pictures but I'll take those soon and post them up. Also realized I forgot to take the picture of the radar, so they'll be a few more pics I can add up soon.
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Old Sep 7, 2009 | 01:20 AM
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to the op, man i thought i was the only one wit the TSX engraved pedals, did you get them on ebay? I also have type R subs but i have a custom box with 2, great minds think alike
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Old Sep 7, 2009 | 01:21 AM
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and imo, blue or white interiod led lighting looks the best
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Old Sep 7, 2009 | 11:19 AM
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Nah I actually have yet to buy anything for my car on ebay. Trying to avoid it I got them here from excelerate. They did wonders for the overall interior look of the car. Taillights surprisingly did making backing up harder. I was looking at getting a second R type but it really isn't needed, One is already very powerful haha. So i'm gonna save the money and get an exhaust or rims before I do that.
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Old Sep 7, 2009 | 01:42 PM
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tru that, i wish i had the money for rims/exhaust right now
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