Mercury

Question for you experts out there... Will headers or intakes rip our cars apart in the long haul. I want to keep it running well for 7 or so years and I do drive it hard now, I can just imagine what these things will make me do. Any thoughts?

scalbert

Maintain the car and all will be fine. Oh also, don't beat on it... I too often find people running the car hard when the time doesn't call for it. Such as:

Having sat in long traffic on a hot summer day only to start jumping on it working the trans harder. The trans fluid will probably be up at the limit, drive slowly until it cools.

But provided common sense is used and required maintenance is done, IMO the intake and headers will not promote noticeable wear.

EricL

Hmmm, where is the crystal ball?

If you driver harder -- the car will wear out quicker.

If you have more power (from headers and intake) -- you make more power. If you drive like a wild man, yes the car will break sooner (assuming all things equal *and* I can't tell you when sooner is).

The Comptech headers are made from 304 stainless steel. The 3rd generation headers are well engineered. They should last a long time. (The old mild steel headers without ceramic coats etc would break all the time -- I know I owned a bunch on my bimmer.)

The headers add 25 hp (or 32 hp) depending how you figure it *and* the cold air will get you 5-15hp (I don't know the exact #).

If you get an air intake, make sure to clean or replace the filter. There are some links around that mention how the K&N filters flow more air when new, but less when dirty. Some of the factory stock filters clean more dirt out of the air stream than the K&Ns.

If you drive with the headers *and* don't drive any harder, you *shouldn't* have a problem. (BTW, the 7year/100K Acura warrantee will NOT cover them.)

If you drive with the cold air -- please make sure you keep the filter on *and* keep it really clean.

Well, I did it again -- too much info....

tel1sps

I agree EricL, every action has a re-action. Acura engineers spent alot of time designing this car. If you change something other parts will be effected. Just another fact of life.

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01 Silver 3.2CLs

Mercury

If you drive with the headers *and* don't drive any harder, you *shouldn't*
have a problem. (BTW, the 7year/100K Acura warrantee will NOT cover them.)

Is it that the new parts won't carry the warantee or that the original warantee on the rest of the car is voided? Thnx

EricL

They original parts should be ok, unless [they]Acura prove that your modified parts damaged the Acura parts (I'm not a lawyer) -- see the excerpt and link below:

"They cannot just say the headers voided your warranty. Look up the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. It states that the consumer is allowed to take the dealer/manufacturer to court if a warranty claim is denied and the the dealer MUST prove that the modification CAUSED the failure of the PART in question. Dealers know about this act and most also know that 99% of car owners have no clue what it is. If you maturely and calmly mention that per the M-M Federal Act they must prove the part caused the failure they will usually not void the warranty. It won't always work since some dealers will be willing to let you go to court over it, most won't. If they attempt to deny, fight them, NICELY. DO NOT LOSE YOUR TEMPER OR BECOME AGGRESSIVE, that'll make it harder to get warranty work done." (from Vampyre)

link to the entire topic:

http://www.acura-cl.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000135.html




[This message has been edited by EricL (edited 01-19-2001).]