I have a 2010 tsx that i bought with 65k miles and now has 85k miles. My goal is to just find out if there are any simple things I can do to improve the car. I'm not looking for anything to make it faster or take corners better. This is just my daily car that I put a lot of miles on commuting in LA. I just want things that are worthwhile to maybe increase MPG, make it ride smoother, or just things that will keep the car running well for a long time. Right now it is bone stock. Even the air filter is the cheap white one.

 

Invest in better tires.



Change your oil. Leave it stock.

 

i also echo keeping it stock for your goals.
maintaining the vehicle in tip top condition will keep the car running well for a very long time!
for gas mileage, it depends on if you're already getting the max out of the car, or if you've let the maintenance fall and are getting sub-par fuel mileage...then, there are things that you can do to improve! like keeping tires properly inflated, keeping that stock air filter, etc.

 

remember, Maintenance over modifications ALL DAY EVERY DAY!

 

slammed static with -15 degrees of camber. should drive nice

 

I agree with these guys and I would like to add a suggestion, seafoam. The seafoam treatment will help clean areas inside your motor/fuel system that you cant reach and might help with gas mileage.

 

I would consider a ceramic window tint. It will help keep your interior from fading and reduce your AC load, which can help with gas mileage.

And Lamin-X headlight and fog light film covers to prevent cracking and fading.

You might want to switch to synthetic oil but keep to the oil change intervals in the MID.

And maybe a dash cam for peace of mind. Crazy LA drivers....

 

Food for thought;

premium fuels have cleaners and detergents in them.

if using a top tier gas station, you shouldnt have a problem with dirty injectors or whatever seafoam is trying to clean...

on top of that, Acura engines run VERY clean and are very efficient. Ive taken a few apart.

TL;DR
Use top tier gas/fuel

 

I actually used to stick with Costco because they are top tier, but the one near my house relocated to further away and can't justify the drive unless I'm in that area. Guess I'll be sticking to Sam's Club now...

 

As a I am in the automotive fuel business, don't trust "detergent" gas. Even the most premium of fuel brands tend to have bad or tainted gas in their underground tanks. Seen it many times. Don't only rely on "premium quality fuel" and just seafoam your damn car.

 

I just feel that the regular gas will do... or even better when i drove in the freeway...

i recently changed to regular from premium and I see no difference really... I think like other have suggested, keeping it stock is a good way to go.

I want to keep my TSX as long as possible and lease another car for weekends some day!!

 

You put regular 87 octane gas in your 4cyl tsx??

 

Yep. For 49k miles and 33mpg on the highways.

 

You maybe getting slightly more mpg but power is lowered. Our motors are very high compression which requires 91 octane and above. If your putting regular gas into a motor that asks for premium... Why didn't you just get an accord?
I personally put 93 in my tsx. Even before it was tuned I put 93. That's because I'm a car enthusiast and I love/respect high compression Honda motors.
Kind of disrespectful if you ask me. Can you please trade in your tsx for an accord or maybe a Camry please?!

 

Duh.

 

I believe that 91 octane is "recommended" for the 4 cyl engine, but required for the V6. Therefore, putting regular in the 4-cyl should not have a major impact on engine other than a marginal reduction of performance.

On my V6, I get pinging when accelerating when I tried using regular.... so premium fuel is definitely required.

 

Most states only have 87-89-93 octane. The 91 octane is recommended because of California emission standards like everything else.

 

I'm not sure that you'll do any noteable harm using 87 octane. These are cars with variable valve timing and coilpacks and modern computers. Theoretically, they should run fine and adapt to 87 octane.

I would think that any reduction in MPG would be noticed around town.....not on a highway cruise situation.

I would assume that in the very long term, a car running 91 or 93 octane would last a bit longer in terms of engine and transmission life (if we're talking auto trans). But...it might be negligible. Hard to know.

Peoples' driving habits are different as well. To be safe, 91 or 93 works under all the scenarios. 87 might make one person's engine ping or stumble....and may not make any difference for others.

On our 2G TSX, 87 didn't seem to make the car run much different. I noticed some difference in smoothness at idle. This probably would take care of itself. I did not notice any pinging....but it was winter when I tried this. I think in summer time...with the AC on, you'd probably get some pinging whether you're hearing it or not. The auto trans helps a lot against ping/knock because it has the ability to slip clutches and will downshift instead of loading the engine up. But that also wears the trans.

In my 1G (manual trans), I noticed a pronounced amount of pinging and roughness with 87, however.

91 or 93 is a safer bet for me. I haven't done any long term testing....but I guess I'm just going with what I think will work better.