BTW! Love me a nice BBK behind some nice wheels!

 

Old in body but not in spirit?!
You seem pretty "with it" for being as old as you may be. My guess...mid fifties. You sound like you're from a simpler time. We have a few really cool older dudes on here...

 

Looks great and works well on the track - does nothing but make noise the rest of the time.

It is amazing how we justify stuff to ourselves. The BBK was because one of my work sites requires driving down a steep, twisty and hilly 4 mile road. The BBK would fade less. In reality it just keeps you awake when it squeals - hey - a new safety feature.

After awhile you start reassessing your priorities and start thinking about the things you should have done differently. While - oddly enough - I'm quite pleased with how my personal and work life has turned out (and the mistakes along the way contributed to that) I have regrets about realestate sales, cars and mods. Had I never sold my Mercedes' (ranging from early 70's 280SEL 6.3 to the 600 - the '6 300 Adenauer or the '36 Horch) then I'd be sitting on quite a chunk of change right now.

Had I not put that HE ignition on my '98 Yukon then I'd still be driving it with (by now) probably 350k miles. Aside from that intermittent no start problem that think was one of the most reliable cars I've owned. Had I not traded it in on a 2002 A6, then I wouldn't have whacked that deer and had to buy an S6. Had I not modded the S6 then I wouldn't have had to buy a daily driver GTI after the S6 broke 100k miles. Had I not had the GTI, then I wouldn't have traded it for the R32. If VW had a decent dealer in the greater DC area, then I wouldn't have sold that and bought the BMW.

In retrospect, I'd be perfectly happy still driving my Yukon and I'd have an extra $200k or so in the bank. some of my cosmetic changes brought me some joy, but every one of my mechanical mods brought no discernable difference and ultimately caused some sort of problem. My BMW caused me problems without any mods.

Over the years I have learned a few hard facts abouts mods.

1. The manufacturer spends billions on reserach and has a reason for making every sub system the way it is. The ultimate reasons being safety and reliability.
2. No mom and pop shop (and that means virtually every aftermarket company) can make any system better than the OEM. They can tweak it for a specific advantage, but then something else suffers - usually reliability.
3. If one company produces something that is significantly cheaper than the others, then it is junk.
4. Disregard 99% of the advice you get on the internet.

• If a DIY is labeled as "easy" then it requires two rocket scientists to decipher. If it takes "an hour" then figure on a half day. If "a good indy should only charge $100 to install that" then figure on getting quotes of no less that $250 from any indy within a 2000 mile radius of your house.
• Whatever part you buy will not fit as intended. It'll take more work to make it fit than it is worth.
• If a used item is being sold with "minor scratches that are easily fixed" then count on it being trashed. If it were easily fixed then why didn't the seller fix it?

More random thoughts

• Any electrical mod will cause you major grief. It might show up a few years down the road. This applies to any German car and most US cars built after 1990.
• If you buy an Italian or English car, you will need a second job to pay for repairs and a spare garage to store the carcass while it is being fixed. The repair will last no longer than a week
• Asian cars are reliable but uninspiring. To make them inspiring you often make them unreliable.

Always ask yourself what the unintended consequences may be. Acura found that out the hard way with TPMS sensors in the '05 RL. Because the technology was fairly new, they didn't consider the fact that the normally used metal tire valve stem caps would fuse to the valve stems if not removed frequently. That unintended consequence cost them lots of money to replace the sensors in thousands of cars. Luckily the RL wasn't a really hot seller, but the '05 model was the best seller of the slow sellers.

 

Yep. My wife - who is off playing in a sandbox for the next few months - told me on Skype a few days ago that I seem to be having a "reverse mid-life crisis" going from a 335 to a TSX.

 

So I guess by definition, a mid life crises doesn't necessarily mean we're going after sports cars...just after something we've never really had before. in your case, good mpg, reliability and some cool technology.

Well thought out posts, i must say. I honestly feel like such a schizo sometimes...the different way we can feel just based on what we deem priority etc...at one point I was so close to trading in cause I was bored...wanted RWD...wanted more power. Didn't want to lose mpg though...and I love how the TL looks. Ended up NOT signing for 35K debt and to be honest, now I couldn't be happier. I love my car. It's actually kinda synonymous with life...find the balance between wanting more and being satisfied with what you have. Very hard to do...

 

So why don´t you search for a 98 Yukon again, then you will be happy again. LOL
On this Forum almost nobody has a risky mod. A lot of your sentences are truth, but it makes me depressive almost. I like to modify my cars in my own way, so its not as everyboy have. The most mods are for eyes only, like rims etc.. But I also like to modify Exhaust, intake on my own. Love to change the sound of my machine with a few mods. And none of my cars had a damage from that!
Oh and I´m not 18, I´m 48 years old, like modding my car and love Heavy Metal.
What is true in your writing, everybody should know his personal, financial limits and the limits of his car. But stop making me depressive, I think ten times more over every mod since your post. LOL
I really like what you write ( its NOT written in red )

 

damn, hondo, i forgot you are old

hehehe

and rockstar, off topic but kick ass engine bay.

 

I dont think that was the point here.
the point is to research your mods. Think before you pull the trigger.
not every one turns out like you Hondo, there are a lot of people that throw together some cheap mods.
Hondo, you have an amazing and well thought out car.


JUST SAY NO TO CHEAP MODS

 

Lots of old men giving good advice here. I feel like I'm 55 and just going to be happy with the stock car I bought.

 

This made me think of that one guy on here who raised his driver's seat with a bunch of washers and used an extra long bolt. I forgot who that was though.

 

ed, thanks man...

it's actually pretty ON topic, if you ask me. It cost me $10 to do! Well, plus the cost of the backup set of covers in case I wanted to go back to them being stock.

J.

 

Damn. I forgot about this stupid Thing.LOL

 

Du hasst recht. In Deutschland ist es sowieso schwieriger wegen TUV und ASU.

I think Germans generally think about mods more carefully because of the technical inspections that are required.

 

...it also seems like it's in their nature.

Sorry, I'm not from the German part of Switzerland.

 

HAHA, Grüß Gott, der Herr.
Your german is better than my english.

You are right, TÜV and AU are hell. They look at every detail. I speak with the men from the TÜV everytime before I start a mod. They tell me whats allowed and what limits I have to watch. But not everything is legal on my car. LOL
My next TÜV and AU is in Octobre this year, lets see what they will find

 

Yeah you would be happy driving the Yukon now....because you have already went out and explored the other cars you had after the Yukon. A lot of times seeing something and wanting it, is better than actually having it. Yet we will not know till we find out for ourselves.

I love modding my cars. I love making them stand out (in a good way) and having my car different than the next guys. I love the conversations that are started over other car guys asking me about my car and vice versa.

Yes I bet I have spent over $50,000 in modding cars over the past ten years, but I have never lost my ass on any mods I have purchased. Especially wheels. I purchased my Volk TE37's in mag blue for $2,200, waited 8 months to get them, used them for a while, kept them in great condition and sold them for $2,300 a year later.

Usually I don't make out that well, but even with exhaust, coilovers, etc. I always keep them in amazing shape and maybe loose a hundred bucks or so when I sell them, yet I got to have fun with the item for that amount of time.

I know the point your going for and there are a lot of the 10k HIDs, painted this red painted that red on here. Most people come out of that after a while and see that you don't need a red and black color scheme on your car to have it look good.

I'd love for my son to be into modding cars when he gets older. It kept my friends and I out of big trouble with drugs and such (except those VW guys haha) while giving us a hobby that we were interested in.

 

You make OEM sound like it's the ultimate in design. Yeah they do spend millions on research but improvements can always be made as evidenced by the minor changes that the model goes through in its production cycle. Let's take brake pads for example. The stock pads the TSX came with were crap and Honda eventually issued a TSB to correct the problem.

Tires are a prime example of where the aftermarket shines over OEM. Usually the stock tires that come with a car are crap. A compromise of too much that they're good for nothing. A quick glance at a lot of tire reviews over at tirerack will tell you there's so many better choices than OEM.

I'd be curious to know what you think of Skunk2's timing chain tensioner. It supposedly addresses the k-series engine's problem timing chain slack. It might turn out to be an aftermarket solution to an OEM problem.

 

What a great thread! I'm 58 and have never been heavily into modding. Thought about a wheel/tire package on my new 2012 base TSX but it drives so nicely I don't want to chance any trade-offs in noise, harshness or stability. The stock tires start loosing grip about the same time as the chassis begins loosing composure anyway.

I work in the auto service bizz and have seen mods both good and horrific. The car I will tend to put my best efforts into is any interesting car that is clean, well maintained and un-molested by the fad-o-the-day mods.

All I need is some stick-on fender louvers and chromed license frames encrusted with big plastic rhinestones!

Always remember this:
1) "Universal Fit" means this product doesn't fit anything.

2) "Custom Fit" means this product won't fit YOUR car.

 

I am 29 and I am happy with my stock SE 6MT. Here is my story. Before this car I had 06 Mazda 3 bought brand new. I lowered it, tinted it, and put an after market sound system. Working in a city tore the suspension up, tint got me pulled over 3 times in 5 years all outside of the city (paid the fines twice), and sound system was buggy and I got tired of trouble shooting it. So plan now is to keep the SE stock, other than the tint that is already on. Plus, since it is a lease and will get serviced at the dealer I am not taking any chances. I am so happy I once again have a car that doesn't need time to be "debugged" and I can just enjoy the ride. Thoughts of lowering, and getting wheels are always on my mind till I hit a pothole.

So, the moral of the story is get it out of your system early and spend more time driving your car then troubleshooting it.

 

I have to say I've taken a boosted Honda Civic Si to Honda for a tranny TSB. They fixed it, told me how much they loved the car and what I've done with it and then I went on my way.

Around here we have Mazda, Mini, BMW and other car companies host ride and drives, autox's etc. There trying to show off their car with different accesories, tires etc. Trying to give people an idea of what they can do with the car and how much fun it can be.

I agree 100% on cheap mods and such. Yet you can't act like all mods are the devil lol.

 

I tend to disagree. I can't think on one aftermarket item that improves upon OE in all areas. Most either do nothing, sound like they increase performance but actually decrease performance, or do something better but adversely affect other systems. What mod can you think of that increases performance without any downsides? If there were such a product then why wouldn't the manufacturer implement it?

That isn't to say that there aren't good aftermarket products out there, but each and every one has some downside or serve some very specific purpose.

I'll have to look up the chain tensioner issue.

I think you are completely wrong about the tires. There is no difference between the OE tires and the same tire that anyone can buy at Tirerack or your local tire store. When a car is designed, the engineers determine specific tire characteristics (along with any other OTS items they incorporate into the design) and spec that out.

The Michelins that come with our cars are very good grand touring all season tires that are undoubtedly very well suited for the majority of TSX owners. I've said it before - enthusiast drivers should fit the car with higher performance tires. I generally run ultra high performance all season tires (Conti DWS for example) for three seasons and winter tires for the 4th.

 

The story would have been different had you had an engine management issue.

Please don't put words into my mouth. I never implied that I'm against mods. I'm against modding without considering the consequences or modding for the wrong reasons.

 

IN THIS THREAD:

 

When manufacturers spec out things like tires and other parts they have to also consider cost. For tires, its going to be the quietest, longest-lasting all-season from a major manufacturer that costs them the least. I still consider it a no-brainer to upgrade the tires from the stock offering in almost all the cars I've driven. The continental DWS you mentioned is a great example.

That's not exactly a fair question. Nothing's perfect, including mods. Everything's going to have at least some downside. Power usually comes with a mileage trade-off. Suspension changes usually upset handling balance. It's just a matter of whether the mod you're contemplating has a greater upside than downside.

Having said that though, what would you consider to be the downside to chassis braces like a strut tower bar?

 

Off the top pf my head I'd say that increasing chassis stiffness will make the ride harsher and may lead to more squeaks, rattles and increased component wear. Is it a bad mod? Depends on priorities.

Only you can decide if a particular mod is right for you. We can help you determine what the upsides and downsides are but you can make the ultimate decision.

We'll try to talk you out of mods that are dangerous to others or to yourself. We'll point out possible legal or warranty issues and you'll need to decide if the risks are worth the perceived benefits.

Hopefully this thread has gotten you to scrutinize your mods a bit closer and make better decisions in the future. I always try to determine why I want a particular mod and figure out if those are the real reasons - sometimes that's tricky.

 

what?! You mean this isn't a mod worth it?

 

That would get you about one block in DC before you get arrested for impersonating a police officer.

 

That's what Hondata's Flash Pro was for!

About the chassie braces....Most car's now days come with a couple from the factory. It use to be mostly an "aftermarket" part. Now even our TSX comes with a front strut tower brace etc.

Sounds like big car brands took a hint from the afermarket world lol! All in good fun here!

 

In general I think this is a good thread and can be useful to those who take hearsay and what they read in magazines as gospel. There's a lot of crap out there, manufacturers are the ones paying for advertising resulting in an implied endorsement by the magazines people trust. Throwing parts willy-nilly with no regard to it functioning as a system can yield negative gains, or nominal gains in one area and a *trade off* or loss in other areas.

Many universal fit parts aren't, others that are model specific don't work as advertised and are rarely a direct fit without modification of the part as delivered.

However, any statement that subscribes to the belief that every component auto manufacturers produce is the best it can possibly be, or that every aftermarket part has a downside is subjective & in my *opinion* indefensible when stated as a fact. I know that if I install a power adder (turbo, n2o, supercharger) that fuel economy may decline and the longevity or service life will be reduced. Is it a downside to me? No. Is it a downside to someone else? Possibly.

Also, OE components have to fit a specific criteria dependent on the target buyer *and cost to produce* which has been my point all along from the pulley discussion that I almost singlehandedly hijacked and now apologize for.

I fail to understand the disconnect with regard to cost to produce v failure to implement.

 

^^^
My cracked dash, previous failed bluetooth unit and totally corroded rain channels would be a testament to that post right there.

MOST things the manufacturer gets right from factory...but not all.

Plus, do we all really think it's just a coincidence that our cars don't last the way they used to? The aftermarket/replacement parts is a billion dollar industry and although some companies DO build parts that last long...they don't want them to last forever anymore.

J.

 

Of course it is a downside to you. You have to weigh the downside of having a catastrophic engine failure on your dime against the perceived benefits of the added power. That is clearly a downside and only you can decide if the gains are worth it.

 

Catastrophic failures can and do occur *as built* when used *as directed*.

It doesn't matter what opinion or fact anyone conveys, when dealing with a person that *has* to be right, regardless of a contrary point of view, the tangents will be incessant.

 

What was I thinking? Of course you're right. You won't be happy otherwise.

Some people don't want to understand that the need to factor in downsides and consequences into the calculation does not equate to discouraging modding.

There is a pretty strong possibility that I'll hurt myself skiing. That risk increases as the slopes get more difficult and a prudent person weighs his skillset and the difficulty of the run against that possibility.

 

Gotta go big or go home. Only live once right! haha.

I've always had Honda/Acura's (10 of them) some highly modded and boosted, some near stock. I've never had a car not start on me or engine issues. May be good luck though!