So I have an A/T 07 TLS and was wondering what unnecessary performance mods I should avoid doing on the car in the future, being it an automatic. Thanks in advance!

 

I'll probably get tons of people disagreeing with me, but I would avoid getting any type of aftermarket intake (cold air intake, ect.). That is unless you're willing to spend a few hundred bucks just to make your car sound louder. Don't believe the "horsepower gains" claims attached to these products. Most are either extremely optimistic or just complete BS. Some will even make less power than the stock intake.

 

I regret doing all my performance power mods on my TL but that's because i'm a base AT... Since you are a Type-S A/T I wouldn't feel as bad. Feel free to do whatever you want performance wise. You're starting on a better platform than a base A/T. On par with the 6spd base TL in terms of HP @ the wheels in 100% stock form.

 

my thoughts would be not to get an intake or exaust as in that its auto i think it would go only with manuals

 

Yea, I'm avoiding all performance mods. I feel like it's a relatively quick car, but even with a grand in bolt ons, it's probably still only going to be a relatively quick car. Back in my mustang 5.0 days it was all performance, but on this one its all about looks and luxury for me.

That being said, to each his own! Do what makes you happiest.

 

This^^^ I've got an 07 Type-S and tried the CAI. Sold it after a few months. Just made the car loud and annoying. I had the J-pipe test pipe but didn't feel much difference so I got the precat deletes. Felt a little more power but for $700 not really worth it. This is a semi luxury car not a race car. If you want to mod find a better platform.

 

Yep-cold air intakes are a several hundred dollars worth of worthless.

 

I have a CAI, I prolly woulda never bought it myself but my buddy did for me, so what the hell. I love the way it sounds and I'm convinced (probably wrongly but I don't care) that it increased power and throttle response. I plan on an XLR8 J-pipe and cat-back exhaust as soon as I can afford it. In my eyes it can't hurt performance, and I'm really looking forward to the new noise

 

Can I go wrong with suspension, brakes, etc mods?

 

I don't really regret a single mod I've done. It is true that in some cases you may need to be particular, but that's different than saying this or that was a waste of money.


The only mods I regret are the ones I HAVEN'T done.

Yet.

 

suspension is definitively the best mod in terms of getting more joy out of your car. IMO having a car that can handle around a road track is more fun than a car the goes fast.

 

100% agree man! Id rather go fast and handle that corner than go really fast in that straight away and have to slow down significantly to turn

 

Whatever you do.. stay with stock 4300k bulbs or Osram CBI bulbs.

 

but beware....comfort will be sacraficed! but it depends how lazy you are. with adjustable dampening you can go from driving what seams like a boat to a F1 car in an hour or so as long as you have already determined what settings you prefer. I think i will soon go to a more comfortable setup for a few months till i get bored then go back to a track set up or inbetween

 

Don't do LED Fogs, they don't put out much light from what I've seen.

 

I didn't read any responses but...CAI is worthless and despite what some people will say I'd stay away from high pressure FI systems.

 

I like my comptech exhaust as it is very subtle but the car feels more alive, the intake i took out as its a waste of money low end power and slow response compared to the stock which i have now and im much more happy. Throttle body spacer is the biggest waist out of all of them. No mods are really worth the money, when you look at something like the high flow cats which you pay 5-600 dollars for and kill yourself installing it and after that going for a test drive and you are thinking to yourself hmmm i feel a little difference but there isnt really any )). Im slowly converting back to stock and focus more on the looks. Suspension is worth it for sure.

 

No need for brake mods IMO. The brakes on the Type-S and 6MT "sport" are pretty excellent in stock form. Plus, brakes can only stop the car as fast as the tires will allow. There's not much point in having more aggressive brakes if the ABS has to keep cutting in to keep them from locking up the tires.

As far as suspension, it depends on where your ride/handling balance is. If you don't mind a harsher ride, then I would say upgrade the suspension. If you want to keep the semi-plush luxury car feel, then I would say leave it alone. Also remember that as a ~3500lb front wheel drive car, the TL can never be expected to have world class handling, no matter what you do to it.

 

i dont think you guys have even been on the v6 performance forum....people have dyno-ed intakes for quite some gain....agreed most of them are on a 3.0L V6 from the honda accord but still....

about mods, i would suggest 2 words "budget" and "goals"

what are your needs and wants ? what do you want to accomplish ? what is your goal ?

if you want to get to 400HP then do not do anything and get a JnR turbo kit and then go from there.....

if you want to get to 350HP then get either the Turbo kit or the Supercharger....

if you want to be within the 300 range get every bolton you see....

you have an intake/TBS/bored TB manifold and runners/PCD's/jpipe/exhaust/pulley/ the whole deal and you will be around the 270-280 range.....

so it basically depends on what you need and how much you willing to spend on it....

but i have never seen anyone who is HP hungry say "do not get CAI"....we do everything possible to squeeze ever last HP from the motor....

 

You're correct, a lot of bolt-ons (including a CAI) combined with a proper tune will yield gains. This is well documented.

However, a CAI on its own will do almost nothing except make more noise.

The same goes for most of the other bolt-ons. On their own they do almost nothing. It's only when their combined and run with a proper tune that they make any real gains.

Even then though, unless you're chasing dyno numbers, spending $2,000 or so on every available bolt on for 40 extra whp isn't really worth it IMO. The TL has plenty of power stock (IMO, maybe even a tad too much for FWD) for a daily driver.

 

^^^ am glad you mentioned "IMO"....else you would be calling 90% of Azine stupid for doing mods to make the TL faster

EDIT: but yeah the CAI does add power on its own....the reason people try to stay away from them is from the fear of hydrolocking the engine....but i bet those people dont have an idea what hydrolocking means.....

if i had to do it again, I could throw a custom CAI on my car....well am doing it again....you will see some updated to my build in the next few days....link is in the sig

 

I agree with splew, this car has plenty of HP for a FWD car. I can't image a 4G TL, they're what? Close to 300 and FWD? Scary. (Correct me if I'm wrong. I know the AWD has 300.)

 

weight negates the extra hp.

 

lol true, that 4G TL is GIGANTIC.

 

all these cars have 260 or 300 or 305 hp which is at the crank....by the time you put down the power you are in the 240's and 250's range....

you know what FWD has a lot of power ? the Civic Si...check the weight to HP ratio on that and the TL....you will pick up a wrench and start modding....

 

No stickers or giant wing spoilers. Just rices out the car.

 

Yeah a good CAI on its own might get you extra 10whp under ideal dyno conditions, but in the grand scheme of things, that's only around a 4% increase in power (IIRC TLs dyno at around 225whp stock). For me a 4% increase in power isn't worth the couple hundred bucks a CAI costs. Again that's just my opinion. I'm not trying to be negative towards those with CAIs or other bolt-ons.

I used to be a firm believer in CAIs, and I had one on my last car. After I stopped kidding myself, I realized it was a giant waste of money. It really had no perceptible difference over stock, except being louder and driving worse at low RPMs.

On a side note, here's a video I like that puts the claimed "gains" of CAIs to the test, mythbusters style.

 

^^^ well you have to see why CAI make less power on the TL....its coz of the heatsoak....i made more power from the CAI after I did my coolant bypass....

i completely understand what you are saying but this thread is not about "bang for the buck mod"....but you are advising someone to stay off a mod even thow it does gain some ponies.....

as i mentioned before, for us HP hungry guys, every pony is required....

 

cold air intakes!

 

I am done spending money with intake, they costly and the only thing you gain is noise and chance of hydrolock

 

You can argue the number gains forever, but some ppl buy it because of the noise it makes.

Lets not forget every intake isnt $300 like the aem v2. You can get a k&n for half the price or create your own.

 

I created my own CAI for $150 with the filter being $50....

and guys for the 100000000000000000000000000000000000000th time, you wont hydrolock your engine unless you gun the pedal in a pool of water !!!

 

CAI
Wing Spoiler
Body Kit that is not ASPEC
Stickers - Acurazine Sticker is acceptable in the right place
Obnoxiously bright bulbs

 

^^^This.

I would do no mods on an AT TL(-S) except aesthetic mods. If someday you tranny blows up and you are lucky enough to swap 6MT in, that's the day you start doing tires, wheels, suspension, intake/exhaust, etc.

The reason is simple. By owning an AT TL(-S), you/we are very close to trading in your/our cars for Evo X's, E92 M3's, or base Corvettes. The money you put in your TL-S can easily get such a trade-in done. There is no point to escalate commitment.

 

^^^

you got your priorities wrong bro....you are waiting for your tranny to blow up so you can do an MT swap ??? why not just trade it in for the same amount of $$$ for an MT ???

just curious....

current car = 15K
tranny swap = 5K ?

get another car for 20K MT swap all the mods....sell the AT for 15K

 

The people that say this usually have never been in a fast car. Take a ride in a car that will spin the tires at any legal speed and make your head spin and you won't care about handling on the street. There aren't many places you can test handling on the street but you can have a ton of fun in a fast car on your daily drive. With that said, the TL will never be fast short of a turbo so I did some nice handling and braking mods. I also find it funny that people do all of this research and money into suspension and throw some average tires on there. Suspension will never give you the gains that a good set of tires will.

As for the auto, instead of converting it to a manual when the trans goes out, throwing in a high stall converter will drastically improve the car's launch and should put it on par with a manual, at least until it shifts to 4th. Even then the rpm drop won't be so drastic. It will be MUCH cheaper. The manual is quicker no doubt but take an average drive in a manual and an auto driver that reacts half a second quicker than the manual driver, it could go either way. If you want it for the fun factor, I can understand that but there are cheaper ways to make an auto TL as quick as a manual if straight line acceleration is what you're after.

 

IHC anymore info on the high stall converter and where can I get one?

 

I'm guessing both of you have a different DD. My TL is a DD and after having a lowered 6th gen Accord (H&R sport, KYB & Neuspeed Strut bar), I decided to keep the TL on stock suspension for the following reasons:

1. I got tired of scraping the undercarriage EVERY time I went over a slightly larger than normal speedbump.
2. I got tired of trying to avoid EVERY road imperfection so I didn't mess anything up.

I think the TL actually rides very similar to my old accord in terms of handling.

 

There are quite a few converter shops that will restall a stock converter for about $1-$200. If you can't find one locally, I have a good one but shipping would be expensive. Something around 2,800rpm would make an auto TL a tire smoking machine off the start but not hurt mpg too much.

An aftermarket converter will cost from $500-$1,000. Generally, an aftermarket high performance high stall will be more efficient (better coupling/less slippage above the stall rpm) and stronger than a stock one that's had the stall speed raised up and will put a little more power to the ground especially has hp levels rise.

If it helps to understand, the converter is a fluid coupling with the same purpose as the clutch in a manual transmission. At idle, sitting at a redlight, the converter has 100% slip since the engine is spinning but the car is going nowhere. It's still generating some heat but the efficiency is so low at idle rpms that it barely tries to move the car. Give it some throttle, rpms come up and it gets more efficient, and it starts to transfer power to the input shaft of the transmission. Most of the heat generation in an auto is from the converter because of this slip. That's why if you go from driving around town you might see temps of around 190-200 degrees but after a few minutes on the freeway with the torque converter clutch locked up with 0% slip, trans temps usually go down close to ambient.

A higher stall converter requires more rpm before it becomes efficient so on take off it allows the rpms to come up higher, putting the engine in it's powerband sooner. It also generates more heat so a bigger/better cooler is recommended. Put the car in 1st gear and bring it up to 2,800rpm and punch it. It will pull harder than that with a high stall right off the start.

 

LED's are purely cosmetic and actually produce less indirect light. You will especially notice a severe degradation if you put LEDs in the reverse lights. If you really want a brighter light, i believe PIAA lights are the way to go.