HQTL6SPD

I'm just wondering, wouldn't having that tar there maintain a lowered center of gravity? If done on a TL, since its a 4 door, wouldn't it increase body roll? Plus doesn't that stuff kill road noise from underneath?


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Costco

If you're feeling ballsy enough, you can go ahead and get a detachable steering wheel like Cocoa did for his CL. That would effectively remove the driver's airbag, saving you more weight.

You could also ditch the power seats for Recaros or comparable seats. You would still have seats, and you would save a lot of weight because those power-seats are some heavy sons-a. Also, you can remove the power steering and its components, and another option (though unlikely, as you live in TX) is to remove the A/C. Those two systems combined would net you over 100 lbs. in weight savings.

I can see the point in all of this, and I would do it, to my Integra but not my 3.2TL-S. I have experienced the benefits of weight reduction before - not only did I drive a relatively bare car, but I had no radio at all so I always thought about how the car felt while I was driving it. With and without a person I immediately notice a difference in how the car handles and accelerates. But, I can't say I would approve of this undertaking. I don't carry the spare or jack in my Integra, and I keep the trunk relatively bare and empty. I would hardly call it silly though, as someone put it, because in the end you are enjoying the car a lot more than you did to begin with, and you end up in a win-win situation.

To me its like buying a Mercedes-Benz and removing the air suspension, installing Lexan windows and removing all of the insulation for the sake of lightening the car to improve performance. And of all things its an automatic. The 6MT TL is about 80 lbs. lighter than the auto, has Brembos for improved braking, and suffers from less drivetrain loss; therefore it is much lighter, easier to throw around, gets better gas mileage and feels more powerful to begin with. IMO a stickshift is much more satisfying to drive than an auto, and I actually feel that I am a more attentive driver when I drive a MT car, with or without a radio, as opposed to driving an AT.

Then again, you're satisfied, and thats all that matters. Just explore more options vehicle-wise before you do something like this again. I'm grateful for this post though, because I can refer to it in the future if I want to pursue a project like this.

It wouldn't make that much of a difference. He would effectively raise the center of gravity somewhat, but even with his noted observations of improvements with/without groceries I doubt he would feel it.

Inaccurate

I Go To Costco,

Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

corpsdawg

I was just wondering if this particular battery would work in a 2nd gen tl? I'm assuming it is, but i dont like to make assumptions when it comes to my electricals.

Inaccurate

Yes, the "Hawker Odyssey PC680" battery would work great in the 2nd Gen. I am referring to it being strong enough to crank the car.

Of course, mounting the battery will require a little creative thinking. You will Not be able to just remove your current batt and connect your cable to the PC680. You will possibily need to purchase a different length ground cable to reach the PC680. This is No biggie, even Walmart sells the cables. You will need to be creative to develop a mounting system to hold the PC680. Again, No biggie because you might be able to use your current bracket, and Walmart even sells universal mounts that will work. You will most likely need to drill two holes in your battery tray to reposition the hold-down bolts.

The one thing that helps is that the PC680 can be mounted in any position, even upside down.

corpsdawg

inaccurate, where did you buy your battery from? if it works well on the TL i may throw one on my old mustang to save some room

CleanCL

iTrader: (4)

i run that odyssey, cranks over just fine. just loses its charge if you let it sit for over a week. but if you jump it, itll be fine. as long as you run the car 2-3 times a week, the battery will be fine. take a look on ebay. i found the tray below made just for it. i yanked my entire stock mounting tray and just fabbed something up to mount this tray. shaved off more weight removing the old tray system.

Inaccurate

corpsdawg,

http://store.summitracing.com/partde...+400109+305025

The Odyssey PC680 is $90 at SummitRacing. The Braillie B14115 is $179. The Odyssey is 14 pounds. The Braillie is 11.5 pounds.

After researching the various little batteries, I noticed that most people preferred the Braillie. The Braillie was mentioned to be lighter, more powerful, and higher quality than the other brands. These comments were from people that had, at some point in time, owned both a Braillie and an Odyssey.

I purchased the battery directly from the mfg, www.brailleauto.com. The price was $179. The oem battery (and plastic liner tray) weighs 39 lbs. The Braille weighs 11.5 lbs. The difference is 27.5 lbs saved.

CAHobbs

Hello Inaccurate,

I was wondering what this diet does to your TL's warranty.

And secondly, and I’m sorry if I'm kicking a dead horse here, but if memory serves me, tampering or removal of airbag equipment in a car used on public roads is a Federal offence w/stiff fines. Well here in California it is so no touching air bags, etc...But then again, we seem to have laws against almost everything, oh well………..

Happy Motoring!

Inaccurate

It appears that CaHobbs is right. Doing a quick Google search does show some states having laws prohibiting airbag tampering. Wisconsin is a state that appear often in the Google search. Other states include Ohio and North Carolina.

Thankfully, Texas has no such laws regarding air bags. I got lucky on that one. But, I will be keeping the items that were removed in case I need to put them back in.

Inaccurate

CAHobbs, thanks for the suggestion....

Presenting - - -

"The TL Diet Game" - Guess what Inaccurate is removing next

Hint - It ain't my brain. I tried that already but found that it weighed the same as a pea.

Seriously, your hint is that the weight reduction is approx 10 pounds.

Inaccurate

More hints - Remember my style. I don't like to remove anything that can be easily noticed.

Also, as a reference, 1.25 Gallons of water weighs 10 pounds. This is Not a hint. The answer is Not a liquid. I only provide this reference because the previous quesses are too light.




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Allout

Great thread!

Saving weight is one of the most overlooked factors in performance.

Is there an aftermarket upper strut bar for the 3rd gen TL? Replacing the stock beast looks like it could save some lbs.

Eoanou

People are thinking of making cam gears you should get those for sure! They'll be made by UR.


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Inaccurate

THE ANSWER IS THE PARKING BRAKE !!!!!

I GOT ANOTHER 12.5 POUNDS OFF OF THE CAR TODAY !!!!!

:gheywave:

My TL has an automatic transmission. I never had used a parking brake in any of my cars, and do not foresee needing to use a parking brake in the future. The "parking paw" within the trans is my parking brake.

(Warning: Parking brake is mandatory to pass state inspection in many states)

The pic below is the "BEFORE" pic.



The pic below is the "AFTER" pic.



The pic below shows the parking brake in all of it's glory.



The pic below shows the other side.



The pic below shows where the parking-brake cable is detach for removal.



The pic below shows the backing plate without the shoes.



The pic below shows the naked spindle.



The pic below shows the reassembly. This is it !!! Just a spindle, hub, and the rotor (not shown yet).



The pic below shows more of the reassembly. Just like previous pic, but now we added the rotor and caliper.



The pics below shows the "finished product".








ITEMIZED LIST OF WEIGHT REDUCTION
---------------------------------
40.0 Reduced Fuel (buy just 4.5 gallons at a time)
40.0 Rims
34.0 Spare Tire (use lightweight 12V air pump)
27.5 Braille Battery
23.0 Trunk Panels
17.0 Front Bumper
16.0 Rear Bumper
12.5 Parking Brake (Warning: Parking brake is mandatory to pass state inspection in many states) <----- New "Deletion"
11.0 Personal weight loss (attributed to this project) <----- Update: I lost few more pounds
9.0 Side Airbag (Warning: Tampering with oem airbags is illegal in many states)
8.5 Mid Muffler
8.0 CAI
7.5 Front Damper
7.0 UR Crank pulley
5.5 Ground Effect Panels <----- Update: I re-installed the rear ground-effect (aka, "gas tank")
6.0 Engine Bay Panels
6.0 Rear seat Arm Rest
5.5 Subwoofer Speaker
5.0 Floor Mats
4.0 Reduced wiper fluid (use 1 pint at a time)
3.7 Rear seat Insulation
3.5 Engine Cradle Damper
2.5 Glovebox Plate
2.4 Owner Manual
1.8 Hood Insulation
1.5 Trunk Damper
0.5 Coin holder & sunglass holders
---------------------------------------------
309 Lbs TOTAL <----- Updated



EQUIVALENT WEIGHT REDUCTION
-----------------------------
262 Static weight loss <----- Updated
105 equivalent weight loss from UR Pulley
120 equivalent weight loss from rims
---------------------------------------------
487 Lbs TOTAL (equivalent weight reduction) <----- Updated

nguyen

so wat times are u gettin now at the track?

Allout

Have you weighed your car on a truck scale? You can get front wheel weight, rear wheel weight and combined. I'm curious what your real curb weight is?

PeteThaPitbull

u shold put a supercharger in and track it, i wonder how your "lighter tl" would do against another tl with a supercharger, and how much of a better acceleration their would be due to weight reduced

Eoanou

Your closing in on 3,000lbs, but the bad thing is I don't see anything else you can do, maybe you can get lighter engine components, but other than that we're nearing a dead end.


Also have you tried removing the rear window motors, since you said no one ever uses your rear seats might as well remove the power window motor.

CleanCL

iTrader: (4)

not possible unless he figures out a way to prop the window up.

do you have a black interior? pull out your entire rear deck. make an outline of it on a piece of cardboard. cut it out. cut out speaker holes. and wrap it in black fabric.

no one sits in the rear? take 2 pieces of thin plywood. make one the same size as the bench in the rear and one the same size as the back support. throw some cushion on it (in case you need to carry a passenger) and drape it in black fabric.

remove one of the horns? they are roughly 1.5 lb each.

i think the above would net you about 30-40 lbs removed.

if you wanted to really go nuts: racing seats w/ 5 point harness. that would probably drop off close to 100 lbs. then you can remove all of your airbags/seat belt components. also cf hood. aftermarket exhaust systems are always lighter. aftermarket suspensions are always lighter. upgrade to 2 piece rotors on the front, they are lighter than solid rotors. port/polish your intake manifolds and throttle body to remove more weight on the engine. take out the cruise control module.

PeteThaPitbull

hey inaccurate, i was wondering when you said ground effects, did you also remove the front spoiler? i hate it, everytime i pulled into a driveway of some sort i always end up scraping it so i removed it and havent had a problem since, but some of my friends tell me its used to bring cool moving air upward into the engine bay..could this be true? it sits right below the front bumper..looks like a big plastic slab a little before the front 2 tires



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PeteThaPitbull

also another question..how come you put back the gas tank panel?

Inaccurate

You are talking about this spoiler, right ? Yes, I kept mine. I prefer the look of the car with it on.

I agree with you. I really don't think that it contributes any meaningful airflow thru the radiator. Myself, I would have no hesitation with removing it (other than the preference in appearance).




I replaced the panel that covers the area shown above. I took it off because I had a boner (eager) to remove weight. Now, after I have removed a lot of wieght from the car, I would rather have the panel back on for better appearance. The panel weighs 1.75 pounds. I am willing to trade the 1.75 pounds in exchange for the better appearance. I know that in a few years from now, the exhaust pieces would begin to get rusty. And, I would rather not have rusty exhaust piping visible. Plus, with it removed, I got tired of getting on my back (and getting all wet) to wash the exhaust to keep it looking clean and shiney whenever I washed the car.

PeteThaPitbull

thanks for the info =) ..good stuff

CAHobbs

Hey Inaccurate,

Don't know if this has been done before, but here goes, why did you remove the mid-muffler instead of removing the ones at the tail pipe too?

I was thinking that if you removed all three mufflers and replaced them with one muffler at the mid location like a Flow Master or a Turbo muffler, there would be a greater weight savings and you could add 2 small sections of pipe to add the exhaust tips back on for looks.

Only question is how it would sound...


Just a though, Happy Dieting!

Inaccurate

UPDATE

I GOT ANOTHER 15.0 POUNDS OFF OF THE CAR TODAY !!!!!

:gheywave:





Removed the plastic kick panels from the back of each front seat. I was removing the kick panels to access the front-seat air bags for removal. When I removed the plastic kick panel and felt how heavy it weighed, it then became a target itself. To see how it would look, I made a mocked-up upholstery panel to put in place of the panel. Looked good. I actually prefer the appearance of the upholstery panel instead of the heavy, bulky plastic panel. Sold. Each panel weighs 5 pounds. So, this accounted for 10.0 pounds removed.

As mentioned above, my mission was to remove the airbags within the front seats.

"No, not the airbags again !!!"

Below is an illustration showing where the airbags are located in each front seat.



Below is a pic showing the actual airbags.



The airbags are not too heavy. Each weighes 1.75 pounds. So, this accounted for 3.5 pounds removed.

Next item removed was the splash guard located behind the front brake rotors.

Below is the "BEFORE" pic



Below is the "AFTER" pic



I removed these shields for appearance reasons. They were Not removed to save weight because I could see that they were fairly light. I just prefer the look of the car with them removed. But, we can add them to our list nonetheless. They weigh 1.5 pounds for both together.



ITEMIZED LIST OF WEIGHT REDUCTION
--------------------------------------------------
40.0 Reduced Fuel (buy just 4.5 gallons at a time)
40.0 Rims
34.0 Spare Tire (use lightweight 12V air pump)
27.5 Braille Battery
23.0 Trunk Panels
17.0 Front Bumper
16.0 Rear Bumper
12.5 Parking Brake (see Warning #1 below)
11.0 Personal weight loss (attributed to this project)
10.0 Front seat kick panels
9.0 Side Curtain Airbags (see Warning #2 below)
8.5 Mid Muffler
8.0 CAI
7.5 Front Damper
7.0 UR Crank pulley
5.5 Ground Effect Panels
6.0 Engine Bay Panels
6.0 Rear seat Arm Rest
5.5 Subwoofer Speaker
5.0 Floor Mats
4.0 Reduced wiper fluid (use 1 pint at a time)
3.7 Rear seat Insulation
3.5 Engine Cradle Damper
3.5 Small airbags in front seats (see Warning #2 below)
2.5 Glovebox Plate
2.4 Owner Manual
1.8 Hood Insulation
1.5 Trunk Damper
1.5 Splash guards for front brake rotors
0.5 Coin holder & sunglass holders
---------------------------------------------
324 Lbs TOTAL



EQUIVALENT WEIGHT REDUCTION
-------------------------------------------
277 Static weight loss
105 equivalent weight loss from UR Pulley
120 equivalent weight loss from rims
------------------------------------------------------------
502 Lbs TOTAL (equivalent weight reduction)



Warning #1: Parking brake is mandatory to pass state inspection in many states.
Warning #2: Tampering with oem airbags is illegal in many states.




-------- The TL Diet: Woo Hoo, What a Ride !!! --------

PeteThaPitbull

i was looking into removing the Engine Cradle Dampener but couldnt find it? where exactly is it? and whats its purpose?

Inaccurate

Here is the engine cradle damper. This was a real PITA to remove. The two bolts were very difficult to access.


This illustrates where the engine cradle damper is located.



Speculation follows - I suppose it is to prevent vibration. This is obviously a damper. Plus, it is listed as a damper for it's part description. And as such, all dampers of this design are intended to squelch or prevent vibration. However, I noticed NO vibration after removing it.

To locate it, it is easier to spot it from being below the car. When you are under the car, it is located above the stabalizer bar at the rear of the engine bay.

To locate it from above the car (under the hood), you need to look down between the strut tower brace and the firewall. Need to look WAY, way down there.

This leads us to the topic of "having proper tools". You MUST have the following items: 3/8 rachet, 3 feet worth of extensions for 3/8 rachet, a flexiable head socket (I think 12 mm, not sure), A LOT of patient, and a lot of time.

You can NOT get a wrench on the bolts from below the car (at least I couldn't). You must reach them from above the car. You need the 3 feet of extension to reach down into the engine bay to reach the damper. You need the flexiable head socket because you can NOT get a straight shot at the bolts. You will be wrenching them from a slight angle enough to warrant the flexiable socket.

However, from under the car, you will need to remove a small bolt that attached a metal brace to hold the power steering tubes. This is that rubber groument shown in the pic.

aznbo187

iTrader: (1)

You can change your seats to lightweight bucket seats, cut out your inner layer in your door panels, and change your windows to lexan. =)

PeteThaPitbull

this is what i removed so far:

8.5 Mid Muffler
8.0 CAI
7.5 Front Damper
7.0 UR Crank pulley
5.5 Ground Effect Panels
6.0 Engine Bay Panels
2.5 Glovebox Plate
1.5 Trunk Damper

..only other thing i will be removing is the engine cradle dampener..i think thats pretty much all im taking off once im done with that..as far as the safety equipment (airbags etc) those will be staying on as i do travel a lot in the city..and drivin in NYC is no joke (already been rear-endded twice in the past 2 yrs totalled 2 cars)..i gotta give a special thanks to Inaccurate because without him being daring enough to go ahead and try it out, i dont think i would of ever thought there are that many things possible to remove

Eoanou

I removed the hood insulation on my car and noticed that the under the hood temps were a few degrees hotter so I put it back on.

Eoanou

You should remove the carpeting on the trunk, most cars, namely the Nissan Altima don't have carpeting on the trunk to begin with. You should also remove the spare, if you get a blow out you'll probably get a tow truck as opposed to driving back home on a spare.

PeterUbers

iTrader: (1)

Woulda been nice if you did a before and after run at the track. I remember my buddies who used to have 'tegras would strip their rides down like this -- they got ride of the A/C and all sorts of things.

Nice work -- how does it drive?

Inaccurate

From Post #254 on Page 11, or click below to be quickly teleported

https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...&postcount=254

HQTL6SPD

inaccurate, any pics of the backs of the seats? just wanted to see what yours look like now...

btw, i just got the Braille B3121!! its 21lbs but doesn't even feel like 21lbs! i got that one since i want a year round battery, plus one that could handle cold weather and electronics...

don't know what my options are for the tray, the one braille makes is too small & expensive... maybe i'll just repaint the factory one and stick w/it...

HQTL6SPD

so i ended up just painting the oem battery tray with a rust prevention spray, it looks good, since it looks like it's painted black and no longer a rusted look... i also removed the glovebox steel plate and trunk damper. i will try the engine damper soon, but if it's too hard, i'll just leave it...

Inaccurate

I agree that the Braille mounts are more for looks than functionality.

I am glad that you didn't ask me which batt that you should get. I would had given you a "hard sell" for getting the same little batt that I got. Damn that thing is tough. I have a hard time seeing the little batt having difficulty in the cold. It has amazed the hell out of me. I was very scared of it's small size the first few days that I installed it. But now after living with it for a while, I have nothing but high respect for that little batt. Even after sitting from Friday afternoon until Monday morning without being touched, that little batt spins my starter like a bat-out-of-hell on Monday mornings. I have not had it for the Winter snaps yet, but I have complete confidenance in it.

Whoops, I see that you are in NY. Buuurrr, it gts cold there doesn't it !!!! Perhaps the NY winters could be too much for that little batt. I am in Texas although.

HQTL6SPD

^ yea it can get cold... i got the heavier battery since it claims to perform good even in extreme cold weather...

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Inaccurate

Here is the back of the seats. Yes, I know that it looks, uhmm, "improvised". Yes, that's rolled-up masking tape. This is still my mocked-up fitting that I mentioned in my first post. It is still on my "To Do List" to fabricate a more pretty version. I intend to go to a fabric store to purchase some small metal snaps, quality fabric, and some piping (trim to go around the edge of the fabic panel). My wife has the sewing equipment and skills, so I am set in that area.

Use the plastic seat panel as a template to outline the shape to cut from the fabric. Getting the corect shape is the easy part. The more difficult part is how to fasten the fabric to the existing seat upholstery.

I called a few upholestry shops, but they want to charge way too much money ($300) for this simple project.

03TL_S

cant wait to see some numbers!