Best first mods for the 3rd gen TL?
 

I recently became an owner of one of these cars because I had a bad wreck in my mustang (no-one except me was injured, I just hydroplaned into a damn field) and I needed to buy a cheap commuter car. Coming from the muscle car/truck/'murican horsepower side of the car person spectrum, I was surprised to see such a large community comprising of these cars and their drivers. My question is, what would be the first 4 things you would do to y'alls TLs? I was thinking

- window tint
- the obligatory amplifier fix
- lowering springs
- wheels and tires

Only reason why (for me personally) I didn't put any power gaining mods is because i want to learn how to drive this car well before I add any performance booster. I've never had a Front Wheel Drive car, so the way the car feels and handles is very...foreign :/ Y'all tell me what y'all think, thanks!

whatever you prioritize the most...
So, if summer is coming around and you absolutely need tint...get tint...

or perhaps, the sound system is really bothering you and you rather spend your monies on the amp first, then the tint...
What DO you really want to do first ?


or if your current set of wheels and tires are so busted that you absolutely need a new set, then perhaps the monies would be better spent there...
but it's ALL up to you and your needs and budget...

Probably tint if I'm being honest. I live in Sweetwater, TX (aka western boonies) and man alive it gets hot as hell out here. I can manage for awhile with a bluetooth speaker

I would say tint for sure living in a state that spends more time hot then cold. If your amp doesn't work at all, yeah, I would go there next. You said this was a cheap commuter car, so why invest in lowering and wheels? Keep the money for maintenance and for the next vehicle that isn't just a cheap commuter.

First off is maintenance, Make sure the105k service has been done, tb, wp, then I would move on to mods. If it is an auto car make sure you keep up on the trans fluid changes also

What shape are your tires in? If they're sketchy, I'd replace those first, as dull as that might sound. We all know how crucial that grip, or lack thereof, really is. Now that that's out of the way, congrats on picking up a TL!

maintenance was done at an an acura dealership in houston and everything is ship shape mechanically; what surprised me is that it had the trans fluid changed at 61000 miles, as many people neglect to do this. the tires have good tread and traction isn't a problem.probably going to do the tint and amp first. reason i would like new wheels and tires is because life is too short to drive stock cars:)

lmao, life is too short to waste money on useless things.....but i get it, i bought fancy wheels. lol

Tint is the best mod I've ever done to any car, even up here in New England.

1. Tint
2. Fix amp, driving without good music can be terrible sometimes!
3. AUX music adapter if you don't have one in your car
4. Rear Sway Bar
5. Better Brakes

Here how the mod list goes.


1. maintenance
2. maintenance
3. maintenance
4. amp
5. tint
6. adding BT-A streaming device
7. now you are ready to mod.

good suggestions above. If you are looking for a cheap mod, how about a lip spoiler for the back if you don' have one.

maybe it's cuz my wife always screams at me and my ears have gone bad, but what's wrong with the amp?

if you're using the Aux input, ya it sounds pretty bad, but cd or radio sounds ok to me.
To put it in perspective, the best sound system in a car I own or owned is the one in the Odyssey Touring Elite, so it's not like I was ever exposed to great sound systems.

I did a swap in my 2001 CL-S for a Pioneer AVIC-D2, and OMFG what a pain that was... at first I tried with the per-amp out using stock amp, massive alternator whine. Then bypassed factory amp, but I think I jacked something up because I would have a channel cut in and out sometimes. So, I became very accepting of stock systems.

As far as tint, make sure they do a good job tinting behind the fixed window on the rear doors. Some tint shops don't get it all the way to the back and it looks bad.

p.s. glad you weren't hurt in your field escapades

Fixed :tongue:

Check out my signature link OP

Buy my wheel and tires too :D

Assuming everything is good to go maintenance-wise...

1. Lower that bitch
2. Fresh set of wheels
3. If you want bluetooth audio input pick up the BT45-HON3, worked wonders for me
4. Tint
5. Aftermarket Headlight/Taillights can make any average TL dope as hell
6. Then get into performance mods if your budget allows, the TL is fairly punchy as-is but can put down some pretty impressive power if modded right.

Window tint was the first thing I did aside from the exhaust (which at the time cost me nothing as I worked at a shop). If I ever get another car tint would be first on the list again.

Y’all don’t like fishbowlin’ it?

Invest in good tires, especially tires that have good grip in the rain. I highly recommend 3-season tires instead of all-season tires.

What is a 3-season tire? Never heard of such a thing.

A 3 season tire is one that works well in Summer, Fall, Spring, not in winter. An example of this was the Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3, the 3 in A/S3 means 3 seasons. It's not quite as grippy as a full summer tire when it's hot out but in the fall when it's cold it's much more grippy than a summer tire......It's also really good on cold rainy days.

Michelin now makes the A/S3+ but that's really more like a conventional all season tire.....not as good as the original A/S3

A 3 season tire is also called an "Ultra-High-Performance" All Season tire by TireRack but they are really not that good in the snow......they are not tires to be used if there's more than an inch of snow on the ground. The tires can take the cold temps but are pretty useless in the snow.

Hmmm, no way would I put UHP tires on a car and run them deep into the fall or early in the spring; in reality, UHP tires are really more like 1.5 season tires, a quarter spring, all summer, and a quarter fall.

Another thing to consider, many modern All-Season tires will perform better than the best UHP tires from 2006 when my car was built, that and that same tire will out track a a dedicated snow tire from that era as well. Personally, the only tire to run here in New Hampshire, a place which can see huge temperature swings within a few days, is a good All-Season tire.

I made the mistake of keeping summer tires on my car while in Oregon for a winter. The car became pretty much useless. If I were still living in an area that actually had more than two seasons I'd probably keep all season tires on the car instead of rotating summer v. all season or winter tires.

I don’t recommend Michelin A/S3 tires. Though they are good tires for grip.

They wear unevenly on every TL I’ve had them on (x3).

What part of Oregon are you in? PDX?

This really depends on where you live. I have dedicated winter tires and I will still run my UHP AS tires 9'ish months out of the year. Most of the "favorites" on this forum are UHP AS tires like the AS-05 and the DWS06. The main point is knowing what your requirements and priorities are, what your local weather situation presents, and your risk tolerance and go from there.

Ummm, correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't the General AS-05 and DWS06 All-Season tires? I think the point @tennis153 was trying to make was to not use All-Season tires at all and instead opt for summer only and winter only. Yes, no?

LEDs - once you have bright LEDs suddenly you're a car guy and everyone wants to race you at the lights

While in law school I bounced between Salem and Portland. I was on my to class in 06 when the YouTube famous ice rain hit. I'm back in CA now.

Tint is a great mod, but not doing that anymore due to cop probs when i used to live back east.

At least according to TireRack they are UHP AS tires.
I read their post to get good UHP AS tires and then get Winter....not "summer" only....keep the focus on 3 seasons and then get a dedicated set for that final season if your location even has that cold season.

Ahhh, that explains the disconnect.

In my case, given the dramatic swings we see in temperature around here in the winter time due to the influences of the Atlantic ocean, we can literally see mid-sixties one day and sub-zero a day or two later. I ran winter tires for a few seasons and found my car to be pretty scary to drive when temperatures warmed up, especially on a sunny day with hot tarmac. Given I wasn't inclined to constantly switch between summer rubber and winter rubber, All-Seasons became my go-to choice. With modern All-Season tires, I can safely navigate everywhere I need to drive until the snow gets so deep the front bumper tries to imitate a snow plow. When things are icy (and we've had our share of ice), I found very little difference between winter tires and good all-seasons, either way, time to stay home when the ice is upon us.

Tints!