Rep Power: 274

i was driving with my friend yesterday when he had mentioned," your car feels too heavy and kinda slow." i was mad at the fact that i always thought it was and somebody finally pointed it out. now i have an 03 civic coupe and it is an automatic. i currently have a hayame catback with dc headers and an injen CAI. now when i installed everything, to be honest i could not really notice the difference in performance. my car for some reason lags and as i smash on the gas my car will rev up and everything but it feels like its desperatly trying to go fast, its so frustrating are there any things that i could do to help or things to look out for that could be causing this please let me know. does anybody else have this problem? or is it just pointless to add performance parts to an auto since you cant quite get the full potential out of the mods as you would in a manual. what can i do to make the car lighter?

 
Rep Power: 812

Try driving around with over 100lbs of extra weight from system, dynamat, and body kit. Feels like there's a second person in the car with me all the time.

Take out the spare tire and go buy some fix-a-flat to put under the seat for emergencies.

 
Rep Power: 302

How many miles are on it? Try a transmission fluid change. I was surprised by the difference it made. Car drives like new. Go figure.

 
Rep Power: 320

Yeah, try having rims, a bodykit, and a system wish an 02 automatic. **** is slow all the time. add a passenger and it gets even worse...

on top of that, i plan on adding 19s instead of my 17s soon and man oh man will i be slow, but at least ill look good

 
Rep Power: 380

well 1st off, avoid adding any thing that just adds weight... as in body kits, heavy wheels, wings (extra drag is bad) basically all that extra ricer crap.

for engine performance, on the D17, your not going to get much out of it with out some good $$$ dumped in to it. you can however increase performance by getting rid of whats called Parasitic loss.

basically parasitic loss is any thing that is on the car that is un-nessieary and causes the car to go slower. an example of this would be heavy/bigger wheels. So, one way to get a little bit more performance is running some Light weight 15s. you could also run a "short" tire such as a 205/50-15, wich on an EX is just about 6% smaller then stock = a slight shortening of gearing = better acceleration at the cost of top speed.

 
Rep Power: 274

hey does resetting your ecu after each mod really make that much of difference? say you add i/h/e and dont reset your ecu, will your car still run as if you never added anything at all? would there really be that much of a difference in resetting your ecu? sorry to jump of the subject

 
Rep Power: 812

Not much. The ecu will reset once you drive through a tank of gas anyway. No need to mess with it.

 
Rep Power: 274

what kind of mods can our d17 benefit from besides going turbo?

 
Rep Power: 320

an engine swap to a k20, that the best mod!!!!

 
Rep Power: 274

where could i find one and about how much do they run?

 
Rep Power: 320

ur going to have to search newbie!!!!

 
Rep Power: 336

another reason your car feels sluggish is that you've lost a lot of low end torque and power with your mods.

 
Rep Power: 274

well then what point is there in buying mods if they just slow you down? so is there any bit of hope in our cars without having to engine swap or turbo?

 
Rep Power: 336

well, the mods help your high end. If you can keep your RPMs in the higher ranges, you'll have more power (at the expense of mpg).

Nitrous is a relatively safe major power adder, but it's not permanent. You should be very educated on its pros/cons before buying it tho.

 
Rep Power: 274

what kind of mods help out in the low end? what could i do for a quicker throttle response and eliminate that lag it tends to have?

 
Rep Power: 336

stock airbox or maybe K&N FIPK II will give you more low end power.

You might just consider going back to stock unless you do some kind of road racing/autox.

 
Rep Power: 0

Man... I think I'm really gonna have to sell my rims this time...

 
Rep Power: 0

I used to work at a Tire Place, if you ever use fix a flat, i'd probably punch you in the face. That crap sucks, its just worse for your tires and when you unmount the tire, that **** goes everywhere

 
Rep Power: 320

buwhahahahahaha

 
Rep Power: 374

Have you adjusted your throttle cable? That is one simple adjustment that can make the world of difference. I think its in the DIY section.

 
Rep Power: 812

Over time, the throttle cable may become loose, and your car may never reach WOT (so you won't have all the power you should).

For low end, keep the stock airbox and exhaust piping (rear section muffler is okay). Upgrade the grounding system and get a voltage regulator for the battery. Stay with stock 15s or smaller rim.

 
Rep Power: 274

so do mods really slow our car down that much? what fun is there in fixing up our cars if everything we have is stock, anything else is just a waste of money. and stick with 15's or smaller, damn i might as well just put spare tire on and find three other to match and then i'll be runnin well. this sux!!!

hey has anybody ever tried out one of those tornado air or spiral max that you place in your intake creating a vortex thus creating a greater combustion? they supposedly have dyno tested their products with great results

 
Rep Power: 336

uhh yea.. but your car isn't carbuerated. So uhh, yea. you don't want it.

In all seriousness though, if you can keep the car in the higher rpms, then you are making more power than before. Its just a matter of staying there.

 
Rep Power: 380

so you need to change the gearing...... Like by Running "Short" tires. such as a 205/50-15 that would be just about 6% smaller then the stock EX tires = better acceleration at the cost of top speed.

 
Rep Power: 338

You can also take out some luxo stuff like A/C, carpets, rear seats...