Looking to do some mild mods on my car, problem is, there are so many manufacturers for every part, and quality is an issue.

Question is- for all the mods most of you have tried (I have none yet), which have been a disaster or not helped or not given you what you expected? What brands or mods should I stay away from?


Any disaster stories?

 

Stay away from cheap exhaust parts, especially when it comes to headers and high flow cats/ test pipes. When it comes to headers, stick with the bigger names and avoid the ebay names like Megan Racing, etc... You'll be regretting the cheap purchase when the tubing or welds crack. I've gone through 3 different hfc and test pipe setups, and I'm now back to stock since it seems to be the only thing that won't crack.

 

I wouldn't call my experiences listed below as disasters, but these are the issues I had:

1) Grounding Gear 10-wire kit. Didn't make a lick of difference in the shifting of the 5AT. Removed and sold after 2 weeks of use.

2) Borla TD exhaust. It looked great and fit decently, but that's about it. It was way too loud below 4000rpms, droned horribly under part throttle between 1800-2400rpms, and the lack of flex sections in the y-pipe plus the drone caused noticable grainy vibrations in the seat/pedals/steering wheel. Anyone that sat in the rear seat was forced to endure a dizzying amount of drone. I didn't notice any real gains either. Below 3000rpms, the motor felt softer. Removed and sold after 2 weeks of use. The buyer installed it on his 04 6MT and gained a whopping 5whp. Ouch!

3) Cobb Tuning Rear Sway Bar (rebadged Hotchkis bar). The provided bushings fit way too tightly around the bar which doesn't allow it to freely move under load. The lack of movement puts stress on the OEM endlinks because they're forced to work overtime when the trying to get the bar to move at first. What you get is clunking from the endlinks. The fix IS NOT new endlinks. The fix is too simply bore out the provided bushings to allow the bar to move freely. With this fix, the bar is great.

 

The denso spark plugs suck that was a waste off money imo!!! idk how good are the ngk 1 step colder plugs but it seems every 1 likes them cuz every 1 has them....

 

I have the Gourdees 10-wire kit and it made a major differance in shifting in my car. Great Mod IMO for the 5AT.

 

Plenum spacer is the one great N/A mod that I would get if I could only have one.

 

Worst Mod Pulstar plugs . The Grounding gear 10 wire set DOES work on my 5AT . Best mod upgrade to 3.7 final drive And a stillen valve body upgrade

 

Don't get a stillen valve body upgrade, get a better quality one... (GTMotorsports or Speed Force Racing)

The Grounding Kit works wonders on the 5AT, make sure its installed correctly. Anybody who says it doesn't work good hasn't set it up right IMO.

I love the plenum spacer and exhaust

 

Better yet, stay away from Stillen. The only thing they make that I would buy is their true dual cat-back exhaust. Beyond that, I wouldn't trust them, not even for headers or HFCs.

My favorite mods on my G are JIC coils, sway bars, tie rod and tie rod ends, Revo Technica short shifter, MREV with spacer, and Uprev Osiris. Headers aren't really worth the install... look into high flow cats or (resonated) test pipes instead.

 

It's not rocket science to install these kits. I've been modding cars since 1996 and have installed far more elaborate parts than grounding wires.

I put this mod in the "feels good" category which is the same as intakes. By that I mean so many believe it works so it must work even though dynos suggest otherwise and when you install the mod (like most), your initial drive is usually more aggressive which gives you the sense that the car must be quicker, better driving, etc. The whole concept of grounding wires is quite silly after you research it a bit. Even funnier is how the import crowd embraces it while the domestic and Euro crowds don't. The truth is if the grounds aren't adequate then you're going to have noticeable driveability problems. It's either a problem or it's not. There's no inbetween.

As long as you think it works, then that's all that matters.

 

American and European cars are wired with switches on the POS side of the circuit. Japanese cars are wired with the GROUND side. Ths is the reason that they aren't a big deal on American/European cars but CAN make a big difference on *** cars.

I've never said anything about this mod creating "power" because that would be ludacrous. I dont even think it makes the drive "more aggressive". What the mod does is improve communication channels.

It is particularly noticeable in manual mode. Before i installed my ground kit I had what felt like a full 1 second lag between gears. That is no longer an issue.

 

I agree 100% that the grounding kits don't add HP, but it sure does take the draaaaaaaaag out between shifts on the 5AT and in manumatic mode they hit especially hard.

 

stillen strut bar seems pretty useless to me I have one and it doesn't seem like it made a difference? Cheap mods that i don't regret having is the z tube and jwt filter and the 3/8 spacer seemed like it did help a bit.

 

Yup useless for me too but it looks good!!!

 

My best mod so far has been the MREV2, best bang for the buck.

Worst, StopTech rotors and HPS pads. With the kind of driving I do, they were not worth the money.