What is a good first mod?

[Shingo Shoji]

I love cars and my youtube history is dominated by car modding and racing videos, however I've never attempted a serious mod myself. Does anyone have any advice on where they started and what is a good first mod that can't go too wrong?

My CTR is a keeper for me and I want to get into working on it myself but the learning curve is steep. I was thinking intake might be a good first mod to try but also don't want to make a rookie mistake and ruin my car.

Any advice on how to best get started would be greatly appreciated.

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[hhkb]

Before modifying your car, are you comfortable with doing maintenance items such as oil changes, cabin/engine filter changes, brake fluid flushes, tire pressure monitoring, etc.?

 

[Shingo Shoji]

Before modifying your car, are you comfortable with doing maintenance items such as oil changes, cabin/engine filter changes, brake fluid flushes, tire pressure monitoring, etc.?

Yes to all of the above except brake fluid flushes. Never attempted that. Aside from that I've helped a friend swap out his springs but really just lending a hand rather than knowing what I was doing.

 

[hhkb]

nice! well the coolant tank on the fl5 is apparently a common point of failure and it's relatively simple to swap out yourself!

 

[optronix]

I don't think a $50k daily driver is the place to start learning how to mod. Just a thought.

Fortunately these cars are so good from the factory that there isn't an overwhelming need to mess around with them. So my suggestion would be to either keep things very simple, or find a good shop to do the work and just enjoy the end result. The aforementioned coolant reservoir, or an intake is a tolerable place to start if you have some experience doing work on cars. A cat-back exhaust should also be relatively straightforward, assuming you have the facilities to get under the car easily. Brake pads are a good thing to learn to DIY too. But that's about as far as I'd take it, and I have experience working on things. Coilovers would be the absolute limit for me, personally. I wouldn't even mess with springs because there's potential for disaster if you don't have the right tools or don't know how to use them...

But IMO doing your own work if you don't have pre-existing experience is just flat out foolish to me. You've already alluded to the sense you get of potentially "ruining the car"- so I'd be curious to peel back the desire to want to do it yourself. If it's out of some sort of sense of accomplishment, go buy an old project car already out of warranty. You may find that actually working on cars isn't as fun as it may seem lol... there's a ton of frustration involved but some folks get a sense of "high" when the work is completed, and I get that. You may be one of those folks. Or if you have a friend or two that are always down to hang out and work on cars that's a HUGE bonus (especially if they know what they're doing)... But it's just a path to pain trying to "figure things out" on a car you use for transportation. Even something as simple as an intake- I think I just saw on the Integra boards someone stripped out a screw on the MAF sensor and was freaking out and took a couple days and a couple trips to Harbor Freight to figure out. Not my idea of fun.

If it's just because you want to "make it your own", then a far better course of action would be to get the work done by people who do it for a living, or at least have done similar things many times before. Just my .02 from lessons learned the last time I went down this route on a brand new car. I even had a shop do the work and I still felt like I ruined the car. FWIW.

 

[TypeOne]

I love cars and my youtube history is dominated by car modding and racing videos, however I've never attempted a serious mod myself. Does anyone have any advice on where they started and what is a good first mod that can't go too wrong?

My CTR is a keeper for me and I want to get into working on it myself but the learning curve is steep. I was thinking intake might be a good first mod to try but also don't want to make a rookie mistake and ruin my car.

Any advice on how to best get started would be greatly appreciated.

It's a car, just like any other. The good news is that it's a Honda, so it's very easy to work on.

I suggest LED rear blinkers and reverse lights, performance air filter, shifter cable bushings, shift knob, shift boot, and things like that. Cheap and easy to install.

More serious mods like exhaust, downpipe, and tuning would be next... these may require more professional help, like a tuner or garage, depending on the tools you can access.

Enjoy your car dude

 

[RacingIsLife]

DRIVER mod

 

[Greas]

Personally, I plan on starting with a lien delete before thinking of anything else, lol.

Probably coolant tank, though, as I've already gone through one.

 

[madsedan]

I have done shifter end bushings and mount bushings and that was the nicest driver's upgrade to firm up the shifter, I'd do that first if I was doing it all over, makes it feel more like my S2k's.
I have done a basic intake mod from PRL that uses higher flow filter in the factory box and 2 new tubes from the airbox to smooth/increase flow, it helps with throttle response.
I have done lighter wheels with a more aggressive offset, that was a nice upgrade for driving feel but nothing more than aesthetics for the most part.

Shifter bushings and intake is only a few hundred bucks.

 

[menikmati]

Spend some time with the car and note what you feel that the car is lacking, and then research mods to address those concerns. I would recommend against modding just for the sake of changing something or because of a random suggestion.

 

[SKINNIE]

Spend some time with the car and note what you feel that the car is lacking, and then research mods to address those concerns. I would recommend against modding just for the sake of changing something or because of a random suggestion.

This!

 

[Clark_Kent]

Spend some time with the car and note what you feel that the car is lacking, and then research mods to address those concerns. I would recommend against modding just for the sake of changing something or because of a random suggestion.

It seems most enthusiasts do just that. They tend to mod just to mod and as a result the tinkering never ends. It ends, temporarily, when they move on to another car and then the cycle restarts. Just because they make a car cover for your car cover doesn't mean you need to buy it. Anyhow, as they say, your money...

 

[SKINNIE]

It seems most enthusiasts do just that. They tend to mod just to mod and as a result the tinkering never ends. It ends, temporarily, when they move on to another car and then the cycle restarts. Just because they make a car cover for your car cover doesn't mean you need to buy it. Anyhow, as they say, your money...

This is me ? ? . Everything I touch doesn't stay stock for long.

 

[Samurai1225]

I have done shifter end bushings and mount bushings and that was the nicest driver's upgrade to firm up the shifter, I'd do that first if I was doing it all over, makes it feel more like my S2k's.
I have done a basic intake mod from PRL that uses higher flow filter in the factory box and 2 new tubes from the airbox to smooth/increase flow, it helps with throttle response.
I have done lighter wheels with a more aggressive offset, that was a nice upgrade for driving feel but nothing more than aesthetics for the most part.

Shifter bushings and intake is only a few hundred bucks.

The shifter end bushings and mount bushings ... is this a fairly easy straight forward job?

 

[cryptolime]

PRL rear motor mount is the best bang for the buck IMO. completely transforms the way the car drives. thought about doing the PRL HVI but not sure it's worth it for minimal gains. and obviously a tune would be great if you don't mind voiding your warranty.

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