Hey Everyone, I am new to the forms and thank you in advance for any advice or tips. I have a 08 EX-L 4cyl 4dr with just over 160k miles. I am the second owner and would like to add some minor simple diy performance upgrades if the engine can handle it. No idea what upgrades would be a “safer” option to others.

I have brought the car in multiple times for struts replacement and to learn I need a new power steering pump but no other issues that I am aware of.

 

Short of a multi-thousand dollar turbocharger installation, there really isn't much you can do to get a measurable improvement in the power of your car. Also keep in mind, when it comes to adding power, you can pick two of the following three criteria for your project:

1. High Power
2. High Reliability
3. Low Cost

As many folks, me included, say, "If you want a faster car, sell your car and use the proceeds to buy something designed from the factory to be faster." The sad truth is, in 99 cases out of 100, this will be the lowest cost approach to a faster car, will give you a faster car in less time, and be factory reliable.

 

Thanks Shipo, kinda figured real results would be tough to come by. If I did a cold air intake would it add any acceleration or have any negative concerns to keep in mind?

 

A few comments:

• Your car came from the factory with a Cold Air Intake.
• If you replace that with an aftermarket unit, you might eek out a few extra horsepower up near redline (typically at the expense of mid-range torque used in day-to-day driving).
• Aftermarket intakes and the filters used in those applications are almost universally poor at actual filtration. Said another way, the low restriction filters used in these applications let in many orders of magnitude more dirt into your engine than a factory filter.
• If you don't care about the amount of dirt coming into your engine, and you spend your days driving around with the engine in the upper RPM ranges, you may notice a difference.