So I now have a 2010 Civic Coupe EX, Automatic.
I am planning on getting a CAI. Any recommendations as far as brand?
I know of some brands but not what is generally thought of them. (AEM, Takeda, Injun, Fujita)

I'm not really into the modding scene, I just know a few things because of some friends.

Also, are there any other things I can do to get a little more performance out of my car? Not really expensive things since I'm not trying to make this a hobby, but maybe things that you guys think anyone should generally do to their car to get better performance and management out of their car's resources. (And maybe associated price tags so I get an idea of what is a good price range. 20$ for a CAI, if one existed, obviously would be toooo cheap, but I wouldn't wanna pay 500$ for one either...lol. Basically just a decent (affordable) price for a good part. I don't need race quality stuff.)

 

OK, so 27 views and not one person has any advice?
Am I asking in the wrong forum?
Am I asking questions that are "stupid" and everyone is laughing at me from behind their screens?
Do you people hate Automatics?
Is it because I don't have a vTech in my car?

I asked a similar question in July of 2009, almost a year after I got my 2008 Civic and no one responded then, either.

 

my guess as to why nobody is responding is because most of us have 6th gen or earlier civics and yours is an 8th gen.

I dont know too much about newer civics so correct me if im wrong anyone. What I would normally suggest for better power efficiency is doing a full tune up but with your car you dont need one yet.

CAI is a great idea, I have an intake/header/and exhaust and the part that I noticed the most improvement from and that was also the cheapest was the intake.

You could get an exhaust, but thats a lot of money to spend, and honestly your car's exhaust piping is about 2 1/4'' if im not mistaken, so you dont really need much bigger one. It would be a waste of money.

With a new civic like yours, the only engine mods I would bother with are intake($50-200) and a turbo($500-1500) which is a lot to spend.

As far as an intake brand, I am a firm believer that a metal tube is a metal tube. I would get a cheap CAI kit off ebay for the piping, and then buy a $50 K&N or $50 AEM dryflow filter to switch onto the end.

with a car this new you might wanna concentrate your money more on aesthetics and suspension parts. Also, I am not sure what mods will void your warranty, might wanna keep that in mind. Goodluck, and hopefully we can be more helpful with other questions you may have.

 

Thanks. I like the idea about getting a tube off of Ebay and then just buying the Filter end.
Probably wouldn't have thought of that myself.
And yeah, not sure about the turbo. lol. Not yet at least.

And as far as suspension in general, what should I be looking at? just better suspension kits?
Lowering is aesthetic...does it affect handling at all? Is that something you would recommend putting money into?

And, as you said, I do have a decently sized exhaust as it is. Not sure the exact dimensions, but I did notice it was rather wide compared to some I've seen.

Thanks for the help. Sorry for my second post. Just a little curious as to why no one would have anything to say. Especially being the second time it was happening. But, I guess that makes sense. I noticed everything on here were older Civics, but I just assumed there has to be generic stuff that applies to almost any car.

 

weight reduction is a generic performance enhancer, less weight means better acceleration, better handling, better breaking, and better gas mileage on any car. However with a brand new car I cringe to suggest you start ripping things out of it. Lightweight wheels make a big difference, because I believe that 1lb reduction in rotating mass is equivalent to 3 or 4lbs of regular weight reduction. I have also come across this generic formula, although Im not sure how accurate it is: -100lb=5hp

having a lower center of gravity will deff help your handling no matter what direction you go. You can go for looks and comfort with a modest lowering spring and some shocks around $300 (koni str.t, tokico Hp, KYB gr-2). Or if you are willing to spend 5-800 you can get more performance oriented adjustable shocks like Koni Sports, KYB agx or Tokico Illuminas and get either stiffer lowering springs or adjustable coilovers.

If you can afford the money, go with KYB AGX's for your shocks, they are a good brand with a lifetime warranty and are about 400 which is much cheaper than its reputable adjustable counterparts.

I went with the koni str.t because they are $300 (and a far superior shock compared to Gr-2 and HP's) with lifetime warranty and serve my purpose of retaining ride comfort with modest lowering springs and still give a bit better performance. However I cant tell you how they feel personally because they are still on back order.

Hope you dont leave us, but you might wanna also check out 8thcivic.com They are specifically oriented toward your car.

 

Sorry, I'm one of those 27

It's true, I know just about nothing about any civics after 2000. And even then, I don't know too much lol. Everything I do to my car, I refer to my well worn Haynes manual

I do dislike honda automatics (maybe they make a good one, but I haven't driven it)

Also, it's VTEC. Vtech is a phone brand. Haha don't worry about it though, tons of people make that mistake.

lowering the car will definitely affect handling, and looks, as mentioned above

 

You can gt this.

http://hypertech.com/products-results.aspx

 

Yeah, I noticed both things later on when I was doing some Specification searching on my car: my crappy spelling and that I do, in fact, have a VTEC. lol



Hmm, the link didn't work.

 

Thanks for the tip on the 8thcivic.com website.
Also, I guess I'll look into the koni str.t If it gets the job done and at the same time looks nice and is cheaper, it works for me. I just want a little more, uniqueness, I guess you could say with my car and to squeeze a little more performance out of it where ever I can. I know it won't add up to much since I'm not making a racer, but anything helps I suppose.

 

There is very little feedback on the str.t shocks for our cars, but ive read that a lot of volkswagon people love them. I should have mine in about 10 days so I will let you know what I think of them.

They are designed for lowering springs but can be used as an OE replacement as opposed to Hp's and gr-2's which are designed as an OE replacement but will do ok with lowering springs.