Its great to be here. I'm new to the forum and to my Civic. I have had it a year but just recently decided to start modifying it. Any help anyone can offer would kick ***. My dad is a mechanic, but I don't know crap about cars.

I just know the absolute basics, but I am ready to start learning more about the Civic. Here are a list of thoughts on what I want to do.

List as follows:
Tint the windows (black, mirrored or colored to match the car)
Get black/chrome rims (17" or 18")
Some low profile tires (need some good brands)
Add a spoiler (factory or some aftermarket type)
Add a stereo (that plays mp3's, usb jack... all the mess)
Upgrade inside speakers (hi's, mid's & low's)
Put my sub woofer back in (i have a sealed box w/ 2 kicker comp 10")
Add some serious ground wires (batt, alt & where ever else)
Add some exhaust (flowmaster or some other brand)
New brakes (again, need some good brands)
Body kit (need some good ideas)

and anything else that you can think of.

Thanks again and glad to be here,

MrAnderson1211

2003 Honda Civic LX
Manual Trans
Stock EVERYTHING!
85k Miles...

 

Welcome to the forum. It's good to have another 7th gen on here. We have so few. The stock spoiler for that body style looks good enough. We generally recommend STRONGLY AGAINST any body kits, save for the stock lip kits or generally clean body kits. Mirror tint might be a little too much, but it's your car. You can treat it however you want.

Also, the D17 engines aren't great ones to work on. Putting exhaust on it is probably futile as far as performance gains go.

Again, welcome.

 

welcome to HCF, you'll definitely learn more about your civic here.

Tint the windows (black, mirrored or colored to match the car) - Black Tint
Get black/chrome rims (17" or 18") - get some 16" with polish lip
Some low profile tires (need some good brands)-
Add a spoiler (factory or some aftermarket type) - Factory Spoiler or Spoilerless
Add a stereo (that plays mp3's, usb jack... all the mess) - There's lots of aftermarker HU that can do this, good brands i recommend is Alpine, Pioneer, and Sony
Upgrade inside speakers (hi's, mid's & low's)-
Put my sub woofer back in (i have a sealed box w/ 2 kicker comp 10")
Add some serious ground wires (batt, alt & where ever else)
Add some exhaust (flowmaster or some other brand) - Stay away from flowmaster for civic. I recommend Apexi WS2 for a crisp clean sound and look
New brakes (again, need some good brands)
Body kit (need some good ideas) - I would stay clear of body kits, a little too much for daily driving, go with a clean lip kit instead

 

I would not go bigger than 17" on that generation Civic, preferably 16". Just whatever you do, don't go bigger than 17". You will have an extremely rough ride and driving your car will not be a fun experience. Every bump you go over will make you cringe. 17" will be pretty bumpy too, but not as bad as 18". 16" will be comfortable, and look good at the same time. That's what I would get in your scenario. Also, 16" tires are easier to find in the size you need, and are less expensive. The rims will be less expensive also. Low profile tires aren't all that they're cracked up to be. They are super-uncomfortable. If you don't want to see the tires on your ride, ride a skateboard. Tires go on cars, sorry, but that's the way it is... there's a reason that cars have tires and that low profile tires don't come on very many cars. And even though there's cars that come with low profile tires, those cars also have very carefully tuned and expensive suspension setups that make the ride still comfortable and handle well.

I would not recommend a body kit, check out some lip kits, they're much cleaner looking but still give you that nice aggressive stance. Most body kits are way too busy and don't look good on a Civic.

Most aftermarket spoilers look pretty stupid but the OEM ones look great. You should look for an OEM one, they compliment the car nicely.

I think for the windows that some dark black tint would look great. I think mirror tint draws way too much attention to the windows and takes away from the rest of the car.



For speakers, you won't need lows inside the car, you'll have the subwoofers for that. Get yourself some midbass drivers (plain woofers... basically a component system without the tweeters/crossovers), for the rear, and a component setup for the front.

P.S. sfazngiants meant to say Apexi WS2, not "SP2". The SP2 is similar though, but made by GReddy. I would recommend either of those. Try to stay away from "fart cans" (you know, the cylinder shaped mufflers). They are loud and obnoxious and get annoying after a few months, even if you liked it at first. You'll come to appreciate a nice clean exhaust tone with semi-low volume, if you don't already. Oval canister mufflers (A'pexi WS2, GReddy SP2, Tanabe Hypermedallion, etc.) typically sound a lot better than cylinder canister mufflers.

 

I like the looks of the lip kits and I think that is what I have in mind. Thx!

And Im not sure I follow you on the "D17 engine". You mean that they are hard to work on or not really worth the time and effort to invest in them?

Black tint = thats what I was thinking
get some 16" with polish lip = you mean a polished ring around the outside?
Factory Spoiler or Spoilerless = Im thinking factory too
Stay away from flowmaster for civic. I recommend Apexi WS2 for a crisp clean sound and look = Apexi WS2 dont look too cheap... haha!

Ill look into some 16" rims if you really think that bigger is worse. Thx
Im with you on the spoiler.

 

They can be worth the time and effort, but they've generally been extremely difficult engines to pull much power out of, due to their focus around being an economy car. The 92-00 Civics with the lower-trim level engines weren't all that powerful either but they were easier to pull power out of because technology wasn't so advanced back then and they had many systems the same as/similar to their performance-minded counterpart engines. For the 2001-2005 engines (yours would be a D17A1), they've had a few things that just made them different from all the others before that, just due to technological advancements in creating more fuel efficient engines.

The engine was so well-designed for economy that many of the things that made it so great for gas mileage made it really difficult to make power out of.

The Civics before it were much lighter and got their gas mileage from having smaller and less powerful engines and not being heavy. Your car has a 1.7L engine and is quite a bit heavier but gets similar gas mileage because of the technological advancements that made the engine itself get better gas mileage without having to make the car more lightweight.

If that makes sense...

You gotta pay to play.

Exhaust really is one of those things that you get what you pay for (both sound-wise and quality-wise). Save your money and buy a nice exhaust and you'll appreciate it forever. Cheap out and buy a no-name brand fart can and you'll be back in the market for a new exhaust in less than a year.

 

Thanks for the engine info.

I was talking to a friend of mine today about that and we both agreed on the fact that my engine has fuel efficiency in mind when it was created. So i can see some mods helping out a little, but if I am really looking for power, I would have to go with a more powerful engine to start out with.

And thanks for the exhaust info. You get what you pay for.