Thread: Upgrade time for the '05 Prix, ideas and comments please

just got the car from my mom with a little under 76,000 miles and i'm going to be going to college at UTK next fall. I have some kicker speakers and subs going in soon with a Jensen double din radio. after that and a couple visual upgrades i was looking to do some small but good and easy performance upgrades like a CAI or anything else. Please give me your input and don't be critical. Thank you in advance!!!

I would do all the required maintenance on it first, then go from there. No sense modding something that doesn't have a solid base to start with. Being an 05 I would remove the entire TB and clean it inside and out, and then clean the MAF. The drive-by-wire setups like to get carboned up on the backside of the butterfly and cause all kinds of strange issues.

i like the Chrome rims for now, i don't wanna change those yet. i do wanna black out the tails and 3rd. what do you mean retrofit the headlights?? and i'm very very new to the gas game, i have been doing research and looking at Dodge Cummins diesels for 2 years now, so i don't know much of anything about gas motors because i've just not given it any thought. so what all those upgrades are, yeahh i don't know what they mean. sorry, true newbie here

CAI is cold air intake. You should do maintenance first though. Good clean oil change. Transmission filter and new fluid. Brake fluid flush. Pull off the throttle body and clean off some of the built up black sticky carbon. Also the mass air flow sensor could use cleaning. Only use mass air flow sensor cleaner spray. It's a little less harsh on the components than brake cleaner would be. Do all of that first before thinking about performance upgrades. Rule of thumb is if something is broken or worn out then replace it with an upgraded part.

^^^.......lol

Originally Posted by jlgp2007nc

CAI is cold air intake. You should do maintenance first though. Good clean oil change. Transmission filter and new fluid. Brake fluid flush. Pull off the throttle body and clean off some of the built up black sticky carbon. Also the mass air flow sensor could use cleaning. Only use mass air flow sensor cleaner spray. It's a little less harsh on the components than brake cleaner would be. Do all of that first before thinking about performance upgrades. Rule of thumb is if something is broken or worn out then replace it with an upgraded part.

Thank you!!! i will definitely get started on all of that this week!! and yea CAI is about the only abbreviation i knew haha thank you for dumbing it down for me! That really did help!

and i'm not really looking as much for power because that gets pricey and then mpg's go down some i'm sure, and being a college student next fall i need mpg's instead of burning rubber all the time. so that's the want for smaller mods. thank you though!

Any time bud. Stick to maintenance for now. Cold air intake won't do anything for you without an exhaust mod and your mpgs WILL drop.

Originally Posted by jlgp2007nc

^^^.......lol

What's so funny?
And mpg Wont Drop as I have intake,hv3,downpipe, 91 octane tune and my mileage went up
36 mpg highway

My mpg's went up with a FWI, an extra 1-2 mpg highway, I get about 30 right now (not using the DIC mpg, I calculated it). A HAI (sitting right in the engine bay, not shielded from engine bay heat) will give you more mpg than a CAI or a FWI.

A power log (or plug for short) will give you some extra power and mpg for a good price, I'm still trying to find one used.

Supporting mods make the difference.

yea i was planning to dual it out soon, any certain brand i should use?? that's after the maintenance, what oil should i use? synthetic or another brand??

At 76k the brand doesn't matter. Don't need to waste the money on full synthetic at this point. Conventional oil has already taken it's toll. Synthetic blend it what I use and it works just fine.

I also have dual magnaflow out the rear with a resonator and speed daddy headers and everyone that has seen my car loves it....and i love it too. Not loud for absolutely no reason, but you can still let everyone know you're there. Almost no drone at all on the highway.


Oh yeah deleted catalytic converter and EGR valve as well.

The only true full synthetic oil I know of is amsoil.

ok so i can just get whatever 5w30 oil then. and yea i don't want it to be to loud so that may be what i do. and delete the cat and egr, alright. and do i need to upgrade the headers?

Depends in what you're trying to get out of it. I'm doing a top swap so I need the extra flow. You may not need headers for a while on a mild N/A build. Maybe ported front manifold as the rear isn't really that restricted since it's straight.

Keep in mind these suggestions are all based off of my own opinion and personal experience. Every car and every driver has their own taste so take what I say with a grain of salt and happy tuning friend.

yea i'm just trying to boost the mpg's up some, i get around 31mpg at 2000 rpm or 71 on the interstate and only 21-23 city. so if i could around 25 solid in the city that would be awesome! so just a couple small things. plus it would be sweet if i could get her to purr some as well, and yea i understand that. thanks again!!