IS MY CAR GETTING SLOWER??

[JDM RunX]

Hi all,

Ok I'm really concerned about my car's performance lately. Some time ago I realated an experience about a friend's Honda accord Sir-T that pulled on me in 3rd gear. I dissmissed the beating thinking that he ought to win because of his 2 litre displacement advantage not to mention he had intake, exhaust and minor tuning. I only have on a TRD CAI. However on a rematch done after doing the coolant bypass mod, tightening my throttle cable and washing my filter pod, I still gained no ground, therefore I concluded that vtec is just stronger.

Now my latest concerns involve a friend of mine who just bought his 2001 RunX yesterday. We went out for some benchmarking a few hours ago. His car is bone stock. He gave me the keys so I could give him my impressions on it since I've had mine for a year. First thing, I almost ran off the road shifting from 1st -2nd gear. Believe it or not, his car lands in lift effortlessly . I didn't expect this so the torque steer surprised me. It was an ubelievable feeling hitting lift at will from 1st-2nd gear. His car had a much smoother acceleration and you barely felt Lift. It just got faster toward the redline, no kick at 6200rpm. I must say again that I hit 6400rpm shifting from 1-2 .

Anyway I felt confident that my 9+whp difference from my CAI, my Coolant bypass mod, throttle cable mod and plain experience would cause me to beat his car in a head to head matchup. He didn't feel up to it so he gave the car to our mutual friend who drives the SIR-T... yes a Honda guy, using lift for the first time.

Now here is the confusing part. I move off and take the lead as we look for a clear stretch, but as we get onto the Highway I notice him gaining on me. At one stage he was locked on my rear fender and I couldn't pull away. We decided to do a side by side run and sure enough in 3rd gear he started to drift slowly away. There is nothing I could do. I had no avantage. Even the driver of the SIR-T said afterwards that he had much difficulty beating this stock RunX and infact could not complete an overtake.

I am in disbelief. What about all my mods? Should'nt I have pulled away? The difference appeared during 3rd-4th gear as in thhe run with the SIR-T. Does this mean my car has top-end problems? Shouldn't my CAI give me the advantage in top-end? I got my car serviced 2 months ago and t was declared healthy. Why am I losing ground in higher gears? Are my 17" OZ rims slowing me down? He had on 15" rims, did those give him an advantage? What is going on?

IS MY CAR GETTING SLOWER??

[Northy]

when was it last serviced? ie engine old change stuff like that?

[CHA54]

what's the weight difference between your wheel/tyre combos?

Were you both using the same fuel?

a set of lightweight 15's usually make a decent difference to performance. Using a lower grade of fuel will also have a massive impact on the engines performance.

[Gipper]

Hi all,

Ok I'm really concerned about my car's performance lately. Some time ago I realated an experience about a friend's Honda accord Sir-T that pulled on me in 3rd gear. I dissmissed the beating thinking that he ought to win because of his 2 litre displacement advantage not to mention he had intake, exhaust and minor tuning. I only have on a TRD CAI. However on a rematch done after doing the coolant bypass mod, tightening my throttle cable and washing my filter pod, I still gained no ground, therefore I concluded that vtec is just stronger.

Now my latest concerns involve a friend of mine who just bought his 2001 RunX yesterday. We went out for some benchmarking a few hours ago. His car is bone stock. He gave me the keys so I could give him my impressions on it since I've had mine for a year. First thing, I almost ran off the road shifting from 1st -2nd gear. Believe it or not, his car lands in lift effortlessly . I didn't expect this so the torque steer surprised me. It was an ubelievable feeling hitting lift at will from 1st-2nd gear. His car had a much smoother acceleration and you barely felt Lift. It just got faster toward the redline, no kick at 6200rpm. I must say again that I hit 6400rpm shifting from 1-2 .

Anyway I felt confident that my 9+whp difference from my CAI, my Coolant bypass mod, throttle cable mod and plain experience would cause me to beat his car in a head to head matchup. He didn't feel up to it so he gave the car to our mutual friend who drives the SIR-T... yes a Honda guy, using lift for the first time.

Now here is the confusing part. I move off and take the lead as we look for a clear stretch, but as we get onto the Highway I notice him gaining on me. At one stage he was locked on my rear fender and I couldn't pull away. We decided to do a side by side run and sure enough in 3rd gear he started to drift slowly away. There is nothing I could do. I had no avantage. Even the driver of the SIR-T said afterwards that he had much difficulty beating this stock RunX and infact could not complete an overtake.

I am in disbelief. What about all my mods? Should'nt I have pulled away? The difference appeared during 3rd-4th gear as in thhe run with the SIR-T. Does this mean my car has top-end problems? Shouldn't my CAI give me the advantage in top-end? I got my car serviced 2 months ago and t was declared healthy. Why am I losing ground in higher gears? Are my 17" OZ rims slowing me down? He had on 15" rims, did those give him an advantage? What is going on?

IS MY CAR GETTING SLOWER??

←

Excuse my ignorance but...

What exactly is the coolant bypass mod and the throttle cable mod and how do these increase performance?

[shaohaok]

Hi all,

Ok I'm really concerned about my car's performance lately. Some time ago I realated an experience about a friend's Honda accord Sir-T that pulled on me in 3rd gear. I dissmissed the beating thinking that he ought to win because of his 2 litre displacement advantage not to mention he had intake, exhaust and minor tuning. I only have on a TRD CAI. However on a rematch done after doing the coolant bypass mod, tightening my throttle cable and washing my filter pod, I still gained no ground, therefore I concluded that vtec is just stronger.

Now my latest concerns involve a friend of mine who just bought his 2001 RunX yesterday. We went out for some benchmarking a few hours ago. His car is bone stock. He gave me the keys so I could give him my impressions on it since I've had mine for a year. First thing, I almost ran off the road shifting from 1st -2nd gear. Believe it or not, his car lands in lift effortlessly . I didn't expect this so the torque steer surprised me. It was an ubelievable feeling hitting lift at will from 1st-2nd gear. His car had a much smoother acceleration and you barely felt Lift. It just got faster toward the redline, no kick at 6200rpm. I must say again that I hit 6400rpm shifting from 1-2 .

Anyway I felt confident that my 9+whp difference from my CAI, my Coolant bypass mod, throttle cable mod and plain experience would cause me to beat his car in a head to head matchup. He didn't feel up to it so he gave the car to our mutual friend who drives the SIR-T... yes a Honda guy, using lift for the first time.

Now here is the confusing part. I move off and take the lead as we look for a clear stretch, but as we get onto the Highway I notice him gaining on me. At one stage he was locked on my rear fender and I couldn't pull away. We decided to do a side by side run and sure enough in 3rd gear he started to drift slowly away. There is nothing I could do. I had no avantage. Even the driver of the SIR-T said afterwards that he had much difficulty beating this stock RunX and infact could not complete an overtake.

I am in disbelief. What about all my mods? Should'nt I have pulled away? The difference appeared during 3rd-4th gear as in thhe run with the SIR-T. Does this mean my car has top-end problems? Shouldn't my CAI give me the advantage in top-end? I got my car serviced 2 months ago and t was declared healthy. Why am I losing ground in higher gears? Are my 17" OZ rims slowing me down? He had on 15" rims, did those give him an advantage? What is going on?

IS MY CAR GETTING SLOWER??

←

What exactly is the coolant bypass mod and the throttle cable mod and how do these increase performance?

←

Edited June 30, 2005 by shaohaok

[CAP]

Search for Coolant Bypass:

Basically it's a virtually costless mod to your throttle body that involves disconnecting and bypassing the two coolant lines that go in/out of the throttle body so that it isn't heated by the coolant running through it. Cooler/Denser air into your engine means better response.

Never heard of the throttle cable mod...

[ZEEROLLA]

1) 15inch wheels will always make the car slightly quicker than one equipped with 17inch wheels in a straight line.

2) What engine oil and petrol are you using?

3) How old is your car? His car could be in a "better" condition (eg. clutch, gearbox, engine, tyres).

4) He might not be telling you the truth about the car being "bone stock"

5) NA cars are hard to yield results from simple bolt-on modifications. I got the TRD CAI for the sound and better throttle response but straight line speed i don't know ;)

Z

[rolla_rage]

how does the size of the wheels make a difference in performance??

15"s are ugly 16"s are bad enough lol

at least 17"s preferably 18"+ IMHO :D

[xoom]

how does the size of the wheels make a difference in performance??

15"s are ugly 16"s are bad enough lol

at least 17"s preferably 18"+ IMHO :D

←

Less weight to be pulling along .......

[CHA54]

less weight to spin. Your fully hektic 18's are probably a lot heavier than a lightweight set of 15's. Has quite a large performance impact.

a lightweight set of forged 17's etc would be ok, but they're usually extremely expensive.

[HIROLA]

a lightweight set of forged 17's etc would be ok, but they're usually extremely expensive.

←

Thats what i have, and i can say that it makes a huge difference in performance compared to my old 17" rims.

[ZEEROLLA]

Forgot to add driving technique too.. did you bounce on the limiter for more than 0.5sec each gear? :P

[--Rudes--]

Never heard of the throttle cable mod...

←

Basically shortening the operating length of the throttle cable ie. taking up the 'slack' in the throttle cable so that you get better throttle response and no 'dead zone' in the accelerator pedal. Doesn't give you any power.

[JDM RunX]

1) 15inch wheels will always make the car slightly quicker than one equipped with 17inch wheels in a straight line.

2) What engine oil and petrol are you using?   

3) How old is your car? His car could be in a "better" condition (eg. clutch, gearbox, engine, tyres).

4) He might not be telling you the truth about the car being "bone stock"

5) NA cars are hard to yield results from simple bolt-on modifications.  I got the TRD CAI for the sound and better throttle response but straight line speed i don't know ;)

Z

←

I'm using Mobil 1 10/30 oil. My Oil is a bit old though. I'm supposed to change it in a week or so. We both are running on pump gas which is 90 octane.

I have a 2002 model but I've had my car for a year. Still my car has only done 38,000km.

I helped him choose the car from the lot. It is bone stock from all indications. His car does feel smoother when accelerating and as I said, it falls in Lift shifting from 1-2 without having to slip any clutch.

I dynoed a 9+whp gain from adding the CAI. Whereas I didn't expect to pull away and give him a car length, I thought I would be the one drifting away.

What also puzzles me is that after such spirited driving, my belt starts to make skidding noises, I also hear other flopping and rubbing sounds. Yet these sounds always dissappear after a week or so.

[ghost]

are you carrging any extra weight, like sub's etc?

[ghost]

how many km have you got on the clock?

[xoom]

u might need to reset ur ECU and retrain ur car ..... just a thought

[JDM RunX]

I have only 37000km on my dash.

No I dont have anything extra in my car.

How can I re-train my ECU?

I'm really starting to think it might be the rims. :(

[xoom]

here u go http://au.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/inde...?showtopic=2020

[MR22ZZ]

I doubt it's the rims... The OZ racing rims like yours are renowned for their lightness and strength.

Try reseting the ECU like Bill suggested. Only takes an hour but you really notice the difference, even on a stock car that's been drived passidly for a while :P