runnyeggsham

Do headers, CAI, sway bars, lowering springs, make the car handle that much better? The S is pretty tuned as is by Honda. Not sure if there's really that much difference. I lowered my BImmer and kind of regret it b/c it's a hard daily to live with.

MrFunk

No they don't.
Don't waste your time in this forum - I've just saved you thousands of dollars and countless hours.



Your question could go in thousands of directions and have hundreds of responses... I'm not even sure where to start...
Perhaps be more specific with exactly what products you are considering then research them and see what people think about each. There are tons of reviews here on just about every aftermarket product you can buy.

runnyeggsham

Thanks. I dont have time to waste. Buying a car and wondering if its worth to pay extra for the spare parts from this guy parting.HKS headers, Eibach sways. If it makes that much of a diff, I might want to pay the extra but I am ok with stock.

rpg51

I agree with Mr. Funk re no need for mods. But, I don't agree about this forum. I think you can learn a lot here and get good info for repairs. I do think there is a great deal of advice here that comes from folks that drive on the track that does not necessarily apply to folks, like me, who do not drive on the track.

If the car you are looking at had a lot of mods in the past - do you know what kind of use it was put to by the prior owners? Something to keep in mind.

Chuck S

Unless you're building a race car skip 90% of this.

CAI will provide a small power gain and (for me) a more "performance" intake sound. No known advantage in aftermarket headers. Suspension mods like adjustable coil overs (the car already has coil overs) are only useful for tuning the handling on specific corners like circular race tracks where you take the came corners endlessly trying to shave 100ths of a second off each one. Car is darn low to start with -- I have to tiptoe in and out of my driveway.

Good tires and an alignment are probably the best performance enhancement. The car came with a good alignment and great tires when new so these are not "mods" just proper maintenance. 17" wheels on the later models offer shorter, stiffer sidewalls which can provide tighter handling with a larger choice of tires than earlier 16" wheels. The OEM 17" wheels are interchangeable with the 16" -- they just bolt on.

The OE exhaust is heavy but otherwise good flow; the OE cat is also pretty non-restrictive.

-- Chuck

lane_viper

So mine is modified with most of what you have listed minus Headers. Still have the stock Cat.

I did all of them mainly for personal preference and aesthetics. Don't expect any groundbreaking differences, as many have said, It's pretty tuned from the factory.

I like the look of a lowered car, even though I haven't lowered my others. I like the exhaust sound, and the Invidia single give the car a different look and is a lot lighter. The CAI offered a noticeably quicker throttle response, in addition to the awesome intake VTEC sound.

I say if you like the tuner/lowered car look, go for it. I'm finding good brand aftermarket parts are a little tough to come by sometimes at a good price. I do have all my stock parts, so I could undo all of it and go back to stock if I ever wanted to.

sam_spider

A header and an intake will absolutely not make the car handle better.

Changing the sway bars, or changing the suspension to aftermarket coilovers can, just depends how you plan on driving the car and what you want from it. This forum was a lot different 10 years ago, most modified their cars to either improve them or to make them different, the opinion you're going to get nowadays is the car is perfect stock. Take it with a grain of salt.

There was obviously room for improvement as far as Honda was concerned or the CR wouldn't have been developed, people tend to forget that.

engifineer

You tune it for what you want to do with it. A true STR (autocross) setup to me is a LOT more fun and capable than stock hands down, no contest. But if all you do is drive on the street, then you will tire of running 800# spring rates and a huge front sway bar :P

You can absolutely improve the performance of this car, but you are improving it relative to what you are using it for. Besides big power adders, stock is pretty darned good for street only use on the S2k.

If you are building for track use or autocross, then you need to do a lot of reading and do it right. Most of the typical aftermarket (Whiteline style sway bars, most lowering springs, etc) will not come close to competitive in those scenarios and you will just be disappointed. Be leary of any stance crap as that only makes the car worse. Do research towards your specific use before making any changes you may regret later. We have competition setup threads on here that are great for setting up a car for those purposes.

Chibo

The ride isn't that bad with STR level spring rates as long as you also have the pimpy dampers to go along with

engifineer

My TCKlines do a lot better than the yellows I had before with custom damping. Talking to Lee at Koni, he mentioned that the yellows would just never be great with STR rates due to the piston diameter. Not wanting to dump Penske money, I happened to know someone with TCKlines willing to sell and those are doing pretty darned good on course and on the street

I dont mind it at all ... but for many, the STR setup would be a pain in the arse :P I think those of us that autox are just used to it. I autocrossed my daily driver before the S2k came along so I am just used to my street cars riding like race cars!