Your car will benefit from a retune.

I'd go with something like a TBE, an accessport and a tune. You'll get PLENTY of extra juice and you won't destroy your car. Hell I think you'd be surprised by an intake, a cat back, accessport and a tune. Keeping all your cats and what not.

Did you get an extended warranty? Do you care about keeping your warranty?

 

Thanks for the DP info, all. $600 for a catted dp + install + tune is probably a bit more than I'd like to drop at the moment, I might just go with the straight "stage 1" tune and then decide after a year or so whether I'd like to have a bit more power. I've only got 3k miles on the odometer right now.

I don't have the extended warranty, and I do care enough about my drivetrain warranty to not openly advertise any mods or tune aggressively as to invite some kind of premature failure.

 

Then I'd highly recommend just getting an AP and a tune. It'll smooth out your curve and give you a little more power and torque. And it gives you a platform to build on. Just make sure you get tuned every time you ad something.

I think GST had some kind of AP special going on. Call them.

 

i bought a used catted dp for 250, so just hunt around youll find a dp at a good price

 

I'll get in touch with GST as well and see what my options are, thanks OMA.

Great to know. I don't know if the '08-'09 exhaust system is identical to previous years, but if not, it might be a while before a lot of used aftermarket pipes hit the used market. I'll keep my eyes open though.

 

kyoung05 covered all the great points re: the DP. (good info, thanks). FYI non-catted DP's are super cheap used, but i rationalized a catted DP as me keeping power and "not hurting the environment" as much.

I bought my stuff w/ GST, i believe it was like ~$475 (parts cost) for a Titek catted DP. installed that and tune, yeah, it wasn't the cheapest, but most definitely a huge noticeable difference. if you aren't ready for that, then i agree with just a Stg 1 for now.

I think Ed/EQ Tuning will do just a Stg 1 flash for some ~$400 - 500 (please check with him, i just pulled those prices from you-know-where) whereas an AP and using an OTS (i.e. prepackaged) Stage 1 map will run you $695. i live in the South Bay, so I went with GST and the AP out of convenience. Poke around i-club, and many members will recommend either Ed/EQ or Mike/GST as good & reputable.

Then, once you have saved up enough/broken in your car enough, you can spring for your parts, get them installed, and do the retune. If you can wait another year for the remainder of these parts, it's well worth it to do the Stage 1 tune "in the meantime". But if it's less than 1 year that you'll be enjoying the stg 1 tune, you might as well just go all the way now. My $0.02 of course.

BTW, i know what you say about staying stealthy. i was initially thinking to do the DP + stock exhaust, but i chose the Cobb Exhaust. Funny, the Cobb exhaust was quieter at idle!?..but louder when revving than the Stock exhuast. Actually, my final power mod was EL headers+uppipe...win-win for stealth...makes the car quieter and makes more power (just you lose the rumble).

Have fun tuning...hope you're not bit too hard by the power bug, and definitely enjoy your new car!

 

oh i didnt see that, true that not many are out yet

 

Did you contact GST? I'm curious myself on the topic. I only have an SPT CBE right now, and was wondering about an AP. I'm still in the debate and trying to save up for suspension right now. Are you going to be doing any suspension mods?

 

Didn't get a chance today, may have to wait till next week.

I don't think I'd go the suspension route, nowadays my idea of spirited driving is not what it used to be Also I haul around enough stuff in the hatch where anything more bumpy than stock would be a problem.

 

Don't forget the sectional downpipes such as the perrin ones. You can always swap out the front section for catless since the other section has the emissions cat, or vice versa.

As long as you have at least one cat, I think you'll be fine

 

You may be fine as far as the sniffer smog test goes, but any modification of the emissions system is illegal, including hi-flow cats.

 

Truth

Some stations will take a blind eye if the numbers are good however. Technically, the entire intake tract is off limits too (besides c.a.r.b. approved stuff).

aii and now my spelling errrror is forever, sectional downpipes don't suck!

 

So passing smog is a concern, so I should probably consider keeping the stock parts around for inspection time. But the way I understand things, with a 2009 car, I don't need to worry about smog for 6 years, right?

So technically, as long as the police don't sniff me out on a traffic stop, or I hit some smog checkpoint somewhere, I don't need to bring the car in for smog inspection until 2016.

I ask because this suggests, in line with the "lazy" title of the thread, that I can install a high-flow cat downpipe (I also don't want to be obnoxious about the environment), keep a low profile to the law, and not have to worry about going back to stock for some time.

If this is true, it really appeals to my "set and forget" goal, and perhaps I can go with a downpipe and straight tune without shelling out for an AP. Come 2016, I'll just bring the car back in to the shop, get the stocker DP put back on, and at that point get an AP of whatever the denizens of the future are using--save the tuned map to the AP, reflash to stock via AP, and reflash back to tuned after inspection?

 

I'm not quite sure about how often one needs to go in for a SMOG check nowadays, but 6yrs seems about right. I bought my car in 2003, and had to go in for my 1st SMOG check this year, in 2009 - 6yrs.

With respect to your "set it and forget it" approach, yes, it seems like getting a catted downpipe (or catless - your choice) + a custom tune would be the simplest approach. Specifically, something like the COBB or Invidia should work nicely, and a custom tune from EQ Tuning should do nicely. That comes about to about $1000 total ($400 for tune, $600 for downpipe), less installation costs. Since EQ Tuning is able to give you a custom map without you having to actually purchase an AccessPort, you save money there too.

As stated earlier, with a catted downpipe, you will probably have no trouble passing the "sniffer" part of the SMOG test - it's the visual part you may not pass. However, there are some SMOG places that are less, shall we say, stringent, than others, and may not even really look to see if your stock downpipe is in place. If that's the case, you wouldn't need to change anything back in 6yrs.
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**** vid

 

you can just take your car to EQtuning and have Ed flash your car without spending the $700 on a cobb ap. For power mods a nice turbo back exhaust with a high flow cat, maybe a cold air intake...With those mods and a good tune the car will be a rocket ship!