From "stay tuned" to T U N E D !!

Going back a couple of years, I had a car in for a service at the Ford/Jaguar dealer. For a number of years now, Ford ensure dealers provide loan cars on request so that owners can drop of their car and get on with the day with minimal fuss, as in not having to organize someone to pick you up/drop you off or worse, take the courtesy bus. In most cases, they loan out Puma's, Ranger's, Everest's and the occasional Mustang. For perspective, I'd put 6 cars through that workshop every year at a minimum of $500 per car, often more. On this occasion, they have me a 2009 Falcon G6E sedan with 241,000 km / 150,000 miles on the clock. (These were the luxury version of my XR6, sharing the same 4.0 engine) At least the color was "Sensational"..........................







Complete with clearcoat failure.....................



Anyway, on my way to the bank on a cold and rainy day, I was turning right through a round-about at no more than 15 kph (10 mph), picking up the throttle to drive through, the car snapped violently sideways as the rear tires lost traction. No, I wasn't poking the bear, I literally glanced the throttle as I know how these cars like the back of my hand, they are relatively powerful cars with a lot of low-down torque. I had an armful of opposite lock on before the stability control stepped in, thankfully I didn't bin the thing.

When I got back home, I made a point to look at the rear tires.....................................................



While they had decent tread, I'd never heard of Dayton DT30. Looking them up, they cost about $150 each for a 235/50/R17. An equivalent Michelin, Dunlop or Continental would sit between $240 - $290 each.

If those pathetic tires couldn't contain a car doing 10 mph, I'd hate to think how lethal they'd be at speed in a swerve and recover situation. The stability control in those cars was brilliantly tuned, but those systems can only do so much when the tire if the tire grip just isn't there. NEVER buy cheap tires. Ever.

Oh, and this is how Sensation should look..................................................

 
DFB said:
Going back a couple of years, I had a car in for a service at the Ford/Jaguar dealer. For a number of years now, Ford ensure dealers provide loan cars on request so that owners can drop of their car and get on with the day with minimal fuss, as in not having to organize someone to pick you up/drop you off or worse, take the courtesy bus. In most cases, they loan out Puma's, Ranger's, Everest's and the occasional Mustang. For perspective, I'd put 6 cars through that workshop every year at a minimum of $500 per car, often more. On this occasion, they have me a 2009 Falcon G6E sedan with 241,000 km / 150,000 miles on the clock. (These were the luxury version of my XR6, sharing the same 4.0 engine) At least the color was "Sensational"..........................







Complete with clearcoat failure.....................



Anyway, on my way to the bank on a cold and rainy day, I was turning right through a round-about at no more than 15 kph (10 mph), picking up the throttle to drive through, the car snapped violently sideways as the rear tires lost traction. No, I wasn't poking the bear, I literally glanced the throttle as I know how these cars like the back of my hand, they are relatively powerful cars with a lot of low-down torque. I had an armful of opposite lock on before the stability control stepped in, thankfully I didn't bin the thing.

When I got back home, I made a point to look at the rear tires.....................................................



While they had decent tread, I'd never heard of Dayton DT30. Looking them up, they cost about $150 each for a 235/50/R17. An equivalent Michelin, Dunlop or Continental would sit between $240 - $290 each.

If those pathetic tires couldn't contain a car doing 10 mph, I'd hate to think how lethal they'd be at speed in a swerve and recover situation. The stability control in those cars was brilliantly tuned, but those systems can only do so much when the tire if the tire grip just isn't there. NEVER buy cheap tires. Ever.

Oh, and this is how Sensation should look..................................................

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Nice rusty brake dust cover too.
 
This was the windscreen end of the hood though...................................

 
Klasse Act said:
The one for OL on the street makes my head spin, the freeway OL is easier, basically 70 mph for about 10 mins, must be consistent, then your good to go.
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You have to do two different procedures for the the two different driving environments, or just two different ways to do the OL to get to the same result?

Either way, it is crazy. No other car maker on the planet makes you do it manually

Thing is, Mazda has 2 different hp numbers for their 2.5L turbo based on gas, 227 and 252 and I bet it learns quickly compared to how we've gotta do it
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My BRZ has something similar in the manual, and yes it learns on it's own and you never know the difference. While I don't fluctuate between regular 85 and 93, I do fluctuate between 91 and 93 depending on where I am. The manual specifically calls out 93 for max HP. This is pretty funny considering there are large parts of the country where 93 isn't available and that at higher elevations, 91 behaves like 93.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Ethanol has a lot lower energy density than gasoline. The fuel here in the US is generally 10% ethanol, which the gov't now says is an air pollution measure (which may be, I'm vaguely remembering it replaced MTBE in our fuel), but I remember it more as a political nod to the corn farmers here.
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The corn lobby is extremely strong, especially in Illinois where we live. When we had the recession in 2008, I remember there were discussions on removing Ethonol from the gas to lower production costs and pump prices and the Farmer's lobbies went nuclear. A substational amount of feed grown grown in our state and others goes to ethenol production.

I also remember the dropoff in fuel economy, which was noticeable at the time, but a distant memory now (I think it was about 20 years ago).
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It's a real thing, but I too don't know the numbers for the 10% swill we get these days. The next time I see a pump with ethenol free gas I should run a test on one of my cars.

If memory serves, running E85 will get you about 25% less mileage than running normal/E10 gas. On a FlexFuel vehicle, they only advantage you get is more frequent trips to the pump.
 
Desertnate said:
You have to do two different procedures for the the two different driving environments, or just two different ways to do the OL to get to the same result?

Either way, it is crazy. No other car maker on the planet makes you do it manually



My BRZ has something similar in the manual, and yes it learns on it's own and you never know the difference. While I don't fluctuate between regular 85 and 93, I do fluctuate between 91 and 93 depending on where I am. The manual specifically calls out 93 for max HP. This is pretty funny considering there are large parts of the country where 93 isn't available and that at higher elevations, 91 behaves like 93.
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2 different ways to get the same result and yes, the whole thing sucks! On my way down to the Dragon it was easy due to higher speeds with the cruise on, pulled 18-19 psi, plus while hustling it on the backroads it learned quickly too

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***UPDATE/Wheel change?***

So on the perf front my buddy and I will be swapping the N75 Stage 1 tuned ECU back into the EN next weekend. Thing is, we never tried it with the stock coils AND plugs yet. I feel the MSD coils did enough to hurt the colder plugs, thus effecting partial throttle issues, maybe wishful thinking but I've gotta know. IF this works, I'll buy some fresh, colder plugs and go from there. Now you might wonder "why the colder plugs", well, every tuner calls for 1 step colder plugs with any tune or even piggybacks

The next move are rims, I'm always changing them and for the record, I love my KN wheels! That said, I hate the offset, it's +55mm, the ones in the pic are +43 and .5" wider, sits flush. Not sure why this owner didn't go 255's, he stayed 245 and it could be to endure ZERO rubbing issues, I'm fine with that

I love 5 spokes because of the open design and easier cleaning, especially the calipers! I'd like to hear your thoughts on the looks, offset, etc, I'm really considering this, plus I could go 18" over 19", even less weight and 40 aspect ratio compared to 35
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Wheels look good to me! I do like the Kona wheels though.


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JDGolden said:
Wheels look good to me! I do like the Kona wheels though.


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I'm kinda liking the black door handles too

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They look good to me too, and a little extra sidewall isn't a bad thing. I'm reminded of a test Top Gear Australia did many years ago, they sent an HSV Commodore around their test track, with a race driver at the wheel, with 3 different wheel/tyre combos. From memory it was it was 18,19, and 20 inch sizes with the same tyre in different profiles, and the highest profile on the 18s produced the fastest lap times. Similar to when Top Gear sent a Golf R or GTi around using the different suspension settings and discovered that the sports setting was the slowest and normal was the fastest. A little bit of compliance equals traction, which gives you speed.
 
Klasse Act said:
Hmmmm....
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2 of my buddy's like the KN wheels better. Thing is, I'd rather sell my KN combo to put towards new wheels because basically it pays for about 3 of the wheels, tires were going to be replaced in the fall, so I'd have to just move up for that, no big deal there. Also I'd have to buy new tpms' as well, about $100

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Big Dave said:
They look good to me too, and a little extra sidewall isn't a bad thing. I'm reminded of a test Top Gear Australia did many years ago, they sent an HSV Commodore around their test track, with a race driver at the wheel, with 3 different wheel/tyre combos. From memory it was it was 18,19, and 20 inch sizes with the same tyre in different profiles, and the highest profile on the 18s produced the fastest lap times. Similar to when Top Gear sent a Golf R or GTi around using the different suspension settings and discovered that the sports setting was the slowest and normal was the fastest. A little bit of compliance equals traction, which gives you speed.
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Tire and suspension compliance, along with suspension travel do a lot for traction and rear end grip.

For example, BA through FGX Falcon sedans that used the Control-Blade IRS. This design was favored because it meant Ford could pre-assemble the entire rear axle offline as a single unit, meaning it was quicker to install on the production line. This design used very short springs so as to package well within the cradle. These short springs mean the chassis engineers were limited in what they could do, there just wasn't enough suspension travel to allow them to play around with variable spring rates. So, you got one or the other, a lovely soft ride, or a very stiff ride depending on the model, never a mix of both. My XR8's ride is brutal in an attempt to tame body movements, but at the expense of traction and ride quality. On a G6E, well its very soft and comfortable, but rolls around a lot or even bottoms out.



Going back another generation, the double wishbone setup on the AU series was a much better design, also used in the Mustang Cobra, Jaguar S-Type and Lincoln LS. It features long travel springs, so Ford had the ability to have both ride and handling. My old TS50 rode brilliantly, but would remain composed when thrown around. That extra compliance early in the suspension travel allowed the car to squat down on the rear under hard acceleration, in turn improving traction. I remember during the lead up to the BA Falcon's release in 2002, I sort of expected Ford to make this IRS standard across the range (base models still had a live axle), but they went with the control blade because it was cheaper to manufacture.



Sorry Klasse, way off topic.
 
Another vote for the 18" Five spoke wheels. Those are the best looking wheels I've seen on an Elantra N, and I like them better than the wheels I suggested earlier in the thread.

Tire Rack did a great test last year with various wheels and tire widths. They found a very slight stretch is faster around their track than some of the wider sizes on the wheel. Wheel and Tire Size Test

From personal experience I think you'll gain a lot benefits from stepping down to a slightly smaller wheel. The ride will improve, the loss of unsprung weight will make the car feel more agile, and the car will actually handle better. You might also get less road noise as the thicker sidewall tires won't "slap" over sharp seams and other irregularities on the road surface.

My autocross setup is on 17x7.5 wheels vs the OEM 18x7.5 that came with the car and I'm running 225 tires vs the OEM 215 size. Despite running specialized tires I like the autocross set up in every way...except for the fact they are terrible in rain and really loud... I frequently think about going to an identical set with appropriate tires for daily use.
 
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Desertnate said:
Another vote for the 18" Five spoke wheels. Those are the best looking wheels I've seen on an Elantra N, and I like them better than the wheels I suggested earlier in the thread.

Tire Rack did a great test last year with various wheels and tire widths. They found a very slight stretch is faster around their track than some of the wider sizes on the wheel. Wheel and Tire Size Test

From personal experience I think you'll gain a lot benefits from stepping down to a slightly smaller wheel. The ride will improve, the loss of unsprung weight will make the car feel more agile, and the car will actually handle better. You might also get less road noise as the thicker side-wall tires won't "slap" over sharp seams and other irregularities on the road surface.

My autocross setup is on 17x7.5 wheels vs the OEM 18x7.5 that came with the car and I'm running 225 tires vs the OEM 215 size. Despite running specialized tires I like the autocross set up in every way...except for the fact they are terrible in rain and really loud... I frequently think about going to an identical set with appropriate tires for daily use.
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The recent 5 spokes are 19's but those Enkei 18" 5 spokes are in the mix.

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+5HP sticker coming from Australia
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***UPDATE***

Just to see if it was the spark plugs, we re-installed the Stage 1 tuned ecu and within a mile it did infact replicate the partial throttle issue, this time my buddy Hectour was in the car and thought it was the weirdest thing

Now the issue was in normal mode doing normal things, I've gotten it to happen in N mode, on the freeway, didn't take my foot off when the stumble happened and it threw a cylinder #3 misfire, this was a year ago but I pulled over and cleared the code and it ran perfectly, shortly after the tuned ecu came out, stock ecu back in and that's that

It does RIP in N mode at WOT, onboard dyno showed 325 hp & 318 ft lbs and 20 psi. These are the 2 emails from today...thoughts
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