New owner looking at mods.
 

Hey, I have a new Scion xA and I have a few questions for you guys who have all types of aftermarket stuff bolted, screwed, stapled, and duck-taped on.

1. I am pretty sure I want to lower my car about 2 inches to give it a more sporty feel on the road...as its a small car and it feels like it is on stilts now. Does just installing lowering springs kill the shocks on the car? How much would this change if I put 16s-18s on?

2. I also would love to know any mods that increase HP or torque but dont eat my gas, as thats the chief reason I own the car. I understand that any forced induction, or even sports intakes, takes some milage away, but will say a sports exhaust(relieving the backpressure) increase torque or HP without losing milage? Even 12 ponies will increase my HP by 10%. :P

Anyone with any experience with either thing would be much appreciated, thanks in advance. :bow:

intake..increases HP a little bit, and actually increases gas milage by 1 or 2 miles, and Tien S Tech springs will lower ur car about 1.7 all the way around if i remember right, u might as well get new shocks after u put those on tho. exhaust will also increase HP i dont think u loose MPG putting that on....well thats my input.....

I have the Tanabe DF210's on my xB, and I think they're great...actually rides smoother than stock springs. They give a written 2" drop. Alot of people will say that putting lowering springs will shorten the life of your shocks/struts. Maybe...but thew only other lowering options would be coilovers or airbagging.

For me it came down to cost. I could lower my car with springs( $170), and then MAY need to replace my shocks/struts sooner- or get coilovers or bag it ($1-2,000).

The size of your wheels wont do much of anything to shorten or lenghten the life of your suspension. It's all from the weight above them pushing down, and not so much whats below. The one thing that could factor in would be the tire size you ride on.
I'm riding on 18" 215/35s. If you ride on that skinny of a tire, you're definitely sending more impact to your car's suspension to deal with. A thicker piece of rubber will definitely absorb more impact, and theoretically take some impact off of your shocks/struts.


I have the Injen short ram intake, and found little difference in mileage- but, if you have the intake, but but ride on the stock exhaust (or vice versa), you wont see much of a performance difference either. It doesn't help to allow more air in if your car wont let more air out. I have the intake, and an axleback exhaust, and I would say that there is definitely a difference in acceleration...and no real change in mileage. If anything I get slightly better mileage than I did before (only 1 or 2mpg). I haven't had the car dynoed. I'm using the buttocks dynometer, and it feels faster with the intake/exhaust setup. It definitely sounds nicer. :P

I hope this helps. I'm no expert on this stuff, I can only relate my experiences with my own vehicle which I've had since August '03, and now have 61k miles on it. I've had the intake/exhaust/springs for over 2 years now, and haven't had any trouble at all-- it has only made driving the car better.

Again, I hope this helps some. And hopefully others will give their 2cents as well.
The xA is a great car (even tho I drive an xB), and I hope you love it like alot of others on here do. Peace.

header, lightened crank pully, and a K&N CAI, and a axle back,those things are pretty easy to install

Thanks for the replies guys, I'll take your advice into consideration when looking around. :bow:

I went with S Techs, and after that decided to change the shocks to SensaTracs strictly for ride comfort. Love that set-up. I dropped in a K&N air filter and have been very pleased with the performance. Exhaust is something I am considering for this summer. If you are concerned with mileage, I would also recommend getting cruise control...I know before I had mine, I had a hard time keeping it under 75...lol...not alot of hp, but this baby wants to GO! That's probably the best thing I did mileage wise.

So, I did some investigating. I'm liking the S-Techs for lowering right now, but I'm abit stumped on the intake/exhaust. I think short ram is the way to go, but I have a couple options it seems:
Injen
Weapon R
K&N
I have seen many people are satisfied with the Injen and K&N setups, but what about the Weapon R? Also, it seems Weapon R has some less expensive varieties, are these even close to as nice?

I wouldnt use weapon R if it was free IMO.
There are also plenty more options then just the three you listed, plenty more.

i have tanabe DF210's on my xA. gave my car a 2" drop. for the backflow issues.. i got dc sports headers (trust me you'll like 'em.) as for the intakes... i'm very happy with my injen CAI. can be easily converted to short ram if you like.