I spent a couple hours this weekend working on my woman's p5, it is at 30k and I figured it was about time to flush the radiator, check wheel bearings, that kind of thing. While at it I tried a few things
-Put Redline MT90 in the gearbox (manual trans) ($16)
-Kartboy shifter bushings ($25)
-$4 160F thermostat from O'reilley's, generic coolant, and a bottle of Redline Water Wetter. I also drilled a couple 1/8" holes in the thermo so the coolant keeps circulating a bit even when closed, this is an old trick to keep the coolant temps a bit more constant
-$15 polyurethane bushings on the rear sway bar. The stockers are huge mushy rubber things. I want to put them on the front too but they're buried under the subframe and it looks like I'd have to take the car half apart to get at them. I can feel that the fronts have much thinner rubber, and the rubber feels pretty firm, so not worth messing with now...
-I'm the fool who bought the $25 ebay short-ram intake thinking it was the fancy Injen lookalike, don't have it together yet, but i'm going to piece it together with some pvc pie and make it work.
So anyway, the car feels much different now. The shifting is WAY better; really fast, precise, smooth, with a nice polished mechanical feel to it. The stock shifting feel is good, but this is awesome! the temp guage sits a bit lower and doesn't budge, and supposedly should make a touch more power, but if it does, it's too little for my butt-o-meter. The car handles more solid, doesn't push quite as much through corners, because the rear is staying more level and is a bit more willing to come around. Overall, not a bad investment so far. I'm looking forward to getting the intake together.
So a few questions: is a short-shifter worth it? Any recommendations? I saw an Ebay one for like $50, rather not spend $100+ for a chunk of pipe...
Exhaust: I plan on knocking out one or both cats, and running it with just the silencer or welding on a decent muffler. Those pricey catbacks are nice but the stock exhaust piping looks good so why mess with it. Any muffler recommendations that give it a nice restrained sound? Preferably no flatulent rice-boy sound!
Suspension: I'm really looking at Eibach's but how well do they work with the stock struts? Is the ride degraded much?
Long post, but these are the first mods on the P5 and I'm pretty happy
-Put Redline MT90 in the gearbox (manual trans) ($16)
-Kartboy shifter bushings ($25)
-$4 160F thermostat from O'reilley's, generic coolant, and a bottle of Redline Water Wetter. I also drilled a couple 1/8" holes in the thermo so the coolant keeps circulating a bit even when closed, this is an old trick to keep the coolant temps a bit more constant
-$15 polyurethane bushings on the rear sway bar. The stockers are huge mushy rubber things. I want to put them on the front too but they're buried under the subframe and it looks like I'd have to take the car half apart to get at them. I can feel that the fronts have much thinner rubber, and the rubber feels pretty firm, so not worth messing with now...
-I'm the fool who bought the $25 ebay short-ram intake thinking it was the fancy Injen lookalike, don't have it together yet, but i'm going to piece it together with some pvc pie and make it work.
So anyway, the car feels much different now. The shifting is WAY better; really fast, precise, smooth, with a nice polished mechanical feel to it. The stock shifting feel is good, but this is awesome! the temp guage sits a bit lower and doesn't budge, and supposedly should make a touch more power, but if it does, it's too little for my butt-o-meter. The car handles more solid, doesn't push quite as much through corners, because the rear is staying more level and is a bit more willing to come around. Overall, not a bad investment so far. I'm looking forward to getting the intake together.
So a few questions: is a short-shifter worth it? Any recommendations? I saw an Ebay one for like $50, rather not spend $100+ for a chunk of pipe...
Exhaust: I plan on knocking out one or both cats, and running it with just the silencer or welding on a decent muffler. Those pricey catbacks are nice but the stock exhaust piping looks good so why mess with it. Any muffler recommendations that give it a nice restrained sound? Preferably no flatulent rice-boy sound!
Suspension: I'm really looking at Eibach's but how well do they work with the stock struts? Is the ride degraded much?
Long post, but these are the first mods on the P5 and I'm pretty happy
