So you just purchased your first car, drove it home and got amazed by its “average” performance. And you basically wanted more from your new ride?
A suspension upgrade or a simple performance mods? An infotainment change perhaps? Or you wanted to improve your car’s security system?
Whatever mod you like, you can do easily do it in your own garage. With tons of information available online, it is quite an easy job to DIY any modification you need on your car.
So let me give you the 7 best car upgrades that you can do on your new ride!
Performance Tires
Your stock tires might be modern and stylish, but it is nothing special compared to performance tires that you can buy from the market.
Why? While stock tires are tailored made to compliment the weight and overall design of the vehicle, performance tires are designed to exponentially boost your car’s handling, more tactile response from your vehicle and increase drivability as you are putting more rubber on the road.
But performance tires aren’t cheap, so this is your personal decision. And, you also have to go to your local tire shop to get the old tires off from your rim. Overall, your car will be more safer with performance tires and of course, it is an aesthetic upgrade as well.
Here are your choices:
Cold-Air Intake
Our cars are just like us, they essentially breathe air. So the better your car breathes, the better its performance will be.
Cars nowadays have sophisticated air intake system that is composed of mass air flow sensor, throttle body and intake manifold. But these components are not the one responsible for giving air into the engine – it is the air intake.
And, the colder the air your engine breathes, the more it performs in a higher level. This is where cold-air intake comes in.
A cold-air intake frees up the air flow to your engine, feeds it with cooler and denser air, which your engine truly needs. There are a number of Youtube videos that accurately proved the significant boost a cold-air intake gives to an engine. Just search it and find out yourself.
Your choices are:
Headlights
There is a car pulling up to you and what is the first thing that you noticed? Yes, the headlights!
Headlights are like the human face, whether the body is attractive or not, a good looking face is enough to get your attention. The same is applied to a car’s headlights.
Good thing is that, changing the headlights of any modern car is a breeze DIY job. So the only thing that you need to worry about is the new headlights themselves.
You can upgrade your headlights in two ways, first is to change the bulbs with LED and HID since both are crystal clear and ideal for all types of vehicles.
Second is to buy a headlight kit that is custom fit to your model. Components may feature halo, laser, or projector beam headlights.
Here are your choices:
Infotainment System
Most modern cars are equipped with state-of-the-art infotainment system, which can connect with your device, the Internet, has a GPS, tracking system and many others.
But if you just purchased an old, used car, then it is likely to have conventional headunit that still features single-din radio system.
So it is important to upgrade your infotainment and get all the perks of today’s tech world such as USB connection, MP4 player, Bluetooth, Android system and many more.
Here are your brand choices:
Tire Pressure Monitoring System
Having a tire pressure monitoring system up and running isn’t just a luxury in your part, it is a must!
Most modern cars have their own tire pressure monitoring systems but car manufacturers still sell units that don’t have one. So in case your car doesn’t have this feature, don’t worry as you can still but aftermarket TPMS and it is quite easy to install.
As you can see from the image above, TPMS is a plug and play device that is connected into your car via its electric port, USB port or cigarette port. Mostly are powered by your car but some brands are designed to get its energy from the sun – solar TPMS.
Simply just insert the tire pins into your tire’s air inlet and it will automatically tells you if you have the correct PSI in all four tires. This gives you an idea if you need more air to your tires or if your tires have too much air.
This gives you peace of mind especially if you are in a long drive.
Here are your choices:
Spark Plugs
Love petrol engines? If you do then you have to treat them as delicate as possible especially when it comes to its spark plugs.
Petrol engines needs spark plugs to help “spark” or ignite the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber of your engine.
Modern cars already use branded spark plugs to compliment their brands. But some brands are still using conventional spark plugs to help maximize profit.
To ensure that your engine gets better combustion, you need to use the best spark plugs in the market as possible. The better the quality of your car’s spark plugs, the more power to your engine and better fuel economy.
Here are your brand choices:
Debadging / Dechroming
One of the simplest ways to upgrade the looks of your car is to dechrome your emblems, grills and many other parts of your vehicle.
A fat black color truly adds an aggressive look to your car. Or, paint it red to have a sportier-themed look.
Dechroming means changing any colored (chrome) parts of your car into black or sometimes red.
You can personalize your car’s boring chrome parts by two simple ways – using a permanent spray black paint, or by using a temporary plasti dip paint. I prefer you choose plasti dip as you have the luxury of going back to its original color in case you don’t like black.
Here is how I dechrome the emblem of my SUV (in Tagalog).
