I know there are a million mod forums but I haven't seen one that goes the bolt on only route without a tune. I bring this up for a good reason. I know a good tune will net you a lot of go, but, there is a down side. From all I have read Mitsu can tell if you have tuned your car, even if you put it back to factory tune. Now I know if you are concerned about warranty you shouldn't mod but come on, thats not realistic. Some of use just want a little more fun with our DD.
My guess is that the stock ECU will make some changes to compensate and net some more power without making the car run like crap.If so what have you experienced?
Has anyone gone the bolt on route only? I mod all my cars a little. Even my wifes base Impreza. But with bolt on mods only, I can just take them off when I need warranty work.
Any thoughts on this?

 

The only thing you can safely do without a tune and not taking too much risk is the cat-back exhaust and maybe removing you catalytic converter. Anything else has their risks.

Don't mod your car if you don't want to do it the right way. It's that simple.

 

I think the only mods you can do without a tune are a drop-in filter, cat back exhaust, intercooler with pipes, and a bov. Add up the gains you get from all of those mods, and you will get the hp from just a tune and boost pill.

 

ive read a forum saying that they can only go back so many ignitions to see if it was tuned?

 

Not doing a tune, does not make it the wrong way. It may limit your options and potential, but it is still just as valid. I am looking at all possibilities. I have a 97' GST that is damn fun to drive because I took the care to get a lot of good info and go in a very linear direction with my mods. 170,000 + miles and still tears ***.
Got my full warranty and then some with having mods from mile 1,500. Never touched the ECU. Yes it is 14 years old and things have changed. But my guess is that the ECU's of today are even more capable of dealing with changes. I am hoping to see a thread develop that does not involve a tune and still nets some good numbers and better driving experience.

 

Great question I'd be interested to see what people say.

 

I haven't heard that yet. I would hope that is true. What do you mean go back ignitions? Is it a time reference or is it a start and stop engine reference? What happens if you have a warranty issue one week after you tune. I guess you would still have a problem?

 

I heard they can go back and look at the last 50 ignition cycles to see what was going on with the vehicle. So to me, this means that if I had a major problem with the car I would flash the ECU back to the stock/factory tune and then turn the car on and off at least 50 times before taking it into the dealership. I'm not sure if it's true, but I wouldn't want to take any chances.

 

ive read the same thing in a thread, i tried to find it again but couldnt remember which one it was

 

cat back exhaust, high flow filter and evo x intercooler is about as far as you can go. Its fairly pointless power wise, you might see 12 whp.

 

I honestly wouldnt go without a tune. Its the only safe way to do it. I have driven without a tune for awhile and my car just ran like **** and gas mileage was horrible

 

if they could see if the car was ever tuned then wouldnt it screw people who bought a car used, that had been previously tuned, then something broke after they bought it and brought it in for warranty at the dealer and all they would have to tell the person is that it was previously tuned so its no longer covered. youd be **** outta luck even if you werent the person who got it tuned?

 

you can run your car without a tune and just basic mods for while you just cant beat on it

 

In my case the very first mod I did was a custom because I knew how crappy is the factory tune. The car made 40whp more than stock with just a tune nothing else not even a boost pill.

 

This is the key with our cars, because the factory tune runs very rich and thus nice gains can be achieved with our cars simply by a good dyno tune. The Ralliart has a small engine and a small turbo, so a good tune means a lot more to our vehicles than it would on something like a big block V8 engine that you'd find in a Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, etc.....