How To Modify Your Car | The Ultimate Beginners Guide

in this episode of mighty car mods we're gonna show you how to modify your car [Applause] [Music] welcome to another episode of mighty carmods so you've just got your hands on your first car or you've borrowed your mom's car and you are ready to do some mods in this video we're going to run through everything you need to know to get started in modifying your own car now why would you modify a car at all well most cars are built to a price point from the factory and there's only so many things that they come with and the fact is you can make your car faster and better or just personalize it because you want to make it your own so let's dive into the mighty car mods guide on how to modify your car some people argue that cars are already perfectly fine from the factory and therefore shouldn't be changed at all but it's important to remember that cars and their performance are often limited by factors such as emissions marketability noise warranty servicing intervals and price when combined these factors can compromise a car's performance and that's where modifying your car can unlock some potential even if it is at the expense of warranty and servicing costs by modifying your car you can unlock some of the inherent engineering potential learn about how your car works and start making your car represent your idea of what makes it yours some cars are already impressive from the factory and yours may be or it may not be but you can definitely make your car better so in this video we're going to go through the complete beginner's process on how to modify your car and the first thing you need to know is how to do a basic service and oil change so that is step one so today we're going to be working on this brz that we just picked up second hand now every single time we get a secondhand car here on mighty car mods the first thing we do is give it a service this means checking all of the fluids and changing the oil so that is our first job now you should have already checked the oil when you bought the car or before you bought the car you should have already checked it but changing the oil is super simple easy to learn especially on this engine with the oil filters right there so what's it look like doesn't matter we're going to change it anyway you can check the car's manual or this little sticker to see when the oil was last changed now this one here says it was serviced by subaru but you can never be sure that what's on there or what is in the book is accurate so when you grab your car first thing to do change the oil always the first step is to jack up your car and make sure it's securely on some jack stands we're starting with an oil change for this basic task you'll need oil a filter some plug washer and an oil removal tool arguments about oil weights on the internet are endless and can vary depending on your climate and the use of your car so do some research and make an informed decision about what's best for you and your kind of driving if you're in australia you can find out what kind of oils and fluids you need for your car by going to regeroil.com so you can type in your region here we've got subaru vrz and then it'll list all the different oils and fluids that are suitable for your car crack your oil cap so the oil can run out easily then get under the car with some gloves in a drain pan and open the drain plug make sure the oil is not too hot but if it's warm it will run out easier then remove the oil filter clean up the area with a rag and then install your new filter until it's hand tight [Music] take off the old sunplug washer replace it with a new one and then you can reinstall the sump plug [Music] next fill your engine back up with the specified amount of oil check the dipstick and remember once you start your car to check it again and top up as required [Music] clean your oil filler cap and you're all done remember to note down the date and mileage of when you did your service as it's easy to forget labeling the oil filter is one way or you can use a service label like this an often overlooked part of servicing is the element that filters the air coming into your car these are really easy to change and if you've got an older car definitely have a look it may not have been changed in decades the car has a whole lot of other fluids gearbox oil diff oil coolant power steering fluid brake fluid a lot of these things can be checked you don't have to replace them as often as you do the oil always check the factory manual to find out what the service intervals are and if you are asking more from the car doing track day stuff like that you're gonna have to make those intervals a bit shorter coolant's quite a big job to change um you can actually test it using coolant test strips which is a really cool thing make sure the car is cold never do this with a car hot it'll explode and i'll have a really really bad time basically just get your coolant strip and you dip it the same way as you test a pool or a fish tank dip it in there and this after a few seconds make sure there's no excess on there and after a few seconds this will tell you exactly the condition of your coolant don't forget to check the condition of all the other fluids in your car check the manual it's also a good idea to check the condition of your spark plugs and replace them if required as part of our service we're replacing the battery because this one's near the end of its life take the negative strap off first then the positive then remove the battery tie down and take the battery out of the car when buying a new battery check the code on the battery to help you find the right one make sure the terminals are right and on newer cars you may need to reprogram the ecu for the new battery once it's strapped down attach the positive strap and then the negative terminal and you're done so the battery's in the oil is done the filter's done and all of the fluids have been checked and next up it's time to talk air filter now you could just replace that with a factory replacement but we're gonna upgrade it so we'll talk more about that when we get to modifying so now let's get into our first performance modification people we're talking wheels and tires [Music] when it comes to the performance of your car the number one modification that you should do is better tyres and upgrade your wheels now better tires is not just about acceleration it's also about better cornering speed and will also help you with braking as well now factory wheels are often heavy they don't look that great particularly in this case of the brz and getting an aftermarket wheel potentially is going to save you weight plus get you a way better aggressive offset to make your car look rad you can also just get better tyres for your factory wheels but in our case getting a slightly bigger wheel means it opens up more options for tyre sizes which can mean more grip and more performance wheels can and do transform the look of your car a lot of what makes a wheel cool is rarity and fashion but there's a few boxes you should try and tick before you get too excited and that is getting the wheels to fit the stud pattern wheel width and offset are the most important factors first do some research as to what tyre and wheel combinations best fit your model car there may be more than one ideal size and this comes back to how much you're prepared to compromise incorrect wheel fit means scrubbing or wheel alignments that mean your car may handle worse than with your original stock skinny wheels more rubber can mean more grip and traction there are limits on this too always buy wheels that tell you the width and offset this is something you can measure with a ruler if it's not listed on the box of brand new ones the internet has made finding the right wheels so much easier than it once was we found some we liked online that are the most aggressive look you can fit with the widest tyre while not having to chop up your car to stop them scrubbing the wheels that i've chosen for the brz are some weds sa-10rs these are a lightweight performance japanese wheel now words have been making wheels since like the 1960s originally as a supplier for nissan and these are kind of a concave design but also lots of space at the back for when we upgrade the brakes at some point later in time so these are an 18-inch wheel so we're going from a 17 to an 18 and this is going to let us fit way wider tires which is the next modification we're about to talk about we decided to do some of our own tyre testing between a standard tyre on a professionally set up coil over suspension kit versus stock car with a street legal performance tyre we used two identical toyota 86s for the tests and the result the tyres alone were way faster than the suspension setup this was demonstrated again when we ran our yaris around a race track with better tyres we chopped five seconds off our lap time to get an equivalent decrease in lap time with performance parts on our yaris we had to do a complete big block engine conversion which was way more work and took way more time the short version is that tyres are going to be the best bang for buck performance modification for your car in this case we've got a michelin pilot sport 4. it's 2 4 5 35 18. it'll fit those wheels really nicely it's got really deep grooves in it that's for wet weather driving it's also got a silica compound that repels water which is handy and the belt in there is actually a hybrid of nylon and aramid which aramid is like a military and space exploration grade synthetic fiber that's really strong as in bulletproof vests and all sorts of stuff so um these are going to work awesome on our wheels and give us excellent grip unless you've got some fairly specialized tools in your home shed you'll need to get your tyres installed by a specialist the tyres are fan angled onto the wheels using a fitting machine and then inflated quickly which seats the bead of the tyre onto the rim a wheel balancing machine can spin the wheel up to speed and from this calculate where weights need to be added to make the wheels perfectly balanced you'll notice the effect of this particularly at high speed and with the tyres fitted to the wheels we can bring them back and put them on the car with your wheels and tires off now is a really good time to inspect your brakes and these ones here are looking fine now some people have given advice about putting race pads on a street car but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense because those kind of pads are only really effective when they're getting up to the temperatures that you'd expect on a race track and they can make your street car squeal and actually be not as effective as a stock system now later on you can definitely get into upgrading your pads your calipers your rotors and it's certainly something that with lots of our cars that we've made really fast we've changed the whole system it's definitely something you can look into but for now we're sticking with the stock system because you've also got to remember that a lot of your stopping power is not just the brakes it's the tyres and because we're upgrading to a more performance oriented tire for this project that is going to be everything we need when we're making cars that are considerably faster than stock like our mark 7 golf r which runs low 11's it was really important to upgrade the whole brake system including braided lines if you are going to be turbo charging your car supercharging it or engine swapping it don't skimp out on your brakes all right that looks so much better we only have one problem now and that is that we are seriously failing the shoe test oh bad but offset looks great yeah color looks good yep need to get some black wheel nuts yep there's so much more tyre under there that's amazing heat 30 mil more tire massive all right let's fix this it's time to talk suspension [Music] the next thing that most people want to do with their car is make it lower so it looks more hectic now i can think of four ways that you can lower your car the first is with a coilover setup the second is using lowered springs the third is using an angle grinder and the fourth is just removing the suspension entirely as you can see that wasn't very comfortable today we're just going for a moderate drop keeping it really simple so we're putting in some lowered springs these are some eibach springs that they sent us for the brz it should give us a fairly reasonable drop the whole way around we'll use the factory shocks let's install them there's a huge variety of good aftermarket springs available and while installing them is a little more tricky than just a basic service it's rewarding in both looks and handling if you do it right some suspension designs are simpler than others but in our coil on strut suspension setup we need to compress the factory springs in order to remove the strut top we can then fit our new springs compress them and reinstall the strut top and put everything back into the car compressed springs can be dangerous so as a minimum you'll need a set of spring compressors alternatively remove your suspension take it to a workshop have them swap the springs and then put it all back together yourself we'll need to get a wheel alignment afterwards as we're removing bolts that affect the overall geometry of the wheels and tires in relation to the road here is the factory shock while it's out it's a good idea to check it you can do that by pushing down on it and making sure it springs back uh a telltale sign of your shocks erect is if there's any liquid sort of leaking out of them that tells you that the seal inside there is blown it's not too expensive to replace these kyb make like a factory replacement one that can go straight on that fit our new springs like that these ones are good to reuse which saves us a bit of money if at this stage you want to chase further handling improvements it's a good time to consider using adjustable coil overs they look similar to our factory setup but you can customize ride height springs rebound rates and many other factors to fine-tune the handling of your car other suspension components like bushings and sway bars should also be considered possibly before jumping straight into coilover suspension to further improve how well your car sticks to the road there's often a trade-off with noise stiffness or vibration being more prominent so choose carefully when reinstalling your suspension take note of any arrows or indicators of which direction the shock should face sometimes they only fit properly one way and you may not realise until the car is back on the ground if you've gone for adjustable suspension expect it to take a few goes to get it just right as you'll need to put the car up again adjust things and drop it back down with the lowered springs on factory shocks we'll still have a compliant ride on the street but a lower center of gravity reduced body roll and a much better looking stance with a drop of around an inch the whole way round well that looks awesome a really really good drop happening with that could still get up driveways and over speed humps and the real question is though oh i don't fit anymore i mean i'm sure i could jam it in there but nothing good ever comes doing that that's awesome all right suspension's done tick now we move on to intakes and air filters so the next thing to talk about is getting air into the engine so we're talking intakes and performance air filters this is one of the easiest mods you can do on just about any vehicle it's also one of the most controversial though because manufacturers make all sorts of claims about how much power you can make with your car the problem is a lot of cars already come with a factory cold air intake and people remove it and install their own hot air intake hot air makes you go slower generally so you don't want to do that so we've done some testing on this to get our own results we've done numerous tests over the years with cold air intakes pod filters and drop-in performance filters looking for power we've tested multiple cars on dynos and the results are not that promising with a naturally aspirated car we lost power with a cheap pod filter and an expensive pod filter with a turbocharged car we had no gains with an expensive pod filter and no gains with an expensive panel filter despite appearances manufacturers do actually care about performance and how well the car performs a whole bunch of engineers spends their lives chasing every last bit of horsepower this intake has been designed properly it gets cold air from the front it's away from all the engine bay heat and it's got a nice big air filter element in there and then this bend that goes back into the intake of the engine but everybody does love a bit of intake noise so we're just doing a drop in performance filter do we get one horsepower do we get five horsepowers that is an argument for the internet to have but it is going to give the car a bit of extra intake sound which sounds good so this is an apexi air filter we got this one from japan and we're going to put it in another common modification here is an aftermarket intake system they can be super expensive but sometimes they work and sometimes they don't so do some research for your kind of car unless you've got a really restrictive intake it seems the most important thing here is to make sure you've got a clean filter this one's clean it's in it's jdm that's cool so now let's move on to the exhaust system the next step on your modification to-do list is going to be the exhaust not just for any performance that you may be able to unlock but also for a visual benefit over the factory system and of course the noises decisions would have been made at the factory balancing up emissions cost looks noise all these kind of things we're going to push it in the direction that we want which is performance so we're going to install an aftermarket exhaust exhaust systems are always a hot debate gains can be made but the car often has to be tuned for it we tested a bunch of muffler setups and made the most power with a potato inside a piece of pipe yes a potato in a pipe there are heaps of options when it comes to aftermarket exhaust for your car and it can be a very contentious subject so do some googling have a look around ultrax sent us this cat-back system it's cost effective it should be easy to install so let's go stick it on the car exhaust systems can unlock big power gains particularly on cars that have restrictive systems from the factory you can do something as simple as just swapping a rear muffler which may slightly improve flow though swapping out the entire thing from the engine back will give you the biggest gains the sky is the limit when choosing what material and what size system you want especially with a car like this one with so many parts available we've chosen a cat-back system as the headers and cat are some of the most expensive parts to replace and a small performance benefit is a nice bonus along with a more exciting sound when you're driving if you disregard the flow characteristics of your aftermarket exhaust one of the performance benefits could be that it's going to be way lighter than your factory system [Music] spraying your exhaust hangers with wd-40 makes it heaps easier getting your old exhaust off and your new exhaust on [Music] this is a ruby ratchet wrench love this tool there's some situations where it really comes into its own we don't have much room to get a spanner or a socket wrench in there something with a motorized headlight that's awesome because you can just throw it straight on the bolt hit the button and you're done when you're installing your exhaust tips you can use a flat edge like a can to make sure you get the angle exactly right with your bumper all right so our exhaust is on really simple install bolted straight up time to have a listen fairly sedate probably keeps it legal in most countries because there's still a resonator in there but that's done now it's time to move on to body kit and aero not really arrow but kind of [Music] by now you've got wheels tires and exhaust and intake and your cars nicely serviced so next up it's time to look at body kit now there are so many options from factory options made from the manufacturer all the way through to stuff that looks like robot vomit that you can buy on ebay lip kits are really easy to install you see them on lots of different cars from euros to american cars to japanese cars and it should be a fairly easy install if you don't want to do this you can even do it yourself with garden edging we've got a whole video on that so martin let's get to it mate how good a body kit looks when it's installed is usually dependent on how good the supplied hardware is some kits need lots of work to make them fit right while some bolt on perfectly always check to make sure your kit comes with everything needed and doesn't need further customization unless you want to go down that road it's possible to paint this particular version but the polished plastic will suit our blue and black theme nicely as is this kit uses mostly factory mounting points which is also great because it's completely reversible the lip kit's on and the brz is starting to look rad now aesthetics is a real personal thing what someone else likes you might not have vice versa it's your car do it how you want so this is the time that you want to start having a walk around your car seeing what works for you and what doesn't at this point some people want to paint their mirror caps some people want to do vinyl some people want to do stickers some people want to do tints but you really just want to walk around and go is there anything for you that's not working now for me on this car the rear tail lights i think look like garbage later on the brz they actually replaced those and made them look a bit redder and a bit less whatever that looks like which is terrible the other thing is this reverse light here is just way too bright so i kind of want to black that out a bit so that's what i'm going to do but have a full walk around your car go what's working what's not working i really don't like the lights on the back of this car and it seems that subaru probably didn't like them either because in the more recent models they've updated them luckily there are lots of options available so i'm swapping them out [Music] we can keep on driving faster lose ourselves tonight with the rear lights done i'm also changing out this light from the bottom part of the bumper bar i'm putting in one that is blacked out to make it a bit more of a seamless look at the back of the car [Music] so the lights are in i've pulled through all the excess cable i'm just going to put a cable tie around that now we sell our own mighty cards cable ties if you want to grab some once that's on the rear of the car is done the lights are in and the back of the car is looking excellent now we're going to look into something that was absolutely massive in the 90s and the 2000s and that is the sound system the last thing we're looking into in our beginners series is of course the entertainment in the car now 10 or 20 years ago during the auto salon period this was absolutely huge you had people with xboxes and playstations and stuff in the car these days most people just want a really nice stereo and some nice speakers the stuff that comes from the factory these days is actually already pretty good but sometimes the head units are again built to a cost or a bit more simple these days you can upgrade them really cheaply and easily and often the speakers that are in there were already sound mad if you're starting from absolutely nothing there is so much scope with how far you can go with your car stereo and you can do it for cheap we made this whole ghetto system with a cd-rom and subwoofer for 50 bucks but hopefully you don't need to go that far if you do need to change out your speakers and head unit depending on your car you might also want to look at adding some sound deadening this does a great job of treating the inside of your car for a quieter and better acoustic environment for your epic sick tunes just remember though that this is adding weight so if you're trying to make a lightweight track car this is probably not the mod for you i'm going to upgrade the head unit on the vrz because the one that was in there was a little bit old school the previous owner had this ipod here with one of these old-school chargers i'm really keen to get carplay in there and get it up to scratch so that is what we're going to put in a lot of manufacturers have moved towards entertainment systems that only fit that particular model of car and won't suit the standard single or doubled in head units luckily the aftermarket has come to the rescue here and you can buy full dash replacement kits that allow you to upgrade your stereo to the latest and greatest this means you can run carplay android auto and other modern systems and also have the flexibility to add extra speakers amplifiers subs and all that mad stuff it's also possible to buy pre-made wiring kits that will just plug together quickly and easily although this is one of the best starting points to learn about how car electronics work so don't be afraid of cracking out the soldering iron if you have to with everything done make sure your insurance company covers your mods all of our cars are insured with shannon's insurance and they can increase your cover if you've added aftermarket parts nice no worries easy i'll add that on the apology and with that the mighty car mods brz stage one is complete all right so our stage one beginners mod brz is done we're now getting the jack stands out now if you have lowered your car at home a really simple easy thing you can make we did a video about these is these little stands here basically it means that if your car's too low and you can't fit a jack under it's just three bits of wood bolt them up stick a little bit of glue in there and then when you lower the car down the jack won't get stuck currently it is too low with the lip and our lowering springs to get the jack out that should fix it that's it i'm super pumped to see it how you feeling man i want to see it on its guts i also want to see it down low it's looking epic and that was a massive day so you can do all this get a mate to give you a hand this is about one day's work so from this point really it is a sky's the limit depending on what kind of car you got you might be able to get a tune you might want to be able to turbo charge it engine swap it but that is a very good base for our first mods and is looking freaking awesome we do need to go and get a wheel alignment now as well yep because we've pulled that front suspension apart it's got camber and caster and toe adjustments and we've got different size tyres so it's a very good idea all right make sure it still steers nicely coming down yes all right i'm gonna roll it back and we are done people we are done [Music] [Applause] we were going for a really clean street car look and i'm stoked with how it's turned out if you're getting into modified cars this is a solid foundation to start but from here it really is up to you how far you want to take it and what you want to do hopefully the most important thing is that you can feel proud that you're learning how to work on your own car yourself and how the car makes you feel when you drive it regardless of what parts you decide to put on your particular car the process that we've taken with this car is more or less the same you can choose different wheels different tail lights different interior bits stereos body kits all that stuff now this here is a great start and most of these mods represent the way that most people modify their cars when they first start out but you don't have to follow this exactly as we did and you certainly don't need to follow those videos telling you the top three mods that you have to do do your own thing make your car your own certainly in japan everybody loves making their car as unique as possible ultimately it's you that has to drive the car every day and be proud of what you've done a car like this is a great base for further development as well you can do all sorts of things to make it faster engine swaps turbo kits super charging you can light it up you can do all sorts of matte stuff and once you've learned about your car and you've learned how to service it you can really hone in exactly what it is that you want to do to your car do you want to turn it into a drift car that needs its own kind of modifications a street car a drag car a race car a track car but this here is a really good basis for getting started this is kind of meant to be a daily drivable comfortable car that can do some occasional track days what you don't want to do is compromise your car to turn it into a track car that you use one day a year and the other 364 days of the year it feels terrible so we hope this video was helpful for you we hope you've enjoyed this beginner's guide by mighty carmods and now martin it's time to go for a cruise we'll test out our mad new mods wheel alignment and get a wheel alignment thanks for watching everybody

Channel: Mighty Car Mods

Views: 3,158,795

Rating: 4.9654369 out of 5

Keywords: mighty, car, mods, mcm, MCM, moog, marty, turbo, jdm, how, to, diy, do, it, yourself, nissan, subaru, supercharged, race, BRZ, FRS, 86toyota, how to modify car, modify your own car, cheap car mods

Id: OM8l6fuzg_c

Length: 28min 39sec (1719 seconds)

Published: Thu May 21 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/heyitsryan]

Next episode, how to supercharge your car

[u/Gerarghini]

Did Bridgestone get dropped in favor of Michelin? 😳 I expected the RE003s.

[u/Ashdown]

It's actually quite a neat looking little turd. The styling is so much better that the shitty details on the 86.

[u/radeonalex]

/u/mightycarmods/ What is the song at 25:55? Is it something released, or to be released... or just a filler you use? Sounds awesome.