Mods for a 120VTi

[THE_EGG]

Hi all,

I am a new member to this forum but have been reading a lot of your threads already. My question is (as a poor uni student), what the best way is to get more performance out of my 1.6 120VTi. I have got a K&N High-flow filter (i know it probably only gives 1HP if that, but it was cheap), and I also have taken the resonator out of the exhuast to get a crisper sound (centre muffler). So I have been considering spark plugs, but I have been told that the sp's in the car are already of a decent enough quality that I won't see much of a performance increase if I upgrade them. I have also been considering a cold-air-intake by K&N as well although I would have to get the one designed for the 2011 Mini Cooper which has the same engine layout as my ds3.

Also I should note that I am from Australia so postage may be a consideration to any parts I import.

Cheers,

Rhys

[ZACK]

Hi Rhys ? ( Welsh Background Maybe ? )

Best Things To Do Now Would Be To Get Iridium Spark Plugs Like These: http://www.eurocarparts.com/search/4...30/p/car-parts

The Cold Air Feed Is Also A Good Shout Aswell As A More Free Flowing Exhaust ( I Run A Straight Pipe ),

Then Get A Remap Once These Are Added

Obviously You Can Do Other Things Like Add A Turbo And Intercoolers But Your Looking Into The Thousands For That lol

[THE_EGG]

Hi Rhys ? ( Welsh Background Maybe ? )

Best Things To Do Now Would Be To Get Iridium Spark Plugs Like These: http://www.eurocarparts.com/search/4...30/p/car-parts

The Cold Air Feed Is Also A Good Shout Aswell As A More Free Flowing Exhaust ( I Run A Straight Pipe ),

Then Get A Remap Once These Are Added

Obviously You Can Do Other Things Like Add A Turbo And Intercoolers But Your Looking Into The Thousands For That lol

Wowsers, that is very cheap. I've seen the NGK one's on the Citroen Racing Boutique but I thought they might be overkill and the boutique probably charges a premium as well.
Unfortunately a full straight pipe exhuast is illegal where I live so I'm probs going to keep the exhuast the way I have it. Very tempted by the Viezu tune for $650 where I live though. Also, because of P-plate regulations, (provisional licence as its my second year on the road [lasts for 3 years]) I can't have turbochargers or superchargers D: which really sucks. Although turbo diesels are fine. Still confused as to the fact I can legally drive a Porsche Boxster but not a Polo TSI...Anyway cheers for the response and I know my name is of the Welsh spelling but I actually have a German and Swede background (crazy right?).

[ZACK]

Still confused as to the fact I can legally drive a Porsche Boxster but not a Polo TSI...

Haha That's Mad When You Put It Like That !

[Jonbays]

I really dont think that there is much that needs doing! I don't think cold air or air filters or spark plugs will make any real seat of pants difference. A manual conversion would give you 2 secs of your 0-100kmh straight away for instance. That would work and be legal if you have a manual licence at least. With the four speed auto there isn't much I would do to it as honestly a remap would probably get you from 88 to 100kw but with a narrower powerband that would be slower with the four speed auto. Well top speed might increase but you can only do 110kmh anyway leagally so 180-200 who cares!

[THE_EGG]

I really dont think that there is much that needs doing! I don't think cold air or air filters or spark plugs will make any real seat of pants difference. A manual conversion would give you 2 secs of your 0-100kmh straight away for instance. That would work and be legal if you have a manual licence at least. With the four speed auto there isn't much I would do to it as honestly a remap would probably get you from 88 to 100kw but with a narrower powerband that would be slower with the four speed auto. Well top speed might increase but you can only do 110kmh anyway leagally so 180-200 who cares!

Nah man, I take my car to the track about once every 3 weeks. Max speed i've hit was 155km/h. I'm still going to get the spark plugs and the tune but as far as the CAI goes, I'll probably just get some silicone hose and some metal clips and make my own CAI in the front grille. As it turns out it gathers air from behind the left headlight (or right of you are looking at the front of the car). I'm going to ask around first though whether it's worth doing but from what I've seen it is.

As far as a manual conversion goes, I would have bought a manual in the first place, but that only comes in the turbo so couldn't. Also, a new transmission would be very costly along with labour costs etc. I would rather put that money towards a new car. The dealership said they can modify how much the torque converter kicks in, so I'll probably get them to disable it as much as possible in "manual mode" and make it intervene a little less in "D" as well. I very rarely use "S" as it just holds the gear a little longer, and I'm quite happy the way it changes gears. Although I must admit, it could do with another gear or so on the highways (~2700-2800rpm at 100-110km/h).

[Jonbays]

Honestly all the cold air and ram air stuff is 99% sales BS does very very little to the performance of the car. Sure you can make it sound faster but thats mostly it. The manual conversion is certainly not a sensible thing to do economicly and you are better off saving for the manual turbo DSPORT I would say than spending too much on the auto DSTYLE. While the 88kw NA engine will tune up to give greater peak power of around the 100kw mark be very careful with this as the gaps in the powerband won't be able to be hidden by the four speed auto and it will quite possibly be slower around a track. The Citroen people did a good job tuning this engine up for auto use and its 160nm torque peak is unlikely to be bettered and it's torque spread is well matched to the auto. My wife has a C3 auto so i know both of these engines well. The manual mode in the C3 at least although a little nannying is quite good for spirited driving.

[THE_EGG]

Honestly all the cold air and ram air stuff is 99% sales BS does very very little to the performance of the car. Sure you can make it sound faster but thats mostly it. The manual conversion is certainly not a sensible thing to do economicly and you are better off saving for the manual turbo DSPORT I would say than spending too much on the auto DSTYLE. While the 88kw NA engine will tune up to give greater peak power of around the 100kw mark be very careful with this as the gaps in the powerband won't be able to be hidden by the four speed auto and it will quite possibly be slower around a track. The Citroen people did a good job tuning this engine up for auto use and its 160nm torque peak is unlikely to be bettered and it's torque spread is well matched to the auto. My wife has a C3 auto so i know both of these engines well. The manual mode in the C3 at least although a little nannying is quite good for spirited driving.

Because i'm a uni-student, financially things are quite tight so yeh, realised the HP/$ ratio with an estimate of 3-5hp didn't really seem very good for the CAI, so that's why i'm just going to spend like $10 or $20 on silicone hosing and metal clamps to make my own air-intake. My dealer has been very helpful and said they can install the spark plugs at the next service for free. The Viezu tune is very tempting especially HP/$ ratio (i can get it done for around $550). I totally agree though about saving money for the next car. The next ones I would consider would be the DSPORT THP150 manual, VW golf GTI manual (a bit boring imo), Abarth 500 Essesse, Alfa Romeo MiTo QV manual and the Pug RCZ (although it seems a little slow with the auto box and THP 150 engine). By now you've probably realised I'm a sucker for hot-hatches lol. I do agree though how Citroen did a great job matching the engine to the auto-box even though technically the 4-speed auto is totally obsolete. Also the guy at Viezu told me not to bother with the CAI so good thing I didn't get it then haha.

I think my favourite modification I've done to my car is the DS3R decals I got for it lol.

Thanks for inputting into the thread man, I appreciate it

[Jonbays]

I would start saving as there are some good little hot hatches around. I had a good look at the Audi A1 Sport , Polo GTI and Golf GTI before buying the DS3. The Mini I dropped off as I needed a boot and it was too twitchy nervouse go cart handling for me. The Golf and the Polo just were too sensible and boring but the Polo GTI was the car I would have bought but there aren't any available for 12 months? The A1 boot too is poor but it was fun to drive and if it were $10k cheaper I might have got that instead. In the end despite not wanting the his n hers look of a C3 and DS3 in the same household I went for the DS3 as it was priced well after they took $5k off the price and it has a real boot five seats and was fun to drive with a less complex and more involving manual box the the DSG stuff VW are pushing out. BTW I have emailed the Viezu guys in Brisbane myself as its tempting to see if I can get the THP tuned up from 115kw to at least say the Mini 135kw or DS5 147kw tune. Haven't heard back so not sure if they have a dealer in Sydney yet though. My guess is the good old Citroen lack of resale value means the DSPORT wil be the bargain in a couple of years when you have the full licence to drive it.

[THE_EGG]

I would start saving as there are some good little hot hatches around. I had a good look at the Audi A1 Sport , Polo GTI and Golf GTI before buying the DS3. The Mini I dropped off as I needed a boot and it was too twitchy nervouse go cart handling for me. The Golf and the Polo just were too sensible and boring but the Polo GTI was the car I would have bought but there aren't any available for 12 months? The A1 boot too is poor but it was fun to drive and if it were $10k cheaper I might have got that instead. In the end despite not wanting the his n hers look of a C3 and DS3 in the same household I went for the DS3 as it was priced well after they took $5k off the price and it has a real boot five seats and was fun to drive with a less complex and more involving manual box the the DSG stuff VW are pushing out. BTW I have emailed the Viezu guys in Brisbane myself as its tempting to see if I can get the THP tuned up from 115kw to at least say the Mini 135kw or DS5 147kw tune. Haven't heard back so not sure if they have a dealer in Sydney yet though. My guess is the good old Citroen lack of resale value means the DSPORT wil be the bargain in a couple of years when you have the full licence to drive it.

Try emailing Carformance (dealer of Viezu tunes), Greg has been of great help to me. He said he could probably get it to around 100kw and possibly between 185 and 190nm of torque. So yeh pretty much what you were saying. FYI as far as I know, the motorsport map (extreme map) does not have any warranty, only the performance, eco and combined tunes do. Also yeh the DS3 was my favourite because of not only having a very pretty face but it was also very practical too.

[Jonbays]

I don't know Greg but I dont see how he is thinking that he can get from 88-100kw in power and get a greater increase in torque. This is very unlikely in an NA engine and only possible in a forced induction engine as a rule or in a very lowly tuned engine. Power is actually just a calculation made from the torque as measured on the dyno multiplied by pi and then multiplied by the engine rpm where it makes that torque divided by 30000. So to get a larger percentage increase in torque than power is very unlikely as this means big power increases at lower revs something you wont get from tuning NA cars unless you are increasing compression ratios which is what we did in the old days or boring or stroking it out for greater capacity. All the air fuel and ign timing and intake flow work you can do won't make this much difference. Look at the best power and torque figures that any other NA 1.6 litre engine is getting and the best you will see is the Nissan SR16VE which made (197 bhp)(147 kW) @ 7800 rpm and 134 lb·ft (181 Nm) @ 7600 rpm!

[Bruce H]

Hi Rhys
Still going to Newmarket next Friday? Hoping I can make it and get to see your car and its mods there.
Cheers
Bruce
2010 Thorium grey DStyle (the commuter);1976 GS Club estate (the club car); 1996 Xantia SX (the holiday car)

[THE_EGG]

Hi Rhys
Still going to Newmarket next Friday? Hoping I can make it and get to see your car and its mods there.
Cheers
Bruce
2010 Thorium grey DStyle (the commuter);1976 GS Club estate (the club car); 1996 Xantia SX (the holiday car)

Yes I am! There aren't too many mods on it lol, just the full sticker set (still trying to figure out how to attach the roof stickers though), deleted resonator, high-flow filter and plat. spark plugs. Nothing too fancy.

It will be great to see another DS3 there! I will be sure to catch up Last time I was the only person with a Frenchie. Hopefully a better turn out this time for non-Germans lol.

Have you done any mods to your DS3? Also, I'm guessing you're on VWWatercooled?

Rhys.

[Bruce H]

No performance mods here, Rhys - I'm an old fuddy duddy so all I did to the plain Jane Grey was add some of the bling - chrome baguettes and the back number plate lip, and front mudflaps all from John Nicol on this forum via eBay. I've got the chrome mirror lids as well, but I'm waiting until I bash the originals to bits or the metallic goes off before I replace them.
Heard about Newmarket via events on the aussiefrogs forum. A black BX16 Valve may also show up, so the French numbers may be up a little
Saw a yellow and black in the traffic this afternoon, and pass a silver and black parked at a workplace most afternoons, but other than that the sightings are rare, so seeing anyone else's DS3 is good.
Cheers
Bruce

[THE_EGG]

Is it worth "upgrading" the brake pads to Brembo ones or EBC Greenstuff ones at all? Would this make the car brake better at all, when used with the standard callipers and standard discs?

I've seen some nice ones on Ebay and Euro Car Parts for some good prices so just wondering your opinions on whether I should get them now, or wait until my standard brake pads wear out.