Hi. I ordered a spare ECU tune from SXTH Element on April 17th. I wrote extensively about it in this thread. It finally came in on June 23rd and I spared no time installing it. I got home and instantly ripped the box apart, took my old ecu out, and put this one in. I christened the car with a fresh tank of 93 and drove around for about 70 miles that night. It was very very very fun I think simply because it made the car feel so much more alive. I loved my car before the tune and it had its quirks but it's so much better with the tune. Around 3,000-4,000 RPM in 4th gear with my foot to the floor, it's like the tune overboosts the car and it just launches. I gotta set up my phone and OBD scanner to log some diagnostics one day. I have been having way too much fun and I'm surprised I haven't blown the car up yet. There are people who have driven on cars with SXTH Element tunes for well over 30k miles with a lot more complicated upgrades than mine. Stuffed turbos, Veloster N turbo swaps, some sketchy shit and they've had no issues. So I have no fears for the time being. With the tune I had the option of going with pops and bangs, pops and gurgles, or none. My car pre tune already gurgled a decent amount but rarely popped. I opted for the pops and gurgles because pops and bangs is ignorant. Not saying pops isn't ignorant because it absolutely is. I hate pop tunes but this is slowly growing on me. What I like is that if I'm just driving normally the car won't pop. It only pops if I let off the gas high up in the RPMs. I really really despise people in BMWs who are popping and farting at like 15mph. At this point, I have a couple thousands of dollars in mods and the car is exactly where I want it to be. Not sure exactly how much horsepower I'm pushing now but if I were to base it off of other people with very similar mods I'd say around 230-240. I think I might be a bit generous with that number but my butt dyno tells me around 230. 200 to 230 reliably isn't bad. Oh one more thing, I spent a couple hours yesterday installing a new Pierburg wastegate solenoid that will help eliminate fluttering and surging. It has been working pretty good. I took a couple of videos but it's kinda hard to convey the difference. I also really need to get an external microphone for my gopro but it's a bit expensive. I'm also going to suction cup my gopro near the exhaust some day for a vid of that.
I think that's all I got to say about the tune. The next day after I put the new ECU in, I hit a gnarly pothole on the highway going around 70. I instantly knew I fucked something up because my steering wheel was cocked. I got to work and saw that my front left tire got a bubble in the sidewall. I got the tire replaced and an alignment but now it sounds like someone stuck a rubber duck in my suspension. I gotta get it fixed. Here's a list of what I've done to the car so far.
SXTH Element Short Ram Intake
SXTH Element Intercooler Resonator Delete Pipe
SXTH Element Axleback Exhaust
SXTH Element Oil Catch Can
SXTH Element Tune
Pierburg Wastegate Solenoid
HKS M45XL
As much as I love this car and after everything I've just said praising it, I'm already looking for my next. I always have been and I always will. I plan to keep this car for another year or two. I don't think I'll get bored of it any time soon but I would like to own a variety of cars. I'm still considering an Elantra N or Veloster N but I also have been looking at the new GR86 for the last couple of months. Besides the shit gas mileage it gets, I would love to own one. Especially in the red color that Toyota offers. Other than that I've been considering Golf GTIs or maybe a Golf R. At the top of my list currently is a 2018 WRX. The WRX is a car that I've always loves since a child up until now and I will definitely want to own one at some point. I like the look of the 2018 WRX and they're priced pretty fairly right now. I can go buy a base WRX for 25k right now. Maybe my mind will change in a year or two from now or maybe I'll hit it big with my business and I'll be able to just get a new car without replacing my current one