How to Improve Your Old Car's Performance - Part 1/3

[OtherVincentLee]

had a fucking commercial inside the video.

[keviar245]

You should be a host for US Topgear!!!

[Sharony1994]

started watching your videos around 11 its now 2 a.m. big fan keep it up.

[bingothewonderpony]

Revving a COLD engine to redline? You are morons.

[CzarThePlezer]

@bingothewonderpony How do you know it's cold?

[Sandor203]

is this jason thorgalsen the photographer?

[ableite]

The problem starts with V and ends with W

[ilia93]

will that compression restore thing do the same job as lets say ... replacing the piston rings ?

[kingsomething2008]

3 hours to "repair" (change) a VW front bumper. it's like what 8 screws?

[Tinydevil12]

@kingsomething2008

they had to remove it from the tire wall, find a replacement part, remove the old one, and put the new one on

[14EMC88]

Does VW call that car a Jetta in N-A?

It's a Bora here.

[bradley081]

@14EMC88 A Bora and a Jetta are 2 seperate cars. In Europe and the US its the same for both cars. 

[badslabber]

@14EMC88 AMERICANS CANT pronounce bora ,its like Paulo ,so they called it a fox , more examples of dumbing down :(

[henndog718]

there is a fucking info mercial wtf

[tigergreg8]

Oil change a month earlier and spark plugs 2 yrs ago isn't bad for maintaining a vehicle. I can show you people who have never changed plugs, wires, distributors for the entire 10 yrs, they've owned a car.

[MafiaGENGTEAM1970]

Junk ADD TURBO. 

[ooozmin]

lol such a junk car

[geppegep]

old car? here in Norway the average car age is around 10 years

[MrBlazedk]

i top overhaul could change a few things..like replace worn out piston rings..clean the top of the pistons..remove any carbon deposits on the piston...replace the air filters..and check the black oil and the transmission oil..clutch and bla bla..you should get a more satisfactory increased horsepower from the car...hehe...lol..just giving out suggestions here...

[SEAN94BODOMCHILD]

my cars sitting on 70hp ruffly lol so lets see what we can do

[SpikeyBoy333]

Its a Bora not a Jetta

[ungfu88]

Wow  YOUR SH*TY TITTLE IS MISLEADING NOTHING ABOUT CAR IMPROVEMENT

[stoone113]

LOl he stole your car at 0:15

[WilliamVandervleut]

lol that car i would call old, its just not the latest model.

[bergaflickal]

ive got a 96 impala with a 5.7 with 150k is it going 2 have compression loss as well and whats a good rule for changing sparkplugs/wires / tune up

[donbehatin]

@bergaflickal Plugs and wires every 30,000 for me.... oil change 2500-3000, air filter every 10-15,000, trans fluid every 50,000, brakes every 60,000.

[bergaflickal]

@donbehatin thanks im a little over onm plugs and wires then haha and the air filter

[8thcivicownr]

Matt should be on Top Gear lol

[BlinginTom]

lol you got jacked!

[romeosafadi]

No wonder how you make money. thats such a kinky move, adding adverts through out the show.. :S

[sirluka]

isn`t that a vw bora?

[LITHYY]

Give it to me if you dont want it (Y)

[haydenismad]

stig

[Timario007]

lol 2 funny

[sonoreactor]

love this show

[Sengeto]

easy way to improve your car perfomance, Engine overhoul (clean all parts), buy a racing camshaft, Racing Spark Plugs, change the ECU config bla bla bla....

[clipman01]

"And WOW The brakes suck!"

[dbfydtn]

no offense bro but your sideburns are a problem.

[stoone113]

@dbfydtn Whats with u and xXMojo2010Xx and this guys side burns? u guys came to watch this video on how to improve ur cars performance and all you care about is his sideburns?

[xXMojo2010Xx]

EPIC SIDE BURNS FTW!!!

[liraria]

damn, is that a dent on the side of that car?

[guitarmano8]

0:30

That's reallllllllly bad acting.

[glendale85303]

is that the disel engine or the gas engine?

[termantor28]

@glendale85303 its gas, i dont think they make diesel powered VR6s

[Sj1bby]

@glendale85303 are you serious or are you a joker? diesel vr6?

[beefcakemonsta]

a basic tune up of the car, a good result it gave back a few horsepower. in your next taping can you show us how to set up the engine of a car with aftermarket parts. it may gave out a good rating :D

[IronMaster999]

watch BULLRUN on SPEED tonight at 10pm est

[XenomorphLV426]

160whp isn't bad for 166 mile engine

[saavaa]

Damn that VW Bora/Jetta is fucked up in so many ways!

[quincy965]

Matt I don't appreciate you guys talking shit about the VR6

[raceboy404]

those are some hot breaks

[franqy4056]

what do you think i could do with a 99 purple dodge intrepid?

[kplee89]

Drive it off a cliff

[Fruna123]

my intrepid threw a piston through the hood, aaand the exhaust pipe fell off, and the transmission shattered

[esaedvik]

hehe, 166k miles...had a '88 Saab 9000 with 511k kilometers on it and it ran fine =) My current  9000CSE 2.3tA has 330k kms on it and looks/runs like new.

[AlecTheJimSlayer421]

lol "Power understeer"

[shravanrulez]

LOL at "WOW and the brakes suck!"

[cata893]

NIce to see you guys back on you tubee

[NoxNoctisUmbra]

cool segment, at first run at track, car sounds terrible!

[nmac121]

love the picture stills. Refreshing to see a segment on the average car. Looking forward to the improvements from the tune up.

[PitwrkzZ1]

hmm i've seem that blue suit somewhere before...MORNINGSTAR!

[tankdiesle]

ight, brought it back!!! Great video keep it up, still lacking that OONFF you had in the past. Cock meat sandwich wasn't on the menu that day huh!

[TheSmokingTire]

we haven't had the opportunity yet to be truly creative in programming, but we've got something things happening in the next month that should be pretty interesting.

[forsmers1]

@TheSmokingTire My car starts with 268HP and if it has 66,000 mi on it and is 5 years old about how much power would it have. Its an 06 avalon touring. We got the black on black. My Esprit from Lotus is better

[dasser22]

I would be curious to see if that compression restore stuff works.

[piwright42]

Nice take on the Stig... Err... I mean car thief. Love the show guys. Can't wait till next Tuesday.

[bilalahmed2123]

oh cool !

[bilalahmed2123]

where the hell is part 2 and 3, I get interested in this thing and now, now no conclusion :(

[TheSmokingTire]

part 2 goes up tuesday and part 3 goes up the tuesday after that.

[Frankenpalin]

it says part 1 of 3

where are the other videos ?

nice job getting that rube to sign a waiver before wrecking his bumper, that'll keep the costs down.

[TheSmokingTire]

part 2 goes up tuesday, and part 3 the following tuesday.

[benthenailguy]

Vee dub love from Kentucky. More episodes please!

[Roadrash1991]

Yeah wheres the other ones?

[TheSmokingTire]

new episodes every tuesday. part 2 this coming tuesday, part 3 next week. subscribe so you don't have to check back!

[skoty]

You said its a 2001, does is smell like crayons inside? (Some of us lucky 01 owners have the crayon scented interior). My Jetta 2.slow just turned over 100k. Still have yet to do the waterpump/timing swap. Hopefully you guys did that as well since the waterpump in MKIV's tend to fail majorly after 100k. Glad to see some VW coverage on the MKIV generation that made VW say "ah, we failed, lets start over and make the new version VW's better"

[TheSmokingTire]

it does smell like crayons!

[noshabibis]

weres the other rest of the cideos for this episode???

[TheSmokingTire]

they go up every tuesday. so this coming tuesday is part 2, and the third is the following tuesday

[skoty]

Haha, it will never go away unless you strip ALL of the sound deadening material out of the car (Wax). It's a Mexico made car and apparently they had a bad batch where it wasn't sealing right so a decent amount smell like crayons. I miss the days of eating crayons and taking scheduled naps. Keep up the good work Matt and ze crew.

[TheSmokingTire]

ha, I didn't know exactly why, and when I called a VW to ask he said the previous owner must have had kids who dropped crayons into the air vents or something. the previous owner was a 30 year old single man.

[arabrockerman]

I think the only way I'd have a Jetta would be TDI

[giantenemycrabX]

Awesome!

[mrjost55]

how did you measure HP at the crank through this dyno? I always heard they just added 15-20% to the Wheels number.

[TheSmokingTire]

they used a simple formula for FWD cars. The good news is that for our before/after purposes, the formula doesn't matter as long as its consistent throughout the test

[so0kat]

more than just 1 episode a week please. :D

if not, at least make the episodes longer.

[Flamenginho]

dont you just love the sound of the vr6!!!.... :)

[steamedturtle]

I love your highly entertaining show.

[BullrunOlds]

Nice job. Funny stuff too!

[arabrockerman]

I know people who never change spark plugs some people wait 100,000 miles or in other words until the car is missing and they have to take it to a shop.

When ever I get a car (if I have the time and money) I do timing belt, plugs flush the radiator change oil, transmission fluid/filter or gear oil, rear diff fluid , brake pads proceed to check other things if not within the first two weeks of ownership within the first couple of months.

[bottomlayer]

Aren't the spark plugs supposed to be good for 100000 miles anyway?

Why do you have to change the timing belt? Why not just get a car that has a chain-driven engine instead?

[alexknecht]

haha my plugs last 10k maybe.

and all older VAG cars need timing belts replaced every ~75k miles

[arabrockerman]

Well I'd still change plugs ever year or 10k miles and most cars have timing belt designed to last 40k miles (most people use them 80-100k) and they use timing belt because its quiter.

Me personally I prefer to have a chain but its just so rare besides that you should really change the chain ever so many miles usually at around 100k. Plus I do lots of in town and highway mixed driving and never have a car more than a year before I sell it.

[TheSmokingTire]

The timing belt service had been done on this car at 120k, but I agree.

[daskatedude]

the vr6 got a chain!

[boxer3main]

I had no clue those cars made it to 100k. here is one with CT plates on a dyno in california, then getting hammered in an autocross, with a dent that normally destroys the body...at 9 years old no less. some folks get real lucky like that.

[bottomlayer]

maybe it's in km!!!

[SDSakuragi]

LoL. I see Daniel in the picture of the crash. BTW was that Alex Roy who stole the car? Didn't look like him but I see a Team Polizei sticker on his helmet.

[dreamintv]

Great show, Matt. JT must be nuts to give you a car to drive, lol. Waiting for next show.

[Tomyboyy16]

You say he lost 15 hp over time with engine wear and that many miles. The published number VW puts out should be at the crank, no? And this Jetta appeared to be on a chassis dyno- which gives HP at the wheels. While there is an estimate for driveline loss, it's just an estimate- every driveline is different. So how can you claim he lost 15 hp if you're comparing crank HP to wheel HP? Or did I miss something?

[TheSmokingTire]

no, in fact you're spot on in terms of observations, but what we adjusted for (but left out of the video) was that the dyno numbers were adjusted for crank horsepower. If it had made 160 wheel horsepower, then it would have made about 20 crank horsepower over stock!

[s4orcee]

4th gear dyno pulls are useless, there is no fan in the world that can simulate 130MPH+ air/wind that goes into the motor at those speeds. 3rd gear dyno is more useful data.

[TheSmokingTire]

as long as the conditions are the same in the before and after tests, it doesn't matter.

[FormulaWill]

Really? Running a car on a Kart Track? Did the car ever get out of second gear? You are better than that "The Smoking Tire".

[TheSmokingTire]

we are a little show, therefore we use little tracks. when we become a big show with a big crew, we will upgrade to Road America, I swear.

[Tomyboyy16]

Sounds like a blast to me.

[quantummechanic90]

You never happened to watch that Top Gear episode in which Jeremy drives a Maserati Merak 'SS' that only made 80bhp, and that was after the engine had been "rebuilt", have you? That was great.

[TheSmokingTire]

didn't you know? maserati's came off the line with no compression :)

[quantummechanic90]

Compression wasn't an issue at the end of the episode. When Jeremy was driving to the Spearmint Rhino the engine chucked a rod through the block!

5*s on this vid.

[davebos582]

Haha good show - the car thief looked like he was flying through the track - sucks the front got screwed up, but the lap times don't lie - Glad you guys got autozone behind ya

[mrjost55]

what happened to my comment? It was about using upgraded parts or just doing a simple tune up

[TheSmokingTire]

I don't know, it somehow got deleted by the system, not me. To answer your question, it would be very easy to prove that a car's performance increased if we used aftermarket parts, so much so that it's not even worth doing. I was much more interested in seeing how much actual performance can be recovered or improved by using only stock OEM parts, filters, and fluids. (*Not all fluids used were stock though)

[kaymanclark]

im gonna have to go to autozone now! lol

[lmrcobalt]

so thats what you were doing in Cali! lol

[TheSmokingTire]

we live in Cali now, but among other things, we were doing this.

[lmrcobalt]

waaa! Thats cool to hear i thought you guys were still operating from NY,

[FlyingLude]

Good show and it will be interesting to see what happens since my car has 340k+ now i want her running till 500k XD.

[bottomlayer]

Yeah but you got a Honda; that's different. Honda and Toyota can do that all day. 160 is high for a VW

340k isn't really high miles, unless you got the 5g automatic

[reidman62]

nice to know we can keep shitboxes on the road

[Tomyboyy16]

Man, that driver's hands were quite busy under hard braking...... Was he trying to upset the chassis balance to unsettle the rear end to combat understeer- maybe a little Scandinavian Flick?

I'm looking forward to parts 2 and 3.

[AirGoya]

Good idea for an episode. Looking forward to the next

[shadowmilkman]

does maintenance include new tires? if so thats going to be a huge increase in performance depending on what kind of rubber you put on there. what about all the bushings?

ps. love the show, keep it going

[TheSmokingTire]

you'll have to see, but IF I were to put new tires on the car, it would improve performance on the track for sure. but the dyno doesn't lie about the engine either.

[haharoadkillking]

what's that red car infront of the jetta while it was getting dynoed, 4th gen camaro w/ a cowl?.

[TheSmokingTire]

*it runs 8's :)

[haharoadkillking]

good stuff, love me some f-bodies

[bottomlayer]

too bad the new Camaro doesn't have t-tops!!!

[kjz28]

First I want to say cant wait for the next show. Second..I have an 86 T/A with t-tops....I HATE THEM! The leak way too much, and I am on my second set of weatherstrip.

[bottomlayer]

they improved them greatly starting around 1990 when they fixed the seal design. I know the 91's t-tops DO NOT leak (also they're plastic so less weight).

The fourth-gen went back to glass but they still don't leak

[TheSmokingTire]

my original C5 targa roof doesn't leak either, but my friend rob got a "replacement" glass roof for his C5, and it leaks like shit. i guess with GM it's a total crapshoot

[bottomlayer]

And that's how they got in trouble!

[kjz28]

True.

[kjz28]

I purchased revised original GM seals, they are amazing quality, but they still leak a tad. I know people with high mileage 4th gens that have leaky t-tops. The cars just twist too much. IF I bought a low mileage 4th gen id immediately put some SFCs in to keep the twist to a minimum.

[bottomlayer]

150000 miles no leak

But do you think GM has improved? That is, if the new Camaro did indeed have T-tops, do you think structurally it would be any better? Do you have any experience with non-GM T-top cars (MR2, Nissan Z-cars, Nissan Pulsar/NX, etc)?

what's SFC?

[kjz28]

sub frame connectors...sorry I am used to posting in my Camaro forums.

No I have not had experience with non GM cars. But to my knowledge engineers in G< chose no t-tops because the design is inefficient. Targa tops are much better. I am a GM die hard and dont drive anything else(unless I hit the big bucks :) )

[TheSmokingTire]

my C5 has the targa top and it's extremely rigid, especially since I put the roll cage in :)

[kjz28]

I love your corvette. The rims make me drool. Hopefully one day I can afford such a nice vehicle. Keep up the great work!!!!

[TheSmokingTire]

in a few episodes we're doing a detailing how-to and I'm going to take the wheels off and show you guys how good the fit and finish is

[kjz28]

SWEET!!!!!!!

[tgseason12]

The VR6 engines always sounds great

[lloydapalooza]

Can't wait for part 2.

[W33Dblazer]

damn i hate waiting for part 2 and so on

[rawky]

Is it a kart track?

[TheSmokingTire]

yeah, but they also run autocross and drift nights there as well. we're a little show, so we use a little track!

[rawky]

You know, it probably takes more skill to drive around it quickly :D

[tonicroatia]

ok maybe not LOL

[tonicroatia]

its the sitgs american cousin who took the car

[TheSmokingTire]

he's too skinny, :)

[BlazingCheerio]

where can i get some of the copression stuff? i have 2 4 runners with 170k+ miles on each.

[TheSmokingTire]

Autozone :)

[BlazingCheerio]

alright thanks. ima go check it out. and it goes in the oil right? hope so since they are both almost due for an oil change. might replace the fuel filters also.

[TheSmokingTire]

yeah, goes right into the oil. In part 2, next tuesday, I show you how I do all the work myself, and what products we use etc.

Just follow the directions on the bottle.

[BlazingCheerio]

alright man. cant wait till next episode

[mrjost55]

Very cool, are you guys going to upgrade any components or is it only a Tune Up? It would be cool to do what Top Gear did, but then it's very expensive when you have to use your own cash.

[TheSmokingTire]

It would be easy to improve the car's performance if we were using upgraded parts. I want to find out if we can improve the car's performance by using OEM parts.

[robm425]

Nice you got a great big name sponsor it seems!!!!

I can't wait to see this series as I have 137k on my car