This weekend I plan on spending a day just working on my car. I don't want to spend much money on stuff, I really just want to make it perform better by not adding performance parts. I'm thinking of cleaning up the engine bay really good, but what are some other things I could do? Is there anything that I could make 'better' by either cleaning out gunk inside the engine or something like that? Also I saw on YouTube someone lowering/raising the ride height of their springs. Could I do that to mine? I just need ideas of things to do. I can go to the auto parts store and get supplies if needed.

 

Suggestion (?)
Make sure all your filters are in good condition + all your fluids are full.
When is the last time you changed spark plugs ? How are your spark plug wires ? How is your coolant ? How are your brakes/rotors ? How are your tires ? How often to you check your tire pressure ? I'd be sure to take care of all the maintenance items & then consider a Cold Air Induction system `if you don't have one....That's all I got 4 now...Check back 2 see what other member's suggest > Good Luck >EnJoy<

 

I'm up to date on the usual maintenance and I do have a CAI, you can check my garage profile out for other stuff I have already. My car is probably the most modded one at my school I'm just running low on cash since I bought those rims and I'm saving up for a project car to race, so I'm looking for things to do on the low. I'm probably mainly just gonna touch up and clean the engine real good since that's all I can think of

 

Might as well fix the ac ticking noise that I have

 

Custom engine strut brace? I might make one along with strut braces in other places on the car.

 

even painting your existing strut braces is a good thing.

Painting your engine cover is always nice as well

Run a can of seafoam through your gas tank it will help clear out any gunk building up inside the lines and throttle body, you can get very extensive in this process just depends on how far you want to go, there is a write up in the tech section on what all to do with it.

If you want to work on your exterior, you can clay bar the paint and give it a good wax and paint sealing treatment

Painting your brake calipers, not everyone notices this, but you will every time you walk up to your car

Painting a design on the heat shield under your hood, the black matt that is stuck to your hood when you pop it open, again not many people see this, but if you go to car shows and pop your hood it gives you that one extra thing to set you apart from the rest

For the raising and lowering of your springs, I think you have to have adjustable shocks and struts for that, but I am not 100% certain on this.

Hope this gives you some ideas and best of luck

 

Tough to make a car perform better without adding performance parts... Like Ken said, run some seafoam through it to clear up any gunk that might be in it. You said all maintenance is up to date, so not much to do there. I'd say check/change air filter but you already have a cai so you should be good. As far as the lowering, you'd need all new adjustable shocks in order to change the height.