Ok, don't laugh at this. I'm not the one questioning it, but i got into a debate with my friend and i realized that i had no way of defending the reliability of such mods. Being unable to provide any solid fact of why it wouldn't affect the reliability of a car, i had to admit defeat.

I'd like to hear your opinion and explanation on the matter:o

also, if you've had cars with i/h/e, please provide the following so i can get a data set:

How long you've had the mods
Were there any problems caused directly by the i/h/e?

 

first i'd like to say, modding cars is fun and it's the way to go in my opinion. But i would not doubt that modifying my car is taking away from its reliability. the car was designed and tested the way it is OEM, and we change it up to get more power/handling/better sound/ and so on. it would be hard to prove that certain mods take away from reliability, but imagine this. if i fully built and turboed my engine and put out like 700whp i'd probably snap my axles or burn out the clutch or f*ck up the transmission or other things. i think everything we do to our cars takes away from the original balance of everything, so it probably takes away from reliability, but that varies depending on the mod. isn't this the reason why people tend to prefer buying OEM used cars over modified ones? Also, don't OEM parts cost more than aftermarket parts most of the time? i'm not really sure about those last two. Or maybe it's because of the installation of the parts that people actually end up damaging their cars? i dunno, i should get back to studying for my test now, hahah anyway modding cars is still fun and i'd do it anyway. but i'd like to hear what you guys think too.

 

Any SOLID fact? LOLOL IHE won't ****ing blow up your engine! Most of those parts being sold in the market are bolt-on. So why would you question the reliability??? IHE is simply IHE, it's not like you boosted it. You would only have problems if you prolly changed the internals or the so...

 

no it wont because i know a guy that has a honda prelude with I/H/E... he had the car with 70 000 miles on it and still has it today with 140 000 miles w/o a problem ( my guess is just as long you take the care of the car you should be good)

 

i/h/e just makes the engine work more efficiently, if anything only doing those three mods could argueably improve reliability of the engine by causing less wear on the intake and exhaust. However, I doubt you'll find any long-term evidence from USDM Fit owners on reliability with modifications as the car hasn't been out long enough. FWIW I've had exhaust for 6 months, and intake and headers for the past month with absolutely no problems and even an improvement on gas mileage.

 

i totally agree that i/h/e won't screw up your engine, its just in a debate all of our opinions combined don't mean anything which is why I say I need fact. And he's not saying it'll blow up but more like it'll cause problems later down the road.

Dr.Doom, i also agree with you that modifications screw with the engineering that went into designing our cars and ultimately affect their reliability, but i would bet my life on saying that the basic i/h/e upgrade will not negatively affect the car's reliability.

That's along the same lines as what i told him, but without scientific proof or professional opinion from someone who would not benefit from it we can only conclude that our opinions are just that.

 

With I/H/E the only real way I can see it affecting reliability down the line would be based on the quality/reliability of parts being used, and even then, that's not a function of the type of mod, but the actual part itself. In other words, some one who puts a J's Racing header on their car is likely to have very few, if any, problems later because it's a top-line product, whereas the guy w/ the Ebay "SS-type header for Fit" is more prone to exhaust leaks, cracks, etc.

 

Do you have any data or math that you can show me to prove this?

 

No, and you won't find anything like that available either, unfortunately -- mainly because the only people who would have the kind of data you need -- failure rates, return rates, etc. are the mfgs. themselves and they're not about to share that with anyone. If you had access to it though, you could compare the failure/return rates among mfgs. for various parts and then work up a data set representing their relative reliability amongst each other. From that you could extrapolate estimated reliability for cars with those parts installed, though of course it wouldn't be perfect only because of the many other factors that could affect ultimate reliability.

In the end though, even without data, the basic concept is still sound -- cars with parts installed that have higher failure rates are going to be less reliable than ones with parts with lower failure rates installed. Where you need the data is to see how this applies and differentiates based on part mfgs.

 

^ very well said

 

Reliability will quickly go downhill if you suck up water in your intake...

Otherwise, why would I/H/E decrease reliability?

 

Yes, having access to the information you mentioned would allow me to derive the rate of failure amongst part manufacturers, but that wouldn't give me an accurate account of engine problems caused by these modifications since it this information only accounts for part failure. In order to assess the reliability of having an i/h/e, someone with enough resources must to conduct a survey on everyone who only have an i/h/e as a modification either previously or currently on the engine problems that they have had (if any) and then derive from that the problems that were caused by the modifications.

 

It's all about how you drive the car, no matter what mods you have.

 

i don't think you'll ever find the answer to your question if you want something as clear-cut as that.

 

You're right, I was just thinking along the lines of the parts reliablity angle and a means to determine it relatively accurately.

Personally, I dislike the kind of debates you're having with your friend only because of the fact that they're basically futile -- neither side will ever win because, in most cases, neither side will ever have the kind of data needed to say anything with any amount of certainty. And even if the data was available, one could always attack the validity of it by arguing its collection method, the validity of its source, sample size, currency, and so on. You usually end up going in circles in most cases unless someone just gives up. I learned this years ago when I was on debate in school, and it was the primary reason I dropped out of it after a number of years because it just ended up being a lot of work for no real payoff (well, the travelling, hotels, and getting laid at victory parties wasn't too bad now that I think about it. :D )

One thing though, going back to your OP -- you don't lose simply because you don't have the data to back up your points. The burden of proof applies equally to you both, so unless he has hard figures to back his side up, you guys are technically at a draw.

 

Agreed. Sometimes you have to be willing to accept a certain amount of gray in order to be practical. Life is never clear-cut, as most things require a leap of faith to some extent or another.

 

Generally the only thing IHE will do negatively is effect cold start reliability. Even then the car still starts and drives perfect. Might just take an extra split second for the car to kick over.

I have ran IHE on both my Mirage since 2000 and never had a problem with reliability. You'll wear a clutch out quicker but that isn't realiability issues either.

The only bolt on mod I ever did that caused a reliability issue was a 60mm (8mm overbore) throttle body w/ Coolant bypass done. That mod created TPS problems as well as greatly intensified cold start problems. Still though they were not problems that could not be corrected with a scan tool or in my case some throttle adjustment with the Emanage Ultimate.

 

When I had a CAI on my RSX, the throttle body got alot of carbon buildup within 10k miles. If you clean and oil the filter regularly you shouldn't have problems. The bitch about cleaning the filter was that I had to take off the bumper to get to the damn filter.

 

one quick noob Question, wat kind of oil do you put on the filter to clean ?