NEW A/C owner

[TucsonA/C2010]

Hey folks, joined the club today. Lots of great info here, looking forward to gaining more knowledge on my new ride. So its a 2010 used 3.5 with 20K miles on it.

Did a couple of small cosmetic things already. Did a rear debadge, and a complete interior/trunk/license LED light swap. Went with blue to contrast the red. Love it! Looking for CAI in the near future, then some wheels at a later time.

One thing I am still trying to figure out is how to remove the plastic/glass cluster protector. Previous owner did something crazy to it, and it needs to be cleaned on the inner side.

Any ways great forum, looking forward to learning more!

Sean

[BTUT5]

Welcome! Nice looking coupe so far.

As far as CAI goes no actual true cold air is available for our cars there is the AEM/Nismo one for the 3.5 which is nice and the K&N as well. If you are looking for big gains look into the racingline y-pipe one of the best mods for the 3.5. I would also recomend a drop for our cars either springs/coils depending on what your looking for but that makes a big difference as well.

For the plastic cluster protector I am thinking you are talking about the gauge cluster and as far as that I'm not sure on how to remove that hopefully someone else can chime in and help. What is exactly wrong with it? Pics?

Anyway welcome again and happy modding!

[AlexN09]

If like to know about that clear plastic cover cause I scratched the stuff out of it with a gasoline receipt ...

[TucsonA/C2010]

@BTUT5

It has what looks like someone sprayed some solvent on it to clean it and it made what I would call some dimple marks I guess. I got the Plastx and did a thorough cleaning, and it worked well, but then realized it was on both sides of the plastic/glass. It looks much better than before but I am a bit OCD when it comes to that. HaHA

[TucsonA/C2010]

Ummm I am a real idiot. So When I bought the car I did look at the engine, he had the hood popped but then I got a call from a family member and got a bit distracted, so he ended up closing the hood and I left it at that not really thinking of anything. So today I was sitting around and thinking to myself I never have really looked over the engine, and low and behold what a nice surprise I received.....

[J Russ]

There ya go!!! Check that one off this list! Welcome to Nico by the way

[AlexN09]

Might wanna buy a new filter for that just so you can know definitely that it's good and begin keeping up with the maintenance schedule.

[RicerX]

Welcome welcome!

[J Russ]

Might wanna buy a new filter for that just so you can know definitely that it's good and begin keeping up with the maintenance schedule.

The car has 20k on it, and K&N says you can go 50k without cleaning it. At most I would just buy the cleaning kit and give it a wash. There really isn't much of a reason to buy a whole new filter for essentially a brand new intake.

[AlexN09]

Just stating what I would do, you never know if it was purchased new or used.

[J Russ]

true, however those filters can last almost forever, just clean it and it should be good.

[BTUT5]

Nice score with the K&N on already! Ya don't see the need for a whole new filter just a good clean and you should be good to go.

[nismogxs21]

welcome to the family and congrats on randomly finding a K&N intake. 1 mod down a 1000 more to go lol

[Blue Batmobile]

Congrats, and welcome!

B@t™

[CoupeVQ35CVT]

I feel like a shameless plug here, but if you're looking at exhausts for your 3.5, I have a near perfect condition Borla axleback with barely 18-20k miles on it (that's within less than 10 months mind you -- lots of highway). The muffler itself is in clean condition and the tips are also shiny (being in Texas helps with no rust).

As for performance, the Racingline y-pipe is touted as being the best bang for the buck, at $289 shipped which I paid for back 2 years ago. Now if you have a CVT coupe, just don't expect to "yeah I feel it! ZOMG" because I never ever saw any increase, and quite literally had no gain vs. a stock 3.5 CVT coupe I raced twice. I had a y-pipe and 2.5" catback exhaust on mine, and other than sound, I settled on the fact that our cars are just not made for monster HP (well, the CVT). Perhaps a tune might have helped....

On the other hand a friend (Ranga14) was definitely making extra power with his BullyDog GT tuner + air intake + y-pipe (his Nismo exhaust was as restrictive as the stock really). I would try that route since you already have an intake. Costs not much more than the RL Y-pipe.

I drove my coupe for 4 years and put 103,000 miles on it before selling it (because I wanted to 'save money' on gas and payments.. hah.... man life's funny). Basically, get the scheduled maintenance done and you'll not have any issues with the CVT. The only parts I needed replaced out of warranty was the rear shocks at around 30 or 50K miles due to a leak in one of them (and just fyi, front brakes at 15k under warranty due to squeal). $300+ at the dealer and that was it. BTW regardless of what people might tell you, DO get the CVT flush/whatever done every 30K miles. I did and I drove mine 'spiritedly' on a daily basis (but not douchebag mode, just now and then on my boring 35 mile commutes) and never had any issues in those 103k miles.

I love the '10+ front end, so you have a real nice low mile car there.