I have an 07' 2.3 manual hatchback with 15K miles and I've noticed my car's the throttle response/power has been inconsistent for the last few months after I started modifying it. The only mods I've made to the car are removal of the intake resonator(I love the sound!) and a drop in K&N air filter. I had the throttle body ground mod for a few months but then removed it since it made shifting smoothly more difficult(especially taking off from first) and I thought it was creating this power problem. So for about a month or so after removing the ground and keeping the K&N air filter with the intake resonator removed, power seemed good and the problem seemed to be fixed. Then I started experiencing the power loss/gain once again. It is random... some days it has a little more pep than other days. I know altitude, temperature, and weight in the vehicle can play a role and I've already considered these factors. This problem became even more apparent in just a couple of days after a recent snowboarding trip...
I live in the SF bay area and I recently went to Lake Tahoe which is around 7,0000 to 8,000 ft. I already expected to loose power in the mountains since there is much less dense air. So while in the mountains my car felt like it had 100HP, which was expected. So when we were coming back to low elevation I noticed a dramatic increase in power. In fact it definitely seemed I had more power than what I had before I left for the trip. For the next 2 to 3 days after returning from the trip my car had awesome power. The throttle was very responsive and it definitely accelerated faster. So after the third day I started it up, drove it, and the power increase was gone!!! I know temperature also affects HP slightly but the temp has been about the same the last few days. Also the K&N filter only has about 8K miles on it. I can't explain this! I'm about to take the car in for a 15K service so I think I'm going to bring this up. I want my power back! I'm even considering putting everything back to stock just as a test. I'd appreciate any ideas as to what is causing this. Thanks!
I live in the SF bay area and I recently went to Lake Tahoe which is around 7,0000 to 8,000 ft. I already expected to loose power in the mountains since there is much less dense air. So while in the mountains my car felt like it had 100HP, which was expected. So when we were coming back to low elevation I noticed a dramatic increase in power. In fact it definitely seemed I had more power than what I had before I left for the trip. For the next 2 to 3 days after returning from the trip my car had awesome power. The throttle was very responsive and it definitely accelerated faster. So after the third day I started it up, drove it, and the power increase was gone!!! I know temperature also affects HP slightly but the temp has been about the same the last few days. Also the K&N filter only has about 8K miles on it. I can't explain this! I'm about to take the car in for a 15K service so I think I'm going to bring this up. I want my power back! I'm even considering putting everything back to stock just as a test. I'd appreciate any ideas as to what is causing this. Thanks!
