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Car Forum / Kia Cars / July 20072006.5 Kia Optima
I am a new Kia owner, having purchased the 2006.5 Optima last weekend. It's the LX V6 model, and so far I love it, but have a couple of questions for "those in the know". First - I've been reading about cold-air intakes and chips that can bump the MPG from it's current 28 hwy to over 30, and I was wondering if anyone here has had good/bad/ indifferent luck with them and which ones to look into/avoid. Second - on a related line, I've also been told that chips can void a warranty (I still have nearly 50,000 miles left on the 60,000 mile warranty, so I'd rather not do that). Thanks in advance! Matt > I am a new Kia owner, having purchased the 2006.5 Optima last weekend. > It's the LX V6 model, and so far I love it, but have a couple of [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Matt Generally speaking, the aim of the mods you are suggesting is to produce more power. Producing more power means burning more fuel, period. Those mod chip sellers that tell you they will give you more power AND higher mileage are just lying. I don't have first-hand experience with these mods, but from what I've read all that the cheap chip mods do is trick the ECU into thinking the intake air is cooler or more dense than it really is to advance the spark timing. They also recommend using higher octane gas with the chips. Why? With low octane gas and an advanced spark your engine will be prone to knocking. The engine's built-in anti-knock sensor reacts to this by retarding the spark, thus undoing the so-called improvement from the chip. Even if they could manage a small improvement in mileage under conservative driving conditions, you are spending more for each gallon of gas you are using. Go ahead and try the cold-air intake if you want. At least it will do no harm and you are honestly giving the engine cooler air instead of tricking a sensor. Be glad you are getting 28 MPG. My average is about 23.5 with over 75% highway driving. The trip computer shows 44 MPH average since new. You won't get that from sitting at stop lights all day ;). Jeff > quikandski...@gmail.com wrote innews:1183740357.589182.100090@o11g2000prd.googlegroups.com: > [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > > Jeff Thanks, I appreciate the info. I was definately leaning away from the chips anyway, and figured there had to be a "catch" of some sort. So, should I choose to try the cold-air intake, would I need to go to a higher-octane gas as well? If so, it would nearly defeat the purpose of getting a higher gas mileage. >> quikandski...@gmail.com wrote >> innews:1183740357.589182.100090@o11g2000prd.googlegroups.com: [quoted text clipped - 44 lines] > higher-octane gas as well? If so, it would nearly defeat the purpose > of getting a higher gas mileage. A higher octane shouldn't be necessary if you could get cooler/denser air to your intake, however, the ECU would compensate for this by INCREASING the fuel injected to get the proper mixture ratio. Take a look at the air intake system on your car. You will see it is fed by a tube running under the battery from an intake just above the grill. You already have a cold-air intake from the factory. Altering that is not likely to help anything. > I am a new Kia owner, having purchased the 2006.5 Optima last weekend. > It's the LX V6 model, and so far I love it, but have a couple of [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > > Matt Don t spend your Time or your hard earned MONEY |
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