vibedrivermatt - 2009 Vibe 2.4l

[vibedrivermatt]

hey guess I should make one of these, figured this would be a good place to post the latest happenings with my vibe as well as to document the happenings of the past.

Anyways here it is. My vibe is a carbon grey 2009 2.4l with manual transmission, sun and sound package and power everything.

ah these bring back memories. These pics were taken when my vibe was still brand new, just a couple days old wayyyyyyy back in 2008! ohh I can still remember the sounds of three free months of XM satalite radio.

at this time vibe my vibe was still very new looking and smelling. hey this reminds me its time to change my cabin air filter to cure its current state of funkedness.

The first accessory I purchased for my vibe was a california car cover. At the time I thought, what better way to protect my new investment. Currently the cover doesn't get used very often but it's good to have when needed sometimes.

One thing I noticed about the vibe after driving it for awhile was its less than spectacular handling. After some research and help from people on genvibe, I decided to install an aftermarket rear sway bar.

TRD is one of the few aftermarket parts manufacturers I learned of that seemed to make items specific to the 2009 Matrix. While their selection is limited they had a few goodies that I wanted to bolt onto my vibe.

the next thing I tried was the TRD quick shifter (only for 2.4l matrixwith manual tranmission)

I ended up not liking this part and removed it. It did give the shifter a cool shorter throw and made shifting seem quite fast. I just didn't like it because it made shifting feel a little crunchy and made the shifter harder to move. I guess this is just a personal preference kinda thing.

next part was a TRD strut brace.

[vibedrivermatt]

My latest parts for the vibe are a set of alloy wheels and summer tires. I sorta splurged to get these. I also did a set of lowering springs to round out the look and further improve handling.

heres the look after the TRD springs. these springs are specific to 09.

The spings and wheel/tire addition have added a whole new level of goodness to the vibes handling. The downside of using the lowering springs though has been a less comfortable ride, especially on long drives. Despite this I still give the springs a

[A Psycho Martyr]

sikkk thread on those tires. I bet you can really grip some road now.
I wouldn't be able to resist on the circle exit ramps

[star_deceiver]

Looking good as always!!!

And those rims are sweeeeeeet!!!

[vibedrivermatt]

^ Oh thanks! yes I like my black painted rims. according to tiretack they weigh 20.8 lbs. I was going to compare my steel wheels and alloy wheels with tires mounted on a bathroom scale to see if I shed or gained weight. never got to it last time my wheels were removed.

[lovemyraffe]

I love the black wheels, just please don't paint it green like your sig.

[vibedrivermatt]

^ hehe don't worry I wont. A Psycho Martyr just made that for me for fun.

[ponta2147]

I think a green car would be awesome. Then again, I also think a hot pink car would be awesome, so I think that renders my opinion invalid!

[vibenvy]

You know I love it Matt ! Can't wait to see your future plans come to life here.

[lowincash]

nice work man =] notice any difference with the rear sways on?

[vibedrivermatt]

You know, think I have noticed a difference. My vibe seems to track very straight, although that could have been because of the vibe having a good alignment.

but this part wont fit for those of you who have independent rear suspension. 09+ GT's all have IRS which is actually a nicer rear suspension than the base vibes.

[vibedrivermatt]

OK well, I just installed an Injen cold air intake today. This part is meant to go on an 09 Corolla XRS 2.4l. This still went on the vibe OK, its just the filter touches the fog light cutout making for a tight fit. I found out about this part from seeing one over on the matrix owners forums.

I also had to learn how to remove my front fascia to do this.

what comes in the box.

here is the fresh air supply tube and water reservoir bottle. I was sad to take this out of my car because I think this prevents my engine from getting water in it.

all installed! I had to adjust the couplers a lot to get all the parts in suitable position.

When driving with this thing I can definitely hear the difference. Its just much louder when going from 3000 to 4000 rpm and up especially in 3'rd and 4'th gears. Its nice to hear cool engine sounds coming from my car.

[A Psycho Martyr]

sweet, sweet, sweet!
Injen is the way to go if you got the funds
I'll probably jump on one of those Bomz Racing intakes in October.
I bet that sounds effin mean!
Nice job man!

You got a new pic of the whole engine bay?

[vibedrivermatt]

yeah sure here's one!

I have attached a larger picture here

Attached files

[star_deceiver]

Cool!!! Was it a lot of work to get the fascia off???

[vibedrivermatt]

No it wasn't hard. I have just recently removed it and took a few pics of the removal procedure! Its over in the tech section.

[vibenvy]

Looks good Matt ! Hopefully you don't have any issues with hydro lock .

[vibedrivermatt]

Thanks! hope I don't either!

well today I decided to tinker with the injen intake on the vibe. I was sorta unhappy about it not having a perfect fit so tried a few ways to modify it. It took me a couple of hours but I think I've got a fix that works pretty good with this intake.

I made some marks with a white-out pen on the silicone tubing and the metal mount that attaches the pipe to the vibra-mount.

My idea here was to remove some of the material so I could change the position of the air filter a little. I just needed it to move it about an 1-1/2" inwards to clear the fog light mount. I started by removing a little off the parts at a time.

the hose was shortened easily by some kitchen shears.

I changed the vibramount attachment point by drilling a hole then used a dremel with cut off disk to cut out the rest. I had to use a mask and eye goggles when using the dremel. Then I had to wash off the part because it got covered in aluminum dust.

my dremel with cut off disk.

after test fitting everything the first time I still needed to remove material.
another 3/4'th inch came off the other end of the silicone tube.

further hacking away at the mount.

here's the total I ended up taking off the mount. I lengthened the notch to almost 2 1/2" from the end. I then had to cut off some from the ends for clearance.

total removed from silicone tube. approx 3/4" from top part and 1/2" plus 3/4" from the bottom or 1-1/4" from the bottom. I suppose it would work just as well to just remove 1" from each end.

after doing this I had clearance with the air filter. I sorta looks like its touching the other side in this pic but its not.

I went though all the trouble to do it because I was becoming paranoid that vibrations from the air filter touching the fog light mount would eventually lead to the clamps coming loose. But it appears to me that the filter is becoming wet from hood gap drip. that really needs to be fixed in some way.

[A Psycho Martyr]

Nice clean work man
Good job

[vibedrivermatt]

Well doing that did give me some piece of mind but unfortunately not enough. Having this CAI has got me too worried about having problems with water getting into it. Since I've learned that the filter can become wet after doing a car a wash, I've had a hard time justifying having this on the car. It's been removed today. Think I'll stick with my OEM intake for a little longer until I figure out what to do with this.

intead I'll be using the K&N drop in filter just got this it appears very high quality.

I've heard of a few crazy ways to free up air flow in my stock intake and make it the slightest bit louder so here's what I did.

I removed the silencer tank and plugged it with a cap that I got from the plumbing section of the hardware store. I tested this out to make sure the cap had an airtight seal.

I had this awesome hot pink duct tape that I thought would be good for securing the plumbing cap to the tube. Plus this awesome color adds hp instantly!

next I removed the charcoal filter that was in my stock air box. I've seen others do this and its supposed to free up airflow. This is held in with plastic welded rivets that I had to drill holes through to remove the filter. Then I had to make sure there were no loose plastic bits hanging on in the air box. This is a permanent alteration to this part. ohh my!

I didn't really think doing this through 100% soo it might have been stupid!!

All finished! I feel better knowing my car wont be able to suck up water anymore. It just doesn't sound cool like it did the the CAI. doh

EDIT winter!!!!
I didn't quite think this was cool enough to bump my thread to the top of the list but still wanted to show it.

Well it turns out my method of using the pink duct tape to secure the plumbing cap was not a foolproof one. Upon a recent inspection of the plumbing cap I realized it was able to move around and twist pretty easily. Perhaps the colder winter months have caused the rubber intake tube to shrink a bit allowing the cap to become a little loose. Any after discovering this I had fix it so there wouldn't be any chance of my engine running on unfiltered air

I also nixed the pink duct tape in favor of a much more toned down spray painted black plumbing cap. Although I still did think the pink duct tape was cool while I had it.

thats better!

[vibenvy]

Matt, you crack me up ! So, are you wishing now that you had just gone with the K&N short ram like the rest of us, that way you'd have the great intake sound without having to worry about hydrolock ?

[vibedrivermatt]

Quote, originally posted by J_TO_ENVY »

Matt, you crack me up ! So, are you wishing now that you had just gone with the K&N short ram like the rest of us, that way you'd have the great intake sound without having to worry about hydrolock ?

Well maybe a little bit yes. I would like to try the short ram style and see how it works with the car for myself. On the other hand I still think it will be fun to mess with the stock intake a bit more. We'll see how my intake ends up in the future.

[vibenvy]

Well, I definitely enjoy seeing what new things you come up with. You have been one of, if not the most, innovative '09-'10 Vibe owners as far as not being afraid to try new and uncharted mods. I look forward to what other factory air box mods you will come up with in the future ! Keep it up Matt !

[ou.grizzly]

Matt,

There is a thread floating around here where a member purchased a Injen CAI for a 2003 Vibe and ended up cutting it down and using a silicone sleeve or elbow (like you have in the picture) to create a Short Ram CAI.

[A Psycho Martyr]

peace of mind is most inportant!

same reason i'm going with cai

[Dushibagels]

hey nice info you have. I'm trying a few things with my intake system as well. I don't want to pay a huge markup for a piece of hose and a filter.
Can you just take your CAI and cut off about 4 inches after the mass air flow sensor and couple on the cone style filter? Is there enough room where the stock box is?
So far I have just removed my huge hose section which is what I thought was the silencer. I bought some random parts from autozone and I'm trying to make a cone short ram from all my other parts.
I used to have an 03 focus zx3. I had a short ram with no problems then went to a CAI and had massive problems with water. I then cut the CAI down back into a shortram setup with no issues.
I just want it the awesome sound of a free flowing intake!!!!

[Dushibagels]

Oh I just saw someone already posted the cutting down of the cai to short ram, sorry for the same info

[Mariachi]

i know im way late on posting but nice job on this thread!

why not get the water by pass and just install it on the intake? You do have to cut up one of the aluminum pieces but its definitely worth it. They also have covers to protect from water coming in to your intake through the filter.

I have the Injen CAI and haven't had a problem with it at all.

[vibedrivermatt]

i know im way late on posting but nice job on this thread!

why not get the water by pass and just install it on the intake? You do have to cut up one of the aluminum pieces but its definitely worth it. They also have covers to protect from water coming in to your intake through the filter.

I have the Injen CAI and haven't had a problem with it at all.

oh thanks. yea, I decided stop using the Injen intake. Im sure it may be fine but lately Im just happier with the stock intake. Im still looking for somebody to sell that thing to. So anybody who wants it feel free to hit me with an IM.

I haven't done anything cool at all with the vib in a while but I got some fancy new lugnuts..

The guy at car quest helped me find these. I needed new ones because the last time I changed my wheels I broke maybe 7 of the lugnuts off. My original lugnuts were pretty rusty. Since then all lugnut studs have been replaced. I didnt really feel like taking pics when doing that job.

I want to use some hopefully better lugnuts so I wont have such a problem with rust in the future.

seeing as I no longer want to use my wheel covers I opted to get some cool looking lugnets. I took a bunch of pics when changing my wheels today so people could see how they look... also because I was bored.



these dorman lugnuts are made in china. I was a bit disappointed over this because when I got new dorman lugnut studs, they came in a similar orange box but those were made in USA.





when installing these I found they are not all exactly the same size. For whatever reason the little nub part seemed to be taller on some of the lugnuts. I needed to use a deeper socket to fit around those.



these tires are not appropriate at all for driving in snow.



these tires are not much better. I still have my origianl RSA with about 32,000 miles on them. Perhaps the next cool thing to vibe will be winter tires. That also took longer than I thought it would.