GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

i just got a 2009 base with only 30000km on it the 1.8 seems a little lagy off the line
anyone have any not too expensive upgrades to give it more pep
been looking trough the site but cant seem to find anything for the 2009 1.8

Intake Header Exhaust is the cheapest path but don't expect 20hp out of them. Don't buy Throttlebody spacers, chips or "tornados" they are useless. Only way for real power gains is Turbo and that will run $2.5K or more.

any idea where i can find intake at a good price all i can find is 350$+ and can't seem to find headers at all for the 1.8

Not too many 2009-2010 1.8L owners here and even less who have done any performance modifications. K&N makes a short ram air intake that will work. My mom and I both have K&N SRIs on our 2009 Vibe GTs and have been very happy with them. I'm sure the one for the 1.8L would be just as good. I also have a Magnaflow catback exhaust system on mine. Unfortunately Magnaflow doesn’t make a direct fit system for the 2009-2010 1.8L Base Vibe / Matrix, but you should be able to find an exhaust shop near you that could fabricate a custom setup for you for a reasonable price. Hott Exhaust is a great place to get Magnaflow products. Their prices are unbeatable, they offer free shipping to the US and Canada and there’s a link on their homepage to message them for discount codes. Click the link, tell them what product/s you’re interested in and they’ll send you a discount code to save you even more money.

If you haven’t already, I would highly recommend checking out Matrix Owners. From what I have seen, there are a lot more 2009+ 1.8L owners over there who have modified their vehicles and should be able to provide even more information for you. Keep us updated on any modifications you end up doing to your Vibe and be sure to make a post in the Vibe Lounge introducing yourself and your Vibe. Also, be sure to add some pictures of your Vibe because we love pictures around here !

P.S. I know you're wanting inexpensive modification ideas, but if you happen to win the lottery or something you could always turbocharge your Vibe !

Also being a base '09 owner there are no inexpensive upgrades and nothing that is 100% bolt-on that is of any real value. To get rid of the throttle lag I installed a P'n'P DBW signal modifier to removed the digital lag in the electronic pedal assy. Thottle is more linear like an old school cable linkage. Also if the car had the new design pedal assy installed instead of just modification of the existing pedal assy for the warranty recall there is better throttle response with the new assy. As far as mods go the key things to remember is air velocity from the intake through to the tailpipe. I built my own negative pressure exhaust which creates a natural supercharging effect at anything over 2500rpm. For a CAI I've cobbled together some custom bent pipe and now have using a PRM filter assy because I've have a lot of success making more power and better throttle response with them over a standard cone filter on various car over the years. I've also changed to Brisk pure silver electrode sparkplugs in place of the OE iridium plugs to increase the available spark energy. I'm waiting for free time on my friends dyno to see where the car is at now.