Hyundai Accent Tuning

"Tuning guide to the most effective Hyundai Accent modifications."

The Accent is a good car tuning project to do. The key to Accent tuning is getting the right mods - a lot of money can be wasted if you do it wrong.

We review Accent tuning and summarise the optimum modifications for your car. Hyundai Accents are fantastic to work on and with carefully chosen sports tuning mods you can definitely improve your driving experience.

Tuning tips and articles

Engine tuning Transmission tuning Care care Intake & exhaust mods Improve handling Forums

 

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many Accent owners uprate the handling of their cars with performance suspension kits as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

If you set the toe out to 1-1.7 degrees on the front, and add some negative camber then cornering will greatly improve.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 30mm - 40 mm. and fit sports stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Don't just look at the peak power figures, you need to see the whole torque curve when determining if a mod is right for you Accent.

Spending a little money on the top engine and handling parts could transform your car into a high performance car.

Smaller engines do not provide much of a return in terms of power so start with a bigger engine. Engine swaps are a good option if you have a small engine size.

Engine Tuning.

This list of the stages and upgrades are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you want to push your car before you start.

First generation (X3 1994–1999)

  • 1.3 L G4EH SOHC 12V I4 (petrol)
  • 1.5 L G4EK SOHC 12V I4 (petrol)
  • 1.5 L G4FK DOHC 16V I4 (petrol)
  • 1.6 L G4ED DOHC 16V I4 (petrol) (104 hp) (China)

Second generation (LC 1999–2005)

  • 1.3 L "Alpha" I4 (gasoline)
  • 1.5 L Alpha i4 (gasoline)
  • 1.6 L Alpha i4 (gasoline)
  • 1.5 L CRDi (RA 325) I3 (diesel)

Third generation (MC 2005–2011)

  • 1.4 L Alpha I4 (petrol)
  • 1.6 L Alpha i4 (petrol)
  • 1.5 L i4 (diesel)

Fourth generation (RB 2010–2018)

Petrol engines:

  • 1.4 L Gamma I4
  • 1.4 L Kappa I4
  • 1.6 L Gamma I4
  • 1.6 L Gamma II I4

Diesel engines:

  • 1.4 L U-Line I4
  • 1.6 L U-Line I4

Fifth generation (HC 2017–present)

  • 1.4 L Kappa I4 (petrol)
  • 1.6 L Gamma I4 (petrol)
  • 1.4 L U-Line I4 (diesel)
  • 1.6 L U-Line I4 (diesel)

Getting the right uprated modifications for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 competition upgrades just won't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your car. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best mods for your Accent

  1. Braking Mods - Enhancing your stopping power should be listed in your priority list.
  2. Forced induction upgrades - Adding a turbocharger is the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. Typically one of the most costly upgrades it offers big gains.
  3. Fast road Camshafts are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they are doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
  4. Engine Tunes - A Remapped Accent ECU provides the most advantage for the money, aftermarket ECU upgrades, and Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
  5. Internal engine mods - crank, pistons, conrods & compression ratio including balancing and blueprinting
  6. Accent Handling Mods (suspension) - Fitting a more sporty Suspension kit greatly enhances your Accent road holding and cornering. Poly Bushes and Coilovers are typically fitted to achieve this
  7. Air Induction and Performance Exhausts - NB: on their own these mods will NOT ADD POWER in most cases, but they can help enhance power after other mods by removing the restriction.

Accent Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Remap, Suspension upgrade (drop 30mm - 40 mm.), Panel air filter, Alloy wheels, Lighter flywheel, Sports exhaust.

Typical stage 2 mods often include: high flow fuel injector, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, Ported and polished head, Power/Sport clutch.

Typical stage 3 mods often include: Sports gearbox, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger), Engine balancing, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Competition cam.

Your targets when tuning should be a wide torque curve. You want to avoid sending all the torque to be at the top end unless you are creating a motor sport car.

In this article we shall give a brief overview to the best performance parts for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance modification.A fast road cam typically is one of the best NASP power modifications you can do mechanically to your engine.

The exhaust & intake valve durations play a big role in your cars power band, but be careful here, getting this wrong can upset the idle and make the car hard to drive in traffic. You'd need to follow a cam upgrade with other mods and finish with a performance chip for the best performance gains.

You will need to ensure that the engine is not starved of fuel so will need to increase the fuelling.

Using higher octane petrol is another option if you find you are suffering from pinking or premature ignition on your Hyundai project after fitting other modified upgrades. Upgrading the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned Accent's uprated injectors.

Accent Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Breathing mods are usually next up. Please note that WE DO NOT FEEL YOU GET POWER GAINS FROM INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car extensively and are finding that the standard air intake has become a limitation.

Maximum power gains come from a full induction kit with a cold air feed on heavily tuned engines, this can be sited within an air box but a performance panel filter should suffice for most applications. TorqueCars suggest you use a panel air filter as these are easy to clean and maintain and generally perform better than paper ones.

Do not go with the widest exhaust you can buy this will slow the exhaust rate - the best exhausts for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Getting a professionally flowed (ported and polished) head with larger valves can fully release the engines power. A good multi plate fast road uprated clutch will help to keep that power going where it should. Never make false economies or ask the standard OEM clutch to cope. The best mods in our opinion for your Accent are a tune/remap especially on a turbo, a fast road camshaft and sports exhaust, with a good air intake.

NA (naturally aspirated) engines do not achieve big power gains if you tune/remap them, unless you have done extensive modifications. With turbocharged engines this is another story.

The most significant power gains for NA (naturally aspirated) engines usually involve the addition of forced induction. Turbos are often harder to add than a supercharger. Turbos provide boost in increasing proportion to th engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them simpler to map. Decreasing the engines compression ratio will allow you to add forced induction, water injection may also help prevent detonation.

Alloy wheel upgrades for the Hyundai Accent.

The benefits of alloys include lowering your unsprung weight and more efficient brake cooling. Don't forget that your choice of rubber greatly affects your cars grip and handling.

It is not worth compromising performance with cheap tyres when you can buy directional tread pattern performance tires.The downside to large rims on your Accent is that you alter your final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on performance.

Although some people have with bigger wheels without issues we would stick to a 17 inch rim size as the maximum.

If you would like to know more, or just get some friendly advice on Tuning your car please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss Accent options in more detail with our Accent owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Hyundai tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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