Hyundai i10 Tuning

"Thank you for reading my i10 tuning guide."

Released in 2007 a replacement for the Atos was announced and the i10 was launched. It  met with very positive reviews and won many awards including car of the year in 2014.

It has proven popular with millenials and we get asked about mods and upgrades for this fun car all the time so i've put together this guide to tuning the i10 and the mods you find work best on the engines offered.

The i10 is popular among our members for tuning projects We see many tuners wasting money on their i10 doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our tips to avoid making the common mistakes

Please watch our video which covers the 5 principles of tuning your i10. Be sure to keep up with our latest YouTube content and subscribe.

Best mods for your i10

1. Remaps - A Remapped i10 ECU provides the most power in terms of cost, replacement ECUs, and inline Tuning boxes are all alternatives.
2. Fast road cams are generally the biggest mechanical mod upgrade, but they must be fitted 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.
3. i10 Handling Mods (suspension) - Upgrading your suspension radically improves your i10 handling Coilovers and Bushings are the usual go to mods
4. Brake Mods - Enhancing your stopping power ought to be listed in your priority list.
5. Flowing and porting the engine head - for larger gains, you will get better flow and make a more efficient engine if you do this to support your other mods.
6. Intake Upgrades and Sports Exhausts - Please note that 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.

i10 Tuning Stages

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

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

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

i10 Handling/Suspension Upgrades

The i10 owners initial responsibility is generally to handle suspension improvements. On most models, we would go with a maximum drop of 30mm. If you go lower than this, you risk your tyres rubbing against the arches.

Improving the handling of i10 owners is often the first goal in your automobile tuning project, but we see the same errors repeated again and again.

So, if your car is also used on a regular basis, what factors must you consider while setting up and choosing your suspension?

Upgrades to bushings

Bushes are a rotatable rubber mount that allows the i10 suspension components to connect to and spin around the car's chassis. The rubber ones will deteriorate over time.

Custom bushes & suspension upgrades

A new set of OEM rubber bushings may significantly enhance your vehicle's handling.

New polyurethane bushes last longer and keep the handling much tighter, albeit they may make the ride a little bumpier since they are harder.

Because of the increased vibration and play, they may also exacerbate the depreciation of other suspension components.

A new set of poly bushes will enhance the handling of your vehicle by reducing the excessive play associated with rubber bushes.

Most aftermarket suspension bushing kits include a full set of suspension bushes, however rarer vehicles and older models may just have the primary bushes available in polyurethane.

Common misconceptions

Purchasing a non-adjustable suspension system that lowers the car by 30mm from a local component store and expecting it to be the optimal configuration is a typical misunderstanding.

Most i10 suspension kits are quite general, and dealers may claim that they can be put on any or all types of a vehicle.

The one-size-fits-all approach is incorrect since different engine weights, wheel sizes, and vehicle weights need different suspension characteristics.

Remember that speed bumps will grasp the sump and tear off the bottom of the engine as well as the bulk of the front skirt instead of slowing down a lowered car. Lower isn't necessarily better for handling.

According to TorqueCars, most road cars should not be lowered more than 35mm, while hot hatches with upgraded suspension should only be dropped 30mm.

If you changed the wheel size, these tolerances may be much lower. A car with standard suspension and 17" rims would be OK, but lowering it would cause a plethora of problems.

The objective should always be to improve handling, and since the car is lower, less air passes under it, which may help with stability. It is critical to note that lower springs should be utilised in conjunction with matched shocks.

Consider the shape and alignment of your i10 suspension

Setting a little negative camber on the fronts and 1 to 1.7 degrees of toe in to increase stability or toe out to aid cornering may typically assist your Fit's handling and cornering.

Drop the vehicle by up to 27mm - 36mm and install racing grade firmer dampers; larger drops will need extra modifications in most cases.

We found that most i10 factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, (0.8 to 1.3) and some negative camber will dramatically improve your cornering and handling.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 24mm - 38 mm and fit motorsport grade stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

i10 Engine Tuning.

Turning our attention to the i10's engine we need to get a bit more power out of the top end.

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.

These mods modified parts are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you get started.

Getting the correct grade of performance mods for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 (competition) mods just won't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

• 1.0 L Kappa II I3 (petrol)
• 1.1 L Epsilon i4 (petrol)
• 1.2 L Kappa i4 (petrol)
• 1.1 L U-Line I3 (diesel)

From 2013 the lineup was revised

• 1.0 L Kappa  II I3 (petrol)
• 1.0 L Kappa II I3 (petrol/LPG)
• 1.2 L Kappa II i4 (petrol)
• 1.1 L U-Line I3 (diesel)

Then the i10 was revised in 2019 initially with just 2 engine choices, it boasts a longer wheelbase, and lots of tech options.

• 1.0-litre three-cylinder 66bhp
• 1.2-litre four-cylinder 83bhp
• There will also be a zippy 3 cylinder turbo and an N performance model added later in the models lifespan

Peak power is good on competition cars but for a daily driven car you need a long power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

The whole aim of our tips is to give a starting base of tuning modifications and point you in the right direction, our forum is where you can ask for more detailed advice and tips on your customized car project, the best performance kits and all aspects of modding cars.

i10 Fast Road Camshafts

A fast road camshaft proves to be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do mechanically to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust flow and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a reflashed ECU.

TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

i10 Fuelling upgrades

Don't forget to uprate the fuelling when you are increasing the power - it makes the car more thirsty.

If you find you get flat spots and surges after your motorsport upgrades you should check the fuelling and try a higher octane fuel as well. Uprated injectors will enable you to supply sufficient fuel to the engine. Uprate the fuel pump to cope with the extra fuel requirements of your tuned i10s uprated injectors.

i10 Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Contrary to popular belief there is generally a small power gain to be had by fitting an induction kit, they only help and are recommended after you increase the engines power to the point where the standard air intake box cannot cope! Induction kits can work well on turbo engines and larger engines (if supplied with a suitable cold air feed or air box), generally though we'd just recommend for i10 engines you should go with a high performance panel air filter preferably made from cotton.

Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find this will reduce the exhaust flow 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.

Gas flowing the head will allow you to maximise your air/fuel charge. Leave this to a professional though with a proper flow bench and machine tools When you start tuning your i10 you will often find that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch.

Turbo engines are just pleading to be remapped. You will see significant power gains on most modern turbochaged cars including diesels making a tune/remap one of the most cost effective and significant modifications for your money.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains.

Turbos are generally harder to add than a supercharger. With a turbo the power curve is related exponentially to the engine speed making it difficult to map fuelling with.

The nice directly proportional 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.

Because alloys are less heavy they improve performance and they will help to cool the brake disks.

Please note although they can look cool on the i10 big alloys will actually decrease your performance. The larger you go the lower your acceleration will be - this to the change in your effective final drive ratio.

For this reason aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the recommended OEM sizes. In all cases without going bigger than 16 inches.

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 i10 options in more detail with our i10 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.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below. We love hearing about our website visitors projects, especially the mods done and which work best for you on your car. Which helps us keep our guides and tips up to date helping others with their modified car projects. Your feedback and comments are used to keep this page up to date, and help improve the accuracy of these articles which are kept updated and constantly revised.

If you've enjoyed this page we would be very grateful if you could share a link to it on your favourite forums or on your social media profiles, it helps us keep going.

This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Hyundai. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

If you liked this page please share it with your friends, drop a link to it in your favourite forum or use the bookmarking options to save it to your social media profile.

Please watch this video and subscribe to my YouTube channel.