Hyundai Tucson Tuning

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The Tucson is a brilliant car modification project to execute. We see loads of people wasting money on their Tucson doing the wrong mods and then having to start over. Follow our articles to avoid making the common mistakes

We look into Tucson tuning and point out the ultimate upgrades. Hyundai Tucsons offer good returns when tuned and with the right mods you can greatly enhance your driving pleasure.

Tuning modifications.

These mods performance mods are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get started.

Getting the right motorsport upgrades for your planned usage of the car is a time and money saver. Stage 3 motor sport mods just don't work well on the road making the car difficult to drive.

First generation (2004–2009) engines

• 2.0 L Beta II G4GF I4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L"Beta II G4GC"i4 (petrol)
• 2.7 L Delta G6BA V6 (petrol)
• 2.0 L R-Line D4EA CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)

Second generation (2009–2015) engines

• 1.6 L Gamma G4FD GDI Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Theta II G4KD MPi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Nu MPi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.4 L Theta II Inline 4 (petrol)
• 1.7 L U-Line D4FD CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)
• 2.0 L R-Line D4HA CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)

Third generation (2015–present) engines

• 1.6 L Gamma G4FD GDi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Theta II G4KD MPi Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.0 L Nu Inline 4 (petrol)
• 2.4 L Theta II Inline 4 (petrol)
• 1.7 L U-Line D4FD CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)(pre facelift)
• 1.6L U-Line D4FD CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)(facelift)
• 2.0 L R-Line D4HA CRDi Inline 4 (diesel)

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 Tucson

1. Tucson Suspension Upgrades - Fitting a more sporty Suspension kit radically improves your Tucson handling Coilovers and Bushings are the usual go to mods
2. ECU Tunes - Tucson engine tuning/remapping provides the biggest gains for the money, replacement ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
3. 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.
4. Turbo upgrades - forced induction 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.
5. Internal engine mods - crank, pistons, conrods & compression ratio including balancing and blueprinting
6. Air Induction and Exhaust - 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.
7. Brake Upgrades - Improve your ability to stop ought to be high on your agenda.

Tucson Tuning Stages

Typical stage 1 mods often include: Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 21mm - 37 mm.), Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Engine Tunes/Remapping, Alloy wheels.

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

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

You really need to keep as much low end torque as possible and aim to achieve a long power band across the rev range rather than a narrow top end power hike.

The whole aim of our articles is to give a limited introduction of modifying performance parts and point you in the right direction, our forum is best place to go if you need more detailed advice and tips on your modified car project, the best uprated parts and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road cam will be one of the best NASP power modifications you can do with a single part fitted to your engine.

It improves the intake and exhaust durations and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a reflashed ECU. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sports profile cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

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

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after sports parts are done can usually be traced to fuel delivery or timing issues. To get sufficient fuel you may need to upgrade the injectors on your engine.

If have increased your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

The next area for modification is the intake and exhaust. Please note that WE DO NOT FEEL YOU GET POWER GAINS FROM INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car massively 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 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.

Sports exhausts can help increase the flow of air through the engine. But if your exhaust is too large, ie: it's over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose a lot of your flow rate and end up lacking power and torque.

Getting the cylinder head ported and polished will allow you to get more air into each cylinder. This is definitely a job for a professional with a flow bench. In nearly all cases of Tucson tuning your clutch will start to suffer and this needs to be uprated - read our tips on clutches for more information. The best mods we would do for your Tucson are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

Remaps offer big power gains on all turbo charged cars. On NA (naturally aspirated) engines the benefits are doubtful. However a tuned/remapped ECU on a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will help unleash the potential if you have done a lot of mods. Adding forced induction will see phenomenal power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is usually easier to bolt on a supercharger than it is to install a turbo. Turbos give boost in exponential proportion to increasing engine speed and this can make mapping difficult.

It is more straightforward to map a supercharger because the boost is correlating to engine speed on a linear curve. Alternatively you could add water injection to minimise knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brakes cool down and are generally less heavy than steel ones. Pay attention to your choice of tyres (tires) for your car, a good directional tread pattern tire can really enhance your cars handling. The drawback to large alloys on your Tucson is that you're changing your final drive ratio and this will have a detrimental effect on acceleration.

With this in mind aim to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the same as supplied from the factory. In all cases avoid going larger than 18 inches.

Tucson Handling/Suspension upgrades

Many Tucson owners uprate the handling of their cars with tuning suspension modifications as a priority, this will certainly increase your enjoyment of the car.

We found that most Tucson factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out for cornering or toe in for stability, 1-1.7, and some negative camber will radically benefit your cornering and handling.

We suggest that you fit motorsport suspension and lower the car by 21mm - 37 mm. Larger drops require arch work - especially on models already equipped with uprated suspension.

Bushing upgrades are needed so what's involved?

Bushes, which are rubber mounts that spin, allow the Tucson's suspension components to be connected and rotated around the car's chassis. The rubber ones will degrade with time.

New OEM rubber bushings may have a major impact on the performance of your vehicle.

Because the polyurethane bushes are firmer, the ride may be a bit less forgiving, but they will last longer and maintain the handling.

They may also hasten the depreciation of other suspension components due to the increased vibration and play.

A new set of poly bushes might help to lessen the excessive play associated with rubber bushes.

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 Tucson.

The best power gains come from larger engine sizes. The more you start with the bigger the return on investment so engine swaps are good value mods for small engined cars.

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 Tucson options in more detail with our Tucson 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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