Suzuki SX4 S-Cross Tuning

"Tuning guide to the most effective Suzuki SX4 S-Cross modifications."

The Suzuki SX4 S-Cross presents a versatile crossover that seamlessly combines practicality and style. The Suzuki SX4 S-Cross was produced from 2013 to 2021

With its elevated stance and dynamic design, it captures attention on the road while providing ample interior space for both passengers and cargo.

The S-Cross is known for its efficient performance and available AllGrip all-wheel drive system, making it a capable companion for various driving conditions.

Whether navigating city streets or venturing onto off-road paths, the SX4 S-Cross offers a comfortable and adaptable driving experience, making it a well-rounded choice for those seeking a balanced crossover that suits both urban and adventurous lifestyles.

We examine SX4 S-Cross tuning and summarise the greatest mods that work. Suzuki SX4 S-Cross's provide a fun base for your project and with the ultimate motorsport modifications you can definitely increase your driving fun.

The SX4 S-Cross is a good project car to do. If you do your research then you can create an awesome SX4 S-Cross but don't be fooled there are lots of sports mods out there that will simply not suit it read our unbiased guides first.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Starting with the basics, incorporating upgraded bushings can significantly enhance the vehicle's response by tightening up the suspension setup, leading to a more direct and engaging driving experience.

Those old rubber bushings do wear over time, and create sag and excessive vibration and movement which impairs handling.

Springs and dampers are also crucial components in your modification journey. Upgrading to performance springs can lower the vehicle's center of gravity, reducing body roll during cornering and improving overall stability.

When paired with high-quality dampers, which absorb road imperfections and manage spring motion, the result is a ride that’s both comfortable and poised, even at higher speeds or on challenging terrain. The aim is always to keep the wheels in contact with the ground and stiff setups will often cause more bounce.

Coilovers are a popular choice among enthusiasts looking for the ultimate in handling performance customization.

Offering an all-in-one solution that includes a spring, shock absorber, and sometimes even a camber plate in one unit, coilovers provide unparalleled adjustability.

This adjustability includes ride height, and often damping force and angles, allowing for a highly customized setup tailored to an individual's driving style and the specific demands of the road or track.

More expensive coilover kits offer even more adjustment options, including preload, spring rate, and both high and low-speed damping, with some modern kits providing electronic controls enabling drivers to fine-tune their vehicle’s behavior to perfection.

For those looking to push their Vitara's cornering capabilities further, adjusting the toe and camber settings becomes essential.

Setting the toe out to between 0.9 and 1.5 degrees on the front can drastically improve turn-in response, making the car more agile in corners. Adding some negative camber, where the top of the wheels tilt inward, increases the tire's contact patch during hard cornering, offering enhanced grip and stability.

When lowering a vehicle, a reduction in ride height of 28mm to 36mm is typically recommended for a balance between improved aesthetics and functionality without sacrificing too much in terms of ride quality.

However, it's important to note that going for larger drops may necessitate modifications to the wheel arches.

This is to avoid any rubbing issues that could lead to tire damage or impair driving dynamics.

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 SX4 S-Cross.

To be completely frank and honest, on the more modest engine sizes you are wasting your time spending money on modifications, so if this applies to you get yourself an engine swap then apply the following mods.

Engine tuning mods.

This list of the stages and performance upgrades are usually fitted by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you start.

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

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 Engine Mods for your car

1. Engine Tunes - engine tuning/remapping provides the most advantage in terms of cost savings,  aftermarket ECUs, and piggyback ECUs are all alternatives.
2. Intake and Exhaust - 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.
3. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction mods are the most efficient approach to increase air supply, allowing you to burn more fuel and make more power. It is one of the most costly upgrades but provides the best gains.
4. Head work - The goals of porting and flowing the head are to get air flowing into the engine while removing flow restrictions and turbulence.

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

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

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

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

In this article we shall give your a good starting base to the best modifications for your car, but we'd encourage you to spend some time on the site looking into the details of each type of performance upgrade.

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

It improves the intake and exhaust flow and increases the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a performance chip. TorqueCars would caution you not to go with a competition cam as this upsets the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

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

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after tuning modifications are done can usually be traced to timing or fuelling issues.

Increasing the injectors is another beneficial modification and will deliver sufficient fuel.

If you've uprated your fuelling with bigger injectors you will also need to get a bigger fuel pump to supply it.

Intake and Exhaust Tuning.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Air induction kits are only beneficial to add performance if your air intake is struggling! Adding an induction kit to most standard engines will see NONE OF A LOW END POWER GAIN AT ALL.

If you have heavily modified your engine and it's need for air INCREASES DRAMATICALLY then an induction kit is the answer and will help remove this restriction.

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 generally help improve air flow out of the engine but avoid an exhaust that is too large or you might just stuff your flow rate and make things worse. So generally speaking, keep to a size of 1.5 to 2.5 inches for best results.

Head work including a gas flow (ported and polished) and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. When you heavily modify your SX4 S-Cross you will see that the standard clutch starts to complain so get an uprated clutch. The best mods we would do for your SX4 S-Cross are remaps, sports camshafts and induction improvements.

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. A tuned/remapped turbo will give big power gains and take full advantage of the strength of the block.

We've also come across some owners playing with twincharging applications and making some very high power figures.

Despite the large cost involved adding forced induction to a NA (naturally aspirated) engine will give large power gains. Turbos are often harder to add than a supercharger. It is difficult to map fuelling with a turbo as the boost increases exponentially with revs.

Superchargers, however will give a boost which is proportional to engine speed so is simpler. To cope with forced induction you will usually need to decrease the engine compression ratio .

Alloy wheel upgrades.

As alloy wheels are lighter they improve performance and they will help to cool the brake disks. Further improvements can be made to your cars handling with the addition of directional tread pattern tire. The drawback to large rims on your SX4 S-Cross is that you're changing your effective final drive ratio and this will have a negative effect on performance.

Due to this fact try to keep the overall rolling diameter of the wheel the OEM setup. In all cases avoid going above 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 SX4 S-Cross options in more detail with our SX4 S-Cross owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased Suzuki tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

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