Suzuki SX4 Tuning

"Thanks for reading our Suzuki SX4 tuning tips."

The Suzuki SX4, a versatile and dynamic fun car, has captured the attention of car enthusiasts worldwide. Known for its compact size and reliable performance, the SX4 serves as an excellent platform for tuning and performance upgrades.

Introduced in the mid-2000s, the SX4 blends the practicality of a hatchback with the spirited performance of a sporty hatchback car, making it a prime candidate for modifications.

It really stands almost in a class of it's own, and has a well deserved following.

In the world of car tuning, two upgrades stand out for the Suzuki SX4: the aftermarket ECU and throttle bodies.

These modifications are essential for drivers looking to unlock the full potential of their SX4. Let's delve into these upgrades and explore how they can elevate the performance of your Suzuki SX4.

We examine SX4 tuning and summarise the best modifications. Suzuki SX4s are good project cars and with the ultimate uprated tuning mods you can definitely maximize your driving pleasure.

Tuning tips and articles

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

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are often a priority for the SX4 and it makes sense to maximize handling so you can enjoy your performance and power mods, which I'll move onto later in this article.

When selecting a suspension upgrade, consider your specific needs and how you use your vehicle.

Whether you're looking for improved road handling, a lower stance, or enhanced ride quality, these brands offer various options to suit different preferences.

  1. Eibach - Eibach is renowned for producing high-quality suspension components that improve vehicle handling and aesthetics. Their suspension kits for the SX4 are designed to lower the car's center of gravity, resulting in better handling and a sportier appearance.
  2. Bilstein - Bilstein is a well-respected name in the suspension industry, known for their durable and high-performance shock absorbers and suspension kits. Their offerings for the SX4 focus on enhancing the vehicle's driving dynamics while maintaining ride comfort.
  3. Evolved Autosport - A range of capable budget friendly kits with plenty of adjustment options including options for ride height, pre load and camber plates.
  4. KW Suspensions - KW offers premium suspension kits that cater to both street and track use. For the SX4, KW's kits are designed to improve handling and stability, with an emphasis on quality and performance.
  5. H&R - H&R produces suspension components that not only improve the handling of the SX4 but also give it a more aggressive stance. Their kits are popular for their balance between performance enhancement and maintaining daily drivability.
  6. Koni - Specializing in adjustable shock absorbers, Koni provides a range of products for the SX4. Their shocks are known for their adjustability, allowing for a personalized suspension setup to match your driving style.
  7. Tein - Tein is a respected brand in the suspension world, offering kits that enhance both the ride quality and handling of the SX4. They are a popular choice among car enthusiasts for their blend of performance and comfort.

Fully adjustable suspension allows you to fine tune the handling of you SX4 substantially improving your drive.

Drop the car optimally somewhere in the region of 28mm - 35 mm and fit performance stiffer dampers, bigger drops will need other modifications in most instances.

Turning our attention to the engine we need to get a bit more torque out of the top end.

Enjoy your SX4 to the full with our best modding guides - do the right mods in the right order.

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.

This list of the stages and motorsport parts are usually carried out by our members, decide how far you wish to go in your tuning project before you begin.

Getting the best uprated upgrades for your planned usage of the car is essential. Stage 3 (competition) mods just don'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. Fast road cams are one of the most significant mechanical changes, but they must be installed by someone who knows what they're doing and they are not always easy to source but you might find a local firm to regrind a stock camshaft.
  3. 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.
  4. Upgrades to turbochargers and superchargers - forced induction is 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.
  5. 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: Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Lighter flywheel, Panel air filter, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm), Remap.

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

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

Aftermarket ECU Upgrade

The Engine Control Unit (ECU) is the brain of your car, overseeing vital functions like fuel injection and ignition timing.

Upgrading to an aftermarket ECU, such as the popular ME221, brings a new level of control and customization to your SX4's engine.

This upgrade allows for fine-tuning of the engine parameters, leading to enhanced performance, improved fuel efficiency, and a more responsive driving experience.

With the ME221 ECU, you can tailor your SX4's engine to suit your driving style, whether it's for daily commuting or spirited weekend drives.

The flexibility and precision offered by an aftermarket ECU make it a top choice for any tuning enthusiast.

Throttle Bodies

Throttle bodies are a key component in managing your engine's air intake.

Upgrading to larger, more efficient throttle bodies on your SX4 can significantly improve airflow, leading to increased horsepower and torque.

This upgrade results in a more responsive throttle and a noticeable improvement in overall engine performance.

When paired with a tuned ECU, upgraded throttle bodies ensure that your SX4's engine operates at peak efficiency, providing a more exhilarating and engaging driving experience.

For those looking to enhance the responsiveness and power of their Suzuki SX4, throttle body upgrades are a must-consider.

Peak power is nice in motorsport but for a drivable and fun car you need a wide power band and perhaps extending the rev range.

The whole point of our guides is to give a limited introduction of car tuning upgrades 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 tuning modifications and all aspects of modding cars.A fast road cam is one of the best NASP power modifications you can do with a single part fitted to your engine.

It maximises the intake and exhaust durations and pushes up the power if done right. Ideally you'd add other mods and finish up with a remap. We'd also caution you not to go with a motor sport cam as this affects the engines idling and general town driving characteristics.

When pushing up the power you will need to uprate to the fuelling. More power needs more fuel.

Frequently power losses, flat spots and erratic idling after uprated upgrades are done can usually be traced to fuelling 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.

Now we move on to the intake and exhaust and ensure proper flow through the engine. Please note that WE DO NOT RECOMMEND INDUCTION KITS, unless you have tuned your car massively and are finding that the standard air intake has become the bottleneck.

Derestricting the air feed into the engine is the primary part of car tuners so get a freer flowing air filter if you find that the car is running lean. Induction kits can sound fun but due to the warm air in the engine bay they will not add noticeable power and often rob you of power on most cars.

Sports exhausts increase the flow of air through the engine. But if the exhaust is too large, ie: over 2.5 inches bore, you will lose much of the exhaust flow rate and end up sapping power and torque.

Head work including a gas flow and 3 or 5 angle valve job will really help to release the potential of the engine. Your clutch can lose you loads of power as you increase the power if it starts to complain and the standard clutches are only ever good for power gains of up to 45%. Fit a competition clutch to avoid power losses through the transmission. The best mods we recommend for your SX4 are aftermarket ECU, high lift "fast road" cam, throttle bodies and air intake and exhaust.

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

We've also seen some tuners playing with twincharged conversions and making some very high power figures.

Adding forced induction will see phenomenal power gains but this is usually too expensive to be cost effective. It is generally cheaper to bolt on a supercharger than it is to fit a working turbo. It is harder to map a turbo as the boost comes on exponentially with rpm.

The nice steady boost and rpm characteristics of the supercharger make them more straight forward to map. Alternatively you could add water injection to cut down knock.

Alloy wheel upgrades.

Alloy wheels can help the brake cooling and are usually lighter than steel ones. If you are serious about performance then you will need to carefully choose your tires - ideally with a directional tread pattern tire. The downside to large alloys on your SX4 is that you're altering your effective final drive ratio and this will have a negative effect on performance.

Although some people have installed larger rims without issues we would restrict ourselves to a 16 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 SX4 options in more detail with our SX4 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.

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.

Please Check out my YouTube channel, we're regularly adding new content...

PLEASE HELP: I NEED YOUR DONATIONS TO COVER THE COSTS OF RUNNING THIS SITE AND KEEP IT RUNNING. I do not charge you to access this website and it saves most TorqueCars readers $100's each year - but we are NON PROFIT and not even covering our costs. To keep us running PLEASE Donate here

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.

Feedback - What do You Think?

Please use our forums if you wish to ask a tuning question, and please note we do not sell parts or services, we are just an online magazine.

Help us improve, leave a suggestion or tip

Your Constructive comments on this article, I really want to improve this article with your help and suggestions.


Please watch this video and subscribe to my YouTube channel.



Member Benefits

Join our forum today and benefit from over 300,000 posts on tuning styling and friendly car banter.

You will also have full access to the modifed car gallery, project car updates and exclusive member only areas.

(All car owners of all ages and from all countries are welcome).


BMW 335i - 2021 COTY

We gave the BMW 335i our coveted car of the year award, read more about this awesome car and see why 335i Tuning Guide

Tips for N54 Tuning

Tips for N55 Tuning
Tips for B58 Tuning

Popular articles

Diesel Tuning
Remapping ECU
double de clutch
Induction Kits
Customize a car
Chip tuning
Modified Car insurance
Track day insurance cover
Diesel Remaps
MPG Calculator
Unblock a DPF
Tuning Stages


Engine Balancing

Engine Balancing – balancing pistons, rods and crank.
Read more...

Diesel Hot Hatch

Diesels? On Torquecars, Really?
Read more...

Scratch Removal

Scratch removal
Read more...

Car Styles

Definitions of car styling looks
Read more...

Why Diesel Economical

Why Diesels Are More Economical
Read more...

Supercharger Kits

Aftermarket supercharger and turbo kits for Audi, Mercedes and BMW
Read more...

MPG Calculator

MPG calculator UK miles per Gallon – calculate MPG
Read more...