The 6 Worst Car Mods You Can Make

Car modifications can be a great way to personalize your vehicle and make it stand out. However, it's important to think about the modifications you choose to make, as some can have negative impacts on your car's performance and safety.

In this guide, we’ll explore the six worst car mods you can make. From incorrectly used parts to unnecessary and dangerous modifications, these mistakes can cost you time, money, and even your safety on the road. By understanding the potential risks and pitfalls of these car mods, you can make informed decisions about how to customize your vehicle and enjoy all the benefits without costly drawbacks.

Related: Check our our guide on beginner mechanic mistakes for more tips on how to avoid costly modification errors.

1. Deleting Your Muffler

There's really no reason to delete the muffler on your car. If you end up doing a resonator delete, it's fine to install a different type of muffler. However, if you decide against adding something in its place and just remove the muffler altogether, don’t expect any performance benefits! It's been proven that high-performance mufflers flow just as well as having no muffler at all. Plus, the back pressure can even add some horsepower.

At the end of the day, a muffler delete with no resonator just doesn't sound good. It's overly loud for absolutely no performance gain. If you're looking to increase power, focus on getting a high-flow exhaust, and don't just chop off the muffler.

2. Cutting Your Coil Springs

Do not cut your coil springs to lower your car. This is one of the stupidest car mods you can make the mistake of adding. There are some specific springs that are designed to be cut to ride height, but most aren't designed to be cut. Cutting the spring will lower your car, but your ride quality will suffer dramatically because you're messing with the spring rate. There are tons of lowering springs available for every vehicle out there and most are very affordable.

While we're on the topic of springs, don't heat your springs either. I've seen some people that want to lower their car and heat up the spring to make them softer and compress further. You will get that lowered look, but you get zero performance gain and you'll weaken the metal in the spring. That spring will probably snap eventually, making it very dangerous.

If you want to lower your car, buy proper lowering springs and do it right the first time.

3. Using a Torch to Heat a Nitrous Tank

If you're running nitrous on your car, it can be a great way to add horsepower. Nitrous bottles have to be kept at a certain pressure, and to get that pressure you'll need to heat up the bottle. To do this, you should definitely invest in a proper bottle heater. Don't heat it with a torch!

Similar to coil springs, putting a torch on the bottle will heat it up, but it's very dangerous. Localized heat will build a weak spot in a pressurized bottle, which can eventually cause it to explode. If that happens, it'll destroy the whole back end of your vehicle. So, if you're running nitrous and want to increase horsepower, make sure you have a proper electric bottle heater that wraps around the bottle.

4. Modifying Without an Engine Tune

Never heavily modify your car without the appropriate engine tune. Something as straightforward as a cold air kit needs a proper tune to run well. Some people install a supercharger and take it directly to the track with zero adjustments. When you add more pressure, obviously the cylinder head or a head gasket is going to fail.

If you don't have a proper tune, then don't run the part at all. Tuning is a very gray area these days, and a lot of people are shying away from it. There are lots of performance parts that don't require it, but if you're talking about supercharging or nitrous, tuning will be necessary. Don't try to run these parts without a proper tune. All it does is lead to bad car mods that can actively hurt your car in the long run.

5. Adding Too Much Camber

Too much negative camber can be a big problem for your car. It's getting more and more popular to create a heavily cambered look for many performance cars. A small degree of negative camber will work wonders for handling if you have a setup for autocross or road racing. That slight adjustment will make the suspension work better and give you a better contact patch.

However, anything beyond a few degrees of negative camber is dangerous. Adding too much camber effectively shrinks your tire width, giving you less surface grip. Because the tire has less surface area, it makes steering and braking dangerous. In any kind of emerging situation where you have to turn or stop, you're not going to have enough contact to do so. There's no performance value to excessive camber. It's strictly for looks, and it's dangerous. So please don't do it to your car.

6. Modifying Your Car Unevenly

Last on the list is modifying your car unevenly. So many people throw a ton of power in a car and upgrade nothing else. If you're looking to add power to your car and you want to add a blower, nitrous, or turbos for drag racing, then you'll need to upgrade the clutch as well. You should also consider upgrading things like the converter, axles, tires, and suspension. Make sure you're adding power and the parts you need to put that power to the ground reliably.

It's the same for braking and suspension. I've seen plenty of cars that have coilovers and sway bars and everything under the sun, but then they go to the track on the factory all-season tires and complain about how bad the car is running. The solution is to modify your car evenly. Simply adding the small pieces and not looking at the big picture is going to create an expensive mess that's not going to perform the way you want it to.

Related: Not all cars are created equal even in base form. Check out our list of the worst Mustangs of all time to see some of the least impressive base models.

Avoid the Worst Car Mods Ever

Now that you know what mods to avoid for your performance car, you might be wondering what the best mods you can make are. Check out our top Mustang mods guide for a list of parts that will significantly improve your Mustang. If you’re ready to start modding right now, check out our Mustang parts page for everything you need to get the most out of your Mustang.

Source: DPC Cars | Image Credit: https://www.dpccars.com/blog/mustang-explodes-into-fire-at-the-drag-races-video/