There are many people out there that have minivans and many others that do not. But I know myself for one person who did not want to have a van. Until my wife talked me into us getting our Town and Country.
The Town and Country changed my outlook on minivans. Many people are noticing that the iconic van is now evolving into something better.
Adding another sliding door with all the bells and whistles to the vehicle. Even so, the vehicle can always get better and be a better fit for my family.
We enjoy doing a lot as a family from weekend road trips to driving to the movies; we expect a lot from our vehicle. We have a 2014 Chrysler Town and Country, so these mods are based around that model.
Although there will be a similar modification for the other year’s as well for this model. So enough talking about it, let’s get down to business.
Air
With the Town and Country, we are looking at increasing the cold air that our engine is receiving. By doing this, we will increase the power that we are receiving, and it should increase our fuel economy by a small increment.
Cold air is ideal for your vehicle; due to cold air having more mass, it takes up more room this giving your engine more air to feed off. Your Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor will notice the more air, and it is colder as well, so the sensor will adjust the fuel ratio.
Brakes
Brakes are one thing that I have noticed on our van that when going up and down the mountains, the brakes will start to heat up. So the brakes were a priority to get changed over to something better for our needs.
I found a great set of drilled and slotted rotors with ceramic pads on Amazon for a great price, here is the link so you can check the up to date 
price.
With the rotors they will get more air sent directly to them with the drill holes then the slotted portion will clean off the layer of brake dust that accumulates during breaking.
Doing this will decrease the amount of brake fade that your brakes could fall victim to, this dust increases friction. Which friction is what we want but not too much of it. Too much resistance will increase heat and can damage your brake components if not observed.
The drilled and slotted spots on the new rotors will lower the brake temperature and allow brake dust to escape, giving your brakes a new fresh place to bite on and slow down your vehicle.
With the new drilled and slotted rotors, the braking power in wet conditions is increased as well, which is a relief since it is our family vehicle.
Tires
Power means nothing if your tires are junk. If you can’t put any of that power to the road, what is the purpose of the mods? Also just because you have the best brakes in the industry does not mean you won’t hit the car in front of you, if you have bald tires.
So tires are just as crucial to your vehicle as the engine itself. So think about when you usually drive, what is the weather? Do you drive in a lot of different seasons?
I hate changing tires, so I went with all-season tires for our van, this would give us an excellent all-around tire that we could leave on the van year-round. But you can’t do that in all cases because there are bad winters in some places that need winter tires.
We live in Virginia, so I am not too worried about that, and when we do get a lot of snow, I am in my company truck, and my wife doesn’t leave the house.
So it works for us, but your situation could be different. So consider that when picking the right tires for you.
Prevent yourself from being stranded on the highway with an overheated vehicle. Here’s my article on How often should I replace my car’s thermostat?
Fuel
Now I am not talking about changing your fuel at the gas pump. I am talking about increasing the efficiency of your fuel being put into the engine to burn. So with our fuel mod, we are going to get the high flow fuel filter and injectors.
This is going to ensure we have a clean burn by filtering out any contaminants then increase our spray as well. I am still looking for performance injectors, but the filter with an excellent ECU tuning will do wonders for the Town and Country acceleration.
Have you ever wondered why your acceleration is slower with the Eco-friendly button pushed? The eco-friendly option that many vehicle manufacturers have started to put into the vehicles is a way to slow down fuel consumption to increase mileage.
The way the computer does this is by slowing down acceleration and speeding up the shift timing. At lower gears, your vehicle uses more fuel, and at fast acceleration, your engine will guzzle the fuel down.
Performance Chip
As I just brought up, adjusting the fuel to air ratio will do wonders for the vehicle’s power output. Most performance chips or programmers are plug and play, so you don’t have to graduate with a master’s degree to operate the programmer.
Older chips would swap all the info on your computer with upgraded tuning from the programmer. If you wanted to switch back, you would have
to plug the vehicle back in and swap the info again.
Companies are changing the way the vehicle is tuned, so it is more of an “on the fly” type of function. You can see this with new modules where it will save, fuel-saving, performance, or towing.
There are countless variants that the company can put the module, but a great thing is knowing the aftermarket parts companies are listening to what people want and making a product that will do just that.
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Tint
The tint is probably the trickiest mod of them all just because there are laws set in each state that gives you the rules on tint in your state. I would suggest for you to look at this page and see what the laws in your state are, to prevent any additional fines given to you by a friendly police officer.
Sound
There is one thing I love more than a finely tuned automobile, and that is a vehicle that has a sweet sound inside. I love making my atmosphere when I drive, and since I drive most of my work week, I need something to listen to.
I don’t want heavy-hitting subwoofers but more of an all-around balanced sound. This way, my family can have a balanced sound system for everyone’s music, not just a specific type of music.
By not having subwoofers in the vehicle, I will also be saving on weight, but it is still a minivan, so that doesn’t mean much. It does give us more room to pack our luggage.
Exhaust
It is a minivan, so I am not looking for a loud sounding exhaust. The key with the exhaust is to get a nice performance exhaust for the exhaust flow and increase to horsepower.
But don’t get something that makes it insanely loud if you want that you should get a muscle car. I had a 2nd generation Hayabusa and my wife, and I loved riding together, but on a long ride, I guarantee you will get tired of hearing the exhaust roaring for hours by you.
The only downside about this mod is that many companies do not think you will upgrade the exhaust, so they do not make an upgrade option for this vehicle.
That does not stop you, though from getting it done. The option you have is to get a custom exhaust made for your vehicle at a muffler shop. It will change your power output and your sound, it just won’t have a fancy badge put on it from a car company.
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Roof Rack
This is an excellent addition if you travel as much as my family does. This option will make fastening down your load so much easier because you won’t just have the sides to secure the load.
You will be able to secure your load on all four sides of the roof rack, and it will look good while you have it on the vehicle as well.
Lights
To go fast and look good doing it we have to know where we are going. Lights can change the whole attitude of the vehicle. With the 2014 Town and Country, they already have put nice LED reading lamps inside with the accent lighting(which I love), but on the newer models which in 2019 turned back into the Chrysler Pacifica, the headlights now have HID and LED running lights.
You can get them as well; they will have to be aftermarket. They will increase the brightness of your bulb, and by doing so, it will increase your vision.
Every vehicle comes with different modifications that you can get done on your car. The only critical point to remember is to make the vehicle more…..you.
Our vehicles are an extension of ourselves because they are tools so we can complete our day easier and faster than we were able to years ago.
So when you are thinking about the mod you need on your vehicle, think about how you use your vehicle, and this will make that choice a lot easier.
Thank you for checking out my article! I hope you found it enjoyable and beneficial. Check out my Youtube channel and subscribe for more DIY auto repair and flipping cars for profit videos! Thank you again!
