CAI questions and concerns

[SVcabron]

Questions first, can a person who has little experience working with cars install a CAI? Does a CAI negatively affect gas mileage? It is a pain to clean the air filter?

Concerns, for those of you living in California, does it affect the passing of the visual inspection for the smog check? Thanks in advance for the responses.

[bigbird]

not sure bout cali laws but it should be ok. they are easy to install, anyone can do it. u will loose gas milage but only cuz u wanna hear the sweet sweet sound and will be on the throttle more. cleaning the filter is a little more painstaking on a CAI.

[boombringer]

Also the potential to water lock the engine. That's no good.

[bigbird]

thats a side effect of bad driving choices, CAIs dont cause hydra lock, poor choices cause hydra lock.

but yeah if ur prone to driving through a foot or more of water then yeah skip the CAI.

[boombringer]

Originally Posted by bigbird

thats a side effect of bad driving choices, CAIs dont cause hydra lock, poor choices cause hydra lock.

but yeah if ur prone to driving through a foot or more of water then yeah skip the CAI.

I thought he should know before he goes burning threw puddles.

[Venom_5]

it will not affect your gas mileage

its a little harder to clean the filter because it will be harder to reach (not true with a SRI, only a CAI)

it will only pass inspection if it has a place for every air intake sensor

[SVcabron]

Originally Posted by Venom_5

it will not affect your gas mileage

its a little harder to clean the filter because it will be harder to reach (not true with a SRI, only a CAI)

it will only pass inspection if it has a place for every air intake sensor

I'm looking at the AEM CAI, does it have a place for the sensors?

About the hydro lock, as long as I stay out of deep puddles will I be ok?

Thanks for all of the responses.

[bigbird]

yeah as long as u dont take the car swimming then ur ok. but venom has a point about cleaning the filter, i hate cleaning mine, i have to remove a bunch of crap just to get to the filter. that would honestly be a concern if i were trying to choose bewteen a 200 dollar CAI and a 40-100 dollar SRI, both with little gains in performance.

[Venom_5]

AEM should be able to tell you if its Cali-Spec or not, idk for sure ... one of the V6 guys might

If youre afraid of hydrolock, buy one of these:
http://www.aempower.com/ViewCategory.aspx?CategoryID=20

or just detach the CAI extension in flash floods

[SVcabron]

Originally Posted by bigbird

yeah as long as u dont take the car swimming then ur ok. but venom has a point about cleaning the filter, i hate cleaning mine, i have to remove a bunch of crap just to get to the filter. that would honestly be a concern if i were trying to choose bewteen a 200 dollar CAI and a 40-100 dollar SRI, both with little gains in performance.

How long does this cleaning process take, is it worth it?

[bigbird]

cleaning is easy its removing thats a pain. u can get cleaning kits from AEM or K&N. their process takes about an hour, mostly cuz u have to let it air dry.

[94CoupeV6]

^ Like Venom said. It's really easy to just detach the extra piping before it goes down into the fender. Driving without a filter for a little while isn't bad at all. My piping blows off all the time and runs fine without a filter.

[Black95Cam]

as for the visual smog inspection (in cali), if it have the C.A.R.B. stick/number then you should be fine.