Cold Air Intake

Anyone done a cold air intake mod to the Mazda 3? Not sure what manufacuter to get Injen, AEM, or K&N. Any ideas or steps with pics?

well, you get the most performance out of the injen, followed by the AEM, and then K&N comes in third place for performance. injen is more prone to having your car set off a CEL and K&N is the least prone. but even if you have a CEL, that only means that your car is having alot more air come in than fuel and since mazdas are very sensitive, that will be alarmed. but if a CEL light annoys you, go with second or third place choices. they are less prone, but may still set off a CEL. the installation is pretty easy, even a person with no knowledge of fixing a vehicle could do this if you ask me. i would go for injen cai, it's the most bang for your buck.

but do keep in mind your area with water. the closer your intake is to the ground, the more prone it is to sucking up water and hydrolocking you engine (lots of money to fix!!!).

do they make guards or splash protectors for the intake, not much for the whole idea about hydrolocking the engine...is there anyone to get a intake that doesnt go so low that it will suck in water or snow (i live in virgina, we dont get much rain but winters we can get up to 4-6 inches of snow....which means lots of slush!!

once i remove the old air intake and all the sensors, i just put the new air intake in and reconnect the senors back to it and its done?

thanks!

quote:

ORIGINAL: esloyer

once i remove the old air intake and all the sensors, i just put the new air intake in and reconnect the senors back to it and its done?

basically, depending on what intake you get... that is the basic process of installation. well, i live in PA and we get alot of rain, i've driven in torrential downpour the last couple of days and have yet to have a problem with my intake. it's really low to the ground as it is the injen cai, but now i have put on an Injen Hydroshield (look into this as it covers your intake and beads off alot of water to help prevent hydrolocking). if you are really concerned about hydrolocking, even with a hydroshield, then you might want to get a short ram air intake which is higher up on your vehicle.

dont forget, also when your intake is lower to the ground and it is hotter out (aka the roads), your intake will be sucking in really hot air. the short ram air will be higher up thus being that it will suck up cooler air. but i've never had a problem with my intake in either of these situations.

oh, and here is a write-up that i did on the Injen Hydroshield!


check it out --> http://www.mazdaforum.com/m_8313/tm.htm

do you think the injen hydrosheild would fit on a aem cai filter?

it's also easy to make a splash shield with aluminum or flaxible plastic. Just cover the lower portion of an intake and try and follow the curve of the con wnd drill some holes to hold it in place. If you have a little bit of heat avliable, you could rimp the plastic to have 2 90 degree angles so you'd have square sheet with one edge bent twice in opposite directions about 1 inch between bends. Then you could heat that up and wrap it to the contour of the cone and drill two small foles in it then use the screws that hold the cone filter to the pipe and wrap it underneath the cone. It's hard to explain bu tI can see it in my head.

hah, yeah, i dont understand what you mean, but it sounds like it will work!! i might try to make something like that

well my injen cold air intake came with a splash shield as well, but i was overprotective of my investment in my vehicle and ordered a hydroshield as well.

quote:

ORIGINAL: 87 turbo II

It's hard to explain bu tI can see it in my head.

Really? All i can see is cobwebs, but as for fitting a injen hydroshield a.k.a a sock over your filter, i would say it should work cuz all any intake is a regular pipe and a filter, your really only paying for the name (and maybe the quality of the pipe and filter), but its a filter none the less

yeah I didn't realize how stupid saying "I can see it in my head" was going to sound but whatever.

no,no i do the samething, sometimes people ask me how to put something together i cant explain it to them but i know what i mean in my head, its wierd

yeah, doesn't that annoy you guys? i've done it before and then it gets to the point where you you just don't care anymore, and then the person is like " oh yeah, i know what you mean now" after 5 minutes haha. maybe we just have to find a way to describe what we mean in a better manner!

I know when people say "I get what you're talking about" just so you'll stop trying so hard haha

so has anybody found out if the Injen sock fits the AEM filter or any at all? I cant find a thing

No, but it sounds like all the filters are the same, so there shouldn't be a problem! Thanks for looking into it!

I have the Injen RD6061 CAI on my 2004 Mazda 3-5 door. No problems with the CEL coming on. Maybe I'm not pushing it hard enough? Very pleased with the results.

Two things

One: Uh welcome to the forum...ronin4580

Two: I put in the AEM cai in my car and all i have to say is....damn, i mean holy crap does my car ever pick up speed even quicker and its a hell of alot louder, its so loud that i had to pull over and TURN OFF the car just so my friend could hear what the other person on the cell was sayin and i was only goin 45 in 4th gear (yes it was important enough for me to pull over), but anyway the filters on the AEM differ in size from everybody else so the Injen sock wont fit on the aem one, i put the cai inside the car where the stock one was and let me tell you while i was unhooking everything i wanted to kill whoever thought it was a bright idea to put all of this stuff in the way, neway once i got it in mother nature decided to bitch slap me with a heavy down pour of ran while i was driving and stop while i was inside...and no not for just one day but for two days and possibly a third. Oh yeah my cai will throw me a code once in a while but there are few things to fix this problem one is to just ride it out and let the ECU reset itself while your driving but a word of warning is this will eat up a tremedous amount of gas while its throwin codes and to make matters worse your accel will drop even a little below stock specs. Also a wierd thing about AEM is they didnt include the brackets that keep the intake from knocking during hard accel, i have to get a hold of some universal hangers that are used for heavy mufflers and take them and custom make it although they did include the washers and bolts needed for it. Another way to stop the code is to do a "forced reset" which is very simple (also dont forget that will have to do this with anything you out into your car this will give the ECU a chance to cope with the changes) all you need to do is disconect the wires that are connected to the battery wait a few minutes (depending how how much your ECU wants to be a jerk) reconnect and your good to go. Ill get some pics up once i get a good shot of it

no one ever says anything bad or for that matter, good about the k & n intakes, do they not give you as much power and performance as the aem and injen?i have heard that the k & n don't produce a CEL as often as well and are less likely to hydrolock the engine, is that true?

I've heard K&N is the best from many car owners. It has th ebest power increase and the filter never needs to be changed. Hydrolocking has nothing to do with the filter it has to do with intake placement and leaks, get a quality brand (like K&N) and you shouldn't have any leaks along the piping, then make sure the filter sits nice and high away from water and if need be, fabricate a lower splash shield also make sure rainwater on top of a hood won't flow over where the filter is, to find out this just close the hood and spray it wit a hose all over the seams at different angles (with the stock intake setup) then open it and see if there's any water where your new filter is going to go.

good idea, thanks!!

if it has the best power increase, how come alot of people get aem and injen?

alot of times it's where they order from ,K&N doesn't pay too many mainstream businesses for advertisement or partnerships. So if someone went to a parts website, the site would most likely carry the AEM an iNjen parts. Also price and tradition too. AEM and iNjen have been around longer.

I have bought and installed the injen cai, and its great. You can feel the power difference. I think it cost me about $270, well worth it. No cel problems.

I did a lot of researching like you are about the CAI's and after reading reviews from dyno tests, I went with a Bomz Racing CAI. It sits nice and hidden from water like most do, it has a great filter and it costs much less. $70 shipped from ebay. Bomz Racing is kind of new and upcoming and I have read only good things about them so far. Plenty loud and good performance. Remember, you only gain minimal HP anyway and if I remember correctly the Bomz was very close to performance gains against the big names. Word of advise, disconnect the white plastic clips that hold your MAF sensor wire against the front side of your battery box to allow slack for the MAF wire so it will not get stretched or torn and throw CEL.

i dont know if anyone will read this, but its worth a shot.  i have had nothing but problems after i installed my cai.  i have an aem cai in my 2004 mazda3s.  i did very little research about the car.  all i knew was that it was a brand new car, and it was hot.  so i bought it.  i knew i was gonna get one, so i ordered an aem cai for it.  it was great for a while, about a year.  hauling ass, eating up mustangs and hondas.  until it stopped working and engine light came on, it bucked and jerked.  i figured it was the filter that was dirty.  so i cleaned it out with the aem filter cleaning kit.  it worked for a whole hour.  and then went to shit again.  so, i went and bought a new filter.  it worked for about 3 hours.  then it went to shit.  so, i called up aem and told them what was up with it.  they told me that MAS was supposed to be disconnected.  shit didnt sound right, but i did it.  it ran like stock for a bit.  then just completely fucked up.  more sputtering, jerking and bucking and the battery light came on.  but this was the only way i could drive it.  i ended up getting 15 miles to the gallon.  how shitty is that?  so i finally took it into the dealer.  i was lucky enough that they covered it under warranty for me.  so they replaced the MAS.  it worked great, for about 6 days.  so, i took it back into mazda, and they were gonna do it again.  but this time it wasnt under warranty anymore, cause of the cai.  they fucked me.  had to pay for the "free" rental, and diagnosis fees, when the damn thing was already diagnosed the first time.  they just couldnt fix it.  well, i was pissed for the rest of the day.  so, i drove the damn thing around with the battery light and engine light on for some time.  about 3 months of this, it wouldnt work.  the engine kept cutting out on me.  thats when i took off the cai.  and it worked.  the car had no balls and no filter.  it was getting 10 miles to the gallon if i was lucky.  when i was taking everything apart, i found the the wiring for the mas was broken.  so, i repaired the wiring, installed a new MAS, and reconnected the cai.  it worked for about 2 days.  until everything turned to shit all over again.  finally months later, i ripped apart all the wiring in the harness and replaced every strand of wire.  and everything works great, i can eat the stangs again.  except for one thing, engine light is still on.  i cant get a fuckig inspection done.  my cat converter got destroyed.  and warranty wont cover for it to get replaced.  because of cai.  now i gotta pay out of pocket to install a new cat converter.  so, the moral of this story is, dont put any aftermarket parts on until your warranty is up.  cause theres still a lot of shit wrong with the mazda 3.  look up technical service bulletins for it.  cause MAS go bad easy even with out the cai.  so, why pay for one, when warranty will cover it.  its a $170 part, for a piece of plastic, o-ring, and resistors.  wait till the warranty is up before you start modding.  in the end itll save you a whole lot of cash.  unless you already got cash flowing out from everywhere and dont care what you do with it.  and if you do, hell i'll be more than happy to take it.  i know the 3s pretty well.  if anyone has any questions or comments dont hesitate to write back.  or you can even write to me at kryptonitehurtsme@hotmail.com