Im new to the whole mazda scene and honestly didnt even know to much about the car until i stared working at a mazda dealership,so i bought an 07 mazda 3 and i want to start off with the basic performance upgades like exhaust and cai but im hearing alot of bad things about cai's on the 3 and how they throw cel's and cause tons of other problems so im basicly wondering if theres a cai out there that has been know to be dependable and worth spending my money on..thanks

 

most ppl with intakes just get lucky

some will never get a CEL, and some will get one in a couple months.

pretty much, the #1 cause of CEL's with CAI's, is water getting sucked up and getting on the MAF.
so just buy a filter cover (sock) and you should be good.

oh, and stay away from ebay brands.
personally, i went with Fujita, because it was cheap, yet popular.
(5,000 kms so far, and no CEL!!!)

 

like dentinger said most ppl get lucky on weather or not they get a cel from there cai, ive had it, no big prob....kinda, gas milage takes a big hit and on some cases hp and tq seems sluggish, now thats just the minor problems, ive had the pleasure of getting to the point where my AUTOMATIC car stalls in traffic and have to throw it in N, keep the revs up drop back down to M and drive off, luckly ive had practice in keeping the car from lunging forward while doing that, so axels and tranny dont cry, also if i try to rev it higher it sound like i have 2 step in my car, and when it dosent stall at idel it sounds like i have stage 3 cams......wait what was i saying[:-] o yeah....cai=take your pick, header=vibrant ONLY, obx has fitment issues and thunder.....ummm dunno, and exhaust=take your pick.

 

Yeah, I got my CAI from ebay and it works fine although there was a fitment issue. the Mounting arm that comes out from the intake and bolt to the car is horribly in the wrong spot. It couldn't be farther from where it should be. which means with out some mild modification your CAI will vibrate like hell. Actually it got me thinking of "what the hell were they thinking" Although I must say I've gone through some water, enough to hydroplane and get the filter soaked and haven't had problems with a CEL or hydrolock.

My god don't go with OBX, It's what I have and its been hell. It bolts to the block fine, fits like a glove, its connecting it to the down pipe/flex pipe thats a B!tch. OBX cut the header oh..I'd say about a foot short and just slammed a freaking flange on it...Another one of those moments where i was thinking..."what the hell where they thinking" then the angle isn't quiet correct so your entire exhaust has to be pushed back about an inch for it to fit and then you kinda have to "squeeze" it together and then it puts hella stress on the bolts you need to connect the new modifed flange that you need and the flage on the header. In fact, just the other day both of the bolts had came off the header connecting the flange and i had a huge exhaust leak, car sounded like an 88 cutlass with a hole in the muffler...It was cool for a bit because I was running a open header for like a day lol...

As far as exhaust goes. I prefer the custom set up rather than a brand name like borla. Don't get me wrong, excellent products hands down, just I prefer to stand out than be the same. like me I cut my vlance and did a dual outlet exhaust set up looks pretty bad ***. I bought two 3 in chrome exhaust tips from auto zone and a cherry bomb muffler put it right in the place of the stock muffler sounds pretty bad *** and it doesn't look like you have a freaking cannon on the back of your car. Distinct sound with a clean look, thats how I roll. thats different...I haven't seen anyone around my town of 60K people or in St.Louis...I'm sure I'm not the only one whose done this either though lol.

 

im going to have to disagree with tracker for a second here....
i found that my exhaust and intake increased my fuel economy, being i get about 80km's more to the tank now.
before in the city, id be getting about 300ish kms to the tanks. after the CBE and CAI, im getting around ~400km's to the tank.

 

I have the modified stock airbox (Poor Man's SRI w/K&N panel) and a VERY, VERY good Vibrant exhaust and while I experienced differences in performance from stock, I did not see an increase in fueleconomy... nor a decrease either for that matter. But the FUN FACTOR.... OoooooHhhhhhh!!!!

 

BTW (Ooooo, double-posting): I do plan to eventually go with a CAI, probably a K&N, or Injen.From everything I've read anddyno charts I've seenthey are the best for low end torque, which being a street driver iswhat I'm looking for.
Besides, if I am able to eventually go w/a lightened flywheel and stage1 clutch, I'm going to need it to compensate for lost low end.
The best of both worlds, imo.

 

Virgin1 is double posting *gasps* thats it ur banned jp, dentinger......i never said that addind a cai and exhasut does not make diff, im saying that any cai or exhaust will do.

 

 

For what it's worth, I've recently read in Sport Compact Car magazine that Injen, who makes the MazdaSpeed intake and may be one of the best choices (but certainly not the only choice) for the 3 because they maintain the the internal diameter that the MAF sensor requires. That MAF's are very particular about the air flow and velocity that engulfs them.
SCC stated that Injen installs a reducer @ that point to compensate for flow. This will eliminate potential CEL's due to an incorrectly designed CAI.
Something to keep in mind when shopping for an air intake system.
From what I've read from other forum members is that the fewest problems w/installs and CEL's seem to involve the Injen, K&N, and AEM. The F2/F5's are runners up only because of the new (extended) MAF wiring location.