Air Intake Hose Questions
 

So I have an 2005 6 with the v6... The air intake hose has a crack in it so I was wondering where is the cheapest place to get a replacement?

There are some on ebay for ~$75 but they say they are for 03-04. Will they still fit on an 05? Or is there a better place to buy from?

Any other info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

Interesting... I just had to replace the one on my 04 V6 because it cracked while replacing the air filter. This is a part that I have never had to replace on any other vehicle that I owned. At least I now know that it is something apparently somewhat typical of these cars.

I paid about 80 bucks on line from Montgomery Mazda out of Charlotte, NC. They sent me one for a V4 and then paid for the return shipping, so I am pleased with the service but the price gouge hurt! The V4 part was only $52. My local Mazda stealership (love the name!) wanted $120 for the same part! Right now I have plastic grocery sacks duct taped around the hose until I get a chance to replace it. Make sure to cover the cracks as you for sure don't want any dirt or dust to get sucked into your intake!!!

I considered going with an after market cold air intake, but have heard so many conflicting stories about them I got scared. Plus, the prices of those babies looked to be pretty steep! I did find some off of eBay for around $40 that were "kits". I called the seller and they said it was the same thing as the expensive ones you buy only these you had to put together. Funny thing is, I talked to a buddy that has a K&N on his truck and he said he had to put it all together anyway and he paid full price of around $150. I guess do your research and see what you come up with if you want to go the route of cold air intakes. I guess the sound is what some people are after. Me, I like quite.

MOABX: 03-04 are one part 05-09 are a different one.

Soylent: Not sure what you were wanting out of an intake, but any time you remove baffling and resonators, which is a big part of what an intake does, you are going to get more noise. That said, you only get added noise when you are heavy on the gas, otherwise there isn't any real added sound whatsoever. As for having to put them together...dude they consist of 2 or 3 pieces of pipe, it's not exactly rocket science to put them together, hell IKEA furniture is harder to put together than a CAI.

I agree... That is where I couldn't figure out why it is a "kit" vrs the expensive ones that you still have to put together:confused: Any way, I decided to stick with original equipment because I heard that some of the intakes will throw codes. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Only one I know of that throws a consistent code is the Injen (someone correct me if i'm wrong on that) and that is due to the fact that the intake tube has a larger diameter than stock thus the MAF see's different values than it wants and you throw a code, CPE releases a "black box" fix for this. I've been running the Mazdaspeed/AEM intake for 4 years now with no code whatsoever. As for differences in the expensive ones vs the cheap ones, well that depends, but some of the cheap ones skimp on the materials and give you crap metal that can rust quickly, other can give you ones that just don't fit well, the list goes on. That said, one you get may work fine for you, but it's a crap shoot. I'd rather pay a little extra and know what I'm getting. Also, the CPE intake is as much as it is because it comes with a tuning solution and as a result gives way more power than any other intake out there.