I bought my car with this intake on. It uses a cone filter right in back of the bumper but off to the side to it won't suck in water. Do most of these end up losing power? How often should I clean the filter? It is in a very inconvienent location to clean, I will probably have to take half of it off just to clean it. Thanks guys

 

The intake you have has a very similar look to the INJEN CAI. You will see some small hp gains but nothing to get wet over. As for cleaning I would recomend taking off your passenger side wheel and pulling back the plastic inner wheelwell liner. I would wash it off and then use a K&N recharge kit maybe even buy a K&N cone filter instead.

 

Unless it is a real K&N filter, I would replace it with that or a AFE filter. The good quality filters flow more air and do a better job of filtering.

 

the ebay intake is the same thing as a AEM.. a piece of metal.. you can buy a ebay intake and throw on a K&N for best results

 

ok thanks

 

You had better re-think this statement. You have the typical AEM/Injen type of CAI. This is the type that has caused THE MOST problems with sucking in water - not so much with driving in the rain, but rather with parking it in the rain. You must plug the drain hole on the hood gutter. Water falls through this hole and drops directly on top of the filter where it can run inside and collect in the first elbow of the intake. Many people will also built an "umbrella" for the filter to reduce the dripping water hazard even further. Do a search for these topics to see what I'm talking about.
If you live in a rainy climate, you are in for a world of hurt if you think this intake is safe from water ingestion.

 

You don't have to take off the passenger side wheel, all you really gotta do is unbolt the plastic peices under the filter and pull it back to reach the filter. Not much room but enough to take the filter off and re-install it, I recommend a heatshield and use it as a umbrella.

 

ok I will definitely look into this, I live in Florida so it rains all the time. Fortunately I still haven't had to drive it in the rain. I will try to get this taken care of this weekend.

 

That's unless it already came with a umbrella mod, if so then you're good but do indeed plug that drain hole. Do a search if you don't know which hole it is, it's hard to explain which hole it is if you don't see a pic of it. Don't forget to jack the car up when changing or handling the air filter ...

 

Like I said, it's not the driving in the rain that you need to worry most about. It's the parking in heavy rain that's the problem.