Open hood

Alright guys, so the rain was pushed back long enough for me to change my air filter today. After I changed it however, like an idiot I didn't close the hood all the way. While taking my sister to the airport tonight, the car felt kinda sluggish and made little squeaking sounds when moving. I didn't realize the hood was open until she was getting out of the car. So yeah, I traveled some 20 miles with the hood open (not all the way of course) at up to about 65 mph. Now would this damage my car in anyway? :( Just wanna make sure that everything'll be okay.... Oh yeah, and after the hood was changed with the new filter, my car did feel "better." Kinda like it was running a bit smoother....is that possible or just in my mind?

It shouldent hurt the hood any, I assume it still works fine lol, it was probably just on the saftey latch. As to more power I doubt you'd feel it but even a drop in filter like the one I had before does wonders for the engine growl though so its probably all in your head lol but thats ok. I recently did a search for how good K&N filters are at filtration, they kinda suck compared to stock paper. They used to use the same kind of cotton gause in a wire screen before the 60's but then they found that paper works real well. I'm still gonna get a K&N real soon but I might wrap it in a thin microfiber towel lol... Duno why no one but AMSoil makes microfiber filters and theirs are hard to find and not as universal as K&N.

The filter I have chosen for bang for the buck isn't meant for the 3000GT, its about 8" long but the nice thing about it is that it has a 4.5" diamiter opening instead of a 3" opening, I know IPO sells an adapter for a 4.5" filter so does anyone have any reason why it shouldent work? Just seems to me like the best bang for the buck K&N makes and I havenet seen anyone else mention it ever.
Heres the only place to buy the filter that I found
http://www.ajusa.com/cgi-bin/knfilters/details?part_num=RF-1008&ajr_skey=779395376fdd5556dd786a1afde8f669

Yeah, I guess the "more power" I felt or the smoother ride came as a result of the fact that there was less resistance after the hood was closed all the way. And plus, it was a stock change so it couldn't have done anything. :p

By the way, I read somewhere that the MAS was very weak and could break easily or something like that. How would we know that it's broken? Would some light come on in the dash? Just wondering....

First off, to ease your mind...if nothing happened yet...then your car is fine. Only things I could see happening would be, safety latch on hood breaking and hood flying open (which obviously didn't happen), enough rain getting into intake to hydrolock engine(which obviously didn't happen), and water soaking distributor and/or other electric/electronic components(which apparently didn't happen either)

So I'd say you are safe. You may have noticed a bit more power simply from having a clean filter and if the hood opened up an inch or so at 65mph, perhaps the air was moving more under the hood, and you had a TINY ramair effect. But it was probably just in your mind (no offense).

As far as the MAS, it is easily damaged from the inside. The actual sensor is highly fragile, and can be damaged if someone is too rough when trying to clean it. But don't worry, you would notice if it were broken, and you didn't open up your MAF, so it is fine.

Thourun, if it fits, I see no reason why it wont work. And if it doesn't fit...there are always ways of making it fit. So I'd say go for it. Good luck.

Thanks, I feel much better now. :biggrin: