AEM Cold Air Intake: A Warning

I just installed an AEM Cold Air Intake on my SE-R Spec V. I am writing to warn about buying it. Don't get me wrong, I like that I was eventually able to install it, but there are some major problems with what I got.

First you will be required to do some metal cutting to get the intake pipe to fit through the car. Not much, just taking off a small strip of metal alongside an opening out of the hood. In my opinion for what AEM advertised, I think they should have designed the intake to fit through the car without requiring metal cutting.

My package was missing a rubber coupling for the intake. At first myself and my 'crew' were not able to connect all the piping together. Isn't duct tape great?

I'd consider the members of my 'crew' pretty experienced in installing after market parts, but try as we did, we could not get a section of pipe to fit on the brackets that attach it to the car. We got one of two brackets on very loosely.

So the end results are that the intake works. The duct tape will not hold the air pressure in above 5000 rpms so we are ordering another coupler from AEM. Despite the intake pipe being loosely attached, it does not wiggle around noticeably during testing.

Overall, I'd consider the intake a good upgrade, but AEM falls short of it claim that parts readily fit into the car specified.

i was missing the coupling too.. but i found that instead of cutting the hole where the intake piping fits through, just take a pair of pliers and bend it down toward where the filter fits. this saves a lot of hassle. it may seem the aem is crapply made, but the power gain and engine sound is incredible!!

First you will be required to do some metal cutting to get the intake pipe to fit through the car. Not much, just taking off a small strip of metal alongside an opening out of the hood. In my opinion for what AEM advertised, I think they should have designed the intake to fit through the car without requiring metal cutting.

i don't think it's a good idea if they designed the intake to fit that hole becuz it won't have as much power it has now.....when i got my intake, i got every part, only thing was that there's one bracket that didn't fit...i just bought one from home depot

Well, I went with Injen for my intake. Everything that should have been in the package was in the package. I'm very pleased with that. Though the sound it produces was quite as loud and mean as I had expected. But over all I'm very satisfied with my Injen intake.
Installing the intake requires taking off the front bumper... Is there a way to avoid removing that bumper? I installed the intake on my own and let me tell ya, remove and reinstalling that bumper is no small task for even two men.

the injen needed the front bumper off?? wasn't it possible to take just the wheel lining off like the aem intake requires???

When the bumper is removed, the entire airfilter (aftermarket) is completely exposed and makes grinding a little easier from top or bottom. I have thought of removing the wheel well linning, but not sure if that is ok or if it requires removing the tire and such. If possible, can someone explain to me how the AEM intake filter is installed.
Thanx.

the aem intake basically fits through the hole where the stock air filter box sat. Under the air filter box, there is a hole, and attached to the stock box, there is a air muffler? i guess. you have to remove the entire air assembly. Then the piping fits through the hole and grabs the cold air from the wheel well behind the fog light. I hope this makes sense. I will try to post some pictures.

Thanx, I do understand what you are trying to explain. So, did you just jack up the car then install the filter to the intake tubing assembly? I think I have a very good understanding of what you are saying. I will try this method out tomorrow because I didn't grind the hole wide enough for my 3" tubing. I will let you know and maybe put some pictures up for you too.

i jacked up the car, took off the wheel and attached the air filter onto the piping. I just met a guy the other day with the injen and he had to grind a hole too..I just took a pair of pliers and bent the metal back to make the hole bigger

im having some problems with a friends intake we installed 2 nights ago...he has an 01 GXE....well we jacked it up and took the wheel well off and had to grind like 2 cm of metal to get the pipe down the hole, took us forever to get everything tight enough to get everything to stay together since we too were missing a rubber coupling that didnt come with his package. NOW, she idles ruff as heck, and when we get going from a stop it bucks around like someone whos learning to drive manual for the first time (cars an auto btw). when u put it in park the RPM's get real low to the point where it wants to stall and then back to normal. I NEED HELP. someone told me cold air kits sometimes mess with the MAF sensor

on some cars there si a screen in the MAF, the intake install instructions mention specificly not to touch that screen, that may be some of your problem, also be sure the MAF is facing the right way, it takes the ECU about 10 miles of driving to re-learn the idle charecteristics of your car after a CAI install

[QUOTE=it takes the ECU about 10 miles of driving to re-learn the idle charecteristics of your car after a CAI install[/QUOTE]
Would it be the same if I were to install a header on my spec v?

i dont think the header install would mess with your idle, but dont quote me on that, i think the reason why the CAI messes with the ECU is due to the icoming changes, with a header the same thing gets blown out of the engine, it is just easier for the car to do so with an aftermarket header. with an intake it actually changes the temperature and amount of air so the ecu has to recalibrate