Ok, actually, the title is misleading. The intake is installed and working/sounding beautifully.

But I did have a question about a part during the install. I did the installation myself.

Am I supposed to replace those flimsy fender wall pieces that were held in place by those little clips? I am talking about the pieces that the instructions ask you to remove inside the driver's side wheel well in order to mount the intake end down into the wheel well.

It seems like in order to get the best and coldest air-flow, you would want to leave those pieces off to allow cold outside air to get scooped up in there, and into the air-filter.

For now I have those pieces back on, but I really want to take them off again. What do you guys think/know? The AEM instructions say nothing about replacing the pieces. Any help you could give me would be much appreciated

- Jason

 

You're right - if you remove the plastic you'll get better airflow. I helped a club member install the cai and it doesn't make a lot of sense airflow-wise to keep the plastic in the way of the filter element.

 

When I installed my AEM CAI was replace all the fender well plastic pieces as well, just to keep water, road grime, and any other debris from getting easy access to the filter element. If you look at the small "opening" on the driver side of the front fender you'll see that there is a solid piece of "mesh" there. If you take that piece of plastic out you actually open up that hole in the fender and the CAI filter element just happens to sit directly in the opening. The picture below isn't the best but you can make out the AEM filter if you look below the headlight.



Thus you can keep on the plastic fender well pieces for a large amount of protection to the filter from anything below the car, but open up the fender for a direct flow of air into the CAI. I wouldn't worry about rain or any road spray getting up into the CAI as the filter oil coating wicks water away and wouldn't let such a miniscule amount in. About the only thing to worry about with these things and water is if you end up putting the front end of the car in about 12 inches of water and then gunning the engine having the CAI suck up a ton of water. Rain won't affect it in the least bit from my personal experiences. My two cents on the subject.

K

 

Kerensky : Wow, thank you so much. I just went outside and did this. I took me less than 30 mins, and I've 4 beers deep. Thank you so much.

- Jason

P.S. Do you know any place online to purchase those little plastic clip things that holder those fender wall pieces together? I broke 2 when taking them apart. Everything holds in place, but I'd like to replace the 2 missing clips

 

I know of no place online but Autozone or a similar auto store should have a selection of similar clips to what are on the car already. Worse come to worse you could call a local Mitsu dealer and see if they have / can order new clips.

K

 

iam a *****,i was going to take mine out but iam deadly afraid of hydrolock so i drilled holes in it.

 

I would suggest replacing the bottom plastic guard but removing the front side grill as pictured above by Kerensky. With that setup, you won't have to worry about hydrolock unless you drive through a puddle 2 feet deep. Easy to do, too, and if you want you can put mesh to keep debris from getting your filter dirty sooner.