This is for both noobs and regulars alike, that are afraid of having a CAI without any type of bypass valve... (NOTE: I have the AEM CAI)

Driving home today from work, it was POURING here in Orlando Florida. FLOODING to be more specific (got to love Florida). For the most part, there was about 1/2 inch of water over the ENTIRE road (436), and though it was spraying up like crazy, I was having no problems whatsoever, YET... I was driving on 436 this way for about 20 minutes, goin about 45.

I get to University Ave, and make the yielded merge (aka RIGHT HAND TURN) into the merge lane AND ABOUT 6 INCHES OF STANDING WATER!



I didn't even see it because I didn't even check more than a glance, since it was a right-hand turn. It couldn't have been avoided anyway! Anyhow, I hit it goin about 35, and WAVES higher than my car were tossed on either side of the car!

If my intake was ever going to fail (short of driving it through a stream), it was going to be now...



My stomach did a flip, and I awaited in HORROR for the intake to suck up a bunch of water, and my engine to just gurgle its last breath...

And then it happened!



About 20 feet through the newly formed road-river... Nothing. That's right. Nothing, Nada, Zip, Zilch. Not even a hesitation (except from me taking my foot off the gas).

I COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!

So from now on, if you are freaking out about getting a CAI, or afraid of what MIGHT happen, you can lay all your worries to rest. As stated, I have the AEM CAI, and I did replace all the original underbody panels, which probably shielded the filter. No bypass valve or anything else like that. Bottom line, as long as you don't COMPLETELY SUBMERGE your CAI, you're most likely gonna be OK.

 

hope your stomach flips back to its normal postion! that makes me breath a lil easier on the whole issue. but i think a big key is you put your underbody panels back on. mine are off and have been off for the longest time. that prolly blocked gallons of water shooting up into your engine and CAI. . good post!

 

glad to hear everything is ok man, but i did the same thing and i was not as fortunate.....i hade to let the motor dry out and when the car turned over i could see the oil bunt out of the motor (Grey smoke) through the exhaust......never the less, my car is fine, but i dont want this post to be a post where a noob gets the idea to go play rally car in his oz lancer with a brand new intake and loose another car to stupidity (sp?)

Cory
Vero Beach, FL

 

u most likely didn't suck any water up because u were going at a decent speed. the car pushed the water out of the way. if u were going slower u would have hydrolocked your motor. happened to my brother 96' integra gsr. insurance totalled it because it wasn't worth putting another motor in.

 

i really just wanted this post to be a good, real life example of what happens when you drive a CAI through a lot of standing water.

i personally think the biggest reason i didn't have any problems is that i put those underbody panels back on, something which many people don't do after installing their CAI.

 

besides the water issue, is there a difference if u keep the underbody panels on or off? Go faster or n e thing?? Educate me

 

Easier access. Shave a bajillionth of a pound in weight.

 

Keep the under panels on, but remove the front side grill to allow more air to reach the filter. Not sure how much difference, but it helps.

Purecoda, I love how you put every possible key word in your thread for people to find if they want to know about CAI and hydrolock. Too bad almost nobody will do a search first.

 

thanks urban. i aim to please. i'm just hoping people will search more, especially since this is possibly the #1 repeated noob question.

personally, i think the search engine on this site sucks. has to be exact match, has to be 3 characters at least, no common spelling error correction... in other words, you kindof have to already know exactly what you're looking for to find it, and at that point, you don't need to search.

 

ya i agree btw purecoda way ot but can u get on aim :-p

 

I had my cai in my civic (gasp) for 3 years and never had any problems with sucking up water... all you really gotta do is floor the car before the huge puddle/or-whatever-you-wanna-call-it and coast through... never had any puddles be sucked up...
loved it

 

just count your blassings.

 

still tho, watch out... will insurance really cover a dead engine if it happened because you changed the intake and put the filter into the foglight?? naah.. i doubt it.. the bypass valve insures the car for 30 bucks.. thats that way

 

insurance doesn't cover any mechanical failures from what I understand, unless they are from an actual accident. And a 6 inch puddle probably won't count. Some people might change the intake back to stock and try the warranty route, but I don't endorse such behavior

edit, maybe this thread should be stickied so noobs might find it before posting (well, that will cover the 1/10 who actually post in the right forum at least) I'll leave it up to purecoda to PM the correct moderator.

 

same thing happened to my buddy, 02 toyota celica gts. he didnt even have an intake!!!!! bone stock went thru a bridge underpass that was flooded. anyways his intake sucked up about a gallon of water and he hydrolocked the motor. his uncle dried it off and blew the water out with air...... he finally got the engine to turn over and start, but now the engine is knocking BAD! my buddy is going to take it to the dealer and see if he can trick them into fixing it. we'll see what happens.