DHRJDMBA

Where can I get a new air filter for my AEM CAI?

David-

phipark

Email c-c-c.net or Juniorbean. I ordered one from them.

NiteQwill

You can also purchase a K&N cone filter. Just make sure you get one with a 3" dia. neck.

Amoeba

Cant you reclean the filter?

darrinb

you can clean it, then re-oil

DHRJDMBA

I just want a 2nd one so that I can just take it off and swap it out. Then clean the dirty one and re-swap next time around.

darrinb

i see good idea

Strut

About how often do you all think the air filter needs to be swapped? How hard is it going to be to do this? I bought my car with a few K miles on it already, and it had an AEM CAI on it.

Amoeba

Well if the car is lowered, its gotta go on a jack stand, when my car wasnt lowered I could squeeze in tight without any jacks and take the filter off, but now its going to be a bitch to try and get it done....none of my buddies have a jack stand and I dont wanna get it just for the intake...I wonder if where I can get my car put on a jack stand so I can do it.

NiteQwill

Park it near the edge of a curb, nose out, or the cutoff of the incline of any garage. Should give you plenty or room. Unfortunately, you may have to work in the gutter.

EricL

That's exactly what I did.

Unfortunately, AEM told me to call a local distributor that they recommended, and they sent me a replacement filter that they claimed was newer and better than the old one. As it turns out, it is slightly shorter and I'm losing HP with it on. Both AEM and the vendor had initially claimed that they were "phasing out" the old filter for an improved one. When I checked again later, the story had changed.

At least the "swap" filter only stays on the car until the OEM unit is dry and ready with some fresh oil...

EricL

That can be an unpleasant experience when a neighbor does some watering!. But at least the curb won't break or fall down.

EricL

It depends on conditions. In the spring (with all of the pollen out) and in dirty areas, you should check it about every 6-month. (This is just my opinion and since you don’t know where the car came from or how it was driven, you might want to try your first inspection sooner than later.)

You will know when you look at it. Depending on where you are, and how many miles you drive, etc, you will end up being the best judge...

edgalang

I decided to re-use my Injen CAI and this is the filter I bought for it.



The model # is RX-4990

It has a built in velocity stack, and is the closest fit to the stock AEM/Injen cone filter.

NSXNEXT

iTrader: (2)

You're kidding right? How the hell could you tell you were losing HP? The highly reliable butt dyno? Please tell me this was a joke.

EricL

I’m not kidding. Why would you assume that I determined this through my senses? I never said that I determined the loss by using a butt dyno. I never said that I determined that there was a loss through any personal testing. I based the information on the following:

A member who worked at AEM told me that the shorter filter assembly would kill a couple of HP. I was curious about how good this info was (the person is very, very reliable and has a very good reputation around here and elsewhere).

I then called AEM and asked someone there about this issue and they asked me why I got the shorter one. I told them that I had been "steered" to the "newer/different" unit by a previous AEM rep and by the vendor he recommended. He told me that the unit I purchased would fit, but would lose HP. When I asked him how he knew that, he said they had done dynos on it. When I asked about how much power it would lose, he said it would amount to a few HP. The person I called at AEM, the second time, was an engineer in the technical department. (But, he may have been lying; and/or I may have just misdialed and talked to a prankster; and/or there is a giant cover-up going on to eliminate all short filters from the known universe )


When you design a air intake system, the pulse tuning is critical and you can impact the HP production by changing the length of the pipe. The average HP change is based on the difference in areas under the curve of different dynos. (I asked about this and was told the difference in overall power was based on the “average.”) You will generally pick up HP in one area, and lose it another when you change overall length. You could easily pick up a bump in one area that could be felt.

And, finally, there are so many variations from day to day in temperature, humidity and other conditions (gas, etc), that, IMO, would make it difficult -- or more importantly reliable -- to determine a change of 1% using your senses. Add in the perceptual/cognitive issues that relate to people getting used to the acceleration and you will have a very, very difficult time telling any difference in the 2-3% range. OTOH, if you remove one 200-lb passenger from the CLS, or run the CLS with an empty tank (vs. full), a difference can be perceived (well, I certainly feel it). So, if the car weighs around 3600 lbs with one passenger (3600 is a round number), you will be seeing a difference of (3600)/(200 + 3600) in one case for a power-to-weight difference close to 5 percent. The change in gas weight from full to empty is close to 17 gallons x 6lbs (varies from 5.8 to 6.5 lbs/gallons depending on composition, temperature, and other factors) makes for a approximate change of 100 lbs. The difference is now close to only (3600)/(100 + 3600) -> 2.7%.