Components before throttle body: air cleaner box lid, air cleaner box case, intake resonator (top and bottom pieces). There is already a filter in the air cleaner box, so you don't need an additional one if you just take out the resonator. Some people choose to upgrade their existing filter. Whan a CAI is installed, you remove all of the above, and it of course has a cone-shaped filter on the end.

I would suggest you pop the lid off your air cleaner box, and you will see the stock filter. Pull that out, shine a flashlight inside, and you'll see the resonator coming through the hole in the bottom. This will give you a frame of reference of how it all works.

 

I'm lovin it, just hope I don't suck up a diaper

 

after doing this mod. does it make a humming noise? im getting that result after removing the resonator.

 

yup...that's what the resonator prevents

 

thanks for the info. much appreciated.

it gets annoying but oh well.

 

Mine was very loud, but I had a problem.
https://acurazine.com/forums/showthr...light=annoying

 

I removed my intake resonator about an hour ago, took it for a spin and noticed a huge difference in sound. Its much more manly sounding now. Especially at WOT you can really hear a deep throaty growl. Its pretty cool, i would recommend it. However i couldnt feel much/if any difference in performance.

 

Wow! You're first post! Welcome to the club, and enjoy the 'manly' sound you have created!

 

course not , that intake resonator is just a plastic box that traps the sound in the box , so when removed , thats why you hear the humming noise and the deep growl . but even then when you do get a cai , you can't really feel any real performance gains , you gotta get headers

 

just did this today...a little disappointed b/c i was expecting a cai sound i guess but it was barely noticeable. well at WOT the vtec does sound pretty nice but that's about it. but for free i guess i can't complain, so thanks for the write up.

 

Do you mean the two things that are connected to the top of the Resonator box or do you mean the two little round spots that the Res. box was connected to?? Cause I just sort left them there and if I have to go dismantle the car again...I'll be annoyed, but I'll do it. I just want to know is all. lol.

 

Sounds like fun. I'm going to do it right now!

 

while you have the cars nose off to deal with your headlight issue- perfect time to rip--
I mean remove the resonator box

tip- make sure the small Y connector at top comes out too- may need a yank with the pliers,,there are 2 holes on bottem of airbox-- that connector!

ok to enlarge those 2 openings with a dremel,,clean all plastic shavings
K&N air filter a must to deal with increased airflow
it comes preoiled and wont need diy service for a few years
the can of stuff to service does 5 cleanings! cost 10-15$ when you need it

 

good time to clean TB air plate if not already done with egr port diy cleaning
make sure the plate all that air has to pass over is clean!

 

just took out my resonator on a '00 TL... thanks for the help cant wait to drive it around

 

My cousin just bought a 5000 dollar lense for his camera.

 

Lol. I removed this and noticed zero volume difference, but then again, I don't ever drive a car at WOT. Took it from zero-80mph with barely noise louder than a bumblebee nearby.(in a 2000 TL)
Throttle seems more responsive, maybe. Could be placebo.

If nothing else, I dropped ~5lbs, so there's that I guess.

Too much other sh*t wrong with the car to risk punching it and blowing up my awesome glass tranny.

 

This thread is too funny do you guys read? A resonator traps sound that's all. Removing it does not allow it to breath better you will not gain ANY HP out of it. Who cares if the clips break? If half of you are having trouble removing basic clips maybe you shouldn't be working on your own car...just a thought

 

what is the point of removing the intake resonator ? lol
Idk what it does. Is this only if you have CAI ?

 

It's called reading. It's explained 800 times in this thread. All it does is make it slightly louder at WOT... Now go read all five pages

 

Did this today at work on my typeS took all of 5 minutes to remove on my lift shouldn't take more than 10 minutes on the ground used a quarter inch rachet with a 10mm and a 12" extension to remove the two bolts to frame

 

It also changes the air source from inside the engine bay to behind the foglight. This reduces intake temperature, which can create some gain. Obviously though, using the OEM filter setup won't get anything more than 1hp gain.
For a guy with 10 posts total, you must have repeated the same sentence 80 times per posts. Impressive.

 

Just finished doing this, super easy except one of the bolts holding the resonator to the car was rusted to shit and took some time to break, thanks for the great write up.

 

Hey Guys,

I just did this mod last night and wanted to post my opinion for those considering this (or maybe those who are completely unaware of it).

Without the resonator the car is still quiet as a mouse around town and whilst cruising, but if you punch it, a beast comes out to play. I think I'm having a 2nd honeymoon with my car. Honda/Acura really managed out of the factory to trap and muzzle what really is a ferocious beast in the 3.2 VTEC. I'm learning that if you treat her right and remove some of her chains, she'll treat you to a good time.



In a nutshell, the throttle is a bit more responsive without the resonator. Turns out the intake inlet for the resonator comes back UP into the engine bay (drawing hot engine air) so as a conservative guesstimate I'd say +1-2 HP and slightly better gas mileage (maybe +10-15 per tank).

 

^ Nope.. You don't gain HP without the resonator.
You are now experiencing a placebo effect, the car doesn't accelerate faster nor its getting more MPGs. Its impossible since the modification you are doing is before the air filter! which restricts much of the airflow.

Anything you do before the air filter is inconsequential to the engine, unless it was starving it which it wasn't. Also the resonator goes back into the engine bay but not to the same area. The air that it was sucking is the one behind the driver light housing which is the same air inside the fender well when you cancel the resonator.


In short: You now have NOISE! Nothing more, nothing less.
If you like that Noise I encourage you to remove the mufflers! It sounds beastly! Without the resonator you now don't hear much of the exhaust.

 

Why do you have to take the whole bumper out? if you can just jack up the front d/s as high as you can go underneath(I did mine on the lift), take splash cover our then loosen the bolts and pull the resonator out. = less bumper scratch, less broken clips and less sweat.

 

^ He did the hard method... But also because its the most obvious method.


Doing the splash cover method is harder since there is little room to maneuver for the front bolt.

 

On my 2000 tl-p I just removed the inner splash, lower splash and was able to get a wrench on the front bolt to unscrew it. Came off pretty easy.

 

Mine was rusted as crap, needed a lot of leverage to move it so I had to remove my bumper


That was before the CAI though...

 

Has anyone ever tried removing the intake tube side branch? Technically our cars have more than 1 resonator. There's the big one in the front fender well and another smaller side branch on the intake tube.

I believe removing this one would have more performance implications, but has anyone removed it and noticed an improvement in sound?

 

You mean the exclusive secondary resonator from the TL-p? You can delete it for sure but that's not something that degrades performance as its made to cancel some certain frequencies of the intake sound while it travels through the plastic intake tube...

The Big-Ass Resonator in the fender though? that can cut some airflow.

 

I just finished this mod. Took the bumper all the way off to make it easy. I did buy 20 new clips before I started this project. Took resonator box off after removing the two bolts. Removed air box. Removed small plastic tube which I guess was an air inlet. Used a 2" - 3" rubber coupling and a 6" piece of 3" pvc pipe. Attached boot to air box and pushed the pvc pipe through the boot. It hangs in the gap behind the bumper cover. I cut slots in the fog light area on the bumper cover to let cool clean air in. Seems to made alittle difference in sound an maybe alittle more throttle response. I know it's not a race car but little bit is nice.

 

Just read this. Explains what resonators are really for. Noise cancellation is not their intention in the first place. The box is there to increase airflow and MPG. Removing actually gets you less MPG. I'm not if I can trust the source, but it does make a lot of sense, even more than adding a huge box just to remove whooshing sound you get when you slam the throttle.

 

Thanks for the article, but I don't entirely believe all of it.

Firstly - I removed my resonator and my MPG was unaffected. I watch mine like a hawk because it's one of the ways I monitor the health of my transmission.

Secondly, they're correct when they say the flowing air slams against the closed valve and the compression wave bounces back. However, there is always an intake valve open at any given time and so I believe the compression wave likely doesn't fully exit the intake manifold. I think the pressure wave expansion actually occurs inside the intake manifold once it exits the intake plenum. Some of the pressure waves exit back outside the intake - this is why we can hear our engines in the first place - the intake resonator quiets these waves so we can't hear them as much.

The intake resonator significantly quiets the engine. Especially our VTECs which, when in VTEC mode, the cam is AGGRESSIVE and the engine is very LOUD as a result. Our TLs are sporty luxury so the designers were focused on comfort when they designed these cars. This includes all the squishiness like our squishy engine mounts, squishy tires, butter soft shifting (which is detonating our trans), squishy brakes and a quiet engine.

 

Should I install a cone filter at the bottom and remove the filter in the box? Or is that pointless?

 

The resonator delete is a sound mod.. it wont affect performance nor will aid in mpg.
Adding a cone filter at the end wont do much as the stock system is already a CAI from the start.

 

Good shit. No need to waste money on a CAI Do you know of any other mods that are free, or cheap?

 

Removing the stock exhaust in favor of straight pipes might help a little bit on the top end but that isnt "free" just not too expensive.

In any case a proper CAI will give you some gains (Removing turbulence from the stock plastic tubes) but simply not enough to justify the cost.