"This is AEM’s acclaimed flagship item: their cold air intake (CAI). Long story short, I DIDN'T like this product! This product was my first performance item for my car. At first I thought it was cool that my car was a bit noisy, but I realized one thing. The throttle response dropped! Since my purchase of September of 2000, for three years, no matter what I put on my car, the bottom end throttle response was terrible! I could feel the lag while the air was traveling up from behind the mudguard all the way to the engine. If you do the research what is best for acceleration are the short ram intakes because of the less distance for the air that the throttle body pulls in, but the horse power on the high end is a different story. Horsepower is a bit less than the CAI due to the hot engine air that the short ram takes in. Yet in my case I chose the CAI. Well it pulls differently from after the VTEC point compared to stock. Yet I believe the torque less B16 didn’t need that trade off of bottom end power for just about 1-2 hp at the wheels. Also there was the fact I was forced to drive in the rain and I experienced hydro-lock. I was one of those unlucky cases. About the bypass valve, I was informed from a mechanic that with the valve you lose about .5 hp. Think about that .5 minus the 1-2 hp. Even though the sound of the VTEC explosion was cool, the long trips from San Diego to Riverside would leave my ears ringing. In the fall of 2003 I removed this unit for a Comptech Ice Box that I paired with an ITR intake arm, because the Comptech arm was metal and metal conducts heat; on another note the Comptech drop-in air filter for the Integra fits like a glove inside the Civic Si ice box. I traded the AEM for the best of all worlds: short air travel, cold air ducting, quiet, bottom end power, mid range pull and high-end power! I suggest you as a consumer put in at least a month’s worth of research concerning how your car runs and what product you want to buy. Remember the stock B16A is 1.6 liters in displacement, and with lower the displacement the harder it is to realize any good gains."

could the problem be cause he installed it bad?
its the first bad review ive seen for cold air intakes

 

this will be said time and time again, unless you plan on driving through a over a 1 1/2 feet or more of water you wont experience hydro lock if you take off the front bumper and/or the under skirt you wont get water up inside the bumper to experience hydro lock in heavy rain. Which means the guy drove through heavy water and on top of that even civics get gains from any form of new intake over the stock just like accords do and yes, smaller engine so smaller gains but thats beside the point there really shouldnt have been any losses anywhere for him on the use of a cai, but he managed to hydro lock his engine which means he had little or no thought about the fact the filter is much lower then normal, i generally dont take the review of someone who does something stupid

 

lol, alright

 

wen i bought my car it came with a short ram intake and the ****en thing busted my AC lines, bought the propper pipe, since then no AC bust and it feels good
i dunno difference of opinion, all i knoe is im not risking having another busted AC pipe, not after 300 price tage to fix the damn thing and 80 for the freon

 

How did you sri bust your ac?

 

wtf, never heard about that happening before, but could the exact cause be from the intake?
anyone here know a thing or two?

 

intake was either positioned wrong or some how it was too big and closing the hood continuously bent the ac lines

 

does anyone know how CAI's hold up in the winter?

I live up here in canada where it snows 1/2 the year. I got the AEM v2 intake and the filter sits right behind an open "air vent" (normally where the fog lights would go if i got em) exposing it to snow and rain. Now ive driven it through numerous rainstorms and so far everything has been okay, but im not so sure how it will hold up in the snow. Any advice?

 

i think rain would be worse cause it splashes and snow doesnt, unless you run into a huge pile

 

if it is aluminum it will hold up just fine......even the plastic ones will hold up just fine but MAY crack in EXTREME COLD........