this may be a stupid question, but does anyone here use true cold air all yr long?Obviously driving in rainy and wet conditions can and will create hydro blocking. Anyone know anything about aem's bypass valve and whether it's effective?

 

i drive with a CAI all year long. no problems. if there's a foot of water infront of you, and your lowered, common sence tells you not to drive through it.

 

u mean with true cold air? and besides what about snow in the winter time, sometimes its hard to avoid water or especially snow.

 

You have to be careful with those bypass valves. They're nice because they prevent hydro lock, but on the down side some have been known to leak, take in dirt and damage engine componants. The safest way to stay is paper stock filter, since clothe filters are also known to let in dirt.

 

yes, i have a true cold air intake, when it comes to puddles, you shoulden't have a problem, the filter has to be completley submurged for you motor to hydrolock. aslong as you have the filter on there and your not going swimming, you should be fine. as for snow, the filter is located behind your fender liner, so it'd be pretty hard to get snow packed up under there.

 

+1


Along with that if your really driving in water that deep you have other things to worry about, like you ecu and exhaust.


Real world example: I drove through that huge rainstorm last year that left sink holes and ---- all over ontario.

I went from whitby to st. catherines, it took about 3 hours. I did drive through puddles, but the ones that were clearly big/deep enough to submerge my front passenger side signal light were avoided. I still drove through puddles, but not ones that would submerge my filter.

After I reached St. Catherine's I got out and checked my filter and it was defienetly wet, but never in the entire journey did the filter get submerged.

I also drive through winter with it, same thing no problems.




Just don't be stupid like those that you see on tv during the big rain storm and decide to drive through 2ft deep water. Just find another way.

 

make sure you check the condition of the bypass valve periodically. a friend of mine had one installed on his R and on the highway all of a sudden the throttle stuck open. the foam rotted away after a year and jammed his tb. luckily nothing else happened and he was only stuck with a $150 repair bill.

he took the thing out and went back to stock.

 

so a bypass isn't really necessary for true cold air as long as you watch where you drive? besides that, what about on days like today where it's a$$ cold outside? will the temperature have an affect?

 

Correct

No negative effect. You'll actually have a benefit from the colder air entering the engine.

The car will be a little more peppy.

 

i think the bypass valve is bull ----. on 90% of cars the cold air is too high and hidden to get any water stuck in. unless maybe your on the highway or going throug hhuge *** pudles like a jack ***

 

i went swimming last week and survived...thank the good lord
she shut off and i thought she was gone haha...but she survived

 

no.

by cold air, we're referring to a intake that relocates the air filter to infront of the passenger side wheel, behind the bumper/turnsignal.