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Cold Air Intake Woes

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I installed a Airaid CAI on my 2013 and I just had an issue. I was parked outside for about 12 hours and some heavy rain came through. After returned to my car, I saw that the car was having trouble starting. It seemed like it was choking and then would stall. I didnt know what was wrong until i remembered that the CAIs were prone to water coming through the hood vents on the 13's. Upon inspection, that was exactly the problem. The CAI tube had a little bit of water in it and the filter was wet. I tried starting the car once again with a quick drying method of the filter (put it in my friend's car's front seat leg area and blasted the heat. Not surprisingly it didnt work and it seems like the water is pulled through the filter and mixes with the elements (airaid non oiled type) and becomes a foamy substance. After my failed attempt to ensure its the filter thats the problem i completely took it off and started the car and it started fine. I left the car there and have had the filter drying for 4 hours now in front of a fan, will return soon to get it replaced. Anyone have any experience of this and can tell me how much internal damage i might have done. Every tiime i started the car with the filter on I left it at idle and it eventually stalled, so I didnt get on it or anything to try to keep it running. I hope my engine is okay and everything is fine once i get the dried dilter on.
 

steveespo

Lord knows I'm a Voodoo Child
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I run a Steeda CAI with the Tiger Racing hood (can't get much more vented than that) and never had this issue. Maybe the Airaid type element foam you mentioned hold water more than the oiled gauze types used on the Steeda or JLT. The gauze filters would allow the water to pass through more than foam and would drain out and not restrict airflow. just my $.02
Steve
 

isrboss

The point I immediately recognize here is, if you don't realize how water and open air filters don't mix, leave the oem air BOX[].
 

TMSBOSS

Spending my pension on car parts and track fees.
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sadil said:
I installed a Airaid CAI on my 2013 and I just had an issue. I was parked outside for about 12 hours and some heavy rain came through. After returned to my car, I saw that the car was having trouble starting. It seemed like it was choking and then would stall. I didnt know what was wrong until i remembered that the CAIs were prone to water coming through the hood vents on the 13's. Upon inspection, that was exactly the problem. The CAI tube had a little bit of water in it ajnd the filter was wet. I tried starting the car once again with a quick drying method of the filter (put it in my friend's car's front seat leg area and blasted the heat. Not surprisingly it didnt work and it seems like the water is pulled through the filter and mixes with the elements (airaid non oiled type) and becomes a foamy substance. After my failed attempt to ensure its the filter thats the problem i completely took it off and started the car and it started fine. I left the car there and have had the filter drying for 4 hours now in front of a fan, will return soon to get it replaced. Anyone have any experience of this and can tell me how much internal damage i might have done. Every tiime i started the car with the filter on I left it at idle and it eventually stalled, so I didnt get on it or anything to try to keep it running. I hope my engine is okay and everything is fine once i get the dried dilter on.

Since you stated that the car ran fine without a filter. The car will most likely run fine with a dried filter.

Back in the day, folks used to poor water into a running carb to break up carbon deposits in the engine. Now you can buy water injection units for "performance gains".

Small quantities of water should not hurt your engine.

Let us know how the new filter and shield mentioned above work out.

Good luck.
 
401
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Thanks for the info guys. The engine started up perfect after I returned with a dry filter. I didnt get any codes after. There was a slight moment of panic when I started up the car without the MAF sensor wire connected. Immediately went into limp mode and scared me to death. Connected my iTSX and dongle and it was throwing MAF codes and then I remembered. Once reconnected, everything was fine. Car is running great again. Waiting for my JLT foam covers which I ordered last week.
 

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