Will after market cold air intakes damage your engine or car?
Depends where the air intake tube is placed. Many cold air tubes are designed to be placed outside the engine bay very low and toward the front of the vehicle. I have handled dozens of insurance claims where people simply drove through a sizable puddle of water and the aftermarket tube allowed enough water to enter the engine to grenade it. The cold air tubes may look cool but offer NO measurable increase in HP to a stock engine. Save your money.
I have seen damage caused by them in the past. The oil used in them are sucked up into the intake and on its way, it passes over the MAF sensor, and this ends up sending an incorrect reading to the computer, this in turn sends out more wrong readings to other sensors and controlers. The engine will run very rough or may not even run at all. I have seen them run so rough and have been set so out of whack, they have damaged internal componants, bearings and such. I have seen this on a few engines with a KN style cold air set up, one was on a Honda Civic, and the other was on a GMC Yukon. The Yukon was saved from major repair by replacing the air filter with a nother styled filter and cleaning out the intake system with intake cleaner and a tooth brush and an air/fuel treatment, and the Civic ended up having the bearings on the crank shaft damaged. It was a repair that was more then the car was worth. Bad vibrations and a poor running engine, killes engines fast. Those were the only two I have seen in the last two years in this garage, I deal with thousands of cars yearly, and probably half, or close to have a KN reusable filter, Cold air intake system, or the like installed, it is very rare that damage will occour, but its still possible. I am designing my truck as a street rat rod project. I will continue to use a paper air filter, just with a modified set up. (cowl induction into a sealed air box)
