how much is too much rain for a CAI?

[SisTum ID]

gonna get a cai for my 04 elantra, ive looked around for this question and i seem to not get a good stright answer. my question is....by having the cone of the cai exposed like the image is, is this bad when driving when its raining? whats considered too much rain for cai to handle?
http://www.elantraxd.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=1037&stc=1

[ArunSenior04]

6+" of standing water

[Keyan]

When rain comes down in droplets it is considered atomized....which if coming up the intake like that wont harm anything...maybe even help with intake air temps. But if you completely submerged the pipe with water you are ****ed.


:)

[Vampyrate]

if you get a CAI, which i see that you are, then you would be best to get a bypass valve. some people say its a waste of money, but its saved my *** in the past and great for peace of mind.

[PSUsouthpaw]

And its reasonably cheap on ebay...can get 'em for like $25 shipped.

[Seinster]

My cone is where your cone is.
On the highways I'd say it is pretty rare for a puddle to be 8" deep, so when you're driving through a lot of waterlogged streets, most likely it is in the suburbs or city.
Just be careful, and if you think the puddle is too deep, TURN OFF YOUR ENGINE, don't pay any heed to the n00bs behind you, and push the car to safety.
Hydrolocking isn't worth getting some place a bit quicker.

[quickfingerz]

Your filter will get dirty quickly when it rains in that situation. Look at your bumper alone when it rains hard. I would definitely get a sheild for it.

[Soron]

get the aem bypass valve and problem solved. What it does it basically instantaniously converts your cai into an sri when the cai cone is submerged, if you are concerned about water droplets then get a rain shield pre-filter cover available from injen.

[SisTum ID]

so which is better?
rain shieldhttp://injenonline.com/cgi-bin/Merchant2/graphics/00000002/x1033_lrg.jpg
or
aem bypasshttp://www.aperformancedirect.com/images/prod-bypass.jpg
or should i do both? also how does the rain shield work really?

[quickfingerz]

I am not a big fan of bypass valves. I am a big fan of shields to keep your filter nice & clean.

[KeWLKaT]

yep shield is what i would do.

[Tyburn]

as far as I know, rain shield just keeps the filter from getting wet.
just think that you're putting on some nylon on it, that way, water won't get in but air will.
however, like Seinster said up there, keep away from deep puddles

[Vampyrate]

there is no 100% way to prevent a CAI from getting dirtier faster than an SRI or wetter than one. but i think i nice combo would be the shield and bypass... better safe than sorry. and if you pair up the AEM dryflow filter with Injen shield... all you have to do is switch out rain shields if you have more than one every few weeks and not have to worry about changing out filters while cleaning the other

[only1db]

if your concerned i would go with the by pass valve...

i am extremely lowered 2.75+ with my coils and i have had no trouble running around in the rain...just be careful when going through puddles...but being that i have an 03 gt the filter is a little better protected from the front side.

[Vampyrate]

yeah, fog lights offer some protection for it as well

[Tyburn]

I know this is a very old thread... but I have one question.
if you have a shield and the bypass all together, would the shield create enough pressure for bypass to be closed?
has anyone done both before?

[OPZ]

My thoughts are look where the filter is. You shouldn't be driving through that deep water in the first place.

And both at the same time? Well, it SHOULDNT make such a huge difference...best method is try it yourself and let us know, if you get the stuff off ebay it shouldn't be that expensive.

[silversharkXD2]

The water doesn't have to be that deep. My wife wnet through a deep puddle on a highway (which couldn't have been that deep, although it was raining so hard she should have stopped anyways) and it sucked up enough to short my idle air control. Hydrolock isn't the only worry. People don't seem to get that. BTW the IAC is 180 bucks for the part on a tib. Much more than a bypass.

[ghrpdx]

Remember, when you are driving through water as shallow as 1" deep, the tires hit the water and send it in all directions ... including forward. Watch some cars drive through water and you will see the water splashes forward and they drive into the spray. I'm not sure if that makes sense to anyone, but I think having your intake filter located right behind the bumper at such a low level is just asking for trouble. Hydrolock and shorting the idle air control are not the only issue, simple saturation of the filter may reduce the ability to draw air freely and cause engine performance issues as well.

[BobMs_wht2k2]

Well, after over 4 years I still am waiting for that "catastrophic failure" so many predict with the CAI. We've driven it through torrential downpours, deep snow and a little bit of anyhting that Indiana climates can throw at us. Still waiting. . . . but until then I'll just keep enjoying it.

[KeWLKaT]

Well I had my setup with a CAI for the summer, and when I pulled the filter a few weeks ago is was fukin filithy. Needless to say, I rotated the intake piping, and put the filter right behind the headlight (no battery there anyways, lol), now it performs better (duh, clean filter), looks cool also!

[ghrpdx]

I just pulled my K&N filter this weekend and it looked like a block of coal. Got it all cleaned up and oiled and back in the car. Suppose I should clean it more than once every two years, huh?

[BobMs_wht2k2]

I typically clean 2-3 times a year with all my K&N's. Being on a gravel/dirt road and as many miles as we rack up a year it's a good preventative maintenance type thing. To be hoest, My CAI isn'tmuch dirtier than our old Grand Vitara filter over the same time period and it was still in it's original box.

[KeWLKaT]

Maybe it's a climate thing.