- Car washed at 4pm (Glide automatic), outside temperature 0 C
- Rainshield wiped dry as much as I could immediately after car wash.
- Drove a bit gently, and had the car parked for several hours outside
- Temperature went down to - 5C by 9pm
- Thought it was now safe to redline the car.....

big mistake hahaha... throttle felt funny, and I knew exactly what had happened

Got home okay on gentle throttle... on inspection I find the following:

- Rainshield was dry, but I took it off, the filter material behind had ICE BUILD UP in the folds all around. I could scrape it off with fingers.
- Inspected MAF sensor,and no surprise... there was water at the lower section of it dangling like a few droplets.
- Felt the inside of the tube and it was damp.

Now here's the real shocker... with my bent mirror and flashlight, The first mesh screen had came loose and pushed its way back at 45 degrees towards the second screen!!!!

I spent an hour, removing the mid section of the MSCAI to redo the screens and discovered that in addition to which way the rubber connecting piece should face, there is a certain way as well to place the screens

The AEI installation manual makes no mention of this, so it relies on the intuition of the installer to put them. Last year when I re-did the screens, I only noticed the way the rubber boot should face, but I did not take note at this fine detail on the screen itself.

I have attached a schematic of what I am talking about. I have SEVERELY exaggerated the size of things, but it is evident if you look very closely. The ridge height differences that appear on the mesh screen and the boot itself are in the area of within 1 mm and 2mm respectively.

I don't know if such fine tolerances would help on something that is inherently flexible to some degree. I corrected it anyhow, lets see if now the screens will hold out for another year before they come loose again.

 

Way too much work dude, get an RB intake and sit back and relax... or clean you car as you love to do

 

This is what I am contemplating as well.... I might give up on the MS CAI and switch to RB intake and keep the MS exhaust just like your setup.

If this was not a daily driven car, and it is only driven in spring/summer/fall, I would definitely have no problems keeping the MS CAI.

It's really the winter that makes it hard to maintain. I do need this as a 365 day/year daily driven car, so I'm looking at switching to an RB intake now.

 

My conclusion is that the MS CAI is really not designed for brutal winter usage... freeze/thaw cycles, rain/snow/slush that we've been experiencing.

One has to be very meticulous and careful with the MS CAI in winter.

 

Good plan. Hopefully you can find a used one.

 

Lol Footman...remember what Al said about intakes in Rx8? :P

 

Seems to me the MS isn't designed for high pressure car washes (at least at freezing temperatures.) I'm not meticulous nor careful with mine. I just don't spray water at it.

 

I had it so bad with my MS CAI that one night (car bogged, couldn't rev without bogging like hell, felt like it was going to stall) I actually had to leave my car somewhere 20 minutes from my home, take a quarter day off work to straighten those screens out. I got it running, took the intake out, and never looked back.

POS Imho

 

Always keep a 9/64" allen key, and a large flathead screwdriver with you always if you have the MS CAI. you never know when you'll need to take that **** apart and fix the screens properly.

 

Those parts were never really designed to indure all-year round weather.
Even running it in the summer on rainy days you'll run a risk of getting the filter wet.

In takes should be within the engine bay or at least someplace where it doesn't get hit directly with water or hot air from the rad fans.

It's a good thing I never bothered with it on the Miata.

 

Why not just switch back to the oem intake, wouldnt you run into the same porblems if you go ram air? its still exposed to the air intake.

 

Since I have bought the car, I have gone from MS CAI ---> OEM and then back to MS CAI last April.

Then I sold my OEM intake...

Now, I read that the Revi-intake uses an oil'ed K&N filter, it's just so much hassle....
it's gonna be either I stick with the CAI, or go back to OEM. The OEM intake is so simple to maintain. Just pop open and remove filter! Clean and dry!

 

Never had a problem with the RAM and have been through quite a few car washes this winter

 

The main difference between the MS CAI and the REVi +ram-air duct is the location of the filter element.

The MS CAI has its filter right at the front bottom. The revi + ram-air duct has its filter still within the engine bay. The duct channels air through 2 bends so by gravity, the water is really hard to go "up the duct" and into the revi chamber.

 

I got the MS CAI, but i didn't experience any issues, lucky me........

 

I don't think it's related to luck. There are very specific reasons for the issues that I've experienced, and they are all explainable.

 

At idle you wont have an issue sucking up water with the duct... as you mentioned it should just roll back out. If you're reving the engine though, the resulting suction could be enough to drag the water into the air box. As long as your filter is lubed up (assuming you're using the K&N drop in) you still shouldn't have much of a problem.

Either way, I'll be finding out how this will work once the weather is warm enough that I can install the damn thing.

 

I want to be there to witness the install Chris...

 

Hahaha just witness or hands on? I got good words from Thief on your workmanship :P

Anyway, when are you doing it Chris? April?

 

Yeah it's L337 workmanship!!!! Jay has great workmanship too!

 

Sure... it's not that complicated or anything.. it's basically just taking off the front bumper and the VFAD.. then two bolts and a bracket to put the duct on and reinstall the bumper. done. Oh.. and I'm most likely going to relocate the license plate down to the lower right of the car as well so it's not blocking the front vent... or the oil cooler... that will be more work then the duct install I figure.

In any case, figure enough of us have gather enough toys over the winter to do an install meet as one of our first meets of the year. Only problem will be where to have it. Need a large abandoned parking lot so we can all sprawl out all over the place

 

I think Go station parking lots are relatively empty on weekends right?

 

Well, when Jay, Chris and I put in the MS CAI, I didn't even see a CEL.

 

Yeah, that's why I said Jay has great workmanship!!!

 

Andrew you need to get rid of the CAI.....you have too many issues with it. For some reason your car is extemely sensitive to it and when I had mine my car didn't have any issues until I got stuck in a puddle that completely submerged the filter. the RB would be a good alternative.....but then again, all these intakes make minimal power and are more for sound........i can attest that the stock airbox is very very quiet. If you want the sound then get the RB.