So I ordered the AEM 21-485R Red Cold Air Intake System and started installing it today. After finally getting to installing the intake I realized there was an issue with the second 3.50" intake pipe.

You are supposed to have 2x 3.50" intake pipes but one is 5.5" long and the other is 4" long. The problem is my second shorter (4") intake pipe is 3.25" in diameter. Are the instructions wrong or is the pipe wrong? Right now the pipe feels way too small. It doesn't want to fit properly (like the first pipe)...I can't believe they'd send me the wrong size pipe but it's starting to look that way.

Anyone else encounter this or have any suggestions?

 

That's the best way that i could find to help you for it's been a while since i last installed an aem intake. If yours doesn't look like this, diameters wise, the company messed up the package's content

 

I just got mine in today and was doing the install and same thing is going on with me. RED CAI pipe 2-404 is too small in diameter to fit the 2nd screen coupling and reducer hump coupling...Hmm... I will call AEM tomorrow and see what is going on.

Tom, did you ever get your problem fixed? What did you do (prob beating a dead horse looking at your post count..)?

 

K&N bought AEM and from what I heard (from a vendor) the piping in thinner, paint is crappier, and overall the new AEM's are just shitty compared to the old models. Maybe quality control is not up to task as well.

 

installed mine about a few weeks ago and everything was fine for me

 

Ya I am disappointed with the workmanship of the product. I just hope that everything else is up to par.

 

Why yes it was you. I recently bought a used new version for use in my turbo build and the blue paint was flaking off inside of the pipe. I don't think that is good for the engine I used aircraft remover to remove all the paint and I am having the piping coated.

I also compared the piping of mine to a friends old Mazdaspeed intake and the piping on the Mazdaspeed is quite a bit thicker.

 

Time to start making another good exhaust Ray! Possibly without the final 90° bend

 

Yep, you are exactly right. The paint appeared to be separating from that undercoat. I should have taken pictures but I bought it used and had planned on stripping it and coating it.

Although, I did order this recently and this quality is top notch.

 

Called AEM today. They are going to send me the correct pipe. They are worried now that they may have a whole batch of red intakes for the rx8 that could have the wrong size pipe in them. So if your production date on the box says April 2011, you may have the wrong size 2-404 pipe in them.

 

Is the price still the same as before?

 

Hey sorry for getting back to you guys so late. I'm not very accustomed to forum posting and shortly after creating this I resolved the issue myself (with some help from my Brother).

I'm glad to hear you called them and they are sending you the right pipe. They must have messed up an entire batch if mine wasn't a fluke. The problem for me was I had to drive my car the next day and I didn't want to reassemble everything I just tore out just to do it all again once the new pipe came in.

All I did to fix this was place the pipe where it was supposed to go and just tightened down the rubber connectors. Even though the rubber joint on the reducer was 3.5" and the large pipe joint was 3.5" on both sides they still tightened down enough to snugly fit the 3.25" pipe without causing a sealing issue.

You'll want to make sure that you have the pipe sitting in the two joints properly (as it doesn't budge up against the air smoother filter well and could slide most of the way through the reducer joint) so that you can tighten it down without having any sealing issues. All that really means is butt it up next to the air smoother gasket in the 3.5" joint and don't let it slide beyond the flanged portion of the reducer joint. Then just tighten them down.

I'll also call AEM just to get the right pipe in case I ever take it apart. It's working very well though and I still have to say that the car sounds awesome. I can't speak for the overall quality vs the old models but It is still pretty nice. I bought Red (so I can't speak about the quality of the Chrome or polished model).

Good luck and sorry for the delay!

 

i just bought an aem intake (Red) too. I noticed the one pipe seemed a little small too. It looked like it was the same size as the screen inside. Didn't seem like a problem since the coupler was able to make up for the small diameter. Mine is also stamped mazdaspeed on one of the pipes. Does this have any indication on older or newer? I know aem is a copy of it.