CAI and Touchless Car Wash

[chillinmcmillan]

I just got my Injen in the mail and am going to install it this weekend. I was just wondering if washing the car with a power washer and spraying up inside the left front wheel well where the cone sits will hurt it? Will a lot of water get in there? Thanks for any help.

[jrodhotrod]

Not at all, if you look at where the filter goes there is no way enough water is going to get in there to hurt your car.

The only way to waterlock your engine is to drive your car into a 2 foot deep puddle. Just be careful when driving in the rain and don't go flying through deep puddles and you will be fine.

-Jared

[CommieSpeed]

Uhhhh....I really would watch it at the car wash too. Keep in mind that ANY water is not a good idea...you don't want any amount of water going directly into your turbo do you? I just dont spray water directly into that area on the front of my car and I can wash it fine. But I usually turn my car off too just to be safe!! :-)

[SpeedMcheen]

I have the CAI also, and I just washed & waxed the heck out of my car today. Got the wheel wells real good to. No problems with water in/around the CAI. It seems water can only get in that area from very peculiar angles. Like an undercarrige wash at a car wash.

[INGREXCO]

well shit! i get the undecarrage wash

[Mach 3.5 Turbo]

Come on now, you guys don't really think you're going to flood your car in the carwash do you? You would have to fully submerge the whole filter element in nothing short of a small lake to do anything to the engine or turbo. Besides, the Injen places the filter so enclosed in it's own little box that I don't know how I could even spray water at my car and hit it, underbody wash or not. A wet filter doesn't hurt anything either, it's just wet. It'll probably flows less until it dries out, that's it. If you're car is so deep or wet that the engine gets water in it, you better quit worrying about the car and start swimming back to shore.

[murdock_]

under carriage wash ur fine i worked at a car wash and ran my car thru almost every day.. no problems

[nate0123]

Uhhhh....I really would watch it at the car wash too. Keep in mind that ANY water is not a good idea...you don't want any amount of water going directly into your turbo do you? I just dont spray water directly into that area on the front of my car and I can wash it fine. But I usually turn my car off too just to be safe!! :-)Directly into your turbo? (uhm)

The turbo is on the exhaust side. The engine would need to be sucking in lots of air for water to be drawn up the intake, and then any small amounts of water that get into the engine would be vaporized before they got to the exhaust side.

[rocketspeed]

The turbo sits on the exhaust manifold because its spun by exhaust gas, but its operating on the intake side of the engine. If water comes into your CAI, its going to run into the turbo (the turbo isn't going to like trying to compress water) then into your intercooler, then get slurped up through your intake manifold and into your engine. When the compression stroke takes place, that's the end of your engine.

If you check down there, the filter on your CAI is frequently going to be wet. Pretty much every time you drive in a rainstorm its going to be damp. It doesn't affect the operation of the filter.

As for the car wash, its probably not a problem, but there's no way to be 100% certain. Why not just skip the undercarriage wash to be safe?