what are the chances of this happening

[Greenbread]

my mazda dealer was telling me a horror story were a guy with a cai ran over a puddle and got water in his engine and it screwed it up? should i really worry about this or no. i live in north east ohio

[Dexter]

eh..ive had a CAI on my car (not a 3, but same priniciple) for almost 2 years now, through two winters and crazy rain. no problems. i make sure i dont go through puddles when it rains.

[KzA]

how often do you drive through 3 foot puddles?

[mobomelter]

you can get a air-bypass valve from aem that will make sure that horror story never happens to you. search on sportcompactcarweb.com they did an article about the air bypass valve.

[goldwing2000]

CLUE: if the water is 12" deep, it's no longer a puddle, it's a flood. DON'T drive through it!

That's how deep it would have to be to submerge a CAI on this car.

[briand805]

my mazda dealer was telling me a horror story were a guy with a cai ran over a puddle and got water in his engine and it screwed it up? should i really worry about this or no. i live in north east ohio

I have the Injen CAI on my 3 and drove it for extended periods of time through sever weather. I didnt go tearing trough deep puddles or use it as a snorkle either but I drive in very very heavy rain with no problems..

Unless you submerge the intake your shouldnt have any problems. And if you submerge the intake that means you are probably flooding the car as well.

[tgv121281]

Good point. ANyone that has the intake on their ride can eyeball it and see that to submerge the filter, you'd have to basically be riding through enough water where it'd be coming in from your doors...I live in Miami(where there's 100% chance of rain 7mos out of the year), and I did some talking to people w/ CAI on 3's and other rides, I have only heard 1 horror story...kid was drunk, it was pooring, he pulled into a parking lot where there was severe flooding and ended up not only submerging the intake but also flooding his interior....luckily they were able to salvage the engine by pumping the water out(and replacing some essentials)..other then that no others horrors(knock on wood).

PS-I dont think the air bypass valve works for us w/ the AEM CAI. Looks like its intended for the sysytems that can be converted from SRI to CAI.....anyone else check out the article and see this?

[Da 6]

if you can't see the curb, sidewalk, or bottom of fire hydrant anymore....let alone cars in front of you are floating away don't do it... Here in D.C. it floods every other day and all I do is pull over and adjust the height of my custom setup to where the filter sits against bottom of headlight if I still see the curb.
another thing to take into consideration...if it's 110 degrees out and didn't rain but street is flooded...chances are the street has a crater in it frrom broken sewer pipe dodn't attempt it!

[solid_snake2x]

but dealers will always tell you a horror story about any aftermarket part that you put in your car. To me dealers hate aftermarket parts.!!

[CommieSpeed]

you can get a air-bypass valve from aem that will make sure that horror story never happens to you. search on sportcompactcarweb.com they did an article about the air bypass valve.
I have heard of people who have hydro-locked their engine with this installed!!! For the most part i have read all too many bad reviews of this seemingly unnecissary product.

[Da 6]

the by-pass works but doesn't last long due to the fact it's under the hood and detererate over time falling apart under vacum...plus you have to cut your intake to make it work...

[Greenbread]

so basically i dont have to worry just dont go over puddles? really fast

[Da 6]

yes...don't rev thru the puddle and don't ford the cuyahoga river ;) I remember when I was in cleveland a water mainw ould break downtown for no reason whatsoever dirrung like rush hour...

[mobomelter]

i found the link for the sport compact car test. i beileve their test to be accurate meaning the valve does work.
click me (http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/tech/0104scc_tested/index.html)
also i really don't think you'd notice a huge difference between a cold air intake and a regular shortie intake. i tired both on my focus and i never noticed a difference. so i stuck to the shortie because i didn't have to worry about it in the rain.

[Foolish]

A co-worker of mine hit a deep puddle in his Civic, realized he was at risk from his CAI, and cut the engine, but he was too late. Hydro-locked his engine, and had to replace it.

A good friend of mine put the whole front end of his V6 Eclipse, up to the bottom of the winshield, under water in a flash flood last month, engine stalled, wouldn't restart. He had an AEM CAI, no bypass. The shop was able to pump out and dry out the engine, and he's good to go.

So, the odds? Hard to say. I'm going to put the Injen CAI on my car, but I'm also going to look at a way to shield it from being splashed from below. I'm also going to wait 'til after this winter to put it on, I think, just to get some of the crappy weather behind me!

[Mazda3ofKent]

my mazda dealer was telling me a horror story were a guy with a cai ran over a puddle and got water in his engine and it screwed it up? should i really worry about this or no. i live in north east ohio
you should be fine even with out the bypass just avoid the lakes and rivers

[goldwing2000]

you should be fine even with out the bypass just avoid the lakes and rivers

Seriously, he's right. The location of the filter on the 3 has a factory splash shield, so incidental water splashing isn't going to affect it. If you're really worried, you could cover up the louvers in the inner fender well.

[Da 6]

I can tell the dfrence in CAI SRI and Airbox...2nd gear pull will let you know this.
Never said the Bypass won't work...just that it is under the hood and heat seaps into the bypass causing you to raise intake temps(defeating the "C" in CAI) also have been known to detererate from engine heat and break off under vaccum. They work but they don't last the life of the intake or filter. $40(if you was going AEM and not the ebay one) could be spent elseware IMHO...

[mobomelter]

eh i'd still stick with the shortie to save money and piece of mind.

[Greenbread]

then what would be the point of cold air intake your your still getting the hot air from the engine?

[Da 6]

My reason behing my current setup is I had way tooo much Tq in the winter and had to kill some of the ponies.... light throttle sholdn't send the car sideways LOL! in 2nd gear I floored it and 40 was as high as it would climb the hill...the noticed power in SRI for me is light throttle applications. WOT was just cool noises and no pull whatsoever. SRI compared to my custom CAI is night and day. SRI make Zoom-Zoom feel like Um-Um. My custom setup is the only cai that places the filter as low as the calipers.

In reply to last poster...CAI is only a cai if it leaves the engine bay for air supply. If you pop the hood and see the filter then it's not a cai...

[mobomelter]

i had a cai on my focus and i HATED driving it with the cai on. whenever it would rain i would have to drive with extreme caution. i hated it. i also never noticed a difference by my seat-of-the-pants dyno. its all personal preference. btw where can i find a shortie intake for my 3?

[Da 6]

MZR responds difrently than other 4cyl to mods.... Intake can give you more hp than cat back when thats the total opposite with other cars...

[AzMz3]

i had a cai on my focus and i HATED driving it with the cai on. whenever it would rain i would have to drive with extreme caution. i hated it. i also never noticed a difference by my seat-of-the-pants dyno. its all personal preference. btw where can i find a shortie intake for my 3?


I had a Focus too, but I by far don't agree with you. Never had to worry at all driving with a CAI on it and noticed a nice difference from it.
But you are right it is personal perference. I think some are saying you can change the K&N CAI into a short ram.

[mobomelter]

what year focus did you have? i had a 2000 automatic.

[AzMz3]

what year focus did you have? i had a 2000 automatic.


2002 auto here....I stayed far away from the 00's.

[mobomelter]

eh it was a good first car. never had any problems that i didn't personally give it.