CAI is... quieter??

goldwing2000

Turd in the punch bowl
:
2004 Mazda3s Hatch; 269,000 miles
I never would have believed it but I just installed my red AEM CAI today and it's actually quieter than it was with the stock filter box without the resonator! (scratch)

Oh well... whatever! My butt dyno is WAAAAY happy, now.

Oh, I put a 10 ga ground on the ETB, too. I don't care whether it does anything or not. It was a cheap (free) mod, so I might as well. I'll be doing the coolant bypass probably tomorrow.
 
Well well well

goldwing2000 said:
I never would have believed it but I just installed my red AEM CAI today and it's actually quieter than it was with the stock filter box without the resonator! (scratch)

Oh well... whatever! My butt dyno is WAAAAY happy, now.

Oh, I put a 10 ga ground on the ETB, too. I don't care whether it does anything or not. It was a cheap (free) mod, so I might as well. I'll be doing the coolant bypass probably tomorrow.

Need the pics and more importantly the opinion....

Tim

p.s. Congrats. You waited for this.
 
Loose said:
Need the pics and more importantly the opinion....

Tim

p.s. Congrats. You waited for this.

I'll get some pics up this weekend.

Opinion on what?
 
opinions

goldwing2000 said:
I'll get some pics up this weekend.

Opinion on what?

Just to see if you believe the 10ga ETB, the CAI and the springs helped or not along with all the other modifications.
You see I want to do these things to my car but 2 things are stopping me. One, the expense to benefit ratio. I could drop a grand but is the gain in performance really worth it, and two the choice in product i.e the Tien vs. Eibach, AEM vs waiting for K & N vs the two piece.
I never owned a import sport compact so this whole mod thing is chinese to me. I just wanted your opinion oh holy GW.....are you happy with your wallet and more importantly, your car?

Tim (hi)
 
Loose said:
Just to see if you believe the 10ga ETB, the CAI and the springs helped or not along with all the other modifications.
You see I want to do these things to my car but 2 things are stopping me. One, the expense to benefit ratio. I could drop a grand but is the gain in performance really worth it, and two the choice in product i.e the Tien vs. Eibach, AEM vs waiting for K & N vs the two piece.
I never owned a import sport compact so this whole mod thing is chinese to me. I just wanted your opinion oh holy GW.....are you happy with your wallet and more importantly, your car?

Tim (hi)

LoL... to be perfectly honest with you, this my first modded import, too. I've done stuff to other people's cars and I've modded my own American cars but the only other import I've owned was an '89 Tercel!
I tuned it and rebuilt the engine but the only mods were "bigger" 14-inch wheels and window tint.

I can honestly say that I am happy with all the mods I've done on the 3 so far.

CAI: $150-definitely happy
Springs: $221-definitely happy
ETB Ground: $0-I did it the same time as the CAI, so I can't tell any difference but hey... for free, it couldn't hurt.
Hot-Wired Lighter: $0-definitely happy
Air Horns: $400-definitely happy!

That's not including the dealer accessories that have been bought and installed. I think my grand total spent is something like $1100 right now but that's a lot of other crap, too (I keep a spreadsheet).

If you have to pay someone to do the work for you, then you can pretty much double the amounts.

As far as what brands to choose, that's something that everybody has to figure out for themselves. Because of the limited availability of parts, I passed over "Miss Right" and went to "Miss Right Now".

I researched both AEM and Eibach, read other people's opinions and decided that they were both good companies with reputable products.

Besides that, I'm a cheap bastard and they both have the least expensive parts. I'm not going to be racing this thing, I just want something more fun to play with on the street.
 
Thanx, your opinion holds weight

goldwing2000 said:
Besides that, I'm a cheap bastard and they both have the least expensive parts. I'm not going to be racing this thing, I just want something more fun to play with on the street.
LOL. Not saying "I'm doin it cause GW did it." but I, like you I am a cheap bastard as well (fat too). I just didn't want to drop the dimes if other ppl weren't COMPLETELY satisfied. It's because of ppl doing the write ups here on the board that allows ppl like me to do the mod myself (pretty handy but could easily muck somthing up). Thank you again. Sorry to hear about all the rain. I'm currently im Mass.. Just overcast here...Still want to see some pics though, no rush lol j/k (shocked)

Oh, is it really quieter than just w/o the res? and is that under throttle or just @ idle?

Tim
 
Loose said:
Oh, is it really quieter than just w/o the res? and is that under throttle or just @ idle?
Tim

Quieter all around. Shocked the hell out of me. I was expecting this big bass growl and it just wasn't there. I think it was reverberating through the air box before and now it's got such a smooth path that is just slips right in!

Dn't get me wrong, though... the added HP definitely makes up for any lack of noise! (2thumbs)
And now I feel more comfortable that putting an exhaust system on isn't going to make it too loud to be comfortable (I put about 300-400 miles a week on the car).
 
goldwing2000 said:
Quieter all around. Shocked the hell out of me. I was expecting this big bass growl and it just wasn't there. I think it was reverberating through the air box before and now it's got such a smooth path that is just slips right in!

Dn't get me wrong, though... the added HP definitely makes up for any lack of noise! (2thumbs)
And now I feel more comfortable that putting an exhaust system on isn't going to make it too loud to be comfortable (I put about 300-400 miles a week on the car).

quieter?? thats odd.. at least you still gain power
 
1st K&N puts out one of the best filters oth there on the market....and thats where it stops....K&N usualy runs the same or more than injen with price wise but usualy have -5 to -7 hp difrence...

and I guess all the bends and location of the filter contribute to it being quieter...I would add that sri will always be louder and hi piched than the cai cause cai uses the fender and piping to echo where the sri echos thruought the engine bay. My but dyno shows sri gives better low end and cai gives of the better mid to high range with better sound...remember rule of thumb is if this is your daily driver...do the mod that makes the car sound better then run better...if you like to hear the drone of a header, turbo thru muffler, and no cats then thats all you! Remember extremely loud cars atract the cops attetion over the guy that is barreling down the road at a faster pace. also the aluminum drag wing ceatching all the beams of the sun stands out as well.

GW not even if you rev or redline? try hitting the limiter? man they really didn't want that car t be heard...you are revving high enough to disengage vtcs right?
 
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Da 6 said:
GW not even if you rev or redline? try hitting the limiter? man they really didn't want that car t be heard...you are revving high enough to disengage vtcs right?

Oh, yeah, yeah... it's still got some noise, especially at the top of the range, just not where I do most of my driving. Actually, I don't think I've been above 5k since I put it on. And I NEVER bounce it off the rev limiter. Redline is 6500 and peak power is 6250, so there's no reason to hit 7250. If you're not making power then you're just making noise. (no)

Don't get me wrong... it's not as whisper-quiet as the full stock system (sleep) , just quieter then the stock system without the resonator. It still sounds damn good. It'll sound even better when I decide on an exhaust. (thumb)
 
Wow... Goldwing and I actually agree on something here (partially).

I too feel the AEM is quiter than the stock air box with resonator removed until VVT kicks in... then, I think the AEM is noticeably louder. With the resonator removed... it was deep but not loud... with the AEM, cars next to me look and it looks like they freak out for a minute thinking they're gonna get hit or something.
 
I decided to play with it a bit last night. Did a couple holeshots and redline shifts just to see what's what.

I didn't notice an extreme amount of noise but I did have the radio on and the sunroof open. (shrug) Whatever the noise level, it's not enough to bug me.
 
No Sound From CAI??

I think something is wrong with your car bro. I installed the AEM CAI in my mazda 3 and it is loud. You should check how you hooked it up....and let me know, really curious as to why you are not getting a louder sound out of it????
 
I agree man... when you hit VVT, people look... they didn't when I just had the resonator removed... it's a higher pitched (but still a lot lower than the honduh's), punchier tone.
 
stingfish said:
I agree man... when you hit VVT, people look... they didn't when I just had the resonator removed... it's a higher pitched (but still a lot lower than the honduh's), punchier tone.
hope the hell you have a deper sound than a 1.6L honda!...
 
SoCalMzda3 said:
I think something is wrong with your car bro. I installed the AEM CAI in my mazda 3 and it is loud. You should check how you hooked it up....and let me know, really curious as to why you are not getting a louder sound out of it????

There's nothing wrong with my car. Trust me on that one.

Did you have your intake resonator removed previously? If you didn't, then yes, there will be a huge difference.
 
is the CAI louder or softer when you had the resonator removed? Probley you were just used to the wooomp sound you had without the resonator and just expected the CAI to be alot louder. (uhm)
 
TuRbOtEcTicS said:
Probley you were just used to the wooomp sound you had without the resonator and just expected the CAI to be alot louder. (uhm)

Exactly. That's what I said in the very first post on this thread.
 
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