Just installed the MS CAI this afternoon. Took me much longer than I had expected, but it's all in and it feels great (especially 20 - 30 minutes into the test drive, when it seemed as if the ECU was starting to realize the differences). Couple questions:
- I re-read the instructions several times, and it never said to put the bottom splash guard back on (the large plastic cover with 7 bolts and 2 plastic fasteners sitting on the bottom of the entire engine bay). Should I put it back anyway, or is it supposed to run open to allow more air into the intake?
- It looks like the car is overboosting, and I wonder if the ECU will figure it out eventually, or if there is anything else I could add/change to prevent this. I have a scangauge II on the car which shows manifold pressure. Prior to the CAI, it would never go above 31 (which is right about 15.9 psi boost + the 14.7 atmospheric pressure). But with the CAI, I immediately saw 36.0 when I hit the gas in 4th gear; that would represent 21.3 psi of boost. The car didn't feel much faster at that boost level, so the ECU was probably cutting the fuel and spark way back anyway.
I did think that the instructions could have been much clearer. I don't know why there aren't pictures of things like that resister on the fuel rail, and of the different splash guards. Turning that plastic breather pipe was a scary time. It wouldn't budge at all, and I thought it was going to crack, right up until it seemed to pop and then it turned just fine. A description of that would have been a nice addition to the instructions. It also took me forever to get that silly air deflector off in front of the wheel fender cover. I simply didn't have a tool to get back behind it and take the top bolt off; had to go buy an extra-short and folding ratchet, along with a thumbwheel ratchet; then I could finally get it off. I also didn't figure out the plastic connector at the very bottom of that piece, and eventually had to just pull hard (which worked). I'm glad I did it myself; I now know that every bolt has been torqued to spec and it is installed exactly like the instructions, but if I had it to do over again I'm not sure I wouldn't have paid 2 or 3 hrs of dealer labor to just have it appear magically in my engine bay...
