My new Cold Air Intake

[CaCathy13]

My boyfriend just installed my Xmas present...a new AEM CAI. After this, I'm thinking of getting plates that say "GOTLIFT"....He's bringing it back to me today and I'll let you know what it really feels like...but he said it's loud and fast....lol I also painted my calipers this weekend-and while putting the tires back on we broke a stud...so everyone be careful! I chose yellow and they really accent the car nicely...I'm waiting for my Grafxwerks vinyl-GT overlays for the badges and the "PONTIAC" inlays on the gate-both in bright yellow. I'm thinking of painting the "VVTL-I" yellow on the engine cover, but I just might leave it off all together...anyone else done this?pics are here http://www.mitro.net/vibe/index.html

[Frosty]

Nice Album. You missed one pic though. The one of the CAI wrapped under the tree Great post!

[Vibe]

Nice Pics but something caught my eye---I would have not accepted delivery if the dealer "PLASTERED" his dealer sticker emblem on the back of my car as he did yours.

[mitro]

Unfortuntely the CAI came a few days too late to get it under the tree. And yes the dealer sticker will be coming off real soon (if I have my say, that is )The CAI install went reasonably well, the directions provided with the AEM CAI were nicely detailed however I wish they had color pics instead of black & white. The only real issue that came up was installing the filter at the end, the Matrix and the Vibe must be a bit different inside the fender. The foglight housing, was in the way to get the filter on easily, but after going back and loosening all the mount points on the CAI and removing the foglight bulb temporarily I was able to wiggle it on there (scraped up the filter a bit, but nothing that will affect the peformance of the CAI.My initial impression, even before starting the install was that I couldn't believe how much air this little motor must need. the throttlebody is huge! I have a 3.4L V6 in my Grand AM and its TB isn't even as large. But then again my GA doesn't wind to 8k rpms And the sound? Whoa baby!! Lift never sounded so good, scary actually. By the change in volume of the intake during lift I can see where the extra 10HP + comes from. The engineers really had to do some serious work to quiet this little beast down, and a CAI just releases it again.I had read other posts that said that a CAI was the first mod that people should do. Generally I think of exhaust first, but in the case of the 2ZZ, the intake (I mean anything upstream of the TB) has to be the part with the greatest potential for improvement.

[xLR8_Sd]

love the cai. just wanted to know where you got it. a search on the net brings up alot of injen ones made for the vibe. but aem would be nice to.

[JustinVGT]

Does the CAI affect the gas mileage? Improve or make it worse? Where have you seen the best price? I checked out NOPIonline.com but can't find the Vibe Gt's intake, only the Matrix XRS's. Does it still fit the same?Thanks,

[JustinVGT]

I just found that Performance Tuning has the Injen intake for $245.95 with the 5% discount and free shipping. Has anyone seen a better deal? And between the Injen and AEM, what would you recommend?Thanks

[mitro]

Heres a link to the CAIs at Adventon. http://www.adventon.com/acb/showprod.cf ... up_ID=1956 Those are the lowest prices I've seen.As far as affecting gas mileage, A CAI theoretically shouldn't hurt it but it may drop it 1 mpg or so. Cooler air needs more fuel to keep the ratio stoich (the proper balance between fuel and air for complete combustion) so the ECU will bump up the fuel a bit to keep up with the increase air., but the change is not drastic.

[mitro]

In comparing the Injen and AEM:As it has been mentioned before the Injen seem to perform better for the 1ZZ and on the 2ZZ the AEM edges out (barely) the Injen throught the RPM range but comes up 1HP or so short of the Injen up top.I basically just got that info from this thread: http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=1116