GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

question about a cold air intake. i know many people on here have one but i have heard stories about water getting into them and causing major damage...someting called hydrolock or something. anyways if anyone has heard of this or has experienced it holla at me. thanks!

Reference these previous threads for info:http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id ... mary:Don't worry about it unless you fully submerge your car up to your doors in water.

I like submerging myself up to my drawers

Quote, originally posted by Psychobroker »I like submerging myself up to my drawers then opening full throttle huh lolBasicly, if your in water up over your fog lamp and have a full CAI, SHUT OFF THE CAR!! Another note to if you feel the car might be sucking up water, SHUT IT OFF as well. Some people have the habit of reving the engine if its stalling/sputtering... well that big suck of air will draw in a lot of water and you'll be locked up good.

I wouldn't worry about it much, I have driven in some fairly heavy rain storms and have had no problems what-so-ever. Me thinks hydrolock happens when dumb people do stupid things. Driving a car down a road where water is deep enough to reach the intake is not a smart move and people are rewarded for their lapse in judgement.

Last week when we had a huge rainstorm (2" in an hour) I was going to work. I had to take an off ramp to a road that is just about level with the river in our town. At the bottom of the ramp, in the merge/yield lane, I saw some standing water - but couldn't see the road.I hit it going about 20mph and promptly found out it was much deeper because the road dipped down in that part and then came back up level with the main road. It was about a foot deep - I fear I would have been vaccuming water up with a CAI. Fortunantely I have the factory snorkle system... And still tight door seals.I'm still going to get a CAI... I just won't hit standing water. And even at a foot (1/3m) I don't think it would have been deep enough to reach the filter.

I took one look at the intake position of CAI and knew I wanted nothing to do with it. Maybe a short ram someday, but for now I will stay stock.

In the words of the Kinks "Paranoia will destroy ya!" It ain't gonna happen.

I didn't know that song refered to CAI. I think I will order mine tonight. I wonder if the CIA was listining to the Kinks before 9/11?

The older members were but they were probably doing things at the time which were not politically correct. But they didn't inhale so it's OK.

I resemble that remark. The CAI won't hydrolock but will increase your engine wear a bit by letting more dirt in the gauze filter. Not an big issue if your not going to keep the car forever. AFE makes a 7 layer http://www.afefilters.com/pg7.htm filter that you could use with a CAI and get good cleaning. Even their standard gauze filter has 4 different gauge gauze layers to help with dirt and no extra restriction. http://www.afefilters.com/technology.htm#Mulit I would use the biggest that will fit since the better it works at its job of cleaning, the more restrictive it will be. You can overcome this with surface area.