GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I have a 5-speed 04 vibe base model with no mods of any kind, i currently have a factory box with a K&N rectangle air filter, i want to get a better intake but i can't think of which way to go for the best performance boost, cold air or short ram air, or just keeping the factory box and remove the plastic and fabric hose from the box that runs to the front of the hood to form a sort of rigged short ram air intake using my factory box, please what should i do?

My suggestion is not to try cutting any corners or trying to do it as inexpensively as possible. Go with a full Cold air intake (Injen, AEM). It's not too difficult to install and you will see immediate results... like your gas mileage will suffer for a couple of tanks! But it will get better...By the way..Welcome to GenVibe

Thanks for the warm welcome ^^ ive heard something about the car needing time to adapt to the CAI? is this true?

first of all, welcome to the site.secondly, RAM air intakes for the vibe don't exist. you would have to make something yourself. one guy used a shop vac hose and took the fwd portion on the intake (fabric)off, then he connected the shop vac line to the bottom hole on the air box. the open end went to the inlet cavity next to the fog lamp.you need to be moving really fast to actually see the gains from ram air. i also think that you need a better location for it. constant moving flow will create better reassure. air flow over the hood or something.CAI full and short. with a full system you will likely see higher gains. the short system get air from the hot engine bay. full gets cool dense air from the wheel well.you can always put a hood scoop over a short CAI. that's what i did. it keeps feeding cool atmosphere air over to the filter element. it looks good and the hood cavity makes a great sound.check my link and se if you like that. this is the best application for a short CAi outside of a turbo application.

Another thing confuses me as well....noob to cars btw between Injen and Aem which is better, also if i have a cai, by the time the cool air reaches through the longer pipe to my intake manifold wouldnt the air be warm?

you can never go wrong with letting the engine break itself in. i would wait around 1k miles before opening up the enginel.i disagree with going expensive too. moeny doesn't garantee gains. i specially don't like AEM or injen. prices are overly inflated.

I just installed a short ram I got on E-bay. Most parts you can find if you look under the Toyota Matrix will work with our vibes. The quality was great and the result was great in performance and sound. I removed everything stock from the throttle body to the box. I left the stock tube feeding the stock box installed so it would feed fresh air to my short ram.

Like Zuben, I went with the Injen CAI on my 2004 Base and am very pleased with it. Easy install (pull back the wheel well liner to fit the filter on.), Good Looking, Great Sound and Noticable Gain in performance. Keep in mind our Bases are not asphalt burning machines but the CAI sure makes them more fun to drive.Good Luck

Quote, originally posted by lordsaber » ive heard something about the car needing time to adapt to the CAI? is this true?Yes. After you install a CAI, you'll need to run the car at idle for about 10-15 minutes to give the ECU time to adjust to the new mix. If you don't, you may get the dreaded CEL (check engine light). I have had no problems with this at all.Quote, originally posted by lordsaber »Another thing confuses me as well....noob to cars btw between Injen and Aem which is better, also if i have a cai, by the time the cool air reaches through the longer pipe to my intake manifold wouldnt the air be warm?The speed of the incoming air is high enough that conductive heat transfer from the pipe won't be significant. The air will still be cooler than that brought in through a standard air box. I do recall that at least one member insulated his CAI.I can't really say if the Injen or AEM is better; lots of members here own each and I don't know of any tests showing an advantage of one over the other. I personally went with Injen because I got a very good deal through Performance Tuning (www.ptuning.com) and got an additional 5% off using our group discount (coupon code = "ptmatrixvibe"). $193.75 w/shipping.