GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

a member of the matrixowners.com site came up with the idea of a cheap cai by taking your air intake tubing that comes up next to your left headlight and redirecting it down under the battery tray to increase the amt of colder air going into the air box....i looked at my vibe last nite and i cant see if that would help or not since i cant see how cold air can get past the radiator and fog lite openings...can someone explain how this re-route can pull in colder air or does it work only on the matrix style front ends???

I wouldn't go to too much trouble to do that. I measured the outside air temperature and the air going into the stock inlet at the headlight location on my Vibe with an accurate thermocouple, and there was less than 10 degrees difference! (good for less than 1% power). It seems like there's enough cold air coming in around the headlight, etc. to feed the engine. This was in mid winter, so I'll re-do the test come summer, but in principal, it should be a similar difference at any temperature. I think much of the benefit of a CAI is the large, smooth pipe and the low restriction filter...

There is quite a good explanation on all this at http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=1864 . The fellow made a Ram Air on a Matrix.I am interested in trying this but I am not too clear on how to make the connection to the airbox.