Im telling you bud your wasting your money, first off the bypass is supposed to be mounted in the middle of the cai, again the aem cai for our car is one piece so if you plan on cutting a 200 intake and putting a 50 item in the middle of it by all means go ahead. And as rich said normal to throttle over water is not gonna cause any hydro lock, just pay attention to the road and if you see a puddle you cant avoid (which you would be doing anyway with the bypass) just let off the gas

 

there is a CAI on ebay from Option Racing for 60 bucks shipped. I recently purchased this and installed it on my 2008 mazda3 s HB and I can say, don't waste your money on a name brand intake. The option is exactly the shame shape and fitment as the injen intake. Easy to install. On power: it could be a placebo affect, but I would say my car feels more powerful. Seems to have more pull mid range. Either way, it sounds awesome, which my mind perceives to be more power, which makes me believe it's faster. So go for it! i like mine.

 

Yeah, most likely placebo effect. Why? Because in the midrage, the factory intake provides virtually no restriction.

 

factory intake has a decent amount of restriction, look under the filter and see how big the hole is, if you really want to get some dent gains, try to find an intake thats the same diameter or bigger, then again it dont really matter because the fly-by wire is really whats hurting the performance.

 

I'll say it again, "in the midrage, the factory intake provides virtually no restriction."

 

Any proof for this?

And Tracker, I misunderstood what you were saying. I was saying that it was an option, if they were really worried about it, but I wouldn't buy one either. I don't have it on my intake. Even with factory intakes on a big truck, going into big puddles is bad for the intake/engine. Just dodging puddles or letting off the throttle is alot more simple, and money saving.

I would still recommend a CAI though. Even if there isn't an increase, it gives you a great sound and its easy to do.

 

I don' know about all of you guys, but my 2008 3 HB has literally no holes in the undercarriage or wheel well were water can easily splash in. I honestly don't have any vents in my driver side wheel well. The area where the filter sits (just like an injen the tube turns upwards and sits just below the headlight) is pretty far away from the random splash. If you're all that concerned about hydrolock then get an injen hydroguard filter cover. I'm not that concerned but for piece of mind then get one. To Discuss more about power, Before I had my intake, when driving with the manumatic I could pull in 1st up to redline then shift and just go into 2nd without much happening. NOW....when i pull in 1st up to redline and shift to 2nd, there is a bit of tire squeal and a much more aggressive kick. does this mean more power, perhaps. I don't wanna sound like I know for sure, but I feel (but dyno) like the power gains are there. This is all IMO not necessarily fact.

 

Proof? It's simply common sense. Think about it, at Wide Open Throttle in the mid RPM ranges the engine is only consuming about half of the air it was designed to consume, and if the intake was restrictive at that point, the engine would probably never even get to redline under anything but an extrememly light load.

As further proof, look at virtually every dyno run of an engine that has no modifications versus the exact same engine where the only modification is a CAI; in the mid RPM ranges there is usually no change in the power, and when there is a change, as often as not, the graph shows a reduction in power.

 

As I stated before, this is probably the placebo affect I was talking about. My intake sounds the best at around 3-5000 rpm, which me to believe that my senses are being tricked into thinking i feel more push into the seat "butt dyno." either way, my intake was 60 bucks, sounds sick, and makes me think my car is going faster. I'm not racing or anything so if i think i'm going faster then thats good enough for me. My mileage hasnt suffered either soooo 2+ =).

OP: if you want the sound and MAYBE a SLIGHT increase in power, get the intake I got. 60 bucks shipped aint bad for an injen knock off.

 

I've seen countless dyno runs where a cold air intake was added on and showed improvement. No reduction of power at all....