Anyone know of a place online to get an inexpensive kit for a CAI? It is my mother's vehicle and ready for an air filter replacement and I figure why not just replace it all. Only one I can find online is a K&N kit for about $150 and your mostly paying for the name and the cone filter at that point ( which I can buy separately. ) I recently did the same on my Grand Am as the kit was less than the K&N drop in filter ($42 shipped) and I will be putting an actual K&N cone on it later.

 

Don't waste you money. It's your moms 11-year old economy car. Just put in a replacement paper filter. You aren't going to gain any power from a CAI. Especially when most are real CAI's (wher the filter is placed outside the engine compartment). They are SRI's (Short Ram Intake) that suck in hot engine compartment air.

 

I have an '08 Accent. The CAI that I put on my little unit was actually recommended by a guy at the local Lordco Auto Parts counter. He suggested I just buy a length of aluminium tubing made for such an application and throw an aftermarket cone filter on the end of it. The bit of tube (which was a bit too long and needed to be cut to a more suitable length) and a cheap (soon to be replaced with a K&N element.) cone filter element came to $60.00.

There was some customizing required to get it all to fit. The back of the airbox doubles as the mount for the ECU, which had me cut the back wall of the airbox off with a Dremel while saving the mounting points (you will see what I mean when you get there) so that the ECU could still be mounted where Korea intended it to live. With the bulk of the airbox absent, there is a hole that facilitates the cone filter element. On my car, there is an air intake tube (Factory) that has an intake opening just under the left headlight. That tube conveniently fits into the end of my cone filter element. As a result, I am enjoying a significant increase in fuel economy and better throttle response. In addition to that, the motor has a "throatier" aggressive kind of sound upon acceleration. It's cool.