- 100 engineering points for the air filter box design
 

So I have an AEM drop in filter I've been waiting to install. Decided yesterday that I'd spare a few minutes to throw it in there. Well, discovered that the engineer that designed the airbox figured he'll make air filter replacement a bit more interesting and instead of keeping up with the times by using snap on clips, decided it's more fun to screw the lid with a 2 inch screws. The 5 minute job which includes grabbing a cold one, turned into a work in progress since I can't find the 1 screw that I dropped. Just venting. :sad0147: :clap:

yeah i noticed this, as well. i guess i can see their logic, the maf is very sensitive, it doesn’t take much uncontrolled air entering the box to piss it off.

Did anyone here ever had any issues with a high flow drop in filter not playing nice with the car?

i haven’t. im now using a green filter with an unmodified stock box. seems ok.

i do know that my car with a stock cut air box was not happy. paper filter, green filter, did not matter. i also know simply removing the paper air filter from a stock unmodified box upset it, as well. the car lost 4 mph in the 1/8 alone just by removing the air filter. it idled noticeably rough and sputtered and jerked the car around when driving, especially when trying to hold say 2k rpm in 5th gear.

Any car work, you have to be in a good mood, not tired and most important be patient. if you are in a hurry or not concentrating you will drop screws, misplace something, then the job can take 2-3X longer. I installed new speakers on my Jeep Wrangler a couple of weekends ago. It was later in the day, I was really tired, it was super humid and I dropped screws, screwed an adapter plate on backwards, then put it on before I attached the speaker, etc. A 45 minutes job turned into 2 hours.

I'm sure filters being screwed down rather than nice little clips is a two part decision and it has nothing to do with protecting your interests.

1. Cost. Robots can essentially do screw jobs, and screws cost less than clips.

2. Deters people from replacing their own filter and taking it into a dealer. Anything that requires tools will deter a certain percentage of people over the same job being done without tools. That == money for dealers.

But seeing as how this is chevy and not bmw, i'd go with #1 as being the driving force.

Thanks

I was in a great mood, not tired, and very patient up until I spent an hour looking for the screw that I haven't found yet.:biggrin:

Honestly, I'd rather have the screws. Seals up better and you don't have to worry about the clips breaking(and they will).

The 5th gen had the snap clips and I've seen plenty of them break off(my car included). It's the reason I went with a Z/28 cai in my 1LE.

The gmpp cai def has a quality look and feel to it. The rotofab has good performance. Can’t go wrong there

I put mine in in about 6 min.:facepalm:

I'm perfectly okay with the 5x screws for the engine air filter - that means a tight seal between clean and dirty sides, and that air is coming in from where they intend it to come from (relatively cool air from behind the left headlight) and not from where they don't want it to come from, say the hot engine bay. Replaced that twice now, not a big deal.

Now, the CABIN air filter which is only accessible by using significant force to push in two pegs molded into the glove box tray, that is a PITA.

I apologize to some of you for not being absolutely clear of my inquiry, but what I needed to know was, does anybody here had any issues with running a high flow filter and it upsetting the car and throwing codes? Congrats anyway for such a speedy filter job. :first:

Hey @19sw1le, going forward you should be good without completely taking the screws out. Just unthread them half way and should be able to lift the cover. I’m running the K&n reusable air filter without any problems. Good luck man