CAI question

[Tn07Tc]

My mom is flippin out cause she thinks that cold air intakes can suck up water and seize the engine on a tC is there any relevance to this and has anyone ever had any probs other than that just give me the DL on CAI

[triniosito]

the filter has to be submerged in water in order for that to happen meaning a large puddle or a lake or sumtin like dat,and there is sumtin called a bypass valve that u can buy for like 50 bucks if she is dat worried bout it

[charlie07tC]

What he said. I personally suggest the Fujita CAI, I have one, paid $150 shipped from ebay, just don't run your ride through low water crossings....

[2dot4]

you don't have to submerge your filter to suck up water - I hydrolocked my last car by driving through a 2" deep puddle too quickly. It does happen, so buy a bypass filter and a hydro shield that wraps around your filter to repel water. Those will help

Your mom is right, but there's plenty of ways to avoid it.

[THansenite]

The CAI can suck up water, but on Scions, that is a very low probability. The filter is shielded pretty good so unless you drive through 2-3 feet of water, your filter will be fine. Like others said, cheap insurance is the bypass valve.

[2dot4]

The filter is shielded pretty good so unless you drive through 2-3 feet of water, your filter will be fine.

2-3ft is up to the driver side window lol. The filter sits MAYBE 12" off the ground on a CAI if I'm not mistaken, but the filter doesn't have to be submerged to ingest water - simply getting the filter wet will suck water into the engine. Small amounts are harmless, but the lethal dose isn't very much - trust me. A tbsp of water is enough to warp valves, piston rings, etc. Cold water and hot engine components don't mesh well.

I've hydrolocked a motor before - it takes as little as a puddle with 2-3 INCHES of water, not feet. I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just don't want you guys giving him a false sense of security - if you have a CAI, you should take caution when driving through any puddle. And definitely get a bypass filter and hyrdo shield. I didn't have either when I hydrolocked my motor.

[THansenite]

Actually, sucking small amounts of water in the engine is a good way to clean carbon deposits out. It used to be common to squirt water directly into a carburator in old engines to clean the carbon out of them. The filter sits at least a foot and a half off the ground with a CAI (unless you are completely slammed or have a custom CAI) and even if the filter is partially submerged, it will continue to suck in air through the top of the filter before any serious amounts of water is sucked into the engine.

I did a lot of research into this topic a while back when I was looking into getting a CAI on my car. Other cars are different. If you try searching, I doubt you will find many, if any, people that have hydrolocked a Scion. There are thousands of Scions out there and extremely few reported problems regarding hydrolocking. Think of all of the Scions that have driven through torrential downpours with CAI's and have had no problems. Other cars may be suceptable to hydrolocking, but Scions are surprisingly resistant to it.