Celica Forums General Discussion Exterior dillema...

so i bought an aem cold air intake for a gt like 2 months ago from cox imports (i'm sure all of you got the email, the one for 145 per intake). and when i got it at the beginning of september, it had 2 dents in the elbow. so i called aem, and they said that they'd send me a new one. nothin comes in the mail for like 2 weeks, so i call back. they checked my number, and said that it was suppose to have been shipped out, but there were no more in stock. the guy also said that the reason the price was so cheap was because they were comin out with a gen. 2 cai. so he said that he'd look for a new gen. 1 intake for me. so i jus got off the phone with him, and he said he found a gen 1 he could send me. and i told him that i bought a bypass valve for the cai already. he explained that a bypass valve can't be put on a gen. 1, but it can be put on a gen. 2. and said i had 3 options: 1. have him send the new gen. 1; 2. get a refund; 3. contact cox imports and exchange the gen. 1 for the gen. 2. for the gen 2 i would have to pay about $70 more than what i already paid. i'm from san francisco, but go to school in western MA, and i think that a cai would be a problem when the snow melts, and during monsoon season. and i'm also planning to go to japan in the spring sometime, and the possibility of gettin a jdm intake has crossed my mind. but i dunno if jdm intakes r that much better, and i'm not sure how much the shippin would be. i calculated the cost it would be to ship an exhaust via ups, and it'd be $300+ (basically 60% of the cost of the damn exhaust). so my question to anyone that has read this far. what should i do???????????? input would be greatly appreciated.

Buy an injen cai.

Exactly what I was going to tell him after reading only to the "monsoon" part.

an injen cai is better?

Its short ram, so you dont have to worry about sucking up water...

This is Injen


vs CAI (AEM)

They also make C.A.I. ( not just S.R.I. )

Yeah but the problem is melting snow and water

I bought a $145 cox import AEM CAI and had the exact same problem. The first one shipped was for an eclipse, the second one had two giant dents and the third one was finally right. They cancelled my order for the bypass valve (same reasons). I put it on a few weeks ago and have had no problems. I've driven in VERY hard rain reluctantly and everything has been fine. I'm pleased with the intake, but could have done without all the problems at the beginning. Hope this helps, at least you know someone else had to deal with it too.

if you get the fuse relay thing moved over you can put a bypass valve on

naw. the guy at aem said the bypass valve could fit, but would eventually mess up the intake.

Truthfully I think if you are just careful and use some common sense you will be ok driving around with a AEM intake without the bypass valve. I have a Gen 1 AEM intake on mind and I've never had any problems with it because I just make sure I don't go through huge puddle at 35+ mph. I slow down and take it nice and slow.

I've driven through plenty of storms with this type of thing even during the hurricane we had. As long as you are careful during the rain or snow it shouldn't be a problem.

I got mine from Cox...no problems I guess I got lucky