Offtopic thread pt. II 5-28-07
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From: everywherez...
Ha...yeah...its not that big of a deal, but it does require cutting up a hose for fitment reasons. I just did it cause I had spare time on a Saturday and was already having to go in the hood for my filter replacement.
Yes a vacuum leak in a rubber line or something might get worse with heat due to expansion. I saw it happen on a former car and "pinhole" leak. The easiest way to locate said leak was to allow the car to idle and then take a can of WD-40 and spray the lines and suspect crevices. If you "hit" the leak the idle of the car will noticeably change. Kind of messy, but does the job.
The other thing you might want to think about is your grills. They will restrict airflow and thus your temps will increase as well. Simple test...remove screens and see if it goes away. I was going to get some screens for my car but after some searching and chatting here and there I was convinced not to do so. The temps of people screening the openings were highly noticeable on the aftermarket temp gauges.
I don't think its critical on a street ride per se, but I would remove them just in case for a simple test.
The other thing you might want to think about is your grills. They will restrict airflow and thus your temps will increase as well. Simple test...remove screens and see if it goes away. I was going to get some screens for my car but after some searching and chatting here and there I was convinced not to do so. The temps of people screening the openings were highly noticeable on the aftermarket temp gauges.
I don't think its critical on a street ride per se, but I would remove them just in case for a simple test.
La Ocho
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Austin TX
Canary do you feel any power loss what so ever while you were in stop and go traffic?
La Ocho
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Austin TX
it has bogged before, it would make a loud noise like it's not getting enough spark and acceleration was definitely weaker than normal. I reaaally hate to take it back to the dealer, but that may be what I end up doing. :p
me too, except we have light poles up there that form a really nice small rectangle perfect for playing pinball with my car (If they were more spaced apart that place would be dorifto paradise lol)
(If they were more spaced apart that place would be dorifto paradise lol)
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Joined: Jan 2007
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From: everywherez...
Continuing on the "Dirty filter" theory...let me share a funny story...
My bud who has that STI one day came to me and said that he thinks something is horribly wrong with his car. That lag had increased significantly and whenever he went WOT the car would bog and then sputter back to life...The idle was terrible and performance had dropped...
I ran thru the usual list of questions to see what he had been doing and when it started and stuff...after a while I told him to check his air filter because all the symptoms plus the story seemed to point to a clogged filter...
A few minutes later he came back and posted the following pics...
Strangely enough after swapping out to a short ram intake with a new cone type filter...all the problems disappeared...
Moral of the story...sometimes we overlook the simplest things...
My bud who has that STI one day came to me and said that he thinks something is horribly wrong with his car. That lag had increased significantly and whenever he went WOT the car would bog and then sputter back to life...The idle was terrible and performance had dropped...
I ran thru the usual list of questions to see what he had been doing and when it started and stuff...after a while I told him to check his air filter because all the symptoms plus the story seemed to point to a clogged filter...
A few minutes later he came back and posted the following pics...
Strangely enough after swapping out to a short ram intake with a new cone type filter...all the problems disappeared...
Moral of the story...sometimes we overlook the simplest things...
my filter is sitting behind my front grill in plain view. (AEM intake) From what I can see it appears to be clean, I'm able to shine a light on it and get an idea that way, obviously the ideal thing to do would be to remove the bumper and inspect it that way, or I can also remove the radiator cooling panel and see what that gets me, may also be able to jack up the fron and come up rom underneath etc. Either way, it's a cone filter, and I can't really notice anything (at least not as obviously as your bud's sti). I noticed this morning, it was acting up a little while cold as well. So in all this mess can someone clarify why it would run okay and then not okay? Would a clogged/dirty filter cause inconsistencies like that? I wish it would throw a cel or something at least, grrrr.
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Joined: Jan 2007
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From: everywherez...
my filter is sitting behind my front grill in plain view. (AEM intake) From what I can see it appears to be clean, I'm able to shine a light on it and get an idea that way, obviously the ideal thing to do would be to remove the bumper and inspect it that way, or I can also remove the radiator cooling panel and see what that gets me, may also be able to jack up the fron and come up rom underneath etc. Either way, it's a cone filter, and I can't really notice anything (at least not as obviously as your bud's sti). I noticed this morning, it was acting up a little while cold as well. So in all this mess can someone clarify why it would run okay and then not okay? Would a clogged/dirty filter cause inconsistencies like that? I wish it would throw a cel or something at least, grrrr.
La Ocho
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Austin TX
Yeah it can cause lots of problems, normally the filter will not give off a cel unless there was something wrong with the entire sensor. Also maybe just maybe, the fuel filter might be bad
sold some of the part to the stock box to a forum user who desperately needed it, mine was sitting there unused at the time and he needed help so I obliged....now I get to suffer for it lol I'll try taking a better look at it tonight. Maybe I'll swing by vatozone on the way home and buy some filter cleaner too, pretty sure I could manage somewhat of a cleaning w/o having to remove too many parts, and maybe that would be an improvement. Where is the fuel filter on these anyway, do you have to pull the tank to get to it? (ouch if you do)
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Joined: Jan 2007
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From: everywherez...
I can swap mine into your car pretty quickly if you wanted to test...I also have the "Mazdaspeed Dry Element Filter Cleaner Kit" unused in my garage if you want it. I am running a green filter and its an oil deal so I have no use for the stuff...
yeah, we might try something like that, I just haven't really spent a lot of time on it at all so really all this info is theory currently. Tonight I might forego my studying to bake in the humidity and try and figure it out, (or maybe Friday night since I don't have to be anywhere saturday) I'm probably going to stop by and grab some stuff for the TB mod as well on the way home. 
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From: everywherez...
Its designed for use with the "Dry Element" filters...such as the one on your intake...