Ok so I installed a new intake today, it sounds great and runs great. I drove it around the street and came back home and turned it off and let it sit a while. When I started it back up again, I got the light. It still runs great/better then it did stock so I am thinking about clearing the code and just ignoring it. I don't want to hurt anything, I'm thinking it could just be the knock sensor, but I don't know where it is or how to remove it. Please advise.

 

did your intake have a screen in front of the MAF, if not the intake is no good, put back the stock or buy an AEM or Racig Beat.

 

Ok what if I take the screen from the stock one and drop it in front of the MAF? Can I cause any damage in my car by not having a screen?

 

The screen is to keep air flow laminar across the MAF for accurate readings.
What brand intake did you go with?
If its not a known name, did you at least stay with the same ID (also important)?
Your assumption of the knock sensor is likely way off, but reading the code will tell you for sure.

 

Well I made my own short ram intake. I bought a MAF holder and attached that to the rubber hose that comes out of the throttle body so I did not have to deal with all the hoses, then i extended it and built my own box out of sheet metal so it is super secure. Like I said, it runs great I am just worried about the light I do not want to damage anything. I have read that a lot of people remove the screens from the stock air box, so I assumed that it did not need a screen. The pipe is 3.25in in diameter and fits into the stock accordion looking rubber thing.

 

I'm confused. What did you do with the other hoses to that were connected to the accordion?

 

You attached the MAF to the accordion tube? This "holder" is just a coupler with a MAF attachement... right?
Only way to know for sure what is generating the CEL is to get the code read. Autozone does this for free.
Its a good idea to keep at least one screen in front of the MAF.
Can you take pics of your setup?

 

Yes. I will get the code and post pictures tomorrow. As far as the question about the hoses I left them in place I did not want to complicate the building of my intake so I just left all of that where it was. and then attached my pipe from that point on. The material that is used for screen doors is easy to work with and readily available. Maybe that would work?

 

Or you can reuse one of the screens from your stock intake.
Just be careful not to damage the screen.

 

Is the screen really that important? Could that be whats causing the light? Sorry for all the stupid questions I'm fairly new to all of this.

 

Like I mentioned above, its ideal to have a smooth, straight, turbulence free airflow across the MAF to produce an accurate and stable reading.
Remember... the MAF is used to calculate how much air mass (in g/s) is entering the engine so the PCM can deliver the appropriate fuel mixture.
Any turbulence in flow across the MAF can cause inaccurate readings and affect fuel delivery.
Then its all downhill from there.
So do you really think its worth not having one there?

 

Nah it shouldn't be to hard to take a stock screen and drop it in front of the MAF. I'll get the code tomorrow and then put a new screen in and go from there. Thanks for the advise I will update tomorrow.

 

Once you get the code and install the screen, clear the PCM by disconnecting the battery for at least 10min and see if the CEL comes back.
Also... the DSC resets everytime the battery is disconnected so once the battery is reconnected, turn the key to 'ON' and turn the steering wheel clockwise fully, then counter-clockwise fully.

 

Ok thanks again!!!

 

This is the best point.

Please use a metal screen, not the fiber type. If your going to McGyver something in there.

 

I would go as far as to say please go back to your stock intake set-up.
The MAF stuck directly behind the accordion tube with just 1 screen placed at the wrong distance makes it a very sad panda

to the OP:
With the smart pcm we have fooling with the intake set-up is counter productive if you don't know what you're doing which of course you're not.
There are 3 things that you should account for that are MANDATORY when building an intake.
1) Tube diameter (unless you have a tuning device to scale your MAF for a different diameter)
2) Min. lenght of straight pipe before and after the maf
3) Screen placement.

Not mandatory but the only way to make an efficient intake is to avoid short rams that draw hot engine bay air.

You didn't get the 3 mandatory things right and the other point is messed up as well. Flashwing posted some datalog comparison between a kn typhoon II intake and an Aem intake some time ago, you should read it.

 

Pictures would really help I guess but I'm trying to understand here. Down the intake tube there are multiple hoses that come off of the intake for different things. Are we to understand that you left that part of the intake alone and just removed the accordion tube and air box from the stock intake setup when you built yours?

As long as you can find a screen that is fine enough. I don't think that the holes in a standard screen door screen are going to be small enough to cause the desired impact to the airflow without reengineering the distance to the MAF.

 

I re-installed the stock intake and bought a real one that is made for the car. Hopefully this fixes the problem the light has gone off and it is running fine. If I have any other problems I will ask on here thanks everyone for the help!