Well let me start of by saying that im really hoping i bought a MS intake..

I bought a polished "aem" intake off another user recently and got it in the mail yesterday morning. kr1 said that the intake was only "2 months old". honestly, the intake did not look 2 months old, infact it looked like someone was lazy and tried to fit the intake without taking the crash bar completely off.. and not just once, but 2-3 times.

The visible part of the tube in the engine bay is relatively scratchless with one or two here and there. The intake cone appears to be red and has a "aem dry flow" prefilter over the cone.

There was no sticker on the middle of the tube, mazdaspeed or aem... I noticed on NYCDriftkings car that the aem polished intake had white "aem" lettering on the rubber joint towards the top, my intake did not have this either.

Anyway, as i was getting to the part where i needed to fish through the "J" looking pipe through the VFAD hole, i noticed some lettering...


Yep, Mazdaspeed. Now i know Mazdaspeed sourced the intake from Aem, and it is basically just a rebrand... but i dont see why an aem intake would have the lettering "Mazdaspeed" stamped into the item. This along with everything else makes me believe i picked up a Mazdaspeed intake..

Oh and also, i noticed the aem and mazdaspeed look a little different. The first picture is my intake, the second is the Mazdaspeed and the third is the Aem.
Stupid me, i forgot to label the tubes that connect to the intake.. can anyone advise if i plugged them in the right order? or does it not even matter?
also disregard the zipties, needed to get wires out of the way.




Anyway, i picked up the intake for $220, which i think is a steal for a Mazdaspeed intake, of course cheaper is always better, and i heard a story where this happened to someone else and they wound up buying a Mazdaspeed intake for only $75 bucks!

The bad is that there are some minor scratches that arent visible.. also in the pipe connecting to the "J" pipe there looked to be some kind of dent in the pipe and it caved in a little... I hope it doesnt throw my +4hp out the window

For now... Mazdaspeed intake will be added to my sig.

 

I was so close to getting that intake from him. :P

 

SNIPEDD lol..

ALSO... im getting no power steering whatsoever when i turn on to "acc".. I unplugged the battery in the beginning of the install and thats why its doing it i assume.. I tried turning to the right and then the left and then turning the car off but the same thing happened...

I plugged in the 2 wires under the driver side fender, but i have yet to plug in the passenger side one. Is this why it is doing this?

im 99% sure i had power steering when i was in "acc" before i turned the car on prior to doing this mod..

ALSO... what do i do about the plug that i wrapped around the maf and hid behind the fusebox?? is it okay to just leave it there hanging out not doing anything?

 

does anybody know if the placement of the tubes that go into the intake need to be in a certain order? I saw a picture of another CAI on a 40th anny and the middle tube was marked with a yellow line just like mine so i think the middle one is okay...

Does anybody know my power steering issue??

 

AEM intakes are stamped with MazdaSpeed near their serial number since they are basically the same exact unit. Mine was stamped with MS branding as well even though it was AEM

 

also, if you have a dent in the pipe, it will disrupt airflow. if the dent is on the last elbow, you can gain some better airflow by actually chopping off the last elbow per Eric Meyer's testing

 

MS intake only comes polish, if it's colored it's AEM.
Just appearance difference.

 

ill be following this for your power steering question, as i have the same question. if you dont get an answer, one of us could make a thread specifically to get that steering question answered.

 

but notice the placement of the pipes and the couplers when comparing the aem and the mazdaspeed. The aem has couplers further up compared to the mazdaspeed where its couplers are further down toward the front bumper.

shinkaevo- my intake is polished, the first picture is my intake, the second is a mazdaspeed and the third is a aem.

xero- as soon as i unplugged the battery and let it sit for 10 min and i plugged it in and started the car, the PS returned to normal and my CEL went away. I didnt have to pump the brakes 20 times or anything, just to usual turn to the right then turn to the left and shut off.

 

here is my AEM (blue)

 

this guy has his couplers on wrong lol



Hence why there is a harsh bend between the top two couplers

 

weird...what procedure do you follow after having it inplugged?
1) key to on position without starting engine, left then right, then key off
2) key to on position without starting engine, left then right, then start engine
3) key to on position, start engine, left thenright
or....?
i cannot seem to get power steering working when key is just in on position... 2004 model. has everything except leather and nav/sat...

 

The car has to be running.

 

bahaha, well whatever..

i think im just going to call it a mazdaspeed and call it a day

 

engine on, turn steering wheel RIGHT all the way then LEFT all the way then shut off.

start engine.

 

ok ill give that method a try...power steering works with engine on but not engine off.

 

why do you need PS with the engine off? do you need to do shut your engine off while rolling to not wake the people in the house at 3am...like in that top gear episode? lol

 

from my understanding we are supposed to have power steering with engine off, correct me if i am wrong about that. its something i would like to look into getting working properly if in fact we are supposed to have even when the engine is off. id rather have something and not need it, than to need something and not have it.

 

On mine the power steering only works with the engine running. If it stalls it will still work but if you just turn the key to run without starting the engine then there's no power steering. As far as I know that's how it is supposed to work on this car.

 

Not enough searching by some people in this thread...

OP, call it whatever you want. It's an intake. MS or AEM, doesn't matter.