I bought a K&N Air Charger off of Ebay for $212 shipped, brand new from this guy in an auction last week and it came today. It took me about 2 hours to install. The assembly instructions were not dummy proof but it had a detailed assembly drawing which helped a lot.

intake overview
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close up of filter
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Close up of support bracket, you had to use the screws from the valve cover, but it is a very sturdy design and I'm impressed with it.
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more in next post.....

 

Well what do you think?

 

The only trouble I had was a pretty major problem. To attach the mass air meter you had to remove it from the stock intake and attach it to the K&N intake with the stock screws. The K&N intake had pressed in brass threads (just like the stock one did). The stock screws had thread locker on it and when inserted into the K&N intake the thread locker tore up the brass threads and got stuck. Both brass thread inserts came loose from the plastic when I tried to back them out. The outside surface of the inserts were knurled and either pressed in or heat staked. Anyway this really put me in a bad position because I had the install 90% done and my intake tube was now FUBAR.

I yanked out the brass inserts from the intake tube far enough where I could grab it with vise grips and back the screws out. Good thing I was impatient and did the install at work on my lunch because we have 2 machine shops there. I had to run a tap though the inserts to clean out the crap and cut a new screw to length. In case anyone cares it is a M4.7 thread. I coated the exposed outer knurled surface of the brass inserts with loctite 498 and pressed them back in with an arbor press. When it dried it was rock solid. When all is said and done it looked great.

I'm not blaming the design of the K&N system, the design is really good. I can see if you put those same cruddy screws in another intake it could have done the same thing. I'm a design engineer and it takes a lot to impress me. The only thing I recommend that K&N does is provide new M4.7 screws and not use the stock ones because they have dried, gunky threadlocker on them.

Here's what it looked like after, I used button head cap screws.
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In all I really like the intake. It was somewhat easy to put in, just takes a little while. The brackets and heat shield are really sturdy, this thing won't get lose or break off.

My check engine light did not come on and apparently my car didn't have a HC trap because I couldn't find one. I thought I lost it and then I realized that some cars don't have them.

Performance.....well all I can say is holy @#$%!!!! This intake makes my car scream. Not so much at lower RPMs or idling but when I have it rolling between 4-6k RPMs, it feels and sounds like my stock mufflers are going to explode. The car really feels like it rumbles in your seat. Really raspy and throaty. Me likes!!!! No aftermarket exhaust for me now. It adds just the right kick for me.

I knew the car was loud when I pulled out for a beat ride tonight on the main road here I floored it. There were a bunch of runners on the sidewalk. One stopped and turned to look and the other one jumped in the woods!!! I'd say that's pretty cool wouldn't you?

 

Performance wise? Good, bad, wish you went with something else?

 

darn man let me finish

I wouldn't have gone with anything else.

 

I didn't have the issue you had with the Mass air flow sensor, it screwed right in easy enough. I forgot the nylon washers at first and though hmm kinda loose, but then realized I forgot them. The hardest part for me was the stupid rubber trim around the shield. My thumb hurt for days. I love the K&N and the performance is awsome for a no-tune option IMO. I did get the tune about a month later though, mainly because I have the auto and wanted better shifting and to get rid of the throttle lag, not because it needed it.

 

I got a brand new set from Mike on Ebay http://stores.ebay.com/MIKES-PERFORMANCE-CENTER and have been very happy with the purchase and with the seller. He emailed me right away to confirm shipment information and I was very impressed. It ended up costing me $216 from him, but I picked him over the above-mentioned guy because he had 100% positive feedback.

The install was easy except that they forgot to drill out the breather hole on my intake. I got a horrible squealing sound after installing the CAI when at idle, and thought I was going to have to return it. I read on these awesome forums and found out that I wasn't the only one with the problem and that the solution was just to drill out the hole. I did so, and now the CAI works perfectly. For $216, it was a great purchase, and considering it was my first hands-on work under the hood of my car, I'm very happy with how well it went.

 

ebay is great

 

Anybody got a X2 with bama fer sale?