I recently put on the Steeda CAI/Intake combo. About 3 weeks back. It has been great, loving the sound and power.

Today I go to check the tightness of the band clamps, per recommendation, and find that the one connecting the metal MAF to to the plastic tube is rather loose. Then I look closer, and find that the tube collapsed along crease. To the point it no longer makes contact with the rubber sleeve sealing the **** thing. Meaning I've been getting non filtered air into the intake

Could be a defect in the tube, or perhaps I over tightened it. Not sure. It was ~2 weeks ago I looked everything over, and just yesterday I though I heard a pop under the hood while accelerating.

I reached out to Steeda to talk about replacing the plastic tube, and for now my stop gap measure is duct tape. Just to prevent any more unfiltered air from entering the engine.

So my question to you is how bad is this?? Has anyone experienced anything similar? Can I do anything about the possible contaminants that entered the intake?

 

Whats done is done!
It sucks but, unless you were in a real dusty area I wouldn't worry about it going forward!
I'm surprised you didn't get a check engine light from running lean.
Pulling more air into the motor than what was measured by the MAF.
Now I need to check mine, you got me worried!

 

Monster. Sorry to hear about this. They build some really good stiff this should of never happened. Are they replacing the tube? I live in Florida almost by the Gulf and there is a ton of sand here. Im my Suburban the air cleaner housing has like a tray in the bottom to catch derbies. After a year there is not much sand in it so I think you are OK.

 

Marty, unless you over tightened the band clamps, which I don't think you did.. Contact Steeda and tell them your intake tube is defective and needs replaced..

 

I did the same thing to my C&L CAI. tube. Mine was from 'over tightening' I fixed mine by taking it off and "very carefully" heating it up with a heat gun and reforming it while it was soft from the heat. If I could have got a new tube for 'free' I would have but couldn't find the tube without buying the whole CAI

 

Don't lose any sleep over it.
If the car is still running ok and you didn't ingest any stones or small birds, any extra wear and tear to your motor will be undetectable.

Thumbs up for being diligent enough to inspect the engine bay and find the problem sooner rather than later .

 

I received your private message ... send me your contact info to tim@steeda.com and I will have your sales professional follow up with you.

Best Regards,

TJ

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The car idles normal, pulls like normal and sounds like it normally does. I put some Lucas Oil cylinder lubricant and fuel injector cleaner just to clean it out, and the duct tape is holding for now.

New tube is on the way, and should be here in a few days. Thanks TJ and Matt. Not bad for $70. Seems like I probably overtightened it after all but I'll have it all replaced in a few days.

 

^ sorry to hear what happened, sounds like you are on your way back to good health. Yeah, that's not from a defect though, that's overtightening. Did they include a torque spec? If they did, make sure you follow that... those plastic pieces can't take much. Just nice and snug and sealed, and you're good to go!

 

Burton, I wasn't 100% sure if it was a defect or not, which is the reason I said that unless it was from being over tighten that it was defective.. In other words, it was a possibility that it may had been a defect, but also possible that it was from being over tighten which apparently it was.. Anyhow thanks to Steeda for sending out a replacement tube for Marty

 

Hey Burton, Hey Rocky, yup, I screwed up. Quite literally.

But thankfully Steeda has replacement pieces for $70 which don't require you to buy a whole new CAI, as well as great customer service. They had a new part out within 24h of me discovering the mishap. Part should be here tomorrow, and my this weekend no more duct tape!

Thanks again to TJ and Matt at Steeda!

 

I don't think much would have gotten sucked into the engine from there, maybe some dust, dirt, and I'm sure it would have burned up. Glad your car is fine though.

I'm probably going to pick up the Steeda CAI/tune combo next month, I will have to be careful with tightening the clamps too I guess.

 

Hey Marty, glad that TJ and Matt from Steeda got you squared away

 

Glad to hear that, Marty! Just curious though - did Steeda include a torque spec on the tube clamps? Or were they just relying on snug-ness?

 

Got the new tube installed tonight. All is well again. And the Mustang ate another screwdriver bit. It must have been hungry.
Hey Burton, took me a while to get back to you on this and double check. No, no torque spec was provided with the instructions. It simply said to tighten the band clamps.

 

no prob Marty! Glad you are all back up and running. If steeda didn't include a torque spec, then maybe....... you could get them to pay for the replacement! Lol. Kidding.

Eaten a screwdriver bit? I'm assuming you mean you shaved the edge off bald? I hope you don't mean through the intake!!!! Lol

 

Haha, no thankfully. The bit I was using fell off after I tightened the thriller body clamp, and landed in one of the bottom cover trays. Not the oil change tray. I looked there.

this is the second tool it ate. Few years ago I lost a ratchet socket. Never to be seen again.

 

Good on you for acknowledging that it was your mistake.

We ALL do stuff like this from time to time. Unfortunately, this probably won't be the last time that you over tighten something.

In any case, it sounds like it wasn't too expensive of a lesson and that no damage was done...we should all be so lucky.

 

I'm willing to bet that anyone that has worked on there own car has over tightened somthing before! ( I know I have, several times)!
The fact that you checked and caught the problem is the great part!