CAI and exhaust make car worse?

[Soccer13en]

could you take some pictures of the intake so we can try to see if we notice anything wrong. I personally installed my cai, and it took maybe 45 mins, but it works fine. I can get you the link to the website I used if you want to remove it and reinstall it.

 

[Grimmz]

b) I had the CAI installed today (K&N Cold Air Intake) and I have a number of issues. First of all, the check engine light is on all the time now. The car seems to jerk a little when you let the clutch go.

Yo a buddy of mine had the same problem after puttin in his new CAI, U should have someone check out your mass air sensor. He had to replace it and i know a couple other guyz who have had problems with theirs. I have a mac CAI and so far i've had no problems. I'm also thinkin about doin dual, but the dealer said I would loose power with an H or X pipe, unless you have a power adder the guy there said a Y pipe to duals is the best bet.

 

[FunkMasterFlex]

ok well its definitly not your exhaust(which is what your pricing sounds like your talking about) they basically did nothing to your exhaust but swap out the muffler w/ a flowmaster and weld on another pipe onto your stock TAILPIPE and it doing nothing but making it look like duals and add weight(for refference most dual exhaust installs use 2 mufflers) which is probably why the price u listed was so cheap.

now what im confused about is that the prices you listed seemed like they were for exhaust install. is that correct or were those prices listed for intake install? now if those are exhaust prices its probably more $$$ from the other places because they would have given you a real dual exhaust setup w/ two mufflers.

anyways its definitly the CAI and im sure you could fix it by taking it off and reinstalling it yourself. you can find how under the how to section of this site mustang world only reason why i would tell u to go back to the shop is because they messed it up and ripped you off. good luck

 

[stargate160]

No, those prices I listed were for the intake - not exhaust. I paid $88 labor + about $250ish for parts (pipes, tips, muffler, splitter, hangers, etc...). The reason why a lot of places charge over $100 for intake installation is because they add the time the car just sits there with the battery disconnected - ripping you off by charging you that extra hour of "labor".

Anyway, here's the update:
I looked it over - everything seemed to be connected firmly and nothing loose. I took it back to shop - they basically said the same thing. But they took it apart and put it back together - same problem. They called K&N for assistance, they basically said to turn the battery off for 1 hour - not much help there. We did that. The car was working fine, the CEL turned off and no coughing sounds and such. I test drove it to a gas station and went in for like 1 minute. When I started the car back up, same problem started again (CEL and coughing sound). So obviously the air intake is installed properly, it has something to do with the sensors. I took the car to Autozone to check the codes. Here's what they gave me:

P0113:
The PCM has determined that the input from the intake air temperature sensor is higher than expected for the current engine operating conditions.

P0102
The PCM has determined that the mass air flow input is lower than expected for the current engine operating conditions.

Any ideas?

 

[FunkMasterFlex]

wow alright well first off no shop should estimate more than 30 min for an install. this is a mod that requries about as much time as it takes to unscrew the bolts and clamps and reconnect them. second there should be no need to disconnect the battery to install a CAI. if i read correctly and they installed the CAI w/o the battery connected than the engine may be having trouble resetting itself with the increased air flow(just a guess). if thats the case i say disconnect the battery and reinstall the stock airbox, hopefully the car will run fine, then after a day or so install the CAI(by yourself its quite easy) withOUT disconnecting the battery. i really dont knonw if that will work im just taking a shot in the dark. on another note your diagnostic readings seem to be the opposite of what the CAI is meant to do. there should be a lower temp than normal and an increase in airflow. thats my only guess as to why disconnecting the battery when installing the CAI may have screwed things up

 

[sweet66coupe]

that sucks. i put my exhaust and cai on myself and they work great. i could tell a slight power increase with the exhaust and the cai added a little gas mileage but not much. overall better. i would do like previously stated and put stock intake on and then later put the cai on myself. it took me 30 minutes. first cai i've ever put on.

 

[Soccer13en]

When installing mine, I did remove the electricity from the battery (just a personal preference to always disconnect power when under the hood) and I have had no problems at all. I don't know if you have a friend or someone else who has the near same model as you that you can compare parts to, but I think that would help. When unistalling/reinstalling, compare the maf sensor, the shop could have easily messed that thing up. It is a sensor, so therefore the actual sensing array is fragile and could easily be damaged.

 

[ryanrule]

you had a shop install a cai??? do u like throwing away money?

 

[stargate160]

Yea, I do feel like an idiot having a shop install it. I watched how they did it when they reinstalled it completely when I took the car back to them, man - there's nothing to it. Anyway, the car drives fine. No jerking or coughing sound. The only thing that remains is the check engine light. I don't know how to check the Mass Air Flow sensor or the other sensor. I took the car to firestone, and they wanted $95 to check it - so I said screw it. They also said $197 for a new MAF sensor + cost of installation. I found the MAF sensor online for $68 and fairly confidence I can change it myself. However, I don't want to waste money on something that may work just fine.

Any ideas on how I can check those two sensors? They are obviously reading incorrectly, but that doesn't mean they're broken.

By the way, the instructions said to disconnect the battery when installing the CAI. And when the shop called K&N for help, K&N told them the battery needs to be disconnected for at least an hour. They did that and still the CEL comes on.

 

[replicated]

Can't you like do a diagnostic check through the odometer or something when the "Check Engine Light" is on?

 

[RED98]

I had pretty much the same experience as you.. I had dual exhaust Flowmasters and BBK CAI installed, and my check engine light did the same thing. I took it to the Ford dealer, they saw a sensor was not hooked up properly, they fixed it and I have not seen a check engine light in 2 months. There was very little performance gain, according to my G-Tech. But, my Flowmasters have gotten noticably louder in the 2 months since I had them first put on. So you have that to look forward to. It will never hang with a V-8 with just exhaust and intake upgrades, but it's a start. My fuel MPG has gotten better by 1 MPG. Not much, but it's something.

 

[stargate160]

Yea, I read somewhere that flowmaster mufflers become louder once they break in after a couple of months. How much did you pay Ford to have that fixed? I know Ford charges $90 for diagnoistics, $25 shop fee (like labor/parts fees don't cover everything), and the cost of labor and parts.

 

[RED98]

Well, I dug out my receipt.. they charged me $79. It says "inspected and found intake air temp sensor not sealed and PCV valve unhooked. reinstalled PCV valve and resealed intake air temp sensor." So to me, it was worth $79 to have that check engine light go away, because I am mechanically clueless and I never would have figured it out on my own. I have not had a problem since then.

 

[FunkMasterFlex]

Can't you like do a diagnostic check through the odometer or something when the "Check Engine Light" is on?

i thought you could too but as it turns out the diagnostic codes that the odometer function shows are not any that cause the CEL to come on

 

[94 3.8l stang]

I can't believe people are that mechanically scared to mess under the hood? I would've told that garage to shove it. 79 dollars!!. Wow. I work at a garage part time, we would've said 40 bucks (max) and its fixed for something minor like that. I do my own work though. Our cars are simple. The 94-95's are like second nature to me anyway .