Cold Air Intakes

A cold air intake replaces the car’s airbox and inlet ducting with a performance filter and new pipework. It is routed to take air from a cooler part of the engine bay or from behind the bumper or wing. Most kits here are complete systems made for a specific engine, supplied with the filter, pipe, heat shield or housing, couplers and fixings.

Broadly, intake kits use one of three layouts:

• Enclosed or shielded systems keep the filter in a box or behind a heat shield fed with outside air.
• Cold air intakes carry the filter further from the engine, often low in the bay.
• Short ram intakes keep a short, direct path close to the throttle body, which is simpler to fit but closer to engine heat.

Pipes come in aluminium or plastic, and the filter media is either oiled cotton gauze or a dry synthetic washed without oil.

Read the product details for the exact engine and model year a kit was made for. Intake kits depend on the air mass sensor housing, throttle body and mounting points of that engine.

Expect more induction noise, especially at full throttle. An intake that sits low in the bay can take in water on a flooded road, so avoid deep standing water. Engines with an air mass sensor are calibrated for the original pipe, so fit the kit exactly as supplied and keep the sensor clean. Have the calibration checked if the engine runs differently afterwards.