My car is doing weird things. But not often enough.

"Frosted" (frostedbuns)
11/04/2014 at 13:53 • Filed to: None

Couple of weeks ago, I changed the air filter on my K&N intake to a short filter. It's wider so it knocked against something a tiny bit but that was fixed with some cushioning.

Then I went away with my GF. On the drive up to where we were staying, we hit a red light. When I tried to pull away from the green, I had NO power. It wouldn't rev at all. Threw it in park and back into drive and it was fine. It was fine for the rest of the day. Weird but it only happened once so whatever I guess. The next day, after a spirited drive in the mountains, I hit another light. And the same thing happened. Light changed and when I hit the gas, I had no power, no revs. That was last thursday. It hasn't done it since. Driving around town and highways is normal like always. I did notice a little hit in my MPGs (31 normally, down to 28 now) but idk if that could be the air filter or the winter blends fault. She is due for an oil change which is gonna happen Friday morning. Should I be concerned since it hasn't happened in 5 days and I have driven a fair bit each day?

DISCUSSION (17)

bob and john > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 13:56

douple check that everything is where it should be. no sensors are loose or anything

Mattbob > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 13:57

does your K&N filter use oil perhaps? My advice is put it back to stock... K&N filters will gum up your MAF with filter oil, and they don't have any advantage over a new paper filter performance wise.

Opposite Locksmith > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 13:58

I'm a turbo guy, so my first question is gonna be did you get a tune for the change in engine intake parameters?

JGrabowMSt > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:00

Standard procedure with installing any CAI is to unplug the battery when installing.

Unplug the battery for an hour, plug it back in, and drive around and see what happens after that.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:02

Can you be more detailed on this lack of power? Is the engine just completely not responding, is it down on power when this happens, or is the power cutting in and out in a jerky fashion?

Frosted > Mattbob
11/04/2014 at 14:07

No oil that I know of. If I had the stock system I would, but I bought the car with this intake on it.

Frosted > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
11/04/2014 at 14:07

Won't respond at all. I floored it and nothing happened.

Frosted > Opposite Locksmith
11/04/2014 at 14:09

Bought it with the intake, dunno if it was tuned. Doubtful though. When it had the regular K&N intake filter on, everything was fine though.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:16

Check all of your connections around the throttle body. Pretty much all cars today are throttle by wire, so there should be a motor that opens and closes the throttle. You would have had to take the air hose off of the throttle body to install your intake, and the connections are in the same area, so that would be where I would check.

miadaman? yes please > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:17

Is this electronic throttle? Have you tried to plug in ODBII reader to monitor the intake parameters? Faulty connections to TPS, MAF/MAP, or even filter being blocked up are all possibilities. Periodic faults without consistent occurrences makes me think electricals.

Frosted > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie
11/04/2014 at 14:19

I didn't install the whole intake though, just changed the filter. Bought the car with the intake in it and everything was fine. Right up until I changed the filter. I'll still checkout the throttle body, that seems like a pretty reasonable idea for why it's acting funny.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:26

In that case, I'd check this guy out:

MAF could cause what you're describing as well, but I would imagine that your engine would throw a code if that was your

Vimto > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:40

Does the surround for the filter go anywhere near ECU wires? In the Kia Forte I had, some owners who had installed K&N cold air intakes had the surround cut into the ECU wire directly underneath, causing the car to become unable to shift/function, K&N paid for an entire new ECU system + wiring.

crowmolly > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:44

K&N filters (and the knockoffs) are made of gauze that needs to be oiled and serviced to work properly. If it's a high-flow filter chances are it's oiled.

To Mattbob's point, if you over-oil you can throw off your MAF and have some funky behavior.

That filter looks small to me. JMO. Just spitballing but I wonder if your IAC is acting strange because of a change in airflow. All problems have been off-idle, right?

Mathias Rios > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 14:47

Put stock air box back. That's doing literally nothing for your performance on an N/A car.

Opposite Locksmith > Frosted
11/04/2014 at 17:21

Is the new intake the same diameter as the previous oem intake? If not, you gotta tune for it cuz the maf is gettin a crazy skewed impression of the air the engines gulping

Dsscats > Frosted
11/06/2014 at 23:11

Take it back to stock, take it to the dealer.