Ok, I bought an AEM CAI from a member on here and this is in no way a bash on him simply observations about the product.

I installed that CAI without incident, I unpluged the battery while I was installing it and then plugged the battery back in when I was done, this was about 2 weeks ago. Now I did not care for the BOV sound at all, at WOT it sounded like I was kicking a puppy, then at partial throttle it sounded like a vacuum leak especialy when hovering right around 0 psi.

Second when I installed the the CAI I found that I was boosting nowhere near as much, the acceleration seemed tame, and NLS failed to produce the poping i was used to.

I went to take the CAI off and run the AEM coupler to the OEM airbox and then I broke the mounting bracket off oh well I can fix that late I said. Then I installed the stock airbox again and disconecting the battery before and reconecting it after. I went and drove the car and I was making much more bost now, but I tried to NLS between 1and 2 as soon as I shifted the BOV oppened and nomater what I only made 5 psi or less. This got so bad durring the drive that I was making 5 psi in every gear. I reset the ECU again by disconnecting the battery and the ECU and then I was fine untill WOT around 4k, then the BOV would open with a clunk and no more bost would be made at all.

So I put all of the stock items back on to include lower snorkle portion and reset the ECU and now the car is pulling great and I have my baby back. I will not try anything else untill GM tune and no more learndown.

 

The CAI without a retune is a mistake. My fuel trims were skewed ~10% before I compensated in the tune for it. Sounds like you had another leak at the breather or a connection to have that many issues.

Glad your happy now though.

 

Yeah, I kinda look at it this way, this car is faster than 80% of the cars I see on the road, so why try to make it faster at this point. As long as I have a warrenty I want to take full advantage of it. The only mods for me for a while will be cosmetic. (I have retro HIDs siting in my garage waiting for this weekend)

 

Intake doesn't make it faster anyway. Sell it and buy a DP + Tune. Whole new car

 

that is what I plan on doing later down the line.

 

better yet, mod the airbox and place a kn drop in in. you'll be more than happy

 

Lesson number two, there is no I in lesson

 

People need to understand what Intakes actually do to their car and how it effects the MAF readings.

 

I am not doing anything to the car as far as performance until i tune it. no point. I have a k&n in it now.

 

qft.

 

IMO, its not the MAF tune so much as the car is able to breath better. Better intake = doesn't need quite as much boost to achieve the desired torque. I remember at the track when I was stock playing with removing/putting the air filter back in. The car would play with the boost for one run until it figured out what I was up to.

FWIW my BONE STOCK car was running -10 LTFT when I bought HPT, much to my surprise.

Remember that this ECU is trying to achieve torque targets, and doesnt care what boost it has to run to achieve them. Drive from FL to Denver and it would become very obvious what I mean.

 

my car seems to run perfectly fine with my hahn cai, catless dp, and catback. no issues at all. no tune yet.. hopefully today...

 

Mine ran -1.6 on the stock airbox & filter, -2.3 K&N Drop in, +10 with the AEM CAI no retune. -0.8 now.

 

It sounds like the OP went from the stock airbox to a boost leak with the AEM, then to a boost leak and eventual limp-mode with the reinstalled factory airbox, to a good stock airbox install after removing the AEM coupler. I would say this points toward the AEM coupler or operator error while installing said coupler.

 

My car with a K&N drop in was -8 to-10 LTFT lol. With the stock filter back in it's back to 0-0.8 . I can't imagine what my car would do with a CAI , It prolly wouldn't even crank over hehe. I think my car is a snotty bitch cause It's throws codes with my cattless DP too.

 

The AEM intake coupler can be a snot to get on correctly. Glycerine has been used in some cases.

 

yeah maybe, My meat mitts are a bit too big to fit down behind the block. I did use a universal on my socket to tighten down the worm gear. I don't think I was in true limp mode because I had that before with my base cobalt back in the day and this time i did not get any check engine lights or messages on DIC. To clerify I had no issues with limp mode with the full aem intake on I just noticed that I did not like the feel of the car. But I did think that the BOV sound was odd.

 

no issues with my aem cai

 

What do you do to the airbox?