so i custom made one of those CAI's for my 08 tc. and last night it came completely loose. i was noticing when i was driviing home that i had barely and boost. so i checked under my hood and it was completely off. so i fixed it just a couple mins ago and now my car will start and putter and stall out!? WTF i dont know what to do. its also spitting out white smoke from the exhaust!?

 

Brilliant! Take it to the dealership, I'm certain they'll take car of it under warranty...

Disconnect the negative on the battery for a while and hope it resets the ECU.

I hope the engine didn't ingest anything while the air filter wasn't attached...

 

White smoke? 99% of the time white smoke is coolant....

Most likely the intake fell off, your MAF sensor didnt see any air, and cut boost...

This is why it is highly not recommended to make a CAI. There is a lot more to it than some think. Just how the tubes are bent changes a lot with the air/fuel ratio, sensor readings, etc...


LOL Might want to convert back to stock...

 

damn dude if white smoke came out its prolly your coolant....

it starts to putter because the MAF sensor is not reading air coming through so the intake must have came off... but not completely because if it came off completely your car would not run

if you connected it again... and ure car still putters or feels like it will stall.... put stock filter back on or take off terminals on battery for about 30 sec to restart the computer

 

damn, sucks to be you... let a little r&d go into the intake that are being made now to make em perfect. patience dude. see what happens

 

99% of the time I would agree, but on cold starts even when it is above 50 degrees outside...I have white smoke until I am up to operating temp.

I imagine it has something to do with the DI on a cold start.

It would run for a while, there is still another MAF sensor and a MAP sensor.

 

post a pic of your custom intake!

 

Did you pull the oil dipstick out yet?

Do that to see if it looks normal or not. That should get right down to the bottom of whether or not coolant got in.

Did the boost spike and/or seem unusually high at some point?

 

White smoke may be coolant, or it could be steam. Burning coolant has a very distinct acrid smell kinda like burning sugar. If it didnt smell it might have been excess steam caused by the motor ingesting water, but I dont know. I dont want to scare you but you may have been running very lean thanks to you intake falling off. That may have overheated the motor badly causing you head to warp or your head gasket to blow out, but that is the worst case senario. If there is coolant in the engine oil it will look like a chocolate milkshake.

 

Please stop making homemade CAIs for the TC Cobalts. Nothing but bad news! Most people that have scanned the cars with them noticed significant performance DROPS!

 

yea take me as a prime example... i did custom intake... and got walked by a mustang gt bone stock HARDDDDDD

2nd gear shift bogged

 

Steam from burning off ingested water...LMFAO!

 

problem solved. i disconnected the negative on the battery and it resets the ECU! but i think im gonna go back to the stock airbox until something comes out. im just worried it will come loosed again. thanks for the input tho everyone

 

Go back to stock until you figure out WHY it came off.

yeah, we're not letting that happen again! Runs a lot better with the stock intake box doesn't it?

 

lol someone beat me to it, i did that on my last car using a shitty ass reactive filter and an exposed CAI(no fenderwell cover, lol long story) i was headed onto the freeway and BAM the driver behind me got lost in the cloud lucky for me i didn't break nothin, a little methalhydrate in the gas tank good to go, boy was it scary tho lol

 

yea a whole lot better... like TTR said intakes on these cars will show little to no gains... just one less thing to worry about

drop in does the job

 

Well stock to stock the GT tests a shave faster:

Cobalt
5.5 0-60
12.9 0-100
1/4 mile 14.0 @ 101.8

Mustang
5.1 0-60
12.6 0-100
1/4 mile 13.7 @ 103.2

Numbers this close could all be the driving, I doubt you would get walked because of an intake... I have not seen any power loss from mine. Just a lot of sound difference...

 

He was knockin 6-8* with the intake, then 0-2* without it. Intake is a no-go for now. Someone will develop one that works, but til then leave it to the pros. You're not gonna SAVE any money by wasting it now.

 

its a really stupid mistake i made. the MAF sensor is probably in backwards i had the same problem it would start and stall in like 2 seconds check the maf the arrow should be pointing towards the turbo

 

LOL.Sorry, I my mind must not have been functioning properly when I wrote that part of my post. Water ingested into the intake would most certainly have hydrolocked the motor. What I ment to say was excess water (ie condensation) in the exhaust could look like white smoke coming out, but like I said if it were coolant it would smell like something horrible burning almost like burning hair.

 

[QUOTE=Psykostevo;2940185]Go back to stock until you figure out WHY it came off.


yeah im going to

 

[QUOTE=SSturb;2943108]Let us know if your motor starts running properly after you go back to stock

 

[QUOTE=Terminator2;2943137]it was running fine after i reset the ECU. but it seems like i have a boost leak now cause it takes longer to get up to 15psi.

 

Did you put the stock airbox back in? You could have a vac leak right after the intake, but just before the turbo which could cause what you are describing.

 

i wont be able to til tomorrow. but i will let everyone know. thanks