[Hofer]

so i was lookin at some intakes on ebay, and i noticed quite a few small name brand intakes, for 40-50 dollars...anybody know how these are?

are they up to par with the bigger name brand intakes?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/04-06-MAZDA-3-MAZDA3-2-3L-I4-COLD-AIR-INTAKE-FILTER-05_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ38634QQihZ020QQitemZ300068364507QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mazda-3-Mazda3-04-05-06-2-0-2-3-Cold-Air-Intake-Kit_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ38634QQihZ011QQitemZ320068512518QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

 

[small town king]

the tubing is all the same, i'd just go out and buy a nwe filter.

 

[Hofer]

so its not all that bad to save couple hundred dollars then?

 

[small town king]

if you don't care, who cares?

 

[Zol Edrev PR]

Good fitment might be a problem. A friend of mine got one of the ebay CAIs for his xb and that pice of crap just gave him a lot of head aches. The thing was hard as hell to put in, the tubin didn't bend at the right places, it didnt have any mouting points to grab onto the chasi, and it rubed on his batery-he had a pice of cardboard stuck in there so it wouldnt rud.

 

[boosthead]

[quote author=Hofer link=topic=66568.msg1142153#msg1142153 date=1168412118]
so its not all that bad to save couple hundred dollars then?
[/quote]

A buddy of mine bought an intake for his 3 from ebay and it fit fine. The issue he had was removing the factory intake hose from the TB. No issues with the intake itself.

 

[Hofer]

[quote author=boosthead link=topic=66568.msg1143840#msg1143840 date=1168493856]
[quote author=Hofer link=topic=66568.msg1142153#msg1142153 date=1168412118]
so its not all that bad to save couple hundred dollars then?
[/quote]

A buddy of mine bought an intake for his 3 from ebay and it fit fine. The issue he had was removing the factory intake hose from the TB. No issues with the intake itself.
[/quote]

thank you for the reassurance

 

[small town king]

i'd be more worried about taking about the entire factory intake. that's a biatch.

 

[Birddog1548]

I though I read a review somewhere on here where I guy bought one and bought a better filter and connectors. and it worked fine.

I would really really like to hear from anyone who has bought one, because i'm looking at it too. It's rough being addicted to your car and broke on a budget at the same time

 

[3sacrowd]

I have a bomz on my sedan. I was skeptical at first, but after 2 months, lots of rain(weird winter in Montreal), and driving hard i have yet to haveany cel's (knock on wood). I did add a hydroshield though

 

[VanSin23]

+1 on the hydroshield. I put a Bomz on my HB and water was dripping into the filter when it rained. That ain't good!!! So, bought an Injen Hydrosheld from Autoanything.com for $23 shipped. Put it on before you put on the intake itself to save time on having to go back and do it like I am tonight. The Bomz puts out a great sound!

 

[Hofer]

cool cool...now for a kind of random question...
is it ok to have a CAI with the stock exhaust?
it won't bring more air in than the exhaust can handle will it?

 

[biped]

it will be just fine with the stock exhaust. don't worry about bringing more air in than it can handle, it can handle anything you can throw at it. some people are running turbos on the stock exhaust.

 

[surfwagon]

I like the idea of saving big on the eBay CAI because after all it's just a tube. However, if most of you are replacing the cone filter with something else for an additional $40 wouldn't it be better to just spring for a name brand CAI that comes with a decent cone filter? Just a thought. I'll still leaning towards the eBay CAI though.

 

[Hofer]

35 dollar intake + 40 dollar filter still a fraction of what you'd pay for a brand name...

 

[surfwagon]

Plus shipping. I have not found an eBay CAI for less than $53 grand total. Then you have to buy a new cone filter for $45 plus shipping for $8. Basically the eBay filter will be $100. Are there any name brand CAI's that even come close to $100? AEM is still like $200 right? I'm not trying to bust chops, I'm just trying to get a better picture.

 

[protephile]

Or you could all just go to my Group Buy and get a real name-brand intake with a good filter, proven fit
and a vendor who plans on sticking around to back up his products. For $95.00. Shipped.

Go here:

http://www.mazda3forums.com/index.php?topic=65854.0

 

[surfwagon]

Now that's exactly what I'm talking about. Thanks protephile.

 

[Hofer]

damit...i ordered my like 4 days ago...

 

[zorminster]

I agree with protephile's sentiments... i can't get mine unless we get 11 more people ;p


also, i just noticed someone said "its just tubing" and i've gotta say thats a terrible way to think of it. heres why:

think of the difference in mandrel bent and crush bent exhausts. Theres a HUGE price difference; but its just tube, right? Well, not exactly. The crush bending creates a spot in the tubing that creates turbulence. The same thing happens from seams, poorly rounded bends, and rough spots. Consider what would be smoother: highly polished stainless, injection molded plastic, unfinished metal. Obviously, the highly polished finish (interior, were not talking about the outside of the tube) would be smoothest. The plastic will have seams, and unfinished metal is can be quite coarse- especially if it's got welding slag / splatter that is down in the tube.

You're really paying for a name most of the time, but its worth it to carefully consider the production methods and quality of all the parts.