if you like in a city like seattle then sri or stock, but if you live like in nor cal cai is fine. if yo are paranoid at all then forget it.

 

exactly - but if you have never seen your roads get totally flood it ... ..then do it. In NJ the roads are crummy in many parts and also ...some parts they are great. Go figure. Its all up to you and your area - its hard as poop to hydrolock - you need a few feet of water .....we arent talking 6inches or even a foot .... you need a lot of water. but thats all im going to write about cause ive posted a few times in detail about things.

 

i'm from central nj. I had an sti before with cold air never had a problem. after reading all the post on this site i am now gettin worried bout the tc cause it seems that for this car its a big deal?

i now plan on just goin injen sri instead of the cai, only because i dont have the splash guards and am dropped.

is there a big difference btw sri and cold in terms of sound and performance?

I have a trd exhaust.

 

Honestly - the car will suck in cooler air cause its further from the heat under the hood but by the time it gets to the engine its being heated to some degree ... intakes for NA cars do little if anything to the performance of the car. Since you have the trd exhaust you are still putting out the same flow .... with an intake and exhaust you do notice the car driving better ...but in your case ide do short ram ...its even an easier install.

 

There really is no point of getting an SRI for power. For noise maybe. You will loose low end torque and gain maybe a few peak hp. If you invest that kind of money, might as well go for the CAI. Also, the advantage here is thermodynamics, cooler air is more dense, the more air you put in, the more power you put out.

As for water; splashes, rain, etc will not harm your intake or your engine. Only if your area is prone to flooding and the intake has potential of getting submerged should you invest in a bypass valve.

 

upstyles, it is no more a big deal for the tC than any other car. Actually, the flip side says more... that it is no less of a deal on any other car than the tC. Running an intake closer to the ground on any car raises the risk of hydrolock.. it is just that it has taken years for most typical "tuners" to understand what hydrolock is and why it is a risk... hell, it has taken years for most "tuners" to even understand most mods So you hear more about it now.

The main issue with aftermarket CAI's (other than the fact that they fall short of every claim made) is that they are made of metal... so that cooler air is subjected to more heat soak than with your stock intake. Make a G.F.I out of plastic tubing and at least you combat that some.. still no huge gain or anything.. but the concept is actually sound.