here in portland, it's been raining like crazy, plus snow and wind and all the other fun stuff. point is, my car is no longer black. it's grey and my tires are brown. in other words, i need to wash it. well, on monday, supposely we are gonna get a break from all the rain and it's gonna be sunny for the next couple days. but i'm not about to go outside in the 40 degree weather and start washing my car. so for the very first time, i will be taking it to a car wash (brushless that is.) my question is i have a cold air intake. if i do a under body wash, will my intake be ok?

thanks.

 

You should be fine. There is a plastic panel underneath where your intake is that shouldn't allow to much water through. I have done mine before without any issues.

 

ouch. That sounds rough. My cars starting to get pretty dirty too. but I'm leaving it until the spring. What ever. As for the intake. I don't see how it could be damaged but I'm not 100%

 

thanks guy. just wanted to make sure. i know the filter is surrounded by plastics, but my plastic pieces don't fully close around the wheel area for some reason so i'm afraid water might squeeze in there.

and a lot of people say watch out for puddles when you drive with a cai on. but then again, that's when they are on throttle. in a car wash, we're in neutral so i guess it's not gonna suck anything in... at least, not when i'm in there.

 

The thing you need to watch out for is completely submerging the intake. Once that happens you are screwed. The carwash shouldn't be a problem.

 

I can tell you that I have gone through the brushless car wash a few times with my CAI on. I usually just turn off the car while it washes and I have never had a problem. However when its raining heavy and im driving it starts to suck up water and it really freaks me out. you can hear it and you can hear the engine saying "wtf". im lowered on s-techs and have the fig grille inserts right infront of where the cai is, so you can imagine the amount of water that gets in there. The weird part is that the car feels like it runs better after that.

 

unless they jab a hole into your wheel well fender wall thingy or whatever they call it and run water into it, you probably won't hydrolock. that's what the plastic under the car's for.

 

sigh too bad i dont have teh fender panels

 

^^me either dave...

but to answer the original question, you only have to worry about hydrolock if the filter becomes submerged while the engine is running...it's like a straw, the liquid will only go up when being sucked up

 

yea but then again i dont have a CAI, i think its pointless.... just my opinion

 

If you're unlike me, and still have your plastic wheel well in tact, don't worry about it.

 

If you're unlike me, and still have your plastic wheel well in tact, don't worry about it.

 

yeah, ur car should be fine.