if you completely remove the battery its not hard at all to get the filter and second half of the intake down into the front of the bumper.

 

^^^^ SO TRUE

 

Looks good. My TRD CAI is supposed to arrive today. I've read the instructions a few times, and it looks like pulling the fender well out a bit and removing the battery are really gonna help.

 

Removing the battery will make it much easier and just takes a few seconds.

After that, you kind of have your choice. The instructions recommend jacking up the front end, removing the driver side wheel, and pulling pack the splash guards in the wheel well. That works. It's what I did and honestly, it's not too bad.

However, had I realized I needed to remove the front bumper to install the fog lights (which I did the next night), I would have done the CAI install at the same time I had the front bumper off to install the fog lights. With the battery removed and the front bumper off, you could assemble the CAI on the bench and just drop it in place.

Unless you're removing the front bumper anyway for something else (like installing fog lights), it's probably not really worth it. It really comes down to:

put front end up on jack stands, remove driver side wheel, pull back splash guards, install CAI from below

or

remove front grill and front bumper, install CAI from above

Either way will get you there, and it's actually a pretty easy install no matter which route you choose.

PDX_xB

 

How involved is the bumper removal? I guess I'll go read the fog light install sheet now.

 

It's not too bad, I've had mine off 3 times now. A few tips from my experience:

1) If you have a cordless drill and a 1/4" socket drive bit, it helps a lot when removing all those 10mm fasteners along the bottom. You'll need to jack up the front for clearance.

2) Wear gloves when pulling the sides out of their locking clips. I cut myself the first 2 times.

3) Leave the top 2 bolts until last. This will prevent the cover from falling off and getting scratched.

4) Plan ahead and do everything at once so you don't have to remove it again. Fogs, CAI, blackout, new grill, etc.

5) The TRD fog light instructions are very useful the first time you do this.

 

Thanks Fred.

 

I didn't jack mine up. I removed the eight 10mm bolts around the bottom by hand. There is plenty of clearance for a standard socket wrench. I have a ratcheting screwdriver that uses interchangable bits. So, I used it with a 10mm scoket and spun those guys right out. Probably not quite as fast as a cordless drill, but it saved me the time of putting the car up on jack stands.

Definitely. These are also the first two I put back in. Also, spread something soft (blanket, rugs, etc.) on the floor under the bumper to sit it down on when you get it off.

This is the best advice. If I would have read ahead, I would have done the fog lights and CAI at the same time. But I didn't read the fog light installation instructions until after I had the CAI and strut brace in. The instructions for the CAI specifically mention that you should install it before the strut brace, but don't make any mention of the fog lights. Poor planning on my part, but all-in-all both installations were pretty easy.

Definitely. All the TRD installation instructions are well written and illustrated. The fog light instructions give detailed steps for removing the bumper.

As I said earlier, removing the bumper isn't necessary to install the CAI. However, if you need to remove the bumper for something else anway, it makes installing the CAI even easier.

BTW, for those installing the fog lights, this little right angle racheting screwdriver combined with a Torx #30 bit will make your life easier. The Torx bits that come with it (#15, #20) aren't big enough, but I had one on hand already. I picked one of these up at my local Harbor Freight store on sale for $2.49 a couple weeks ago. It's a handy item to have for those hard to reach places.

PDX_xB