Sooo.. Some friends and I were putting the solid rack bushings in my car a couple of weeks ago and one of my buddies noticed this...

The IAT sensor on my CAI is not actually in the intake tube itself like every other intake on the planet.. I've looked online at a couple of sites with customer pictures and many of the Steeda CAI's are the same, but at some point they re-designed this and re-located the IAT to the side of the tube..

We are questioning the placement of the IAT because it seems that it would not get an accurate reading of the air temp.

What do you guys think? Should I drill a hole in my intake and re-locate the IAT or is there any point?

Reference photos:

This is from an install write-up. From this you can see that the design was changed at some point from the CAI that I have...


Where the IAT is located on my CAI:


Actual photo from my car:

 

Oh wow, that is wierd...Umm well you could, i dont see why not. However i dont really see the point..

 

Mine is where yours is. Its perfectly fine.

 

Quit thinking... the hole was put in the pipe and a grommet supplied with it. It's supposed to be there.

 

not on his... I installed that Steeda CAI and there was no hole, or grommet. the instructions said to put it right where I put it.

 

It just doesn't seem like it would get a correct reading on the Intake Temp. It seems that the temperature that it would read would be the stagnant air under the hood rather than the actual air coming into the intake. I'm sure that the difference is minimal, but I just don't understand why Steeda would start out with this design placing the IAT outside of the intake tube then change it at some point re-locating the IAT to the intake tube. This tells me that they must have done something wrong and changed it at some point.

 

The air temperature going through the filter is the same as inside the tube, is it not?

 

I'm sure that the difference would be minimal, but it just doesn't seem like it would get a constant true reading of the air going into the engine.. IDK, maybe it's nothing, just something that we noticed and thought it seemed a little funky.

All that being said, I think I am going to drill into the intake tube and move the IAT.

 

lol. there will be no difference.

you might as well wait until you get your nitrous setup. you'll have to drill another hole into the intake tube anyway. so make sure you take note as to where you want your nitrous nozzle to be, and where you place your IAT.

 

mine came like that. I had to plug the hole. It's also the factory location for 96-01. Don't know if it matters really.