As anyone here use the AEM (21-721C) Cold Air Intake System? Trying to find out the quality as this kit comes with the turbo heat shield, air intake and scoop attachment for the air intake. Please let me know.

 

Kit went together really smoothly and fit and finish were really good. It took around 30 mins taking my time. The hood scoop ductwork is held in place with 4 plastic push tabs. I wasn't too found of just that , so I got supplemented some black silicone gasket adhesive and ran on the four touch points to the hood for a little added grip. I also acquired a few 24 inch black zip ties to support some of the vacuum lines that had support clips on the factory airbox but not on the AEM airbox.

It ran through the Texas heat of over 100 degrees and nothing warped or seemed to suffer. So that means it should hold up to the test of time.

I did wonder if rain would get funneled in the airbox during downpours, but those fears were unfounded. At least at speeds under 70.

I purchase mine through 4x4autoworks.com. I searched the site for 21-721C and there are two links. One for $397.99 which is pretty much normal price, and another that says "add to cart to see price". That one is $297.99 and its the same part number. I chose that expecting the order to get rejected (too good to be true) however it went through. Bam! $100 saved. I just checked and the link it still there and should work just fine. Here is the direct link

I ordered on a Friday and got it the following Thursday directly from AEM.

I did get a CC-ID 029 Error after about 3 months and after looking the error up, I deduced the air filter might be getting dirty. Sure enough after I washed the filter, the code immediately went away. With that direct intake from above the hood you will see bugs and such in the airbox when you do clean the filter. So you might want to consider adding a screen to keep them out. Mine however remains wide open.

Let me know if you need to know anything else.

 

Was your car out of factory warranty when you did this?

 

No.. It is still under warranty (CPO 100K)

I did talk to the mechanic. My dealership assigns the same mechanic to the car when possible for continuity so if there was an issue he would see it.

He said if there were any issues that might be related to simply replace with factory airbox and bring it in. (covering his bases) However if there are no issues (such as service) just leave it in. He indicated they are not really concerned with those types of mods, however a tuned ECU might be another story.

With that being said, your dealership might differ. Mine is extremely customer centric and supports the local clubs and modified cars. Even going as far as offering "shop days" where a number of bays each quarter are given to the club members at no cost with mechanics on hand to offer technical advice and use of specialized tools.

I would assume that a certain number of dealerships may hide behind the mod and blame it if they can't figure something out.

My dealership has no issues with the cold air intake or my Magnaflow exhaust.

 

Thank you for all of the useful information! Any photos available of your setup?

 

Let me see

 

How about this?


Stock Air Box


Stock Air Box Minus Mass Air Flow


Stock Air Box Removed


AEM Air Box Installed


Mass Air Flow In Place


Turbo Heat Shield In Place


Hood Duct Work Installed


Scoop Installed (But you can see metal work inside scoop opening)


Inside Scoop Area Painted (BBQ Grill heat resistant paint)


Scoop Reinstalled


Vacuum Line Secured (12 inch around duct and small tie to hold line)


Scoop Plasti-Dipped (3 months so far no issues)

 

This is amazing! Any issues with you MAF? Some people said you have to reset the MAF but have no idea what that means. I like the plasti-dip idea but I was looking at this scoop to go with this kit.
http://www.outmotoring.com/notch-sty...coop-gen2.html

 

Nice looking scoop. I had not seen that one before.

No I never had to do anything with the MAF. BTW the car has 30K on it, if that is valuable.

I chose the plastic-dip because I am toying with using it and wanted an easy piece to test durability. In testing I discovered if you use lots of light coats you get the same texture as on the wheel arches. Which to me, makes it look close to factory.

I use a spray wax on it to get rid of the grippy feel the rubber has. To caveot this, I only hand wash the car so powerful spray jets or abrasive brushes do not touch the paint.

I would however spray paint the hood inside of where the scoop is (I used BBQ grill flat black paint) if you car is a lighter color. The pictures don't really show the exposed body color as that noticeable behind the scoop, but to me it was.

A dark body color would probably be ok. Just one of those details.

 

This is the car I want to mod

 

The scoop should look good on that color combination. After the cold air intake what is your next step?

 

I love how some JCW Clubbies sound but not sure what they have installed. I am also looking at either a strut bar or just having the M7 strut reinforcement blocks. What I really would like is a bumper like this: Rear bumper:

 

Lots of people have that bumper in japan and indonesia, Looks sweet irl

 

Yeah, Duell makes nice looking kits, but good lord are they expensive.

I am struggling to find a rear spoiler right now. I want something other than the JCW wings. I have seen an older Duell model I like, but most likely will never find one. There is a Racefoxx lip spoiler out there, but it doesn't seem to be aggressive enough for my taste, but I do like it better than the JCW and it may be my only choice though.

Now remember if you go with the AEM intake, you are probably going to have to use the AEM strut bar too. I would not count on other brands clearing the hood scoop duct work.

emnotek has the AEM bar for just under $200.

 

I was finally able to look up that strut bar. Not too expensive but wish it looked more like the JCW one.

 

Yep but you know it fits with that airbox.

 

It does?!?

 

Well the AEM bar will clear the AEM Cold Air Box. Most go straight across right where the airbox connects to the hood ductwork.

Of course you can probably get it chrome plated or powder coated.

 

I think I would paint it so it stands out like the red one in the photo.

 

Here is what it looks like on a 2012 R55/N18
I just installed it this weekend. Took about 30 minutes.

AEM Air21-721C Cold Air Intake


It said to remove the original scoop grill but I wasn't too crazy on how it looked from the outside. So I am doing a slight mod on it by opening up the closed areas to have all the holes in the original scoop grill open.

I will post pics on how it went later this week.

Also, I like how NTX Clubman painted his scoop, it looks pretty sweet.

 

Here is what I did for now until I can spend the 40 or 50 bux for a more legit grill scoop.
Hopefully this helps a bit more on my air flow.


Before



After




Can't really tell the difference with it on....


I saw this and looks good for the price. If anyone else has any suggestions I'm kinda on a budget.
http://www.minifini.com/details.php?...ary=&keywords=

 

Is there a less restrictive hood scoop grill on the market?
pls post link if possible, all I can find is stock replacement.

duh... at the bottom of you post.

 

The stock grille just mounts right in there with 4 screws.

What is preventing you from just buying some perforated aluminum and cutting it to fit? You can form it over the stock grille to create the shape and then screw in directly. Be sure to paint it before the install though.

 

Quick update to be aware of:

I have had my AEM intake in for about 6 month and twice I have seen two CCID-029 error codes about 3 months apart.

Googling the code shows it generally is related to the Mass Air Flow readings being out of whack (though it is a pretty general code). At first it goes away, only to reappear a short time later and stay.

So after thinking it through, I decided to simply remove and wash the filter out and the code dropped off immediately. Hmmm... So it stands to reason after the new intake is learned by the ECU that it is a bit more sensitive to the airflow readings which might make sense. (might be at the edges of tolerances for the ECU parameters?)

Both times it went off i was decelerating when vacuum would be the highest.

The Symptoms are:

The tach indicator trips first and and then it may go away on restart, then it eventually stays on for a day or two, then the speedo light trips. Once the filter was washed the tach indicator drops immediately and code clears. The speedo light took a day to drop off on its own.

While some people might freakout at a CEL I just look at this as a clean your filter monitor.

BTW: The filter is easy to clean but never looked dirty or washed out a lot of crud. But remember you are funneling in air directly from the front so it isn't uncommon to see sand in there so it can easily clog up far faster than the stock filter.

 

NTX Clubman, I never really thought about doing this until you mentioned it.
It makes complete sense what you say.

I will work on this and post back the results. Appreciate it!