I have sc and crank reduction pulleys it has nothing to do with that its the intakes with open cowl that expose the mini lisp that some mini's have. as soon as I added the DDM intake I heard it despite loud sc whine and loud exhaust it lisps when at gentle throttle and it's just the sort of sound thats annoying. I wont close my cowl to get rid of it tho.

 

Hmmmm... how long has your filter been in there? cause a dirty filter COULD block a good bit of sound...

If your supercharger wasn't turning, you'd have bigger problems...

Maybe you just enjoyed it too much (and too loud) previously and now you have the Pete Townshend thing goin...

 

Filter's only been in a month or so. The whine's been gone longer than that. I know the blower is turning, 'cause I can make the boost gauge register in the positive....

 

I have the HDI closed-box CAI. I get the "whistle" as well - with the throttle barely on, especially aroud 2000rpm. It doesn't really bother me... you can easily get rid of it by either giving just a tiny bit more throttle, or a tiny bit less. There's only 1 magic spot where it's noticeable.

The only time it's irritating is when I'm on cruise control on a slight incline, and everything's just right such that it whistles continuously - enough that my girlfriend asked what that noise was.

I like my SC whine, though. :-)

 

Well, I listened on the way home tonight, and the whine is still there, but it doesn't seem as prominent, and of course it's covered quite a bit by the exhaust and the other intake noise.

 

I get the faint whistle as well and I have a Cravenspeed CAI. It's at lower RPMs Magic spot is only a +-50 RPM.

 

I installed a JCW airbox last night with AMSoil Nanofilter - AHHHHHHHH....

The whistle is still there, but I can only hear it with the top down and the radio off, and only if I'm listening for it and because I know where it happens - if I wasn't aware of it, I'd be blissfully ignorant... cause it's pretty quiet... in a coupe you wouldn't hear it - just like the stock airbox...

Not as much SC whine as the Dinan, but I'm willing to give up a little whine to stop the damned whistle... That was the only part of the "experience" that obviously didn't "belong"... and now I'm FREEEEEEE!!!!!

 

Sweet!

I've just been listening to Sid's "Misfitoy Pt. 2" exhaust videos. Now I need to go out and drive my car some.

 

Im getting the same noise with the madness cai too. I have the cowl mode in place that they offer so the size of the openning is limited to a hole the size of a baseball. I wonder if ther would be a way to run an intake house from the cowl mod openning to a safe cool air location. Perhaps that will tame the noise down a bit and still allow the intake to work properly.

 

Pretty much any box without a top is going to whistle, you're sucking a lot more air in .

 

I have the Alta CAI and got rid of the whistle with a $4 mod. Bought two very light sponges and put them between the back of the airbox (where the stock airbox back used to be) and the cowl area. The area covered by the sponges is about 1/3 or what the airbox end piece used to cover. Still getting enough air to the intake and the nice sucking sound and SC whine are there. But...the loud whistle is gone.

I guess it just needs a little something to absorb the sound 'getting back' into the car.

 

Any chance you could post pics of this mod? The whistle is about to drive me crazy.

 

Here are some pics. The first one shows one of the sponges taken out, so you can see what kind I put in there. The other ones show both sponges in.

As I said, it eliminates the tea kettle whistle for me, but still gives the intake enough air to breath. The nice thing about this solution is that you can quickly take it out for showing or track purposes (if you want to make sure you give the CAI all the air it wants ).

 

Well there's your problem, you're MINI is trying to get your attention. WHY would you be driving at partial throttle! .

Seriously though, if the whistle bothers you so much, forgo the 3 HP you gained from your CAI, and go back to the stock intake.

My car vibrates like a tractor because the engine mounts are so stiff, my exhaust rattles like a beer can stuffed with BB's, and my exhaust is so loud at idle I can set off car alarms from clear across a parking lot. I love the way the car drives though, and that's what it's all about.

If it bothers you, you have to sacrifice SOMETHING. There's a reason MINI put the intake in a box. It may not perform the best, but it's quiet.

OEM is comfort before performance. If comfort is what you're looking for, perhaps modding isn't for you .

 

Hmmm, I gave up my techtonics-engined, Motorsport-mounted, rollcaged Quaifed, Recaroed, R1ed and streeted SCCA SSB GTI 16V a few years ago because it ddn't have a/c, so I guess I'm a wimp. I only drove it on the street 5 1/2 years, so ya kinda got me there...

Seriously, I know the tradeoffs well - but there's no reason for a whistle at small throttle openings, other than intake tract tuning, which can be engineered out without loss of performance. I do like the "sponges" idea but wonder how they'll hold up to underhood temps. I suppose if they start to break down they're cheap to replace, kind of a "consumable" sound blocker...

 

I'm not sure that the only options out there are full-out modding (with a complete sacrifice of comfort) or stick to OEM 'cause modding isn't for you.
It seems like Blimey has found a good balance for him with the JCW intake.

 

I've had them in there for about 4 weeks now and no issues.

 

Yep... whistle does not equal performance - and isn't necessary to create performance... neither is supercharger whine or exhaust sound, for that matter...

FWIW - I haven't seen any numbers to suggest that an Alta, DDM, etc. intake produces significant performance improvements over my JCW+Nanofilter+Alta hose setup... just more sound/noise...

 

FWIW, unless the OEM filter design is absolutely horrible, you're not going to gain more than 3-4 HP from an intake. My point with my post was, if if bothers you that much, put the stock one back in . I don't spend a whole lot of time at partial throttle below 5k RPM's, so it's not really an issue for me. Even when I hear the whistle, it's so quiet in comparision to everything else on the car, I really have to be listening to even hear it. So, if it bothers you, great, pull out your CAI, and put in the stock/JCW box . Problem solved with less than 1% performance decrease .

Most of the free flowing exhausts are loud, unfortunately that's kind of how it works, exhausts like the JCW/One Ball aren't going to help much at 5k+ on a car with 10k in engine modifications . That's most certainly going to be an enormous bottleneck with anyone doing more than a pulley/cai.

I can't see how a roll cage would bother you, other than looking somewhat ugly in a daily driver.

MINI didn't intend on other people designing their own intakes, so they never "Tuned" anything. It worked with the stock box, and that's all that mattered.

I'd pull out my CAI and put in a stock/JCW box with a foam filter before I stuck half a dozen sponges in my engine bay . The 1-2 HP isn't worth that much to me...

As for the lack of AC, i'd probably take mine out too if I lived in PA. Then again, it doesn't get up to 115 degrees for 3 weeks straight in PA .

You've obviously moved on very quickly if you went from a car like that, to a mildly modded MCS and a barely audible whistle when doing 10 MPH with your windows down at 2k rpm's bothers you that much .

 

I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned in this thread, but the DTBV GREATLY reduce the whistle on my car. Shortly thereafter I also switched from the Alta to the DDM CAI and the whistle was reduced further. I think it may be due to the thicker filter on the DDM. And lastly, I installed a Milltek catback. If I had to quantify the reduction I've experienced, I'd say it's been reduced 90%.

BTW, I also have the Alta hose and M7 16% pulley.

 

I know we're joshin' each other in the constructive frame of mind that NAMers have, rather than some of those crowds on other websites [caugh] VWV [/cough]...

nyah, I had the GTI from 94-99, then went through a series of fun cars that essentially cost me very little because they held their value (1.8T chipped Passat wagensleeper, restored a '90 small bumper 2.0 bubbleblock 16V GLI, Mazdaspeed Protege, '84 16V heavily-worked VW cabrio) but the MCS is the one. It's probably wrong to like a car this much.

Nyah, it's definitely wrong to like a car this much. That whistle isn't a Big Thing, but it doesn't have to be there, that's all. Other than that and perhaps a slightly more jumpy throttle than necessary, this one's good. Real good. It'll be better when I decide what program of mild mods it'll have (pulley, blue flame, and 3D mild flames on the hood (worth almost 5 WHP right there!) are on The List).

Getting sponges tomorrow. I'm trying to find them in a lightweight, performance version. That way when I stop I can always give the car a quick cleaning

 

My wife and I both have 16% pulleys and Alta CAIs.She has a factory hose with no "whistle".I have an Alta silicone hose with the "whistle".The "whistle" is so slight,it reminds me of my '74 MGB GT(dual carbs,NOT supercharged),which makes the same sound, with foam air filters.Both cars(My MINI & MG) make that sound at about the same cruising/accelerating conditions.I got used to the MG sound first,so having it on my MINI doesn't bother me,it just reminds me everything is working right,like my MG.(?)

 

I have an alta intake and i get the whistle every once in awhile...i noticed when its really windy it will do it and i know my supercharger is running good because when i lay into the throttle that whine is as strong as ever!

 

Whine is good, though, the whistle sounds like a vacuum leak (but isn't).

 

I've heard a few times that the hose does contribute to the whistle, but mine whistled terribly with the OEM hose and 16% pulley. As noted in my previous post, the bypass valve was the main source. These can vary from car to car, especially with milage from what I've read.