Here is vital 'Need-to-know' information on the Alta Cold Air Intake for the R56 Mini Cooper S / JCW. If you are going to upgrade to the Alta CAI, make sure to upgrade to an all metal turbo inlet pipe. Myself, and my service advisor at my local MINI dealer did the exact same thing. We both upgraded to the Alta CAI and blew out our turbo inlet pipe. He explained that this intake causes a rupture in the inlet hose. A solid solution around this is to upgrade to an all metal inlet tube so it can't rupture.

 

A solid solution is to not buy their GARBAGE! There is a reason people are dropping their 8sses.

 

I'm inclined to call shenanigans.....


I don't see how a simple CAI by itself can cause the turbo inlet pipe to fail.

It's not like the alta CAI is designed radically different than any other CAI on the market, hell, mechanically, it's not much different than the stock intake.

 

 

To be completely honest, I've gone through two turbo inlet tubes while I've had the Alta CAI installed. Took it to the dealership hoping that it was a faulty tube. They didn't like how the CAI lined up (no surprise from a dealer) - and I've never been impressed with how it doesn't really fit up well.

The two tubes that failed on me, failed right at the turbo - one split because of a poor connection with the turbo, and the other started to break up on the bottom, from being misaligned - it was still connected correctly, it just wasn't happy with where it was, how it sat, etc. I've not once had a problem with piping and/or hose clamps until I put on this CAI. Should have paid more for an NM, or made one myself - spring project, maybe.

 

The tech at the dealer told me that because the connection at the CAI is slightly closer to the from of the car, it pushes the tube and causes a high amount of tension at the turbo, where is curves. The tension, and the vibration of the engine, specifically at idle, causes the tube to rupture.

 

Front of the car*

 

Did you uninstall the Alta CAI, or buy a better inlet tube, or just waiting for it to fail again?

 

If the intake is misaligned and puts stress on the inlet tube, I can see how that could cause it to crack and fail.

Your use of the term "rupture" and "blew out" made me think you were trying to imply the intake somehow over pressurized the tube causing it to burst.


If the intake is misaligned, buying an aftermarket inlet tube is a poor solution to the problem, it would be much better to properly remount the intake so it does not induce additional stress.

 

I checked my inlet tube today and I don't see any signs of badness. The only area that seems misaligned is near where the foam filter attaches to the elbow tube. But that's the Alta piece, not the inlet tube.

 

There may not be any signs of trouble, but it was within 2 days of last checking, that the inlet ruptured. I pushed my air box all the way back to the firewall to reduce as much stress as I could, but it wasn't quite enough in my case.

 

And by rupture, I mean crack / tear

 

Here we go again another Alta bashing thread. I thought this was buried years ago. Obviously not.

 

I bought their inlet turbo hardpipe at the same time I got the CAI, and everything's been running smoothly for 3+ years now. (knock on wood) I've never had issues with their products.

 

They changed the inlet tube on the 2011's right? So this shouldn't be problem correct?

 

Also want to know if this is a problem on `11 and up. I'm about 10 days from ordering an Intake and if the Alta one is crap imma just get the DDM street intake. 2011 and up was changes to a harder abs type plastic that shouldn't have this problem. plus if you are having the problem in anything `10 and older Forge offers a full Silicone one for like 150 and problem solved.

 

If someone installs a companies part and it adversely affects their car(in this case a poor mounting position causing stress on the inlet tube), don't you want to know? Sorry if you're some kind of Alta fanboy or something, but I don't see information like this as "bashing". Bashing to me is mindless just to talk down about someone. This is very good information. As stupidly expensive as intakes for this car seem to be, I'd like to know which ones are going to cause issues with my other parts.

 

As the R56s get older, the factory rubber inlet hose is going to become brittle and will be more susceptible to cracking. Even though this isn't a normal thing to happen when installing our intakes, we may add this to the instructions as something to look out for as it will be more common as these cars are getting more miles.

The most important thing to look for when installing the intake is to make sure the inlet hose isn't being pulled in one way, if it is, let us know and we will take care of you.

On the 2011+ cars I wouldn't worry about it since the hose is going to be more pliable, but still you'd want to check the alignment to make sure it's not getting pulled.

 

Having never used the product, I can only go off what I read here so far. A question for you, Chris since you chimed in now: With seeing a few different people say it, is it not possible your intake mounting points or shape or something in the design, might be doing just what they say?

As a consumer reading a forum, what I'm seeing right now is that the Alta intake puts stress on the inlet tube because the mounting of it pushes forward against it, puting more stress on the rubber tube at the clamping point.

Just curious if that tight of a fit is what you guys experienced in the R&D process. Or maybe you or a customer can post a video of how i should be mounted/fitted? I'm just concerned seeing claims like that.

 

InjectedGT, if there was a fitment issue, it would probably be due to the silicone fitment, if it is, then we can send a replacement if anyone is having an issue. The metal bracket doesn't have any variance to the way it's made since it's built on a jig.

It is not normal to have that type of fitment issue.

 

I ran my Alta CAI for about 4 years with absolutely no issues. Also Alta is Perrin, a very reputable name in the subi community. I would say that it is operator error with the installation that is messing things up.

 

Same here. Had my Alta CAI and inlet hardpipe for about 4 yrs on my JCW. No issues. I have their 3in exhaust with a custom straight pipe welded in and when my friends helped me install the exhaust they were surprised by the quality of the parts. A few friends of mine have Perrin parts on their STI's as well.

To each their own.

 

The problem is the alta cai with the stock pre '11 inlet pipe. But I will agree the quality of their parts is great from what I've seen.

 

ALTA is looking for your failed rubber inlet hose!

It has recently come to our attention that the 2007-2010 MCS OEM rubber inlet hoses are starting fail under normal conditions. We are looking for some help from NAM to get our hands on an old failed OEM inlet hose to use for some R&D purposes.

We are willing to exchange a failed OEM inlet hose for a NEW ALTA inlet if you can:
-Provide a high quality picture of it failed on a US 2007-10 Cooper S
-Ship it to us intact as much as possible (we will pay for shipping)

First one that can do this gets one!

Our intentions for the part is to gather data and eventually show customers that their OEM rubber hose will potentially fail during normal maintenance or other installations. We want to get a failed hose to use for some pictures and use to help educate customers through our website. We look forward to getting a PM from a customer soon!

 

Just wondering if you got your hands on a failed hose? I have two of them...