I installed my new Airraid intake on Thursday. Friday afternoon I was on my way home from work and I pulled out and accelerated hard. I got to the rev limiter and the car shifted as normal. At the next light I noticed I had a loss in power. I turned down my radio and I could here a lot of top end noise. Luckily I was less than a mile from home so I coasted in and shut her off. I cranked her back up and the sound coming from the engine was unbearable. I had my car towed to my local dealer Friday evening. Saturday I called and the guy said they had gotton it up on the lift, but their engine guy would not be in until Tuesday to look at it. He had one of the other techs take a look and they think its the valve spring.

Here's my question. I've got right at 3k miles on my Mag. Not 24 hours after putting on my intake this happens. Could the intake cause such a problem? I don't know much about cars so I have to rely on the dealer on this one. I admit that I had been driving my car in full throttle every chance I got after installing my intake on Thursday. The service rep said that these engines could handle full throttle acceleration, especially during the break-in period, in fact they recommend it. Before having my car towed Friday evening I took off the Airraid (3 minute install/deinstallation) just in case the dealer tried to give me a hard time. Question 2, if the aftermarket intake was the problem, could the dealer refuse to fix my car?

 

I'm going to wait and see what the rest of the board has to say before I post the legality of the dealers obligation.

 

since the dealer doesn't know about any modifications, why would they refuse you?

i voided the warranty on my trans-am by installing a skip shift module. my friend voided his
warranty on his camaro by installing different wheels. i pleaded my case with pontiac and lost.
the only warranty i had left was on my tires. that was my last pontiac.

 

The dealer would have to prove the air intake directly caused the problem.

 

if anything got sucked through the intake and into the valvetrain, that's enough proof. and maybe that is what happened.

 

The dealer should have no clue about the intake because I did take it off before taking it into them. I spoke with one of the guys and asked about the aftermarket parts. He said if I could take them off before bringing it in, do so. I had a s10 that had just about every bolt-on and I had problems with the engine. I took it in and the dealer said that they could not void the warranty on a bolt on item. They also told me that it is very hard to fight with the customer because there is no real way of blaming issues on one specific item. When I spoke with my service rep on Saturday he told me not to worry about anything, they were going to make it right.

 

What the chances the intake would cause such a problem? I've had aftermarket intakes on almost every vehicle I've owned with no problems.

 

I doubt that the intake caused your problem, and I am surprised that you could hurt the engine by over reving it. Shouldn't the computer sense this and shut the engine down?

Valve springs can break, maybe you just had a bad valve spring to begin with.

Good luck,

Bob

 

Are you positive you didn't drop (misplace) anything in the intake tube, and then maybe it was ingested into the engine. I once had a very small brass carburetor butterfly screw come loose and get sucked into the engine. Sounded like the engine was coming apart from the inside out. Didn't do any damage, but head had to be removed and reinstalled....a pain in the a$$. It'll be interesting to see what they find. Keep us posted.

 

I'm almost positive nothing fell into the intake tube. The Airraid kit I purchased had very little parts, with only one screw, that held the clamp on. The other screws from the kit held the box together and everything was intact when I took the intake off. It seems to have happened when I opened the car at full throttle. I've never had a car that I couldn't open up at full throttle from time to time. Hopefully I'll find out today what the deal is with it. I'll let everyone know the outcome.