I opened the hood last night to discover my APEXi pop-charger had slipped off the coupler and was just resting there, gently wedged between the strut tower, the battery and the end of the SRI.



This is the first time that’s ever happened, in the 4-5 years that I've had a SRI in the Maxima, and I’m thinking there may be a number of contributing factors.

• I recently polished the aluminum adapters; possibly making them too slippery.
• The T-Bolt clamps are about a half-inch larger in width than the extension lip on the adapter plates; possibly torqued down *too* much and pinching the coupler right off the adapter.
• I’m using these Specter couplers, which seem kind of shiny and thin. They’re pretty, but cheaply made.
• I just got back from an agonizing, bumper-2-bumper road trip which had me rocking around in first gear for untold hours. That, in conjunction with the Torque Link, probably shook the heck out of things.

So I’d like this never, ever to happen again… and am brainstorming how to insure that. Any ideas?

Has this ever happened to you? And if so, what did you do about it?

 

Happened to me this weekend with the new 3.5" intake. Pretty sure I agree with your theory re: torqued to tightly and my new velocity stack (vs the old, which is metal w/ a roughened surface which tends to grab a bit better) is a bit polished and plastic causing it to slip off easier.

 

Happened to me a few weeks ago, hit some nasty bumps while accelerating and it jumped right off. Mine came apart at the coupler between the MAF and midpipe. I have a similar bracket I made to connnect the MAF to the strut tower - I've though about drilling out more of a slot to allow some movement. My issue was caused by a stationary MAF and very mobile engine (still have stock mounts).

 

I dont have mine locked down at all and I have never noticed anything bad,

 

I'm thinking of:

 

Same thing happened to me previously. Hit some nasty bumps on the road and it fell off. Then the battery positive terminal cover somehow became stuck in the opening of the popcharger -_- Car wouldn't rev past 4k, didn't realize until I went home and popped the hood. I just tightened everything down more.

 

this is pretty bad.. but where in that picture is the pop charger....haha


do you keep your home as nice as the max

 

man...under your hood is immaculate....i can see the elbow grease from here ahah

 

Move the bracket holding the assembly from the end of the MAF to the screw that mounts the actual air cleaner. Only way it will come off then is if the entire screw comes off the air cleaner. You may have to make a new bracket or choose another mounting point. My Stillen has the bracket mount on the base of the Velocity stack.

 

Brilliant! I've got a new little project, now.

Very well done, Xpcgamer.

And now that you have me thinking outside the box, another alternative would be to get a pair of M6 bolts that are 4" long, and run them from one bracket trough the other into the filter. Now sure how do-able that is, but like I said... thinking outside the box now.

Thanks, man!

 

I bought silicone couplers and clamps from siliconeintakes.com and the couplers are nice and thick, once they were clamped down they weren't going anywhere. Just another option.

 

Glad I could help Your Max's engine bay is beautiful.

 

This evening I dug out the couplers that came with the Frankencar kit four years ago now. They're crude looking compared to the shiny black Specter couplers, but very thick and stiff. (That's what she said.)

Anyway, I swapped the coupler between the two adapter plates, and it feels totally rock solid with the T-bolt clamps.

Obviously, I'm going to be keeping a close eye on it, but I think the stronger coupler will do the trick. In the end, I don't mind compromising a little bit of bling for a more secure setup.

Thanks to everyone for their comments and advice. I'll swing back if ever this comes up again.

 

IF it keeps happening, hit the pipe/coupler with some hair spray, then tighten it down.....Aqua Net FTMFW.

 

I haven't had that problem yet with either of the bellmouths I ran (JWT/Vibrant)!!!! my couplings are thick (Samco) I purchased thru Vibrant/Sport compact warehouse....may you just need to clean them and torque them less.....

 

I knew it was the coupler. Those Spectre couplers look nice, but when they heat up they tend to get very soft which I hate. My entire intake hangs lower after driving because of that.

Can anyone recommend some couplers that stay stiff but are affordable? I need them to be red as well.

 

i dont know how you guys are setting ur intakes up but this happond to me before on my old 3rd gen, i used the red spectre couplers and 1 day i guess it got too soft and my filter fell off so i just slid it back onto the coupler and run a small screw on both sides to ensure the filter never came off of the coupler again lol cheap and easy and the filter is still on to this day...

 

Yep. That was exactly the problem. And although I've had those Spectre couplers for about a year now, it was only recently that I polished the adapter plates; (stupid Rochester ).

Anyway, since this thread of mine got bumped, here's some followup: after using a thick coupler (that came with the original Frankencar SRI Kit) between the two aluminum adapter plates (i.e.; between the pop-charger to the MAF), I've not had even a hint of a problem. Every time I check it, the SRI is solid.

If anyone takes anything away from this silly thread, it's this: be wary of Spectre couplers.

Spectre Couplers = Bad.

 

Those spectres are crap after u have em under a hot hood for a few months they really get flimsy. I'm gonna try the siliconeintakes site.

 

I'm searching Google this morning on this very issue for the R2C Intake kit on my G, and I bounce here. What a freaking shock to see my own thread!

Too funny. Still not sure what to do for this setup... I'm thinking of roughing up the lip on the mid pipes.

 

Seeing this is making me want to rip my fender well open. Did a true CAI with the same Apexi filter pointing down. Between coilovers, torque link, and an 840 mile ride yesterday I'm wondering if it's just resting on the floor of the enclosure of the fender well. Car ran a little weird on the way home last night...

With that said, thanks for bumping Rochester.

 

Haha, no problem, and good luck.

I was tweaking fitment again this afternoon, bending some brackets to lower the filters away from the hood (they were denting the hood lining pretty hard), using nyloc nuts instead of just lock-washers, and so on. As for the pop-chargers slipping off... I did exactly what I was thinking, which was to score the end of both mid-pipes with some course sandpaper. Cleaned up with some rubbing alcohol, re-installed, and the pop-chargers seem to be very secure now.

Of course, I have to keep an eye on things now, like forever. That's the price paid for modifying things away from stock.

 

Braggart

 

Evolution

 

Still there, but I'm gonna swap out these spectre couplers after reading this. Wonder why the car was acting weird? Guess it didn't like running for that long. 14+ hours with only an hour break in the middle...