As I assume many others have noticed with the new Cattman advertising banner, they have a CAI for our car. From the looks of it, it looks very similar to the PR CAI. Is it just a rebadged version? Also, has anyone noticed that there is a box or something where the MAF sensor adapter should be?

 

where's the ad at?

 

Right here:

https://maxima.org/ads/graphics/cattman1.gif

 

blam

 

I believe the Cattman CAI is Brian's own design and not a re-badged PRCAI. But even if it is, why would anyone want either one now that the Injen CAI is available? I realize the Injen is more expensive. But how much is it worth not having to perform surgery on your Maxima and possibly void your warranty?

IMHO, Injen has eliminated the competition in CAIs for the Maxima. Why it took so long for a CAI manufacturer to come up with a design that doesn't involve cutting a hole in the fender is simply beyond me! After all, if Injen could do it, why couldn't PR or Cattman?

 

I agree, if the CAI is your thing, the Injen has it all, looks , quality, and no need to butcher up your car !

 

How can it void your warranty? Only thing it does void is the intake warranty, that you already took off...

 

Even if you replace your PRCAI or Cattman CAI with the stock airbox, precisely how do you intend to explain that gaping 3.5" hole in your fender when your $600.00 MAF sensor goes south? Do you honestly believe no one at your dealership's service department is going to notice it?

The difference in price between an Injen CAI and a PRCAI or a Cattman CAI is real cheap insurance as far as I'm concerned, particularly given how often we seem to be losing MAF sensors around here.

 

yea..well i think its too late for me.....i cant even rev past 5000 rpm...busted maf i guess

 

Ok...once again, what warranty are you voiding? If you tell me, I will take my other statements back.

 

There are two answers to your question, Greg's2kGLE. The legal answer is that the dealer can only void your warranty if damage ordinarily covered under the warranty is caused by or attributable to a modification. In reality, however, the dealer can void your warranty any time they damn well please. The reason, of course, is because they know most people have neither the time nor the resources to fight them. Even if you take your case to NNA, do you have any idea how long it takes to get a Zone Rep out to investigate a claim? I do. And it's more time than most people can afford to be without their car, believe me.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. You're much better off not giving your dealer an excuse to start looking around for reasons to void your warranty. And no matter how you slice it or dice it, a 3.5" hole in your fender is an excuse for them to do precisely that.

 

But even without having the hole, but just by having ANY aftermarket intake, wouldn't that give them the same excuse?

 

Well, Injen is bigger than Cattman and PR combined. And how long have PR's intakes been out? Like 3 years now, and Cattmans' have been out for 2. Injen's was just released. Give me that much time to research something, and I could figure it out too.

 

Precisely. Which is why you want to REMOVE your aftermarket intake and REINSTALL your stock airbox BEFORE you take your car in for warranty repairs. The only exception is if you have a relationship with your dealer whereby they agree to cover warranty repairs regardless of your mods. I can tell you that such relationships take a long time to forge, but they're worth their weight in gold.

 

That's true, Shadow. But I don't think we're talking about rocket science here. If Injen could look inside the engine bay and see that there was enough room to install a CAI without cutting through the fender, why couldn't PR or Cattman?

 

I hear that. But I've heard that they can find out even if you've switched the part. Something about when they plug their computer into your ECU or somethin...

 

I'm not certain how sophisticated our ECUs are at trapping that kind of information. But if your car doesn't show evidence of having been tampered with when you take it in for warranty repairs, I suspect your dealer won't mess with you. That's why I don't like leaving evidence around after I remove a mod. A 3.5" hole in the fender is pretty irrefutable evidence of a mod if you know what I mean.

"Hey, officer. That ain't my hole. I don't know where it came from. Somebody musta left it here."

 

This wouldn't be as big of a deal if our MAS's weren't spontaneously going AWOL. The Injen is nice and everything, but it looks like its going to get blasted by hot air from the radiator fan and the filter looks close to the block anyway. I haven't seen one up close, just making an observation from the pics I've seen. Can anyone who has an Injen installed comment on the placement of the air filter?

Jesse

 

On the Injen intake, is the heat from the radiator, AC condenser, and exhaust manifold going to counter act some of the benefits of an original CAI?

I doubt it makes any difference once moving, but wouldn't the air be cooler in front of the bumper(PR CAI) where you don't have the radiator, AC condenser, and exhaust manifold heating things up?

Anybody dyno one of the Injen intakes yet?

It would be interesting if we got an Injen, Place Racing, POP(Stillen or JWT), Franken, and a Berk intake together at one place for a little DYNO showdown. I know the ClubLexus guys got one going on and they even got Injen to DONATE one of their brand new released intakes for testing. So, that would be a FREE intake to someone who was willing to be a test subject PLUS people even helped chip in for the dyno costs. I'll chip in at least $20 if this could happen.

 

We might be able to do this in So Cal. Any ideas guys....

 

The first thing I thought was "Gee, that's awfully close to the radiator fan"!! But I can definitely feel a better throttle response, especially around town where it's stop and go. I can only attribute this to the new intake...which replaced a Frankencar BTW. The only thing I can think of is that the air around the filter near the bottom of the engine compartment is almost always going to be cooler than the air near the top...regardless of the radiator fans.

If I really had too much spare time on my hands I would go down to Radio Shack and buy two digital thermometers and put one sensor where the FC filter used to sit and the other down by the Injen filter and compare temperatures over a variety of driving situations.

Tony

 

the one in the pic is a 4th gen CAI and yes it is a PR CAI rebadged.

 

I guess I was confused, Steve. When I saw Brian at Stillen during last year's Maxima Day, he had a prototype Cattman CAI installed on his Maxima. I thought he said he developed it himself, but I could be wrong about that. And you're certainly much more of an expert on intakes than I am.

Even if they're not completely identical, the PRCAI and the Cattman CAI utilize the same design. And both of them require surgery on the fender before they can be installed.

 

The first thing to remember is that heat rises. The next thing to keep in mind is that even if the air were cooler in front of the bumper, it would only be cooler for a matter of seconds. Once the vehicle starts moving and the air begins to circulate, I don't think it makes a great deal of difference which CAI you're running. But an SAE-corrected dyno test on a single test vehicle would prove the point conclusively. Obviously you'd need to find a test vehicle that has or has had a PRCAI installed. I doubt anyone would be willing to cut a 3.5" hole in their fender simply for purposes of conducting the test.

The other thing I would recommend against is testing CAIs against HAIs. The reason is because dyno tests are typically conducted with the hood up. If engine heat has someplace to escape to rather than being trapped under the hood, the results between a CAI and an HAI will be misleading. In fact, HAIs will sometimes produce better results than CAIs on a dyno. But that's normally not the case at the track.

 

I guess I see your point. As promised, I take my statements back.

 

Thanks, Greg.