I installed my new AEM short-ram intake last night (pics and thoughts about it to come after a little more time). Install felt pretty clean, I'm positive I have everything connected up properly. I did remove the negative battery terminal during the install, so I know my ECU needs to learn and calibrate itself again.

This morning though my "Service Engine Soon" light came on. I wouldn't have been surprised with a "Check Engine" light, but, maybe I'm just confused. What exactly is the difference?

Any thoughts or ideas, and, what should I do to get the light to turn back off?

 

May be the MAF fastest way is to get a code reader and get the code to find out what its saying

 

I was guessing it has to do with the MAF sensor since that's really the only thing I had to mess with, but we'll see. I'm gonna run to an autozone on my lunch break to find out.

But I'm still curious what the difference is supposed to be between the service engine soon light and the check engine light.

 

I Can tell you without a Shadow of a doubt it's something with your CAI. MAF sent that "Service Engine Soon" light due to it not being happy with something in your newly installed CAI... Your getting a lot more air in that Throttle Body and the Sensor doesn't like it for whatever reason...

Case and Point.. I Have a Stock 09 Max and i put a Tornado (the internal type) Throttle Body Spacer inside of the original air intake... And this thing DEFINITELY gave it a lil getty up on the start.... however one time when I pushed it from 0-80 switching into DS then Manual .. she got mad at me.. the Service soon engine light came on around 80... AND I lost ALL power in acceleration .... i had to swerve into the emergency sholder and hope to God it wasn't nothing major... turn the car off and back on and then it had power in acceleration again.. however the Service engine soon light remained on.. after having it checked at the dealer they determined it "was something" in the throttle body. They test it and test it again but couldn't find anything wrong Currently but they could see that the reason why the Engine light came on was because there "was" something wrong in the throttle body. but ofcourse at that time i already removed the spacer and they would NEVERRR find out about it.. lol Once they hooked up the diagnostics it made the "service engine light" soon go away with no added work.. everything is back to normal... screw the damn internal tornado thorttle body spacer

Solution, revist the CAI and also check to see what's good with that.. anybody else have a AEM short ram intake?

I prefer the long CAI's that actually grab cold air from the bottom front of the car...

 

Also make sure your MAF is fitting tightly and correctly

 

OP: take off the intake reset the CEL and see if it comes back.

yeah i wouldnt have put that "tornado" bs in your intake, that thing is retarded and probably lowers power due to just having something in the tube blocking airflow. last thing you want is your engine sucking some cheap piece of metal into the block - goodbye VQ!

 

Ghozt, you saying to switch back to the stock air filter and reset the service engine light? I'm sure if I do that everything will be fine--there were no issues before installing it.

Kind of a pain to remove, install the factory box, reset, re-install new intake, and just hope it doesn't happen again. Maybe I should just reset the light with the AEM intake still installed and see if it triggers the service engine soon light again?

Either way I'm gonna have to figure out a way to reset the light. Is it something that I can do myself? Do I have to buy something?

 

Ya, the MAF sensor seemed to seal pretty well last night. Gonna double-check everything tonight though.

 

lol

 

Double checked my install, can't find anything loose. Had an auto parts store reset the light (it was indeed MAF related) before driving home from work. The drive home is about 40 miles, and the light came on again around mile 30.

Stopped at another auto parts store to have em read it one more time and pick the dude's brain. Here's what we came up with:

I had a K&N panel filter that I was using before switching to this new filter, which is a dry filter now instead of the oiled K&N. The oil from before may have built up on the sensor's crosshairs and this extra air flow is setting it off now for some reason. I bought a bottle of MAF sensor cleaner to try. It sure would be nice if that's all it takes.

If that doesn't work I'll be getting in touch with AEM...

 

Update: service engine soon light kept returning, so I went back to the stock airbox (with K&N panel filter). Reset the light and it hasn't come back for a couple days now.

Been talking to AEM several times, they suggested a few things including cleaning the MAF sensor, and have offered 100% refund of my money since the problem hasn't been fixed. They've been awesome to work with over the phone. The refund process, if necessary, sounds really smooth too.

I'm going to try one more thing though, and that's to talk to someone in their development department. Gonna see if they're interested in building one of the parts differently, and shipping it out to me to test it for them. The piece that houses the MAF sensor has the sensor positioned differently than it was stock. No reason for them to not position the sensor the same way that Nissan did. There is a pretty big difference between the two.

I've really been looking at other brands. Considered just returning with AEM and buying a different brand, but I really want this one to work because of the design advantages.

I'll keep you all updated!

 

Actually that was the issue some ran into with the Stillen intake I think its the 09 where the MAF is positioned differently... So sounds like thats the issue

 

Ya. I know the stillen's had issues and they're kinda weird shaped, but the AEM isn't different from any others as far as the actual filter and pipe connecting to the throttle body. The heat shield and use of conducting air from the outside shouldn't cause a CEL I don't think. So hopefully that one piece is something that they'll consider re-making and shipping to me to test. We'll see.

 

I'm mainly saying because I thought you said the MAF was positioned differently on the AEM intake as opposed to stock was the possible problem..

 

Sorry for bringing the old thread up but...
Several days ago my "Service Engine Soon" light came on when starting the car after it was sitting outside for about 9 hrs under the pretty cold temperature. I took it to the garage yesterday and the mechanic told me it was related to the air intake (too much air's going to the engine). He reset it for me but said that most likely it would come back. I do have a (CAI) K&N 69-Series Typhoon Performance Intake Kit on my car, installed by the previous owner.
My question is if this service light keeps coming back under the cold temperatures, would my only solution be to go back to the stock air kit (which I do not posses), or to get a better after market one, or try to fix something in my current K&N one? Not sure if the latter option is possible though...
Thank you very much in advance.

 

I just installed a Nismo intake on my 14 Maxima. My CES light came on as well. Based on the rest of the thread I would say that's normal. My friend told me that if the tubes that the MAF is in are not the same size as the factory it can throw codes. If it is too big or too small the air will be more or less respectively than the factory MAF can handle. I had three codes thrown. All of which stated that the air was past the factory range. I am guessing I have too much. How would I go about slowing it down? Or...would something like the Bully Dog be able to fix the range? Let me know.