Hi,

I bought a used (which was previously leased) 2004 Honda Civic LX. It was my first car... a very basic car, but all that I needed. It's still in great condition.

I'm stationed in DC, but am in Pensacola, FL, for a military school. Ever since I bought the car, I wanted to do a little bit with it and just see what I could learn about cars. A friend recommended a cold-air intake to me... so I stopped by a performance shop in the area to check out what kind of stuff they had.

The person behind the counter recommended a cold-air intake as well and said that I could continue the work with headers and an exhaust. She asked for my specific car make, model, year... and ordered the parts based off those specs.

The part came and my friend who used to be a mechanic at Pepboys said he'd put it in for me. We could not fit it in for the life of us... he said it could possibly be the wrong parts for the car.

I went back to the shop and asked if they had instructions or anything like that... they said no.

So we tried again, this time with a lift and we took the front bumper off, d/c'd the battery and tried to fit it in a second time. Still... nothing. So I called the shop I bought the part from and scheduled an appointment to just have them install it.

I took it over there, they said the part wouldn't fit in the car and that it was probably the wrong piece. Well... they said they could bend the pipe or cut the pipe and I asked the mechanic to show me what he was talking about. I okay'd them to cut the pipe if it'd allow for it to fit. This might be where I made a mistake in judgment.

Well, they ended up bending the pipe to fit it properly... in the car. I didn't think too much of it at the time. It was finally in my car after waiting about 6 weeks and I wanted to see how the car drove on the road with the new part.

They bent the pipe, and were unable to install the AEM bypass valve. The filter was in front of the wheel well, inside the front bumper. They said it was unlikely that I would get water up there, and that I shouldn't press the gas down while driving over a puddle.

I got talkin' to some people about what all happened when I got it installed. They said I should try to get my money refunded and get an intake that actually fits my car and will accommodate the bypass valve.

I went to go take some pictures to email to a couple friends, and that's when I noticed a lot of damage done to my car from when it was installed. The paint on my front bumper is cracked, and there was a broken piece of plastic inside the front bumper sitting underneath the air filter. Also, closer inspection of the intake piping revealed a lot of scratches and deep dents. Above my battery, just below the wiring for my headlights, there's a hole in the engine compartment that has some wiring running down it. It looks as if someone took a crow bar to expand the diameter of the hole.

The work looks very crude, and I'm really disappointed with the work and now I'm worried about my car hydrolocking.

Overall, this was a $350 venture. $235 for the intake/bypass valve/shipping, and $110 for installation.

Is there anything I can do to get the damage done to my car fixed, and to get the proper intake for my car without shelling out another couple hundred dollars?

I'm kind of worried about going back to the shop and getting attitude from the workers or owner.

 

are you sure the hole for the wiring wasn't all bent up before? it's possible that a previous owner tried to fit wiring for a subwoofer amp through it.

about the intake, show them the damage to your car and complain about it. They need to fix what they messed up. Tell them you want the right intake because they ordered you the wrong part (they may not do this because you ok'd them to bend the pipe. If they won't give you a new intake, don't worry about the intake, but make sure they fix your bumper.

About the bypass valve, there is literally no point in having one.
1. to hydrolock you pretty much have to submerge the entire air filter (which i don't think you will be doing). And really, when driving over big puddles, no matter what intake you have, you should always be careful.
2. The HP you gain with a Cold Air Intake over a Short Ram Intake is completely lost when you add a bypass valve.
In laymen's terms:
CAI + bypass valve = SRI (in terms of HP/TQ)
So if you're getting a CAI and you convince yourself that with a CAI you will need a bypass valve, then you should get an SRI and not waste the extra money on the bypass valve, as it will give the same result as having a CAI and bypass valve.

So my recommendation to you is to get them to give you a new Cold Air Intake, and don't get a bypass valve. If they won't give you a new intake, leave the one you have on, and forget about the bypass valve.

A bypass valve and the CAI/hydrolock paranoia is pretty much a marketing scheme in its entirety. You can hydrolock, don't get me wrong... but you have to drive into a lake sized puddle to do it.

Sell the bypass valve on ebay or something. And $110 for installation? that's major BS, intake is like the easiest thing to install.

 

Hey, thanks for the reply.

Finally got some sleep, heh. I went out and took some pics so you can see what I'm talking about. I also inspected their work further. They didn't bend the pipe or cut it, but it is dinged up pretty bad. They rotated my battery tray to fit the pipe in there, so the battery doesn't sit all the way in the tray. It's in there pretty good, but I didn't want them rearranging stuff on my car to fit the intake in.

This definitely was not made to fit in my car... here are the pics (i'm not a photographer, be wary):
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/DSCN3152.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3177.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3173.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3174.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3175.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3176.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3178.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3179.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3171.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3172.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3166.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3168.JPG
http://www.expen.net/whatthecrap/1/DSCN3169.JPG

 

+1 to what trust said
If you were to submerge the filter completely (i'm talking driving the front of your car into a lake) then you need to worry about hydrolocking, other that that you'll be fine
and yea, IMO, the bypass valve is a joke

 

Who makes your intake?

 

I thought it was AEM, but it was just an AEM bypass valve. The invoice says:

"CA0104CVCL... 01-04 CIVIC LX COLD AIR INTAKE (AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION)

The item code isn't too telling.

 

that's what i figured

 

The biggest problem with shops like that, is the fact that they are going to deny they did any damage to your vehicle. They will claim it was like that when it came in.
Your intake shouldn't look that crappy. They just forced that stuff in. I cant believe they charged you soo much for that install. I would have done it free.
And as for going to the shop - no matter what, the people who work there are going to get all kinds of pissy toward you. I would be COMPLETELY surprised if they give you any kind of refund, OR treat you correctly.

 

Well i'm gonna have to say, the dents in your intake aren't really that big of a deal... so if they won't replace it, oh well. What might get them to replace it is show them how now your battery won't sit down all the way. But yea, if they won't fix it, oh well, just don't go back.

And I think maybe they widened that hole so they could move the wiring over a little bit so they could fit the intake in the spot in the bumper. That hole is crappy looking I guess, but it really isn't a big deal, and can't be fixed i don't think. I wouldn't really worry about that, it's not important.

But they do need to fix your bumper.

 

I appreciate the responses... I'm gonna go over there tomorrow and see what I can work out. I might just have to ride this one out until I get back to DC... I think the work is really sloppy so I don't plan on keeping this particular intake in my car.