Sometimes, it really is the little things that can make a car more enjoyable to drive.
Photography by Chris Tropea
What makes a car a thrill to drive? Some engine noise adds to the experience, right? Our BMW 328i was simply too quiet.
And we get it: The OEs need to tame engine noise. But we’re not most people. Give us some excitement.
To add a little intake roar, we replaced the stock airbox with an Injen short-ram intake ordered from BimmerWorld. The stock setup features the usual: a plastic airbox fitted with a panel filter. In addition to filtering the air, this kind of setup also tames some of the engine’s intake noise.
The Injen setup features a free-flowing, open-element air intake paired with a heat shield. Its maker claims more horsepower, too.
Retail for the intake is a little less than $500. Yes, we could have butchered something together with PVC pipe and an open-element filter, but then it would have looked like a piece of PVC pipe. This looks like a factory setup.
Installation only took a few minutes: Remove the stock airbox–don’t forget to unplug the mass airflow sensor–and then clamp the new filter’s pipe in place. The required hose clamps are included. Fit the heat shield and then the filter. Now you’re in business.
We had one small issue, though: The intake features a small internal tube that diverts cold air past the airflow sensor. We suspect this was done to lean out the air/fuel mixture and make more power.
Our car, though, didn’t seem to like this feature, quickly throwing a code. We taped off this tube, and the code issue went away.
We decided to remove this internal tube from the intake. We simply used a Dremel tool. We then smoothed out any rough spots left behind.
Our dyno testing showed that removing this tube didn’t affect horsepower numbers.
The new intake added that little something to the driving experience–the car now feels more like a sports sedan.
And the claims of more horsepower? Switching back to the original stock airbox cost us 2 horsepower–and this is on a car making about 220 at the wheels. More on our dyno work to come soon. We’ll keep the new intake installed, though, just because it sounds so good.
Sometimes, it really is the little things that can make a car more enjoyable to drive.
One of my favorite sounding cars that came through when I worked at the local BMW dealer was an E60 530i with a 6 speed and the sport package, totally stock except for intake/airbox. It was just enough extra sound to elevate the experience in normal driving, and sometimes that matters as much or more than power gains.
So the ITBs are when?
I approve of this mod lol,my otherwise stock and mundane Ridgeline recieved a PRL big mouth intake tube to feed the stock airbox along with deleting the big resonator under the airbox.
Old school V6 vtec sounds glorious and would stay even if it lost power.
Added similar to my CTS-V to hear some more supercharger whine.
Agree with kevlarcorolla, it could have sapped 10hp and I'd have left it!
In reply to Spearfishin :
I agree with this. I have added a cold air intake to my 19’ stinger and 21’ mustang gt. I don’t think they added any horsepower on either car. But, the added induction noises were well worth the cost!
power isn’t everything on street cars like mine!
Even as I've wanted something much harder-edged than either for my own amusement, I was kind of blown away much more satisfying the car noises are that come from my wife's bone stock 2003 525i than our 2016 Mini. And the 525i is hardly a noisy, tacky thing.
I've got a set of BMC air filters for my GT4 for this reason. Yes, they add a small amount of power, but mostly it's for the intake noise they add...
Displaying 1-8 of 8 commentsView all comments on the GRM forums
You'll need to log in to post.
